Noel Neill

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Noel Neill as Lois Lane on the serial version of Superman.

Noel Neill (born November 25, 1920 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American actress. She has played Lois Lane in more venues and instances than any other actress.

She first played the role in the 1948 and 1950 Saturday movie serials with Kirk Alyn playing Clark Kent/Superman.
She continued to play the role in the television program Adventures of Superman (from the second season on) opposite George Reeves.
She has a cameo in the 1978 film Superman: The Movie as Lois Lane's mother (Kirk Alyn played Lois' father in the same short scene).
She appeared in an episode of the TV series Superboy alongside Jack Larson (who had played Jimmy Olsen in Adventures of Superman).
Noel appeared at the Metropolis, Il. Superman Festival. This festival was shown in a featurette on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Neill has a guest appearance in the indie superhero film Surge of Power: The Stuff of Heroes where a character refers to her as "Aunt Lois."
She plays the role of Gertrude Vanderworth, a dying widow in Superman Returns (2006).

Unlike Phyllis Coates, the first TV Lois Lane, who distanced herself from the role for the most part (Coates did appear as Lois Lane's mother in one episode of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman), Noel Neill embraced the role and exploited it graciously. She made frequent talks on college campuses during the 1970s, when interest in the series was revived, and endeared herself to her audiences with her warmth and humor.

She and Jack Larson donated their time to make commentaries for a couple of episodes on the second season DVD which was released in January, 2006. Noel remarked that a frequent question from her audience was, "How come you never recognized that Clark Kent was Superman, even when he had his glasses off?" She said her stock answer was, "Because I wanted to keep my job!"