Susan Oliver Movies or Tv Shows (upto Nov 2024) - Watch Online

A fascinating aura of mystery seemed to surround the characters portrayed by blue-eyed blonde actress Susan Oliver, whose trademark high cheekbones, rosebud lips and heart-shaped face kept audiences intrigued for nearly three decades. She left a fine legacy of work in theater, motion pictures and television.Born Charlotte Gercke on February 13, 1932 (some sources incorrectly list years as early as 1929 or late as 1937), in New York City, she was the daughter of well-to-do George Gercke, a political reporter and journalist for the New York World, and his astrology practitioner wife, Ruth Oliver (aka Ruth Hale Oliver), both of whom divorced while Susan was still quite young (age 3). As a privileged adolescent, she went to various public and boarding schools. As a teenager, she lived with her father and traveled with him overseas to Japan, where he maintained a news post. While there (1948-49), she studied at the Tokyo International College and developed an interest in Japan's deep obsession with the American popular culture. Much later in her career (1977), in fact, Susan would write and direct Cowboysan (1978), a short film which told of Japanese actors performing in an American western.In the spring of 1949, Susan briefly rejoined her mother, who was now remarried, residing in Los Angeles, and gaining a solid reputation as Hollywood's astrologer to the stars. However, by that fall, Susan was back East, studying drama at Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College (for four years). She then continued her training at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse, while finding stage work in both summer stock and regional theaters. Commercials and daytime/prime-time television work started coming Susan's way and, by that time, she had already changed her stage moniker to the more flowing name of Susan Oliver.The year 1957 began with a debut ingénue role as a Revolutionary War-era daughter in the Broadway comedy "Small War on Murray Hill", which opened and closed at the Ethel Barrymore Theater after only nine days. A far more potent and substantial role fell her way in October of that same year, when she replaced British actress Mary Ure as Allison Porter in the superior kitchen sink drama "Look Back in Anger". Susan continued to find extensive dramatic work in live East coast television plays, with roles on The Kaiser Aluminum Hour (1956), The United States Steel Hour (1953), Studio 57 (1954) and Matinee Theatre (1955). At this juncture, she decided to migrate back to Los Angeles for more on-camera opportunities and attained guest roles on such popular prime-time series as Wagon Train (1957), Vater ist der Beste (1954), Wenn man Millionär wär (1955) and Täter unbekannt (1954).Susan made her cinematic debut as the tough yet doomed title role in Warner Bros.' low-budget melodrama The Green-Eyed Blonde (1957). The film was shot in black and white, so it didn't matter that Susan's eyes were blue. Topbilled, she played the rebellious delinquent leader at a girls' reformatory and lent class to the rather exploitative material, which was written by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. Two years later, Susan returned to the big screen as another tough cookie in the better-received biopic Jazz-Ekstase (1959), as a jazz singer who lures the renowned drummer (played by Sal Mineo) down the road to drugs and near ruin. A brief return to the Broadway stage, with the comedy "Patate" starring Tom Ewell and Lee Bowman, would last only four days but Susan earned great notices and won New York's Theatre World Award World for her outstanding breakout performance.On early 1960s television, Susan continued to offer a number of striking and often showy, neurotic performances on episodes of Bonanza (1959), Der Kopfgeldjäger (1958), 77-Sunset-Strip (1958), Wagon Train (1957), Die Leute von der Shiloh Ranch (1962), Adventures in Paradise (1959), Route 66 (1960), Assistenzarzt Dr. Kildare (1961) and Auf der Flucht (1963). Filmwise, she found a few lead and support roles in the Elizabeth Taylor-starred Telefon Butterfield 8 (1960); as a psychiatric nurse in the all-star hospital melodrama Frauen, die nicht lieben dürfen (1963); in the tailored-for-the-teens romp, Looking for Love (1964), as a friend to Connie Francis; and in the hilarious Jerry Lewis slapstick vehicle Der Tölpel vom Dienst (1964), in which she added rather heavy drama as a depressed hospital patient. During this time, her most challenging role was as the ambitious wife of doomed country music legend Hank Williams (George Hamilton, in offbeat casting) in Your Cheatin' Heart (1964).Susan's name remained active particularly on television, where she graced such series as The Andy Griffith Show (1960), The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963), Amos Burke (1963), Assistenzarzt Dr. Kildare (1961), Ben Casey (1961), Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964), Meine drei Söhne (1960), Invasion von der Wega (1967) and Mannix (1967). Classic television showcases includes the episode, Unglaubliche Geschichten: People Are Alike All Over (1960), in which she plays the beautiful martian Teenya, who encounters astronaut Roddy McDowall, and the unsold pilot episode Raumschiff Enterprise: The Cage (1986), as Vina, the sole survivor of a crashed spaceship who charms Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter, the captain subsequently replaced by William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, when the show became a series). Footage from that pilot was later incorporated into the two-part episode "The Menagerie". In 1966, Susan made bittersweet news, when her regular role as Ann Howard in the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place (1964), was pushed off a cliff to her death. Written out after only five months of a year-long planned role, audiences (as well as Susan) were saddened by the loss of a character they had grown to care about. Subsequently, Susan starred in her own pilot for a new series, "Apartment in Rome", but that didn't sell.Unfortunately, Susan's late 1960s work in a variety of film genres and opposite a number of formidable leading men were ultimately too few and did not help to advance her career. These included the LSD-induced drama The Love-Ins (1967) with Richard Todd and James MacArthur; the western Sein Name war Gannon (1968) starring Anthony Franciosa; and the sci-fiers Change of Mind (1969) with Raymond St. Jacques and The Monitors (1969) with Guy Stockwell. The 1970s also hardly fared better with standard roles in Der Morgen, als Ginger kam (1974) (donning a black wig), the Spanish-made drama Nido de viudas (1977), and Alles in Handarbeit (1980), in which she reunited with Jerry Lewis in what was supposed to be his comeback attempt. That film was ultimately shelved, before earning scant release a couple of years later.Susan appeared as a regular for one season (1975-76) on Zeit der Sehnsucht (1965) and received a "Supporting Actress" Emmy nomination for the made-for-TV movie Amelia Earhart (1976), playing aviatrix Neta "Snookie" Snook, friend and mentor to the title character, played by Emmy-nominated Susan Clark. The role of "Snookie" was tailor-made for Susan, who, by this time, had merited attention as a licensed commercial pilot.Susan's passion for flying had been compromised a decade earlier after a dramatic 1966 commercial plane scare. The near-death experience kept the actress on solid ground for well over a year, before she managed to overcome her paralyzing fear. In 1970, fully recovered, she co-piloted a single-engine Piper Comanche to victory in the Powder Puff Derby racing event, a victory that earned her the name, "Pilot of the Year". [Amelia Mary Earhart was the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean]. However, in her attempt to fly to Moscow, the Soviet government denied her entrance to their air space and she was forced to end her journey in Denmark. Susan would later write about her flying exploits in her autobiography "Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey" (1983).Susan's last years were focused on the small screen, with roles in the made-for-TV movies Das Zukunftsbaby (1982) and International Airport (1985), and standard guest-starring on Love Boat (1977), Mord ist ihr Hobby (1984), Simon und Simon (1981) and Freddy's Nightmares: A Nightmare on Elm Street - Die Serie (1988). She also moved behind the camera a few times, directing episodes of M*A*S*H (1972) and Trapper John, M.D. (1979). A longtime smoker, the never-married Susan was diagnosed with lung cancer and died with quiet dignity at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California at age 58 -- an untimely death for such a beautiful lady and strong talent. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

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