Months after her tragic death, the county coroner has ruled Superman actress Margot Kidder‘s death from an intentional drug and alcohol overdose
In a statement to the Associated Press, Kidder’s daughter Maggie McGuane said the family decided to make her mother’s suicide public because “it’s important to be open and honest about the suicide so there’s no cloud of shame.”
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While no further details will be released of her suicide, McGuane added that “it’s a unique sort of grief and pain and that she would like to reach out to every family who is suffering through a loss by suicide.”
For years, Kidder lived with bipolar disorder and became an advocate for raising awareness about mental health. The actress, best known for her role as Lois Lane in four Superman films stemming from the ’70s, was found by a friend in her Montana home on May 13.
At the time of her death, Kidder’s manager, Camilla Fluxman Pines told the press that Kidder died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Livingston, a small town near Yellowstone National Park.
Kidder’s longtime friend, Joan Kesich, who found her body, called the actress and activist “fearless.”
“In her last months, she was herself — same kind of love, same kind of energy,” Kesich said. “The challenges that she had were very public. I want what I know about her to be out there because it was glorious. She was really a blazing energy.”
Kidder, who died by suicide this past spring, is not the only high-profile suicide of 2018. The world mourned the loss of chef, celebrity chef, Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer, Kate Spade this past summer as well.
McGuane went on to tell the AP that Montana has “one of the highest suicide rates in the nation” and urges those with mental illness to seek help.
“It’s a very unique sort of grief and pain,” McGuane said. “Knowing how many families in this state go through this, I wish that I could reach out to each one of them.”
Kidder struggled with mental illness for a big chunk of her life, with events getting worse following a car accident in 1990 that left her in debt and led her to using a wheelchair.
Kider also appeared in The Great Waldo Pepper with Robert Redford in 1975, Brian De Palma’s Sisters in 1973 and The Amityville Horror in 1979. She went on to appear in small films and television shows until 2017, including an appearance on R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour.
She went on to receive a Daytime Emmy Award as outstanding performer in a kids’ series in 2015 for that role.
