Susan Peters(1921-1952)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
War-era MGM had a lovely, luminous star in the making with Susan
Peters. She possessed a creative talent and innate sensitivity that
would surely have reigned as a leading Hollywood player for years to
come had not a tragic and cruel twist of fate taken everything away
from her.
She was born Suzanne Carnahan in Spokane, Washington on July 3, 1921,
the eldest of two children. Her father, Robert, a construction
engineer, was killed in an automobile accident in 1928, and the
remaining family relocated to Los Angeles to live with Susan's
grandmother. Attending various schools growing up, she excelled in
athletics and studied drama in her senior year at Hollywood High School
where she was spotted by a talent scout. Following graduation, she
found an agent and enrolled at
Max Reinhardt's School of Dramatic Arts.
While performing in a showcase, she was spotted by a Warner Bros.
casting agent, tested and signed to the studio in 1940.
Making her debut as an extra
Susan and God (1940), she saw
little progress and eventually became frustrated at the many bit parts
thrown her way. Billed by her given name Suzanne Carnahan (known for
possessing a zesty stubborn streak, she had refused to use the studio's
made-up stage name of Sharon O'Keefe), Susan was barely given a line in
many of her early movies. She did test for a lead role in
Kings Row (1942) but lost out to
Betty Field. Susan's first big break came
with the Humphrey Bogart potboiler
The Big Shot (1942), where she was
fourth-billed and had the second female lead. Dropped by Warners, MGM
picked up her contract and adopted a new stage name for her, Susan
Peters. In the Marjorie Main vehicle
Tish (1942), Susan earned a co-starring part
and met actor Richard Quine on the set.
Quine played her husband in the film. The couple also appeared together
in the film
Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant (1942),
and married in real life in November of 1943.
Susan won the role of Ronald Colman's
sister's teenage stepdaughter (and a potential love interest of the
Colman character) in the profoundly moving film
Random Harvest (1942) and earned
an Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actress" for her
efforts. Her potential in that film was quickly discovered and she
continued to offer fine work in lesser movies such as the WWII spy tale
Assignment in Brittany (1943),
the slight comedy Young Ideas (1943)
and the romantic war drama
Song of Russia (1944), in which
she touchingly played Nadya, a young Soviet pianist who falls for
Robert Taylor. For these
performances, Susan was named "Star of Tomorrow" along with
Van Johnson and others.
Then tragedy struck a little more than a year after her wedding day.
While on a 1945 New Year's Day duck-hunting trip in the San Diego area
with her husband and friends, one of the hunting rifles accidentally
discharged when Susan went to retrieve it. The bullet lodged in her
spine. Permanently paralyzed from the waist down, MGM paid for her
bills but was eventually forced to settle her contract. Susan valiantly
forged on with frequent work on radio. In 1946 Susan and Richard
happily adopted a son, Timothy Richard, but two years later she
divorced Quine -- some say she felt she was too much of a burden.
Appearing with Lana Turner as a demure
soldier's wife in
Keep Your Powder Dry (1945),
which was filmed before but released a year after her accident, Susan
made a film "comeback" with
The Sign of the Ram (1948),
the melodramatic tale of an embittered, manipulative, wheelchair-bound
woman who tries to destroy the happiness of all around her, but
audiences were not all that receptive. She also turned to the stage
with tours of "The Glass Menagerie," in which she played the crippled
daughter Laura from a wheelchair (with permission from playwright
Tennessee Williams), and "The
Barretts of Wimpole Street" opposite
Tom Poston, wherein she performed the role of
poet and chronic invalid Elizabeth Barrett Browning entirely from a
couch.
In March of 1951 she portrayed an Ironside-like lawyer in the TV series
Miss Susan (1951) but the show ran
for less than one season, folding in December of that year. After this,
the increasingly frail actress, who was constantly racked with pain,
went into virtual seclusion. Suffering from acute depression and
plagued by kidney problems and pneumonia, she finally lost her will to
live and died at the age of 31 on October 23, 1952, of kidney failure
and starvation, prompted by a developing eating disorder (anorexia
nervosa). It was a profoundly sad and most unfortunate end to such a
beautiful, courageous spirit and promising talent.
Peters. She possessed a creative talent and innate sensitivity that
would surely have reigned as a leading Hollywood player for years to
come had not a tragic and cruel twist of fate taken everything away
from her.
She was born Suzanne Carnahan in Spokane, Washington on July 3, 1921,
the eldest of two children. Her father, Robert, a construction
engineer, was killed in an automobile accident in 1928, and the
remaining family relocated to Los Angeles to live with Susan's
grandmother. Attending various schools growing up, she excelled in
athletics and studied drama in her senior year at Hollywood High School
where she was spotted by a talent scout. Following graduation, she
found an agent and enrolled at
Max Reinhardt's School of Dramatic Arts.
While performing in a showcase, she was spotted by a Warner Bros.
casting agent, tested and signed to the studio in 1940.
Making her debut as an extra
Susan and God (1940), she saw
little progress and eventually became frustrated at the many bit parts
thrown her way. Billed by her given name Suzanne Carnahan (known for
possessing a zesty stubborn streak, she had refused to use the studio's
made-up stage name of Sharon O'Keefe), Susan was barely given a line in
many of her early movies. She did test for a lead role in
Kings Row (1942) but lost out to
Betty Field. Susan's first big break came
with the Humphrey Bogart potboiler
The Big Shot (1942), where she was
fourth-billed and had the second female lead. Dropped by Warners, MGM
picked up her contract and adopted a new stage name for her, Susan
Peters. In the Marjorie Main vehicle
Tish (1942), Susan earned a co-starring part
and met actor Richard Quine on the set.
Quine played her husband in the film. The couple also appeared together
in the film
Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant (1942),
and married in real life in November of 1943.
Susan won the role of Ronald Colman's
sister's teenage stepdaughter (and a potential love interest of the
Colman character) in the profoundly moving film
Random Harvest (1942) and earned
an Academy Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actress" for her
efforts. Her potential in that film was quickly discovered and she
continued to offer fine work in lesser movies such as the WWII spy tale
Assignment in Brittany (1943),
the slight comedy Young Ideas (1943)
and the romantic war drama
Song of Russia (1944), in which
she touchingly played Nadya, a young Soviet pianist who falls for
Robert Taylor. For these
performances, Susan was named "Star of Tomorrow" along with
Van Johnson and others.
Then tragedy struck a little more than a year after her wedding day.
While on a 1945 New Year's Day duck-hunting trip in the San Diego area
with her husband and friends, one of the hunting rifles accidentally
discharged when Susan went to retrieve it. The bullet lodged in her
spine. Permanently paralyzed from the waist down, MGM paid for her
bills but was eventually forced to settle her contract. Susan valiantly
forged on with frequent work on radio. In 1946 Susan and Richard
happily adopted a son, Timothy Richard, but two years later she
divorced Quine -- some say she felt she was too much of a burden.
Appearing with Lana Turner as a demure
soldier's wife in
Keep Your Powder Dry (1945),
which was filmed before but released a year after her accident, Susan
made a film "comeback" with
The Sign of the Ram (1948),
the melodramatic tale of an embittered, manipulative, wheelchair-bound
woman who tries to destroy the happiness of all around her, but
audiences were not all that receptive. She also turned to the stage
with tours of "The Glass Menagerie," in which she played the crippled
daughter Laura from a wheelchair (with permission from playwright
Tennessee Williams), and "The
Barretts of Wimpole Street" opposite
Tom Poston, wherein she performed the role of
poet and chronic invalid Elizabeth Barrett Browning entirely from a
couch.
In March of 1951 she portrayed an Ironside-like lawyer in the TV series
Miss Susan (1951) but the show ran
for less than one season, folding in December of that year. After this,
the increasingly frail actress, who was constantly racked with pain,
went into virtual seclusion. Suffering from acute depression and
plagued by kidney problems and pneumonia, she finally lost her will to
live and died at the age of 31 on October 23, 1952, of kidney failure
and starvation, prompted by a developing eating disorder (anorexia
nervosa). It was a profoundly sad and most unfortunate end to such a
beautiful, courageous spirit and promising talent.