In Memoriam: Phyllis Coates

Phyllis Coates, the first actress to play Lois Lane on television, died on Wednesday, October 11, 2023. Her daughter Laura Press announced that she passed of natural causes. Coates was 96 years old.

The first time she played Lois Lane was opposite George Reeves as Clark Kent/Superman in the 1951 movie Superman and the Mole Men. Following the movie’s success, Coates portrayed the Daily Planet ace reporter on the first season of Adventures of Superman in 1952. She was asked to return for the second season, but Coates had already signed on to do a pilot for another show. Noel Neill, who had played Lois in the Superman serials in ’48 and ’50 replaced Coates on the show.

Coates was born Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell on January 15, 1927, in Wichita Falls, Texas. She moved to Los Angeles as a teenager, became a chorus girl, did skits in a vaudeville show, and performed in USO tours. Her onscreen career began in ’46 in the TV series, Faraway Hill.

Prior to Superman and the Mole-Men, Coates starred in dozens of short films, movies, and TV shows, such as So You Want to Be in Politics, The House Across the Street, My Blue Heaven, The Cisco Kid, and Oklahoma Justice. Around the time of Adventures of Superman, she was also in The Gunman, Fargo, Jungle Drums of Africa, El Paso Stampede, and Terry and the Pirates.

Coates closed the ‘50s by being in Panther Girl of the Kongo, The Lone Ranger and Lassie TV shows, Girls in Prison, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, and she starred in the TV series This is Alice. She was in shows like Rawhide, The Untouchables, Perry Mason, The Patty Duke Show, and Gunsmoke in the ‘60s. After a break from acting, she returned in the late ‘80s in Whisper Kill and Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn, then she played Ellen Lane in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and her final role was Hollywood: The Movie in ’96.