Margot Kidder has died

Photo: United Artists, 1969

I was so sad to hear that Canadian-born actress Margot Kidder has passed away, sixty-nine years old. I was a big fan of her work. I first started following her career as a kid, watching the "Superman" movies. Lois Lane was my favourite character and made me interested in journalism.

As a teen, I started watching horror movies and fell madly in love with the classics "Black Christmas" (1974) and "The Amityville Horror" (1976) which both starred Margot. Her character in the former, the loud-mouthed Barb, is still one of my favourite movie characters of all time.

It was also great to see her in a small but memorable role on the amazing TV series "Brothers & Sisters", playing a dear friend of Sally Field's character Nora. As an adult, I also learned that Margot voiced the character of Gaia in the animated series "Captain Planet And The Planeteers" which I had loved as a kid.

To me, Margot always came off as being strong and independent, never afraid to speak up against injustices. I was glad to read that she was a supporter of LGBT rights and an anti-war advocate. Rest in peace, Margot. You will be greatly missed.

I would like to end with a funny 2008 quote by Margot, taken from the LGBT publication The Advocate.

"I'm not choosy at all! I'll do practically anything. I'm the biggest whore on the block. I live in a little town in Montana, and you have to drag me out of here to get to L.A., so I'm not readily available. But unless it's something sexist or cruel, I just love to work. I've done all sorts of things, but you just haven't seen them because they're often very bad and shown at 4 in the morning."