Phyllis Coates Explained

Phyllis Coates
Birth Name:Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell
Birth Date:15 January 1927
Birth Place:Wichita Falls, Texas, U.S.
Death Place:Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other Names:Gypsy Stell
Alma Mater:Los Angeles City College
Occupation:Actress
Years Active:1944–1996
Spouse:
    Children:3[1]

    Phyllis Coates (born Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell; January 15, 1927 – October 11, 2023) was an American actress, with a career spanning over fifty years. She was best known for her portrayal of reporter Lois Lane in the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men and in the first season of the television series Adventures of Superman.[2]

    Early life

    Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell was born on January 15, 1927,[3] [4] in Wichita Falls, Texas.[5] Coates was the daughter of William Robert Rush Stell and Lorraine "Luzzie" Jack Teel. After graduating from Odessa High School, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother.[6] Coates attended (as Gypsy Stell) Los Angeles City College.[7]

    Career

    Stage

    Originally billed under her birth name as Gypsy Stell, Coates was discovered in a Hollywood and Vine restaurant by vaudeville comedian Ken Murray, from whom she learned comic timing.[8] She subsequently appeared as a dancer and a comedienne in skits for ten months in Blackouts, his "racy" (mildly risqué) variety show.[9] [8] [10] [11] She later performed as one of Earl Carroll's showgirls at his Earl Carroll Theatre. In 1946, she toured with a USO production of Anything Goes.[12]

    Film

    On July 13, 1944, aged 17, she began to work with 20th Century Fox, after receiving a seven year contract with option.[6]

    Coates co-starred with George O'Hanlon as the title character's wife in the studio's Joe McDoakes short-subject comedies. She acted in film serials, including Jungle Drums of Africa (1953), Gunfighters of the Northwest (1953), and Panther Girl of the Kongo (1955).[13] Her film career also included roles in Girls in Prison (1956), I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957), Blood Arrow (1958), Cattle Empire (1958), The Incredible Petrified World (1959), The Baby Maker (1970) and Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn (1989).

    Television

    In 1952, Coates guest-starred in "How Death Valley Got Its Name", the first episode of the anthology series Death Valley Days. She appeared in the 1954 Death Valley Days episode "The Light On The Mountain". Coates was cast as the widowed Mary in the 1959 episode, "One in a Hundred". In a 1964 episode, "The Left Hand Is Damned", she portrayed the kind-hearted saloon singer Dora Hand of Dodge City, Kansas.

    Coates was cast in The Lone Ranger in 1953 in "Stage to Estacado" and "The Perfect Crime", and in 1955 in "The Woman in the White Mask". She was cast in 1955 as Madge in the CBS sitcom Professional Father. In 1955, Coates portrayed Medora De More in the two-part episode "King of the Dakotas" of the NBC western anthology series Frontier. In 1956, she was cast in the episode "God in the Street" of another anthology series, Crossroads, based on the lives of American clergymen. That same year, Coates appeared in a second religious drama, This Is the Life, as Betty in the episode "I Killed Lieutenant Hartwell". She was also cast in 1956 as Marge in the episode "Web Feet" of the military drama Navy Log. She guest-starred in 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 comedy, This Is Alice. She made guest appearances in three episodes of Perry Mason: Norma Carter in "The Case of the 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 Gwynn in the episode "The Little Fishes" on CBS's Rawhide. Coates guest-starred as well on three episodes of Gunsmoke between 1958 and 1964.

    Lois Lane

    Coates played Lois Lane in the first season of Adventures of Superman. Noel Neill, who had played Lois Lane in two Columbia Superman serials, in 1948 and 1950, replaced Coates, who was not available for the second season. With the death of Noel Neill on July 3, 2016, Coates became the last surviving regular cast member from the Adventures of Superman TV series until her own death on October 11, 2023.[14]

    Coates freelanced steadily, appearing in numerous low-budget features, many of them westerns, as well as serials and a steady stream of TV appearances, both as a regular in several series and as a guest cast member in others. All this was in addition to the "McDoakes" shorts, in which she continued to appear until Warner Brothers discontinued the series in 1956. Arguably, her best-remembered films of the 1950s—perhaps owing to their being those in which she has a substantial role, and being among the few that had been preserved on home video—are 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; Superman and the Mole Men; and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.

    Later years

    In the 1960s, when it became clear that Adventures of Superman would continue to enjoy great popularity in syndicated reruns, far beyond the end of its production in 1957, Coates—like many of the other supporting cast members such as Jack Larson ("Jimmy Olsen")—tried to distance herself from the Superman series, fearing it might limit her opportunities. By the mid 1960s, however, she had settled into a comfortable semi-retirement as a wife and homemaker after marrying Los Angeles family physician Howard Press in 1962. She resumed her career after their divorce in 1986, but in the period immediately before that divorce, her film and television appearances were infrequent. One notable role was that of the mother of the female lead in the 1970 film The Baby Maker, directed by James Bridges.

    Coates agreed to appear as Lois's mother in the first season finale of the 1990s television series .[15] Noel Neill, who also played Lois Lane in film and TV series, had already been Lois's mother in the 1978 film Superman.

    Personal life and death

    Coates married director Richard L. Bare in 1948.[16] They divorced in January 1949.[17] She married jazz pianist Robert Nelms in 1950, gave birth to a daughter, and 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 Hospital in Woodland Hills. She was 96.[19]

    Filmography

    Notes and References

    1. Web site: Phyllis Coates. Glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com.
    2. News: Clothier. Gary. Super-actress had second thoughts. 21 January 2016. The Fort Scott Tribune. November 27, 2004. Kansas, Fort Scott. 9.
    3. News: Clothier. Gary. Canadian coined legendary phrase. Clute Facts. January 8, 2014. Texas, Clute. 15. Newspaperarchive.com. January 20, 2016.
    4. Book: Rainey, Buck . Serial Film Stars: A Biographical Dictionary, 1912-1956. McFarland. 2005. 176. 0-7864-2010-3 .
    5. Collura. Joe. Phyllis Coates: That Feisty Lois Lane. Classic Images. September 2015. 483. 6–15, 66–67.
    6. News: Odessa Girl Wins a Movie Contract. The Odessa American. July 14, 1944. Texas, Odessa. 1. Newspapers.com. January 21, 2016.
    7. Web site: Acting Alumni Search: S. Los Angeles City College. January 21, 2016.
    8. Joe McDoakes creator Richard L. Bare & star Phyllis Coates Q&A. September 2, 2012. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/4Z5oXmOQDH4 . 2021-12-21 . live. 9:22 . December 13, 2016.
    9. News: Gypsy Ann Stell Stars. The Odessa American. December 20, 1943. Texas, Odessa. 1. Newspapers.com. January 21, 2016.
    10. Web site: Jones. Jack. Ken Murray, 85; Producer of WWII Revue, Actor. Los Angeles Times. October 13, 1988.
    11. Web site: Katherine Elizabeth "Maybelle" Wilson – a.k.a. Marie Wilson – Class of 1933. Anaheim High School. Anaheim Union High School District. Anaheim, California. Anaheim High School Alumni Association. January 26, 2016. December 13, 2016. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160923183141/http://www.anaheimcolonists.com/katherine-elizabeth-maybelle-wilson-a-k-a-marie-wilson-class-of-1933/. September 23, 2016.
    12. News: Odessa Dancer Tours with USO Camp Show. The Odessa American. September 15, 1946. Texas, Odessa. 8. Newspapers.com. January 21, 2016.
    13. Book: Mayer . Geoff . Encyclopedia of American Film Serials . 2017 . McFarland . 9780786477623 . 75 . September 17, 2019 . en.
    14. Web site: R.I.P. Noel Neill Lois Lane from The Adventures of Superman 1920–2016. 5 July 2016. noise11.com.
    15. The House of Luthor. Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Dan Levine (writer); Alan J. Levi (director). ABC. 1994-05-08. 1. 21.
    16. News: Wichita Falls Girl, Director Are Wed. Lubbock Evening Journal . Lubbock Evening Journal. April 2, 1948. Texas, Lubbock. 8. Newspapers.com. January 20, 2016.
    17. News: Just a Kiss of Friendship. The Terre Haute Tribune . The Terre Haute Tribune. January 30, 1949. Indiana, Terre Haute. 29. Newspapers.com. January 20, 2016.
    18. Web site: Barnes . Mike . 2023-10-12 . Phyllis Coates, the First Lois Lane on Television, Dies at 96 . 2023-10-15 . The Hollywood Reporter . en-US.
    19. Web site: Mike Barnes. Phyllis Coates, the First Lois Lane on Television, Dies at 96. The Hollywood Reporter. May 31, 2022. October 12, 2023.

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