<Li> Terence Stamp as General Zod: Evil leader of the three Kryptonian criminals who swears vengeance against Jor - El when he is sentenced to the Phantom Zone . </Li> <Li> Phyllis Thaxter as Martha Kent (née Clark): Clark Kent's faithful adoptive mother . A kindly woman who dotes on her adoptive son and is fiercely devoted to her husband, Jonathan . She is her son's emotional support after Clark is devastated by Jonathan's death . Thaxter was producer Ilya Salkind's mother - in - law . </Li> <Li> Susannah York as Lara: Superman's biological mother on Krypton . She, after learning of Krypton's fate, has apprehensions about sending her infant son to a strange planet alone . </Li> <Li> Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen: A teenage photographer at the Daily Planet . Jeff East, who portrayed the teenage Clark Kent, originally auditioned for this role, but outranked following his portrayal of the teen Clark . </Li>

Who played superman's mother in the 1978 movie