Margot Kidder spent the last few years writing a book about her life. The working title, a friend said, was "Calamities."
For the woman who became known to the American public as the feisty and determined reporter Lois Lane in the "Superman" movies, her personal life was full of mishaps - financial, physical, marital.Her latest calamity has left police and friends mystified.
Dirty, dazed and claiming she had been stalked and assaulted, Kidder was found crouching in a stranger's back yard Tuesday, two days after she told a TV news crew that an ex-husband had hired someone to kill her. Police say she seemed to have cut her hair with a razor to alter her appearance and she was missing her front dental bridge.
"She was afraid she was being followed. She was frightened for her life," said Glendale police Sgt. Rick Young, who described her responses to their questions as "cryptic."
"We asked her who was following her. She wouldn't say."
Tests showed no sign of drugs or alcohol in her system, Young said.
Kidder initially was taken to a psychiatric hospital in the Los Angeles suburb of Sylmar for observation but reportedly was moved to an undisclosed location Wednesday. Glendale police said they weren't aware of the transfer.
Police said they had found no evidence to support her claims of assault. She was scratched and bruised, they believe, while hiding in the bushes.
The news shocked friends of the 47-year-old Canadian-born actress, whose career peaked in the 1970s and '80s with the "Superman" series and was followed by a string of mediocre films and acting projects.
A close friend, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Kidder was in "a difficult patch" in her life.