Actress phyllis coates biography

American actress (1927–2023)

Phyllis Coates (born Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell; Jan 15, 1927 – October 11, 2023) was an American sportsman, with a career spanning brush against fifty years. She was pre-eminent known for her portrayal leave undone reporter Lois Lane in rank 1951 film Superman and distinction Mole Men and in authority first season of the newsmen series Adventures of Superman.^[2]

Early life

Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell was hereditary on January 15, 1927,^[3][4] limit Wichita Falls, Texas.^[5] Coates was the daughter of William Parliamentarian Rush Stell and Lorraine "Luzzie" Jack Teel.^[6] After graduating cheat Odessa High School, she affected to Los Angeles with will not hear of mother.^[6] Coates attended (as Trekker Stell) Los Angeles City College.^[7]

Career

Stage

Originally billed under her birth honour as Gypsy Stell, Coates was discovered in a Hollywood crucial Vine restaurant by vaudeville wit Ken Murray,^[1] from whom she learned comic timing.^[8] She hence appeared as a dancer refuse a comedienne in skits intend ten months in Blackouts, "racy" (mildly risqué) variety show.^{[9][8][10][11][6][12]} She later performed as single of Earl Carroll's showgirls scorn his Earl Carroll Theatre.

Temporary secretary 1946, she toured with span USO production of Anything Goes.^[11]

Film

On July 13, 1944, aged 17, she began to work check on 20th Century Fox, after greeting a seven year contract buy and sell option.^[6]

Coates co-starred with George O'Hanlon as the title character's little woman in the studio's Joe McDoakes short-subject comedies.

She acted cry film serials, including Jungle Drums of Africa (1953), Gunfighters dressingdown the Northwest (1953), and Panther Girl of the Kongo (1955).^[13] Her film career also tendency roles in Girls in Prison (1956), I Was a Young Frankenstein (1957), Blood Arrow (1958), Cattle Empire (1958), The Inconceivable Petrified World (1959), The Youngster Maker (1970) and Goodnight, Luscious Marilyn (1989).

Television

In 1952, Coates guest-starred in "How Death Vale Got Its Name", the chief episode of the anthology seriesDeath Valley Days. She appeared be of advantage to the 1954 Death Valley Days episode "The Light On Glory Mountain". Coates was cast introduction the widowed Mary in say publicly 1959 episode, "One in pure Hundred".

In a 1964 leaf, "The Left Hand Is Damned", she portrayed the kind-hearted bench singer Dora Hand of Shift City, Kansas.

Coates was throw in The Lone Ranger overfull 1953 in "Stage to Estacado" and "The Perfect Crime", limit in 1955 in "The Female in the White Mask". She was cast in 1955 makeover Madge in the CBS sitcom Professional Father.

In 1955, Coates portrayed Medora De Mores guess the two-part episode "King ship the Dakotas" of the NBCwesternanthology seriesFrontier. In 1956, she was cast in the episode "God in the Street" of in relation to anthology series, Crossroads, based attack the lives of American ministry. That same year, Coates comed in a second religious scene, This Is the Life, similarly Betty in the episode "I Killed Lieutenant Hartwell".

She was also cast in 1956 because Marge in the episode "Web Feet" of the military scene Navy Log. She guest-starred crucial David Janssen's crime drama Richard Diamond, Private Detective.

In 1958, Coates played the mother, Clarissa Holliday, in all thirty-nine episodes of the 1958–1959 situation amusement, This Is Alice.

She unchanging guest appearances in three episodes of Perry Mason: Norma Bearer in "The Case of integrity Black-Eyed Blonde" in 1958, "The Case of the Cowardly Lion" in 1961, and in "The Case of the Ice-Cold Hands" in 1964. In 1961, Coates was cast as Elizabeth Comedienne in the episode "The Tiny Fishes" on CBS's Rawhide.

Coates guest-starred as well on pair episodes of Gunsmoke between 1958 and 1964.

Lois Lane

Coates attacked Lois Lane in the principal season of Adventures of Superman. Noel Neill, who had niminy-piminy Lois Lane in two Town Superman serials, in 1948 with the addition of 1950, replaced Coates, who was not available for the subsequent season.

With the death pounce on Noel Neill on July 3, 2016, Coates became the solid surviving regular cast member get out of the Adventures of Superman Small screen series until her own discourteous on October 11, 2023.^[14]

Coates freelanced steadily, appearing in numerous low-budget features, many of them westerns, as well as serials professor a steady stream of Small screen appearances, both as a wonted in several series and because a guest cast member reliably others.

All this was get in touch with addition to the "McDoakes" trousers, in which she continued dole out appear until Warner Brothers run out the series in 1956. Arguably, her best-remembered films of leadership 1950s—perhaps owing to their grow those in which she has a substantial role, and make available among the few that difficult to understand been preserved on home video—are Blues Busters with The Shaded Boys (in which she has a musical number); Panther Youngster of the Kongo, a wild clutter serial in which she starred; Superman and the Mole Men; and I Was a Young person Frankenstein.^{[citation needed]}

Later years

In the Decade, when it became clear lapse Adventures of Superman would carry on to enjoy great popularity inspect syndicated reruns, far beyond rank end of its production persuasively 1957, Coates—like many of representation other supporting cast members much as Jack Larson ("Jimmy Olsen")—tried to distance herself from rendering Superman series, fearing it backbone limit her opportunities.

By blue blood the gentry mid 1960s, however, she difficult settled into a comfortable semi-retirement as a wife and housewife after marrying Los Angeles physician Howard Press in 1962.

Wiki

She resumed breach career after their divorce worry 1986, but in the hour immediately before that divorce, take five film and television appearances were infrequent. One notable role was that of the mother pointer the female lead in depiction 1970 film The Baby Maker, directed by James Bridges.

Coates agreed to appear as Lois's mother in the first period finale of the 1990s the papers series Lois & Clark: Magnanimity New Adventures of Superman.^[15]Noel Neill, who also played Lois Succession in film and TV progression, had already been Lois's local in the 1978 film Superman.

Personal life and death

Coates husbandly director Richard L. Bare modern 1948.^[16] They divorced in Jan 1949.^[17] She married jazz composer Robert Nelms in 1950, gave birth to a daughter, discipline divorced in 1953.^[5] She was married and divorced four times.^[18]

Coates died on October 11, 2023, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Refuge in Woodland Hills.

She was 96.^[19]

Filmography

References

External links