Phyllis Coates, first actress to play Lois Lane on TV, dies at 96

Phyllis Coates, the first actress to play Lois Lane in a feature film and the first to play Lois Lane on television, died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. Her daughter told THR.

She was 96 years old.

Coates was one of the last remaining stars of ’50s TV, and her career in the medium actually dates back to her debut in 1946 on the series “The Faraway Hill.”

In 1951, she played Lois in Lippert Pictures’ Superman and the Moleman, the first Superman feature film. This was a huge hit and led to her work in the first season of the guaranteed TV series The Adventures of Superman, starring George Reeves as the Man of Steel.

Despite the show’s status as a pop culture phenomenon, Coates left the show after the 1952–1953 season because he was focused on filming the pilot. She described the show as low-paying, physically demanding work, and she was secretly excited to have an excuse.

“We were working six days a week, and George was opening a bar in his dressing room,” she said in 2012. . ”

Born on January 15, 1927 in Wichita Falls, Texas, Coates worked as a showgirl in vaudeville.

In film, she played Alice McDokes from 1948 to 1953, and in 1956 she played the goofy townie Joe McDokes in a series of short stories starring George O’Hanlon. These were directed by the prolific Richard L. Baer, ​​to whom she was briefly married.

In addition to appearing in series such as “African Jungle Drum” (1953) and “Panther Girl” (1955), she appeared in “Blues Busters” (1950) and “Girls in Prison” (1956). ), “I Was a Teenage Frankenstein” (1957), “Blood Arrow” (1958), “The Baby Maker” (1970), and “Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn” (1989).

On television, she appeared in the first episodes of “Death Valley Days” (1952), “The Lone Ranger” (1953), and had a role in the early sitcom “This is Alice” (1958-1959). He was a regular and appeared on three shows. “Perry Mason” episodes (1958, 1961, 1964).

Coates, who had been estranged from Lois Lane for many years, played the character’s mother in the first season finale of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in 1994. She then appeared on “Dr. Clark” twice. She appeared in Quinn, Medicine Woman (1994) and had her final role in Hollywood: The Movie (1996).

Including Barre, she has been married and divorced four times and has three children. In 2012, Bear and Coates reunited at the Los Angeles Cinema Festival, where he surprised her with photos from their honeymoon. “It all comes back to me!” she joked.