Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com EW.com
    • All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Winter TV
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
    • All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
    • All Music
    • Music Reviews
    • All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
    • All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
    • All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
    • All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
    • All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com EW.com
  • Explore

    Explore

    • A guide to The Last of Us Easter eggs

      A guide to The Last of Us Easter eggs

      From the Uncharted lighter to the giraffe plushie. Read More
    • 2023 Oscars predictions: See who will win at the 95th Academy Awards

      2023 Oscars predictions: See who will win at the 95th Academy Awards

      From Brendan Fraser and Angela Bassett to a potential upset in Best Actress, see who EW thinks will win at the 2023 Oscars. Read More
    • Meet the cast of Survivor 44

      Meet the cast of Survivor 44

      Here are the 18 contestants who will be vying for $1 million. Read More
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Winter TV
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • What to Watch

    What to Watch

    See All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
  • BINGE

    BINGE

    See All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
  • The Awardist

    The Awardist

    See All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Gallery
  3. Lois Lane: 14 Takes on Superman Gal

Lois Lane: 14 Takes on Superman Gal

From Noel Neill to Margot Kidder to Teri Hatcher and now, Amy Adams: We trace classic character's history from the comic-book page to TV to film
Darren Franich
By Darren Franich Updated March 28, 2011 at 11:00 PM EDT
Skip gallery slides
FB

1 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Superman's Rival

Superman | Lois Lane made her debut in Action Comics #1 in June 1938, which also featured the first appearance of Superman himself. (It also featured aÂ…
Credit: DC Comics

Lois Lane made her debut in Action Comics #1 in June 1938, which also featured the first appearance of Superman himself. (It also featured a five page story about Scoop Scanlon, Five-Star Reporter, a character who clearly requires a gritty Christopher Nolan reboot.) Lois was introduced as a relentless go-getter and a direct opponent for her fellow journalist Clark Kent. This first incarnation of Lois had the fast-talking no-bull aspect of a Howard Hawks heroine, and was based partially on model Joanne Carter, who would later marry Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel.

1 of 14

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Lois Finds Her Voice

Superman | When Superman made the jump to radio for a serial series in 1940, voice duties for Lois were originally handled by actress Rolly Bester, andÂ…
Credit: Paramount Pictures/Photofest; Everett Collection

When Superman made the jump to radio for a serial series in 1940, voice duties for Lois were originally handled by actress Rolly Bester, and then by Helen Choate. But the longest-running radio Lois was Joan Alexander, an actress who would later be most famous as a regular panelist on the '50s game show The Name's the Same. Alexander's terse, no-nonsense delivery became instantly iconic, and earned her the job of voicing Lois in the gloriously weird and influential Superman cartoons of the '40s.

2 of 14

3 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Lois on TV, Take 1

Superman | Phyllis Coates played Lois Lane in the movie serial Superman and the Mole Men , and continued the role on the first season of TheÂ…
Credit: ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images

Phyllis Coates played Lois Lane in the movie serial Superman and the Mole Men, and continued the role on the first season of The Adventures of Superman, featuring George Reeves as the superhero. Coates was soon replaced, however, by?

3 of 14

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Lois on TV, Take 2

Superman | Noel Neill has actually played the first onscreen Lois in some late-40s movie serials, and returned to the role for five seasons on The AdventuresÂ…
Credit: Everett Collection

Noel Neill has actually played the first onscreen Lois in some late-40s movie serials, and returned to the role for five seasons on The Adventures of Superman. Neill's iconic turn, which emphasized the character's romantic attraction to Superman, was the definitive onscreen Lois for decades, and Neill would return to the franchise playing (appropriately enough) Lois Lane's mother in the 1978 Superman.

4 of 14

Advertisement

5 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Betty Friedan Would Not Approve

Superman | By the '50s, the comic book Lois had undergone a near-complete character transformation: No longer a relentless career woman, she had become primarily focused onÂ…
Credit: DC Comics

By the '50s, the comic book Lois had undergone a near-complete character transformation: No longer a relentless career woman, she had become primarily focused on winning Superman's heart. The peak of this incarnation of the character probably came in 1958, with the creation of her own solo comic book. The good news: a female supporting character got her own comic book! The bad news: that comic book was called Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane. In short, the '50s were awful.

5 of 14

6 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Lois Lane: The Middle Ages

Superman | Margot Kidder's silver screen turn as Lois alongside Christopher Reeves has a delirious, chainsmokingly unhinged intensity that recalls the character's original incarnation, although Kidder's roleÂ…
Credit: Everett Collection

Margot Kidder's silver screen turn as Lois alongside Christopher Reeves has a delirious, chainsmokingly unhinged intensity that recalls the character's original incarnation, although Kidder's role also occasionally edged toward farce. (Seriously, does this lady have any journalistic tricks besides putting herself in suicidal situations so Superman will save her?) But there's no denying that Kidder's role in the iconic Superman, the enjoyably anarchic Superman II, and two better-left-forgotten sequels is an essential evolutionary step in the character's history.

6 of 14

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

The Hair's Not the Only Thing That's Different

Superman | In the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths , DC's universe-rebooting crossover series that essentially erased five decades of comic book history, Lois was reimaginedÂ…
Credit: DC Comics

In the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC's universe-rebooting crossover series that essentially erased five decades of comic book history, Lois was reimagined in a more adventurous mold. Now, Lois was a military brat with an action heroine's fashion sense — skirts were out, pantsuits were in — and to cement the difference, her iconic black hair was recolored to a dark shade of brown. She also had an arguably more feminist-friendly outlook on relationships: Whereas earlier versions of the character tended to fall in love with Superman, this new Lois fell in love with Superman's alter ego Clark Kent before she knew his secret identity. Bespectacled pratfall-prone journalists of the world, rejoice!

7 of 14

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Look Who Gets Top Billing!

Superman | The four seasons of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman presented a fully-realized portrayal of the most iconic super-relationship in comics history: TeriÂ…
Credit: ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images

The four seasons of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman presented a fully-realized portrayal of the most iconic super-relationship in comics history: Teri Hatcher's Lois was initially annoyed by Dean Cain's Clark. But the pair gradually warmed to each other, falling in love, and eventually getting married. Taking a page from the Noel Neill playbook, Hatcher would later guest-star on Smallville... as Lois Lane's mother.

8 of 14

Advertisement

9 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Lois Gets Animated

Superman | On the '90s cartoon Superman: The Animated Series , Lois was voiced by Dana Delany. The series returned the character to her roots, playing upÂ…
Credit: Pixplanete/PR Photos; Everett Collection

On the '90s cartoon Superman: The Animated Series, Lois was voiced by Dana Delany. The series returned the character to her roots, playing up her journalistic competition with Clark Kent and keeping the Superman-Lois romance mostly implicit. (The couple didn't even kiss until the series finale.) Delany would continue to voice the character in various DC animated series.

9 of 14

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

10 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

The Adventures of Lois Lane... When She Was a Girl!

Superman | When a teenaged Lois arrived in Smallville 's fourth season, Erica Durance was only a guest star, but the character quickly became a lead. AndÂ…
Credit: Lorenzo Agius/The CW

When a teenaged Lois arrived in Smallville's fourth season, Erica Durance was only a guest star, but the character quickly became a lead. And it's easy to see why — in contrast to Kristin Kreuk's tragically orphaned girl-next-door Lana Lang, Durance's Lois was an immediately energizing presence, and her relationship with Clark was rife with screwball love-hate chemistry that impressively fused the earlier interpretations of the character. Durance's Lois is currently engaged to Clark, and expect sparks to fly in the show's upcoming series finale.

10 of 14

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

11 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Oh, Dear...

Superman | Of all the desperately misconceived ideas that went into Bryan Singer's underrated-but-still-not-great Superman Returns , none are more confusing than the decision to cast 23-year-oldÂ…
Credit: David James

Of all the desperately misconceived ideas that went into Bryan Singer's underrated-but-still-not-great Superman Returns, none are more confusing than the decision to cast 23-year-old bubbly blonde ingénue Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, the cynical brunette unwed single mother to a five-year-old son. The character, who was intended to be an updated version of Kidder's Lois, didn't make very much sense. In fairness to Bosworth, that pretty much sums up the movie.

11 of 14

Advertisement
Advertisement

12 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Wife, Mother, and Full-Time Journalist

Superman | Lois Lane officially became Lois Lane-Kent in 1996, and although the character still didn't have any superpowers, she had essentially become a superheroine, complete withÂ…
Credit: DC Comics

Lois Lane officially became Lois Lane-Kent in 1996, and although the character still didn't have any superpowers, she had essentially become a superheroine, complete with her own tragic parental backstory (her father, General Sam Lane, even became one of Superman's chief antagonists for a while.) Still, marriage and the arrival of a foster child hasn't domestic Lois — she's still a hard-charging journalist, and has even reverted to the black hair.

12 of 14

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

13 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Mad Woman

Superman | In this direct-to-DVD adaptation of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's acclaimed comic book, Christina Hendricks provided the voice for The Daily Planet 's star reporter.Â…
Credit: Albert L. Ortega/PR Photos; Warner Bros.

In this direct-to-DVD adaptation of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's acclaimed comic book, Christina Hendricks provided the voice for The Daily Planet's star reporter. At the time, we all thought, ''Oh, if only she could play Lois Lane onscreen! But of course, they would never cast a red-haired actress as Lois.'' Then, next thing you know...

13 of 14

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

14 of 14

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

The New New Lois

Superman | News that Amy Adams has been cast as Lois in the upcoming reboot Superman: Man of Steel is exciting for many reasons, not the leastÂ…
Credit: Lester Cohen/WireImage.com

News that Amy Adams has been cast as Lois in the upcoming reboot Superman: Man of Steel is exciting for many reasons, not the least of which is that Adams has already proven adept at playing a Lois Lane-esque mix of spunky (Night at the Museum 2), charming (Enchanted), and sexy (The Fighter). At 36, Adams is nearly a full decade older than Henry Cavill, her Clark Kent, but that might add an intriguing element to their chemistry. How will Adams measure up to the character's earlier incarnations? We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

14 of 14

Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

  • By Darren Franich @DarrenFranich

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Trending Videos
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 14 Superman's Rival
    2 of 14 Lois Finds Her Voice
    3 of 14 Lois on TV, Take 1
    4 of 14 Lois on TV, Take 2
    5 of 14 Betty Friedan Would Not Approve
    6 of 14 Lois Lane: The Middle Ages
    7 of 14 The Hair's Not the Only Thing That's Different
    8 of 14 Look Who Gets Top Billing!
    9 of 14 Lois Gets Animated
    10 of 14 The Adventures of Lois Lane... When She Was a Girl!
    11 of 14 Oh, Dear...
    12 of 14 Wife, Mother, and Full-Time Journalist
    13 of 14 Mad Woman
    14 of 14 The New New Lois

    Share & More

    Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message
    EW.com

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
    • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
    • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Meredith© Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright EW.com. All rights reserved. Printed from https://ew.com

    View image

    Lois Lane: 14 Takes on Superman Gal
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.