Margot Kidder was one of the first leading ladies of the superhero movie genre. As Lois Lane in the “Superman” movies opposite Christopher Reeve, Kidder proved she was doing more than just playing a sidekick or a damsel in distress. She was ballsier, saltier and wittier than even some of her male co-stars, and she deserves to be in the conversation with female franchise stars like Carrie Fisher or Karen Allen. But she had a lucrative career outside of playing Lois Lane, including starring opposite Robert Redford, Richard Pryor, Burt Lancaster, Howie Mandel and more. Read on to look back on her other great roles.
“Sisters” (1972)
In Brian de Palma’s grizzly mystery film, Kidder plays a young model caught up in a murder case, but (SPOILER) she also plays the model’s twin sister who stabs her recent bedfellow and attempts to cover up the murder with the help of her sister’s possessive and mysterious husband.
“Black Christmas” (1974)
Kidder took another horror movie role, prior to portraying Lois Lane, as a mischievous and salty college girl in “Black Christmas,” about a stalker preying on a group of sorority sisters.
“The Great Waldo Pepper” (1975)
Kidder had a smaller role opposite a charismatic, swashbuckling Robert Redford in “The Great Waldo Pepper.” The film is about a biplane pilot who missed his chance to fly in the war but now tries to recapture some glory by barnstorming and pursuing a career in movies. Kidder plays Redford’s girlfriend, who introduces him to a plane designer that might be able to help Waldo pull off his most dangerous stunt.
“The Amityville Horror” (1979)
Following her work in “Superman,” Kidder scored another hit with “The Amityville Horror,” which audiences took to believe was a cursed true story. Critics weren’t fans, and neither was Kidder. “What a piece of s—,” she told The AV Club. “I couldn’t believe that anyone would take that seriously. I was laughing my whole way through it, much to the annoyance of Rod Steiger, who took the whole thing very seriously. At the time, my agent proposed sort of a ‘one for me, one for them’ policy. That was one for them.”
“Some Kind of Hero” (1982)
Before the two starred together in the third “Superman” movie, Kidder played a love interest to Richard Pryor in “Some Kind of Hero,” where Pryor attempted to take a slightly more dramatic turn as a Vietnam vet turned hero who is quickly forgotten after his homecoming. In an interview with The AV Club, Kidder talked up Pryor as one of the nicest people she’d worked with and a great actor who was disappointed about being forced to make the film funnier. “He was smart and funny and sexy, and you wanted to take care of him. He was wonderful. Oh gosh,” Kidder said. “I remember when we were doing the love scene in ‘Some Kind of Hero,’ we got in bed nervously. Then he looked up, and it was very genuine, and he went, [Gasps.] Richard Pryor’s in bed with Lois Lane!”
“Never Met Picasso” (1996)
In this late career performance, Kidder gives a hilarious turn as a mother and aging actress who hams it up in a dreadful stage play called “The Naked Tenor.”
