Actor Margot Kidder, best known for playing Lois Lane in the Superman films in the 1970s and 1980s, has died at the age of 69.

The Franzen-Davis Funeral Home in Livingston, Montana said on its website that Kidder died on Sunday at her home in the town. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Canadian-born Kidder also appeared in the movie The Great Waldo Pepper and the 2014 children's TV series RL Stine's The Haunting Hour, for which she won an Emmy award.

Kidder shot to fame playing the intrepid reporter Lois Lane in 1978's Superman, opposite Christopher Reeve, and reprised the role in Superman II (1980) and Superman III (1983).

In the mid 1990s, she suffered a mental health breakdown and in a highly publicised episode she disappeared for four days. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder.