MARGOT KIDDER Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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MARGOT KIDDER

Name: Margot Kidder                                                                     
Born: 17 October 1948 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada                       
                                                                                       
Margot Kidder (born October 17, 1948) is a Canadian-American film and television       
actress best known for playing Lois Lane in the Superman movies of the 1970s and       
1980s.                                                                                 
                                                                                       
Kidder, one of five children, was born Margaret Ruth Kidder in Yellowknife,             
Northwest Territories, Canada, the daughter of Jill (née Wilson), a history           
teacher, and Kendall Kidder, an explosives expert and mining engineer.                 
She was born in Yellowknife because of her father's job, which required the             
family to live in remote locations. She has a sister, Annie, and three                 
brothers, John, Michael and Peter. Kidder's niece, Janet Kidder, is also an             
actress.                                                                               
                                                                                       
In the late 1960s, Kidder was based in Toronto, and appeared in a number of TV         
drama series for the CBC, including guest appearances on Wojeck, Adventures in         
Rainbow Country, and a semi-regular role as a young reporter on McQueen. Later,         
she made an appearance as a barmaid in Nichols, a short-lived James Garner             
vehicle made for American television. She also appeared in a number of low-budget       
Canadian movies in the late 1960s (The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to             
Kaladar being her first feature) and early 1970s before going on to star in the         
Brian de Palma psychological thriller Sisters (1973) and the horror film Black         
Christmas (1974). A nude pictorial of Kidder, photographed by Douglas Kirkland,         
was published in the March 1975 issue of Playboy. The accompanying article was         
written by her as a condition of appearing: Kidder said "I don't want someone           
writing 'Margot Kidder has more curves than the Pacific Coast Highway' under my         
picture."                                                                               
                                                                                       
Kidder is best known for her role as Lois Lane in the 1978 film Superman: The           
Movie and its sequels. Kidder brought more depth to the role than previous             
actresses, portraying Lane as an ambitious and headstrong, yet vulnerable and           
emotionally lonely woman trying to make it in a man's world. After she publicly         
expressed her disgust to the producers, Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind, over       
the firing of Richard Donner from 1980's Superman II, her role in 1983's               
Superman III consisted of less than five minutes of footage. Her role in 1987's         
relatively unsuccessful Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was more substantial.         
                                                                                       
In addition to the Superman movies, Kidder has starred in The Amityville Horror,       
Willie and Phil, Some Kind of Hero with Richard Pryor and The Great Waldo Pepper       
opposite Robert Redford. She has also made uncredited cameo appearances in             
Maverick and Delirious. Additionally, Kidder portrayed the mother of a high-school     
football player in the low-budget film Windrunner set in Kanab, Utah.                   
                                                                                       
In 1983, Kidder produced and starred as Eliza Doolittle in a TV version of             
Pygmalion with Peter O'Toole. In the late 1980s she appeared in introductions           
for the Discovery Channel's "Best of the BBC" series of repackaged documentaries,       
among them Making of a Continent. She has also done extensive stage work,               
including The Vagina Monologues.                                                       
                                                                                       
In 1994, Kidder played the bartender at the "Broken Skull" tavern in Under a           
Killing Moon, an IBM PC adventure game.                                                 
                                                                                       
In 2004, Kidder briefly returned to the Superman franchise in two episodes of           
the television program Smallville, as Dr. Bridgette Crosby, an emissary of Dr.         
Swann (played by her Superman co-star, Christopher Reeve). Also that year Kidder       
made an appearance on a Canadian sitcom, Robson Arms, set in an apartment block         
in Vancouver's west end. She played a quirky neighbor of the main cast members.         
                                                                                       
In 2007, Kidder started appearing on the television series Brothers and Sisters,       
playing Emily Craft. Additionally, Kidder played Sally Cima, and was the mother         
of protagonist Greg Cima, a high school tailback for Kanab High School in Kanab,       
Utah, in the film Windrunner.