Who is The Faces of Comic Book Sidekick Lois Lane

The first voice of Lois Lane was Rollie Bester in the 1940 radio version of Superman, with the voice of Superman played by Bud Collyer. Next in line was Helen Choate to lend her voice to Lois Lane, the third and final radio voice for Lois Lane was Joan Alexander. Alexander and Collyer also did a series of theatrical cartoons produced and directed by Max and Dave Fleischer and released by Paramount Pictures from '41 - '43. Then Joan Alexander returned in 1966 to do the tv animated series The New Adventures of Superman, The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure in 1967 and The Batman/Superman Hour in 1968. After being Lois Lane on the radio, Alexander was the only panelist to stay with the gameshow The Name's the Same from 1951-1955. In addition to being the first Lois Lane, Joan Alexander was also the first Della Street on the radio version of Perry Mason.

Noel Neill actually wanted to be a journalist in real life like her father was. Instead she was hired by Bing Crosby to be a singer at his Turf Club. In 1945, Neill was hired by Sam Katzman to play an aggressive reporter in the musical Teen Agers, then in 1948 when he was looking for the real live face for the comic book sidekick, Lois Lane he remembered her outstanding performance and decided to cast her in the role. Noel played Lois Lane from 1948-1950 along side of Kirk Alyn's Superman.

Again in 1954 Noel Neill once again took up the reins of Lois Lane and stayed with it till the end in 1958 along with George Reeves. When Superman ended, Neill decided to retire. She has had little appearances in some shows such as Superman The Movie with Christopher Reeve, Neill played Lois Lane's mother in the scene where Clark is racing along the train. Another of her appearances is in the tv series Superboy along with Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen). Neill also had a performance in Superman Returns. She played the role of dying widow Gertrude Vanderworth.

Everyone knows that Betty Grable was the #1 Pin-up for the G.I.s in WWII, rumor was tho that Noel Neil was #2.

Phyllis Coates was the second person to lend her face for the comic book sidekick, Lois Lane, however she only played in the role for 1 season in the 1951 Adventures of Superman. Production had to be canceled at that time until they could find a sponsor for the second season. By the time they were ready again, Coates had already committed herself to something else. She did try to distance herself from the Superman series however, she did do a guest appearance on the 90's Lois and Clark playing Lois's mother in the episode of their marriage.

Canadian born Margot Kidder was Lois Lane #4 along side Christopher Reeve's Superman for the first 4 comic book superhero turned into Superman movies. Prior to starring as Lois Lane, Kidder started out in a few drama series and some low budget movies but didn't get her biggest role until '73 starring in Brian de Palma's psychological thriller Sisters and then in Black Christmas in '74. During Superman II, Kidder publicly disagreed with the Salkind producers about replacing Donner as the director and as a result ended up only getting about 5 mintues worth of footage in Superman III. After Superman, Margot starred in Amityville Horror, Some Kind of Hero with Richard Pryor and The Great Waldo Pepper with Robert Redford.

Besides being married 3 times, Kidder also dated Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Brain de Palma. In the early 90's Kidder had some major set backs to her life. She was in a couple of car accidents, which left her unable to work and ending up in bankruptcy. In '96 Kidder was found by police hiding under someone's front porch and placed in psychiatric care, at which time she was diagnosed as bi polar and suffered from manic depression.

Since then Kidder has done small parts in movies and series, including playing Brigette Crosby in Smallville set back in time when Clark Kent was just a kid, an emissary of Dr. Swann (played by her Superman co-star, Christopher Reeve).

When Teri Hatcher first went to an open audition, she was going to lend moral support to a friend, however she ended up auditioning and getting the part of the mermaid in the series The Love Boat (1977). She also went on to play Penny Parker in MacGyver from '86-'90. In between she did guest appearances in several weekly series such as Night Court, Star Trek: The Next Generation, L.A. Law and Quantum Leap. In addition she also played KiKi Tango in Tango and Cash along with Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell in 1989. Then from 1993-1997 Hatcher starred as Lois Lane in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman with Dean Cain's Superman/Kent.

After playing Lois Lane, Hatcher went on to play Paris Carver, one of the Bond Girls in Tomorrow Never Dies in '97. As well as doing appearances in weekly shows such as Seinfeld, Frasier and Two and a Half Men. In 2004, she became Susan Mayer in Desperate Housewives, which she still stars in.

Another Canadian born actress to bring the comic book sidekick Lois Lane, to life is Erica Durance. Being new to the scene, Durance doesn't have a lot of roles under her belt as of yet. She played in a few Sci-Fi shows and commercials first. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see where this actress goes from here.

As a side note tho of my own personal opinion: Having watched her in Smallville as Lois Lane, she just doesn't seem to fit the part, in my own personal opinion. Who knows tho, she is new to acting, maybe things will change in the future.

Another new comer to the scene is the newest Lois Lane, Kate Bosworth. She plays opposite Brandon Routh in Superman Returns. Bosworth's first claim to fame is in The Horse Whisperer in 1998 with Robert Redford. Then in 2000 she was also cast in a small part in Denzel Washington's Remember The Titans. Then in '03 she played opposite Val Kilmer (who also played a comic book superhero Batman) in Wonderland where she played the teenage girlfriend of porn star John Holmes. In 2004 she played Sandra Dee in Beyond the Sea with Kevin Spacey. Another actress we'll just have to wait and see how well she does.

• Patricia Marand played Lois Lane in the 1966 broadway musical It's a bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman along with Bob Holiday's Superman.

• Lesley Ann Warren played Lois Lane in the 1975 tv comedy/musical of It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman.

• Shannon Farnon did the voice of Lois Lane in the 1979 animated The World's Greatest SuperFriends. But she was better known as the voice of Wonder Woman in all the cartoons.

• Ginny McSwain did the voice of Lois Lane in the 1988 animated version of "Superman".

• Dana Delaney did the voice of Lois Lane in a number of the animated version of Superman such as Superman: The Last Son of Krypton (1996), The Batman/Superman Movie (1998), "Superman" (1999), "Justice League" (2005) and "The Batman" (2007). She might be better known tho by her role as Katherine Mayfair in Desperate Housewives, along with another Lois Lane alumni Teri Hatcher.

• Lorry Ayers played Lois Lane in Hollywoodland, Anne Heche was the voice of Lois Lane in Superman: Doomsday in 2007, Kyra Sedgwick did her voice in Justice League: The New frontier in 2008 and Laura Torres did Lane's voice in the mexican version of Superman in 2005.