CNN - Actress Margot Kidder found dazed

Actress Margot Kidder found dazed, frightened

April 25, 1996
Web posted at: 12:00 p.m. EDT

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- "Superman" actress Margot Kidder was in a psychiatric ward Wednesday after being found disheveled, dazed and fearful in a stranger's backyard.

The 47-year-old Canadian-born actress had been reported missing for three days. Homeowners in an affluent, tree-lined neighborhood in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale found Kidder huddled in the bushes Tuesday.

Investigators said Kidder told them she had been stalked and assaulted, but said there was no evidence that she had been the victim of a crime.

"We do not feel there has been a crime at this time," Sgt. Rick Young said.

A dark-haired beauty during her years of "Superman" fame, Kidder was almost unrecognizable when she was discovered Tuesday. Residents at first mistook her for a homeless woman.

Young described Kidder's condition as one of "obvious mental distress." He said she appeared "frightened and paranoid" and seemed to have cut off her hair with a safety razor in an attempt to alter her appearance.

Police said she was scratched and bruised, apparently from hiding in the bushes.

Tests showed no trace of alcohol or drugs in her system.

Kidder was taken to the psychiatric ward at Olive View Medical Center in nearby Sylmar for observation, police said.

Kidder's "Superman" co-star, Christopher Reeve, issued a statement offering to help: "She is a dear friend who has always been there for me, and I would do anything to help her," he said.

Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down in a horse-riding accident last May.

Kidder had been living in Livingston, Montana, and was in Los Angeles on business, Young said.

She was last seen, police say, by a friend who dropped her off at Los Angeles International Airport Saturday.

Kidder's manager, John Blake, said she had been scheduled to fly to Phoenix on Saturday to teach an acting class, but when she failed to board the flight he reported her missing.

Kidder, who played the feisty Lois Lane in four Superman movies, has been battling health and financial problems in recent years. Once the toast of Hollywood, Kidder's popularity plummeted following a car accident that left her in pain and heavily in debt from medical costs.

She told People magazine in 1992 that the accident caused a neck injury that gave her persistent pain. She said pills she took to ward off the pain left her mind "muddied."

Surgery eventually corrected Kidder's physical ailment, but she went into bankruptcy when her insurance company refused to pay her bills, according to the magazine.

CNN Correspondent Charles Feldman, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Actress Margot Kidder found dazed, frightened

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