PIONEER

TV’s Earliest ‘Lois Lane’ Dead at 95

Actress Noel Neill first to play crusading reporter.

Noel Neill, the actress who played Lois Lane in the original Superman film series, passed away Monday at the age of 95. Neill, the first actress to take on the role of Lois Lane, died of natural causes at her home in Tucson, her biographer said. She first appeared as Lois Lane in the 1948 film Superman before regularly playing the role of the crusading reporter in The Adventures of Superman television show in the 1950s. Her biographer, Larry Ward, said she was always the perfect person for the part. “She basically played herself. She was exactly the same person on the screen as off the screen,” Ward said in a statement about her death.