Phyllis Coates (born as Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell on January 15, 1927 in Wichita Falls, Texas) is an American film and television actress.
After finishing high school she went to Los Angeles to study at UCLA. However, a chance meeting with entertainer Ken Murray in a Hollywood restaurant resulted in her working in his vaudeville show as a chorus girl. She later performed as one of Earl Carroll's showgirls at his Earl Carroll Theatre.
A movie contract with Warner Brothers followed in 1948; she co-starred with George O'Hanlon in the studio's popular Joe McDoakes short-subject comedies. She was briefly married to the series' director, Richard L. Bare, and continued to appear in the films after the marriage had run its course.
She is best known for having played a strong-willed Lois Lane in the first 26 episodes of Adventures of Superman, wherein she was given equal billing with George Reeves, even for a few episodes in which she did not appear. Her powerful "damsel in distress" scream was used to good effect in several episodes.
After shooting enough film for the first season, the Superman producers suspended production until they found a national sponsor. Much later, when it came time to reassemble the cast and crew for new Superman episodes, Coates had already committed herself to another production. Noel Neill, who had played the original Lois Lane in the 1948-1950 serials opposite Kirk Allyn's superman, succeeded her in this series, and became far more identified with the role. (George Reeves is said to have requested Coates to return to the role in 1959, after another production hiatus; his untimely death ended the series permanently.)
In later years, Coates generally made an effort to distance herself from her connection with the Superman series. Coates did have a guest role as Lois Lane's mother, in the wedding episode of the 1990s TV series Lois and Clark.
Her Superman fame has somewhat obscured the fact that Phyllis Coates was one of the screen's most dependable actresses of the period. She freelanced steadily during her Hollywood heyday, appearing in low-budget features, westerns, serials, and the "McDoakes" shorts. Her best-remembered films of the fifties are probably Blues Busters with The Bowery Boys (in which she has a musical number); Panther Girl of the Kongo, a jungle serial in which she starred; and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.
She also worked frequently in television, making guest appearances on such popular shows as The Abbott and Costello Show, Leave It to Beaver, The Lone Ranger, and The Cisco Kid.
Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, the future movie and TV actress moved to Hollywood as a teenager with intentions of enrolling at UCLA. A chance encounter with Ken Murray in a Hollywood & Vine restaurant landed her in the comedian's vaudeville show. She started out as a chorus girl and worked her way up to doing skits before moving on to work for veteran showman Earl Carroll and later touring with the USO. Coates got some of her first motion picture experience in comedy short subjects at Warner Brothers and then graduated to roles in early '50s films. After a one-season stint with the Man of Steel (George Reeves as TV's "Superman"), Coates began to divide her time between TV, B-movie assignments and serials at Republic.
