Los Angeles:
Actress Phyllis Thaxter, whoplayed Ma Kent in the 1978 superhero film Superman, hasdied. She was 90.
Thaxter died Tuesday at her home in Orlando after a longbout with Alzheimer's, according to her daughter, actress SkyeAubrey, said The Hollywood Reporter.
A contract player at MGM and Warner Bros in the 1940s and50s before her career was derailed by illness, Thaxter starredin the psychological thriller Bewitched and classics such asThirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Act of Violence.
"She was one of the most beautiful and patrician icons ofthe golden age of movies, TV and theater," veteran moviecritic Rex Reed said.
Born November 20, 1921, in Portland, Maine, her motherwas a former Shakespearean actress and her father a stateSupreme Court justice.
In 1978, Thaxter made one final movie splash when she wascast along with Glenn Ford as Clark Kent's adoptive parents onEarth in Richard Donner's Superman, starring ChristopherReeve. Her daughter Skye was married to Superman executiveproducer Iiya Salkind.
"I worked harder on that film than anything I'd done Icouldn't be bad," Thaxter once said.
Thaxter died Tuesday at her home in Orlando after a longbout with Alzheimer's, according to her daughter, actress SkyeAubrey, said The Hollywood Reporter.
A contract player at MGM and Warner Bros in the 1940s and50s before her career was derailed by illness, Thaxter starredin the psychological thriller Bewitched and classics such asThirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Act of Violence.
"She was one of the most beautiful and patrician icons ofthe golden age of movies, TV and theater," veteran moviecritic Rex Reed said.
Born November 20, 1921, in Portland, Maine, her motherwas a former Shakespearean actress and her father a stateSupreme Court justice.
In 1978, Thaxter made one final movie splash when she wascast along with Glenn Ford as Clark Kent's adoptive parents onEarth in Richard Donner's Superman, starring ChristopherReeve. Her daughter Skye was married to Superman executiveproducer Iiya Salkind.
"I worked harder on that film than anything I'd done Icouldn't be bad," Thaxter once said.
