Trivia

She had been the last surviving regular cast member of Superman (1952) until she passed away on October 11, 2023. She had been the last surviving member since July 3, 2016 with the passing of Noel Neill.

The first actress to appear as Lois Lane with George Reeves. Although Noel Neill played Lois Lane before Phyllis, it was not with Reeves but rather Kirk Alyn.

Was accidentally punched during filming of Night of Terror (1952), knocking her unconscious. The actor who punched her apologized profusely, but the punch was left in the episode, as there was no time to re-shoot the scene.

She accepted the role in 1957's Le monde pétrifié (1959) as a favor to its director, Jerry Warren, who was a former boyfriend. The actress originally cast in the lead couldn't do it and Warren couldn't find anyone else in time. He persuaded Coates to do it by telling her that the film would not be shown in California. However, after it was completed, she found out that Warren did indeed release the film in California, and she was told by at least one studio executive at Columbia that the film was so inferior and shoddy that the studio would not be hiring her again. On top of that, Warren never paid her.

Along with Jack Larson and Jack Kruschen, she is one of only three actors to appear in both Superman (1952) and Lois & Clark : Les nouvelles aventures de Superman (1993).

Years after gaining fame as TV's first Lois Lane on Superman (1952), she played Lois Lane's mother on an episode of Lois & Clark : Les nouvelles aventures de Superman (1993).

In what can be considered the "first sitcom," she appeared opposite George O'Hanlon, as Alice McDoakes, from 1948-56 in the "Joe McDoakes" movie shorts.

She has two roles in common with both Noel Neill and Teri Hatcher: (1) Neill played Lois Lane in Superman (1948), Atom Man vs. Superman (1950) and Superman (1952), Coates played her in Superman et les nains de l'enfer (1951) and Superman (1952) and Hatcher played her in Lois & Clark : Les nouvelles aventures de Superman (1993) and (2) Neill played Lois' mother Ellen Lane in Superman (1978), Coates played her in The House of Luthor (1994) and Hatcher played her in Abandoned (2010).

Former Earl Carroll showgirl.

Profiled in the book "Johnny Mack Brown's Saddle Gals" by Bobby Copeland.

In May 2008 she appeared at Captain Celluloid's Movie and TV World Convention.

On July 13, 1944, aged 17, she "began her work with 20th Century Fox ... after receiving a seven year contract with option.".

She appeared as a dancer and a comedienne in skits for ten months in Blackouts, his "racy" (mildly risqué) variety show.

She had a recurring role as the wife in the series of "Joe McDoakes" comedy shorts. The director of the series, Richard L. Bare, became her first husband.

Body Cremated. Specifically: Ashes given to Family or Friends.

She performed as one of Earl Carroll's showgirls at his Earl Carroll Theatre.

After graduating from Odessa High School, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother. Coates attended (as Gypsy Stell) Los Angeles City College.

By the mid 1960s, she had settled into a comfortable semi-retirement as a wife and homemaker after marrying Los Angeles family physician Howard Press in 1962. She resumed her career after their divorce in 1986, but in the period immediately before that divorce, her film and television appearances were infrequent. One notable role was that of the mother of the female lead in the 1970 film "The Baby Maker", directed by James Bridges.

Coates co-starred with George O'Hanlon as the title character's wife in the studio's Joe McDoakes short-subject comedies.

Originally billed under her birth name as Gypsy Stell, Coates was discovered in a Hollywood and Vine restaurant by vaudeville comedian Ken Murray, from whom she learned comic timing.

In 1946, she toured with a USO production of Anything Goes.

Mother, with fourth husband Dr. Howard Irving Press, of daughter Laura Press.