Superman star Valerie Perrine died on Monday in her Beverly Hills home. The actress was 82. “It is with deep sadness that I share the heartbreaking news that Valerie has passed away. She faced Parkinson’s disease with incredible courage and compassion, never once complaining,” her close friend, filmmaker Stacey Souther, posted on Facebook. Perrine was best known for her role as Eve Teschmacher, Lex Luthor’s love interest, in Christopher Reeve’s 1978 Superman and its 1980 sequel. She also earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in the 1974 Lenny Bruce biopic Lenny, in which she played Honey. The Texan got her start as a Playboy model and television actress and was notably the first actress to appear nude on American television. Perrine, whose illustrious career spanned decades, also had dozens of roles in film, TV, and on the stage, including in one of the highest-grossing rom-coms of all time, What Women Want. Her last film appearance was in 2014’s Silver Skies. She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2015. The star’s family has started a GoFundMe to pay for her funeral expenses. “After more than 15 years of fighting Parkinson’s, her finances are exhausted,” Souther said in her post announcing Perrine’s death.
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