Phyllis Coates died
Actress was the first Lois Lane in a TV series
Phyllis Coates in Adventures of Superman.
© imago images/Everett Collection
Phyllis Coates, the first actress to portray Superman’s Lois Lane in a TV series, has died. She was 96 years old.
Phyllis Coates (1927-2023) is dead. This is reported, among other things Industry magazine “The Hollywood Reporter” and “People” magazine agreed. Her daughter Laura Press confirmed that Coates died of natural causes on October 11th at a Motion Picture & Television Fund retirement home in Los Angeles. Her death was therefore “very peaceful”.
The first Lois Lane on TV only had one predecessor
In “Adventures of Superman,” the American actress, who was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, was the first Lois Lane to be seen in a TV series format in the early 1950s. Coates had previously played the reporter and love interest of Superman alongside George Reeves (1914-1959) in the film “Superman and the Mole Men” (1951). However, she left the series after one season because Coates was supposed to appear in a new production with Jack Carson (1910-1963) and Allen Jenkins (1900-1974). However, the series was never made.
Noel Neill (1920-2016) took over on “Adventures of Superman”. Coates’ colleague was previously the first actress ever to portray the Daily Planet reporter – in the cinema alongside Kirk Alyn (1910-1999) as Superman. She appeared in “Superman” (1948) and “Atom Man vs. Superman” (1950).
Numerous other films and series followed for Coates, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, but later she became quiet on the screen and on TV. The now deceased actress had one of her last roles in the 1990s in the series “Superman: The Adventures of Lois & Clark,” in which Teri Hatcher (58) played the female lead of Lois Lane.