ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: GLENDALE, CALIF.
SOURCE: Associated Press
``Superman'' actress Margot Kidder was in a psychiatric ward Wednesday after being found dirty, dazed and fearful in a stranger's back yard, claiming she had been stalked and assaulted.
Police said they found no evidence of foul play, and took the 47-year-old actress to Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar for observation.
Tests showed no sign of drugs or alcohol in her system.
The whiskey-voiced actress, who played Lois Lane in four ``Superman'' movies and battled health and financial problems in recent years, had been missing for three days when she was found crouching in the bushes by homeowners in a quiet neighborhood of neatly tended homes.
Kidder appeared ``frightened and paranoid'' and seemed to have cut her hair to alter her appearance, Sgt. Rick Young said. When asked who was following her, she wouldn't say, Young said.
``We do not feel there has been a crime at this time,'' Young said. ``She claimed that she was followed and assaulted, but we found no evidence of that.''
Kidder lost a dental plate during her three-day disappearance, leading to initial reports that her front teeth had been knocked out. She was scratched and bruised, but police said that was apparently from hiding in the bushes.
Kidder had been living in Livingston, Mont., and was in Los Angeles on business, Young said.
Kidder was last seen at the Los Angeles airport Saturday night, waiting for a flight to Phoenix, police said. But she never arrived there, and a business associate reported her missing Monday.
The Theatre Guild, a producer of plays, said that Kidder was supposed to teach an acting class in Thatcher, Ariz., on Monday. In a statement, the guild said she was hospitalized with ``extreme exhaustion.''
A representative for Kidder did not return a call for comment.
Kidder's career peaked in the 1970s and '80s with the ``Superman'' series. She also appeared in the movies ``The Great Waldo Pepper'' and ``The Amityville Horror.''
She said a 1990 auto accident while filming a TV series based on the Nancy Drew books caused a neck injury that gave her persistent pain. She occasionally needed a wheelchair.
She told People magazine in 1992 that she took pills to ward off the pain, but those 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.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. Sgt. Rick Young of the Glendale, Calif., policeby CNBdepartment answers questions about Margot Kidder's mysterious
reappearance on Wednesday. 2. (headshot) Kidder. color.