Phyllis Coates, 1st Lois Lane on 'Adventures of Superman,' Dead at 96

[Super-Menace]

Posted by Tom Betts at alt.obituaries:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/phyllis-coates-dead-lois-la
ne-superman-1235616582/

The actress left 'Adventures of Superman' after one season, later to
appear in such films as 'Girls in Prison' and 'I Was a Teenage
Frankenstein.'

Phyllis Coates, the first actress to play Daily Planet reporter Lois
Lane on television, only to leave the Adventures of Superman after just
one season, has died. She was 96.

Coates, who also appeared in Republic Pictures serials and in such
films as I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, died Wednesday of natural causes
at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in
Woodland Hills, her daughter Laura Press told The Hollywood Reporter.

A native of Wichita Falls, Texas, Coates first portrayed the headstrong
Lois opposite George Reeves as the Man of Steel in the dark sci-fi
movie Superman and the Mole Men (1951).

The success of that Lippert Pictures film ‹ the first full-length
theatrical feature starring the comic-book hero ‹ led to the quick
decision to start production on a syndicated show for television.

Coates segued to the series and got into jams as Lois in all 26
episodes of the first season (the Mole Men picture was turned into a
two-parter titled łThe Unknown People˛). She got paid about $350 for
each episode and said four or five were often shot at one time ‹ so she
always wore the same hat, suit and earrings.

łWe were nearly blown up, beaten up, exploded, exploited ‹ I guess it
was because we were young and dumb, but we put up with a lot of stuff,˛
Coates said in Tom Weaverąs 2006 book, Science Fiction Stars and Horror
Heroes. łNot too long ago I saw an episode [łNight of Terror˛] where I
got knocked out!˛

The show was a sudden and unexpected hit, and Coates was asked to
return for season two. However, she had signed to do a pilot for a
series that was to star Jack Carson and Allen Jenkins (that show never
happened) and took a pass.

ł[Producer] Whitney Ellsworth offered me about four or five times what
I was getting if Iąd come back. But I really wanted to get out of
Superman,˛ she said in the Weaver book.

Noel Neill, who had played Lois in 1948 and 1950 Superman Columbia
serials starring Kirk Alyn, was then recruited to replace Coates and
stayed with the series through its final five seasons.

The two Lois actresses were in the cast of the Soviet invasion film
Invasion USA (1952), though they apparently never met. Reeves
introduced them in 1957, but Neill, according to Coates, wanted nothing
to do with her.

Born Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell, Coates came to Los Angeles as a
teenager. She landed a job as a chorus girl and did skits in comedian
Ken Murrayąs vaudeville show, then performed in USO tours.

Coates signed a contract with Warner Bros. and stood out as the
platinum-blonde wife Alice in several of the studioąs popular Joe
McDoakes 10-minute comedy films. (Her husband, the everyman Joe, was
played by George OąHanlon, perhaps best known as the voice of
futuristic cartoon leading man George Jetson).

After Superman, Coates appeared wearing a very short skirt in the
Republic serials Jungle Drums of Africa (1952), opposite Clayton Moore
of Lone Ranger fame, and in the title role of Panther Girl of the Kongo
(1954).

łI had to ride an elephant all day,˛ she said in Science Fiction Stars
and Horror Heroes. łAnd my legs were raw from the hair on the elephant
‹ I never knew until then that an elephant even had hair!˛

Coates picked on a fellow (and innocent) inmate in Girls in Prison
(1956) and showed off her comedy chops as the mother of a precocious
teenager in the 1958 Desilu sitcom This Is Alice.

In American International Picturesą I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
(1957), Coates played the secretary of a mad scientist (Whit Bissell);
when she confronts him about making a monster, the creature (Gary
Conway) kills her and feeds her remains to an alligator.

Coates also appeared on such TV shows as The Lone Ranger, Leave It to
Beaver, Tales of Wells Fargo, Rawhide, The Untouchables (once in an
episode helmed by Ida Lupino), Perry Mason, The Patty Duke Show and
Gunsmoke.

She appeared as Barbara Hersheyąs mother in James Bridgesą The Baby
Maker (1970), produced by Jack Larson, who played Daily Planet cub
reporter Jimmy Olsen on Superman.

In Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn (1987) Coates appeared as Marilyn Monroeąs
mentally ill mother, Gladys Baker. And on a 1994 episode of ABCąs Lois
& Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Coates was back in the
superhero business as the mother of Teri Hatcherąs Lois.

Coates was portrayed by Lorry Ayers in Hollywoodland (2006), about an
investigator (Adrien Brody) who looks into the mysterious 1959 death of
Reeves (Ben Affleck) that was ruled a suicide.

Coates was married four times: to TV director Richard L. Bare, whom she
met on the McDoakes films (he went on to helm 166 episodes of Green
Acres), musician Robert Nelms, Leave It to Beaver director Norman Tokar
and Howard Press, a doctor. All four marriages ended in divorce.

She is survived by another daughter, Zoe, and granddaughter Olivia.