Television's first Lois Lane Phyllis Coates passes away at 96

Actress Phyllis Coates passed away at the age of 96 on Wednesday, October 11, 2023. She rose to popularity for portraying the Daily Planet journalist and Superman's love interest Lois Lane in the television series Adventures of Superman.

Her daughter Laura Press confirmed the news of Phyllis' death to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. She told the publication that her mother died of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.

The first season of Adventures of Superman was aired in syndication from 1952 until 1958. It was in the first season of the series, that Phyllis made her acting debut as Lois Lane.

However, after 24 episodes as Clark Kent's coworker in season 1, Coates was forced to leave the role because funding for season 2 took too long to come together. Noel Neill took over as Lois after her, playing the role for the remainder of the show's run.

---

Television's first Lois Lane - Phyllis Coates breathes her last at 96

Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell, better known by her stage as Phyllis Coates, was an American actress who was born in Wichita Falls, Texas. She moved to Los Angeles after graduating high school.

The actress' career spanned more than fifty years from January 15, 1927, to October 11, 2023. Phyllis Coates was discovered by comic Ken Murray, from whom she acquired comic timing, in a diner on Hollywood and Vine. Then, for 10 months, she performed in sketches as a dancer and comedienne on Blackouts, his racy variety show.

In the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men, which was the first feature film to be based on a DC Comics character, Coates played Lois Lane before the release of Adventures of Superman. The actress was the first Lois Lane on television with the film, followed by her one-season-long stint on the show.

Years later, in 1994, she made an appearance as Ellen Lane, the mother of Teri Hatcher's Lois, in one episode of ABC's Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

She has appeared in a number of television roles in series like The Abbott and Costello Show, The Lone Ranger, Leave It to Beaver, Perry Mason, and Gunsmoke. She also co-starred in the one-season, syndicated sitcom This Is Alice as the mother of the nine-year-old lead character played by Patty Ann Gerrity.

Phyllis Coates enjoyed a long career in Hollywood and played several roles mostly in television series. She also has a number of films under her belt as an actor.

Some of her most iconic film appearances include films like I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, Blood Arrow, Girls in Prison, The Baby Maker, and Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn among others.