LOS ANGELES — Phyllis Coates, who portrayed “Superman” Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane, has died. She was 96.
Coates, who was the first actor to play the iconic role on the 1950s “Adventures of Superman” television series, died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s retirement community in Woodland Hills.
Her daughter Laura Press confirmed the death, per the New York Times.
Coates was born Gypsie Ann Stell in Wichita Falls, Texas, on Jan. 15, 1927. Her father, William Robert “Rush” Stell, was a farmer and sheet metal worker. Her family later moved to Odessa, Texas, where she attended school. When she was 16, she left Texas for California with her mother, Lorraine “Luzzie” Jack Teel, to attend Los Angeles City College. It was in California where Coates cut her teeth in show business, performing in Ken Murray’s vaudeville show. “That did it; I decided then to become an actress,” she told Western Clippings.
With a career spanning more than half a century, Coates was perhaps best known for her portrayal of Lois Lane in both the 1951 film “Superman and the Mole Men” and in the first season of the television series “Adventures of Superman.” The actor was the first to portray the career-driven reporter and love interest of Superman on the small screen. Actor Noel Neill portrayed Lane first on the big screen in two 15-part movie serials, “Superman” (1948) and “Atom Man vs. Superman” (1950), before Coates took over for the 1951 full-length film. The success of “Superman and the Mole Men” prompted the production of the syndicated television show that starred George Reeves as the Man of Steel.