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Actress Margot Kidder, known for playing Lois Lane in Superman, has sadly died at the age of 69.

Canadian American actress Margot Kidder died at her home in Livingston, Montana on May 14, at the age of 69. Her cause of death is not known, according to TMZ, although it is known that she struggled with bipolar disorder after having a public manic episode in 1996. The Canadian-born actress was best known for playing Lois Lane, opposite of Christopher Reeves, in the Superman film series, beginning in 1978. Prior to her breakthrough role as the award-winning journalist Lane, Margot starred in Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx opposite of Gene Wilder, and The Great Waldo Pepper with Robert Redford. Margot starred as Lois Lane in Superman I, II, and III. She was cast immediately by director Richard Donner in Superman: The Movie, and had public disagreements with the film’s producers when they chose a different director for the subsequent films. Following her iconic role as Lois Lane, Margot was cast as Kathy Lutz in the 1979 thriller The Amityville Horror, which cemented her status as one of Hollywood’s leading ladies.

By the mid-90s, Margot’s career began to slow down, and it was then she suffered from a public manic breakdown, which lead to her bipolar disorder diagnosis. At the time, she was working her autobiography and her computer shutdown due to a virus, which caused her to lose 3 years of work. After permanently losing the drafts, she entered into a manic state and wasn’t seen in four days. She was found in a backyard in Los Angeles, with the caps on her teeth knocked out by a purported rape attempt. She entered psychiatric care, and revealed in 2007 that she hadn’t had a manic episode in 11 years.

Margot is survived by her only child, daughter Maggie McGuane, born in 1976, whom she shared with her husband Thomas McGuane, and Maggie’s two children. She dated former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, directors Brian De Palma, writer/director Tom Mankiewicz and Steven Spielberg, and actor/comedian Richard Pryor. Following her marriage to Thomas McGuane, Margot also married John Heard for six days, and French film director Philippe de Broca. In addition to acting, Margot was an activist who spent the second half of her life as an outspoken Democrat and serving as the Montana State Coordinator for Progressive Democrats of America.

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