Margot Kidder Biography

Margaret Ruth "Margot" Kidder (born October 17, 1948) is a Canadian-American actress. She appeared in a wide range of films during the 1970s and 1980s such as Sisters, Black Christmas, The Great Waldo Pepper, The Amityville Horror and Heartaches. She is best known for her role as Lois Lane in four Superman movies opposite Christopher Reeve, beginning with Superman in 1978.

Early life

Kidder, one of five children, was born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, the daughter of Jocelyn Mary "Jill" (née Wilson), a history teacher, and Kendall Kidder, an explosives expert and mining engineer. Her mother was from British Columbia and her father was from New Mexico, United States. 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.

Career

Early roles

In the late 1960s, Kidder was based in Toronto, and in 1970, Vancouver. She 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 plus was a panelist on Mantrap which featured discussions centered on a feminist perspective. During the 1971"72 season, she co-starred as barmaid Ruth in Nichols, a James Garner western, which aired 22 episodes on NBC. She appeared in "Such Dust As Dreams Are Made On", the first pilot for Harry O and aired in March 1973. She was also a guest star in a 1972 episode of the George Peppard detective series Banacek.

Kidder 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 the early 1970s.

The 1970s and the Superman film series

In 1970, Kidder co-starred as Zazel Pierce opposite Gene Wilder in Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx. The Brian DePalma cult classic Sisters (1973) gained notoriety for both director and Kidder, who as leading lady, portrayed conjoined twins. She starred in the classic horror film Black Christmas in 1974 and The Great Waldo Pepper opposite Robert Redford in 1975. She received positive reviews for 92 in the Shade (1975) with Peter Fonda, famously marrying the film's director Thomas McGuane.

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; she said, "I don't want someone writing, 'Margot Kidder has more curves than the Santa Monica Freeway' under my picture."

Kidder appeared on the March 9, 1975 edition of The American Sportsman, learning how to hang glide with her providing the narration and a remote microphone recording her reactions in flight; the segment concluded with Kidder doing solos soaring amid the Wyoming Rockies.

Kidder is probably best known for her role as Lois Lane in the 1978 film Superman: The Movie and its sequels. She won the Saturn Award for Best Actress for it. She publicly disagreed with the decision of producers Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind to replace Richard Donner as director of 1980's Superman II. It was reported that as a result, Kidder's role in 1983's Superman III consisted of less than five minutes of footage, though the producers have denied this in DVD commentaries. Her role in 1987's Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was more substantial.

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).

Other film and television roles

Her turn as Kathy Lutz in the 1979 summer release of The Amityville Horror further cemented her status as one of Hollywood's leading ladies. In 1979, she hosted an episode of the American sketch comedy TV show Saturday Night Live.

Other high profile parts included Paul Mazursky's Willie & Phil, Some Kind of Hero and The Reincarnation of Peter Proud. Her performance in 1981's Heartaches generated critical acclaim and Oscar buzz. As court stenographer-cum-private eye Mickey Raymond, the PG rating that 1983's Trenchcoat received led Disney to launch Touchstone Pictures. She appeared opposite James Garner in controversial Hollywood crime drama The Glitter Dome (1984). In 1985, she toplined Little Treasure for Columbia Tri-Star with co-stars Ted Danson and Burt Lancaster, where she played a distraught stripper looking for her bank robber-father's buried fortune.

Additionally, she has made uncredited cameo appearances in Maverick (1994) and Delirious (1991).

A 1982 stage performance of Bus Stop starring Kidder as Cherie and Tim Matheson as Bo, was broadcast on HBO. In 1983, she produced and starred as Eliza Doolittle in a version of Pygmalion with Peter O'Toole for Showtime. She produced and starred in the period miniseries Louisiana. Body of Evidence (1988), a CBS Movie of the Week, cast Margot as nurse who is suspicious that her medical pathologist second husband is a serial killer.

In 2000, Kidder played Eileen Canboro in Apocalypse III: Tribulation, a Christian film dealing with Christian eschatology and the Rapture. Kidder stated afterwards that she did not realize until she was on the set that the movie was serious. In 2001, she played a guest role as the abusive mother of a serial killer in "Pique", an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2002, she appeared alongside Crispin Glover and Vanessa Redgrave in the film adaptation, Crime and Punishment.

In 2004, Kidder made an appearance on Robson Arms, a Canadian sitcom set in an apartment block in Vancouver's west end. She played a quirky neighbor of the main cast members. She also had a cameo in Rich Hall's Election Special on BBC Four. In 2006, Kidder played a guest role as Jenny Schecter's mother Sandy Ziskin on The L Word. In 2007, Kidder began appearing on the television series Brothers and Sisters, playing Emily Craft.

She plays Barbara Collier, Laurie Strode's therapist, in Halloween II, released in 2009. She plays Sally Cima, the mother of protagonist Greg Cima, a high school football player, in the film Windrunner: A Spirited Journey. It aired on the Disney Channel. She took a prominent role as an embattled guidance counselor in the 2008 gay-themed mystery film On the Other Hand, Death.

Other appearances

In 1994, Kidder played the bartender at the Broken Skull Tavern in Under a Killing Moon, an IBM PC adventure game.

She appeared in The Vagina Monologues on Broadway December 3 - 22, 2002.

Personal life

In the past, Kidder dated former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, director Brian De Palma, and actor/comedian Richard Pryor. She has been married and divorced three times: American novelist Thomas McGuane, with whom she had her only child, daughter Maggie (born October 28, 1976); actor John Heard, and French film director Philippe de Broca. None of the marriages lasted longer than a year. Since her divorce from De Broca, she has said that she prefers the companionship of her dogs. She has two grandchildren, Mazie and Charlie Kirn, from her daughter's marriage to the novelist Walter Kirn.

Kidder actively supported Jesse Jackson's bid for the Democratic nomination in 1984.

In the early 1990s, during the first Gulf War, Kidder was criticized for remarks she had made that questioned the war.

Kidder was involved in a car crash in 1990, after which she was unable to work for two years, causing her financial problems.

Kidder has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which led to a widely-publicized manic episode in 1996. She disappeared for four days, having become a street person. She was found in a back yard by a homeowner and was taken by Los Angeles police to Olive View Medical Center in a distressed state, the caps on her teeth having fallen out. She was later placed in psychiatric care. In 2007, Kidder said that she had not had a manic episode in 11 years thanks to Abram Hoffer and his Natural Medicine.

As of November 2009, Kidder was the Montana State Coordinator for Progressive Democrats of America. The organization's website carried her article "Ax Max", in which Max Baucus, Montana's moderate Democratic Senator, was the target of criticism.

On August 23, 2011, Kidder, Tantoo Cardinal, and dozens of others were arrested while protesting against the proposed extension of the Keystone Pipeline.

Citizenship

Kidder became a United States citizen on August 17, 2005, in Butte, Montana; she lives in Livingston, Montana. She said the reason for her decision to become an American citizen is to participate in the voting process, to continue her protests against US intervention in Iraq, and at the same time to be free of worries about being deported.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar	Rosie Prometer
	Wojeck		TV series (1 episode)
1969	Adventures in Rainbow Country	Dr. Janet Rhodes / Sportscar Driver	TV series (2 episodes)
	McQueen	Jenny	TV series
	Corwin	Denny	TV series
	Gaily, Gaily	Adeline
1970	The Mod Squad	Claire Allen	TV series (1 episode)
	Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx	Zazel
1971	Suddenly Single	Jackie	TV movie
1971-1972	Nichols	Ruth / Ruth the Barmaid	TV series (5 episodes)
1972	The Bounty Man	Mae	TV movie
	Banacek	Linda Carsini	TV series (1 episode)
1973	Harry O	Helen	TV series (1 episode)
	Sisters	Danielle Breton / Dominique Blanchion
	Barnaby Jones	Lori Wright	TV series (1 episode)
1974	The Suicide Club		TV movie
	Honky Tonk	Lucy Cotton	TV movie
	A Quiet Day in Belfast	Brigit Slattery/Thelma Slattery	Canadian Film Award Winners for Best Actress
	The Gravy Train	Margue
	Black Christmas	Barb	Canadian Film Award Winners for Best Actress
1975	The Great Waldo Pepper	Maude
	Baretta	Terry Lake	TV series (1 episode)
	The Reincarnation of Peter Proud	Marcia Curtis
	Wide World Mystery	Gerry	TV series (1 episode)
	92 in the Shade	Miranda
1976	Switch	Andrea Morris	TV series (1 episode)
1978	Shoot the Sun Down	The Woman from England
	Superman	Lois Lane	Saturn Award for Best Actress
1979	The Amityville Horror	Kathy Lutz	Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Actress
1980	Willie & Phil	Jeannette Sutherland
	Superman II	Lois Lane	Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Actress
1981	Heartaches	Rita Harris	Genie Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
1982	Miss Right	Juliette
	Some Kind of Hero	Toni Donovan
	Bus Stop	Cherie	TV movie
1983	Pygmalion	Eliza Doolittle	TV movie
	Trenchcoat	Mickey Raymond
	Superman III	Lois Lane
1984	Louisiana	Virginia Tregan	TV movie
1985	Little Treasure	Margo
	The Hitchhiker	Jane Reynolds	TV series (1 episode)
	Picking Up the Pieces	Lynette Harding	TV movie
1986	GoBots: War of the Rock Lords	Solitaire (voice)
	Vanishing Act	Chris Kenyon	TV movie
1987	Keeping Track	Mickey Tremaine
	Shell Game	Dinah / Jennie Jerome	TV series (5 episodes)
	Superman IV: The Quest for Peace	Lois Lane
1988	Body of Evidence	Carol Dwyer	TV movie
1989	Mob Story	Dolores
1990	White Room	Madelaine X
1991	Delirious	Woman in Washroom	Uncredited
1992	Aaron Sent Me	Kaitlynn Prescott
	To Catch a Killer	Rachel Grayson	TV movie
	Tales from the Crypt	Cynthia	TV series (1 episode)
1992-1993	Street Legal	Charlotte Percy	TV series (2 episodes)
1993	La Florida	Vivy Lamori
	Murder,She Wrote	Dr. Ellen Holden	TV series (1 episode "Threshold of Fear")
1994	One Woman's Courage	Stella Jenson
	Maverick	Margret Mary	Uncredited
	Beanstalk	Doctor Kate 'Doc' Winston
1995	Windrunner	Sally 'Mom' Cima
	Burke's Law	Joy Adams	TV series (1 episode)
	Bloodknot	Evelyn	TV movie
1993-1995	Captain Planet and the Planeteers	Gaia (voice)	TV series (5 episodes)
1996-1997	Boston Common	Cookie de Varen	TV series (5 episodes)
1996	Phantom 2040	Rebecca Madison	TV series (1 episode)
	Never Met Picasso	Genna Magnus
1997	Shadow Zone: My Teacher Ate My Homework	Sol
	Silent Cradle	Cindy Wilson
	Henry & Verlin	Mabel
	The Planet of Junior Brown	Miss Peebs
	The Hunger	Mrs. Sloan
	Aaahh!!! Real Monsters	Mistress Helga (voice)	TV series (2 episodes)
1998	Touched by an Angel	Rita	TV series (1 episode)
	The Teddy Bears' Scare	Mrs. Jones (voice)	TV movie
1999	The Hi-Line	Laura Johnson
	Nightmare Man	Lillian Hannibal
	The Clown Clown At Midnight	Ellen Gibby
	The Annihilation of Fish	Mrs. Muldroone
2000	Tribulation	Eileen Canboro
	Someone is Watching	Sally Beckert	TV Movie
2001	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Grace Mayberry	TV series (1 episode)
	Mentors	Queen Elizabeth I	TV series (1 episode)
	Earth: Final Conflict	Dr. Josephine Mataros	TV series (1 episode)
2002	Angel Blade	Frida
	Crime and Punishment	Mrs. Katerina Marmelodov
2004	Chicks with Sticks	Edith Taymore
	Death 4 Told	Madam Badeau	Scream Awards for Best Actress
	Smallville	Bridgette Crosby	TV series (2 episodes)
2005	The Last Sign	Endora	TV series (2 episodes)
2007	Brothers & Sisters	Emily Craft	TV series (2 episodes)
2008	Universal Signs	Rose Callahan
	The Box Collector	Beth
	On the Other Hand, Death	Dorothy
	A Single Woman	Storyteller
2009	Something Evil Comes	Claudia Brecher
	Halloween II	Barbara Collier
2011	Redemption: For Robbing the Dead	Marlys Baptiste
	Three of a Kind	Claire
2012	HENRi	Dr. Calvin	In production
2013	Matt's Chance	Mother Mable	Post production