 |
| Above, a "Superman Week" group shot with Noel Neill (in the Superman shirt) with yours truly standing behind her in July 2001. Photo courtesy of Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. |
Actress Noel Neill (1920 - 2016) has the sole distinction of playing Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane to two different actors playing the Man of Steel, Kirk Alyn and George Reeves. I first met her in July 2001 when we held the "Superman Week" ceremony with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors celebrating 50 years of television's Adventures of Superman.
Do You Remember has an article on Neill that remembers her contributions to the live-action Superman mythos.
It begins with:
Actress Noel Neill, who was born on November 25, 1920, and would have been celebrating her 103rd birthday this year, holds a unique place in the history of Superman: she is the only actress to have played reporter Lois Lane opposite two different actors portraying the Man of Steel, Kirk Alyn and George Reeves.
A successful model in her teens, she was reportedly the second most popular pin-up girl for soldiers in World War II, right behind Betty Grable. She spent a number of years starring in B-features for Monogram Pictures. In 1945 producer Sam Katzman cast her in his series of “Teen Agers” musical comedies as aggressive high school newspaper reporter Betty Rogers. As such, she’d already proven herself to Katzman when he decided to turn the comic book superhero Superman into the star of a pair of movie serials — the weekly chapter plays that fans would go to the theatres to check out each Saturday — Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950) and needed someone to play reporter Lois Lane.
 |
| Above, the Noel Neill "Lois Lane" statue in Metropolis, Illinois. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
To read more, go here.
