BREAKING: ‘Superman’ Actress Margot Kidder Committed Suicide, Coroner Rules
A coroner in Montana has ruled that Superman actress Margot Kidder committed suicide.
Kidder is best known for her role as Lois Lane in the Superman movies of the 1970s and 80s, starring opposite Christopher Reeve. The Park County (Montana) coroner Richard Wood released a statement today saying the 69-year-old took her own life with a “self-inflicted drug and alcohol overdose” on May 13.
Friends and family have known for some time that she took her own life, although Kidder’s manager, Camilla Fluxman Pines, said she died peacefully in her sleep at the time.
Maggie McGuane, Kidder’s daughter, knew the truth when local authorities escorted her into her mother’s home in Livingston, a small town near Yellowstone National Park.
Margot Kidder died by suicide, coroners revealed. The Lois Lane actress passed away in May and suffered with mental illness. Her daughter told @AP: "It’s important to be open and honest so there’s not a cloud of shame in dealing with this." pic.twitter.com/RCRoBMB6ZF
— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 8, 2018
“It’s a big relief that the truth is out there,” she told the Associated Press. “It’s important to be open and honest so there’s not a cloud of shame in dealing with this. It’s a very unique sort of grief and pain. Knowing how many families in this state go through this, I wish that I could reach out to each one of them.”
Montana has an inexplicably high number of suicides each year.
Kidder’s suicide is the latest in a series involving celebrities, including chef Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade.
The actress struggled with addiction and mental illness throughout her life, and a 1990 car accident left her wheelchair-bound for two years and deep in debt.
Kidder starred as Lois Lane in four Superman films, beginning in 1978, with the final film in 1987. Her other movie credits included Sisters, The Great Waldo Pepper, and The Amityville Horror. Her TV credits included appearances on “Smallville” and “R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour,” the latter of which won her a Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Performer in a Kids’ Series in 2015.
