Susanna Foster
Susanna Foster | |
---|---|
Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | |
Died | January 17, 2009 Englewood, New Jersey, U.S. | (aged 84)
Occupation(s) | Actress, singer |
Years active | 1939–1992 |
Spouse |
Susanna Foster (born Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson,[1][2][3] December 6, 1924[4] – January 17, 2009[5]) was an American film actress best known for her leading role as Christine in the 1943 film version of Phantom of the Opera.
Early life
Foster was born Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson in
Career
At the age of twelve, Suzanne was taken to
After hiring agent Milo Marchetti, Foster was signed by
Within weeks of leaving Paramount, Foster signed with
In 1945, Foster quit the film business. Desperate to hold onto its star, Universal sought to make her dream of grand opera come true, financing a six-month tour of a post war Europe in 1946 with
In 1946, Foster accepted the lead role in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera's production of Naughty Marietta headed by Rodgers and Hammerstein associate Edwin Lester. In 1948, she married her leading man Wilbur "Wib" Evans, a renowned baritone 20 years her senior.[12] The couple performed in operettas and stage musicals, touring extensively. After a debilitating miscarriage, their first son Michael was born 8 weeks premature in December 1950.
Evans was soon chosen as Mary Martin's co-star in
Later life and death
In 1956, Foster abruptly divorced Evans, and for many years, lived in and out of poverty. Author Sharon Rich and Foster's son Michael later stated Foster herself struggled with mental illness and alcoholism.[16][17] In the 1980s, Foster and her youngest son, Philip, lived in a Hollywood apartment. In November 1985, Philip – who also struggled with alcoholism as well as drug addiction – lapsed into a hepatic coma on Foster's living room floor and died three days later in the Van Nuys Hospital from liver failure.[17]
In 1992, Foster made her final appearance with a minor role in the remake of the 1945 film Detour. The film, her first in 43 years, was released straight-to-home video.[18] In 2003, her eldest son Michael brought her back to the East Coast, where she spent the last five years of her life living at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey. Foster died at 5:30 a.m. EST on January 17, 2009 (aged 84).[7][5]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1939 | The Great Victor Herbert | Peggy | |
1941 | The Hard-Boiled Canary | Toodles LaVerne | |
Glamour Boy | Joan Winslow | ||
1942 | Star Spangled Rhythm | Herself | Uncredited |
1943 | Phantom of the Opera | Christine DuBois | |
Top Man | Connie Allen | ||
1944 | Follow the Boys | Herself | Uncredited |
This Is the Life | Angela Rutherford | ||
The Climax | Angela Klatt | ||
Bowery to Broadway | Peggy Fleming Barrie | ||
1945 | Frisco Sal | Sally Warren | |
That Night with You | Penny Parker | ||
1954 | Mystification | Rita | |
1992 | Detour | Evie | (final film role) |
2000 | The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked
|
Herself | Video documentary |
References
- ^ "Names". American Names Society. 1975: 245.
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(help) - ^ Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 65.
- ^ The Movie Makers
- ISBN 0-7864-0464-7.
- ^ a b Evans, Michael David. (2009). "The Susanna Foster Chronicles: Phantom of the Heart".
- ISBN 0-06-273089-4.
- ^ a b c d e Rich, Sharon. "Susanna Foster on Phantom of the Opera, Nelson Eddy, Jeanette MacDonald and Judy Garland". Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy Home Page. Mac/Eddy Club. Archived from the original on August 15, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
- ^ Rich, Sharon; Evans, Michael (January 31, 2009). "Susanna Foster's real horror story was not Nelson Eddy's Phantom of the Opera…but real life". Retrieved September 26, 2021.
- ^ St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-5763-2.
- ^ Evelyn Foster Morneweck (1944). Chronicles of Stephen Foster's family. Vol. 2. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 590.
- ISBN 978-0-517-54346-7.
- ISBN 978-0-8061-3905-0.
- ISBN 0-8065-2223-2.
- ^ "Son to Susanna Foster". New York Times. September 5, 1952.
- ^ Rich, Sharon (January 18, 2009). "Interviewing Susanna Foster in regards to working with Nelson Eddy in "Phantom of the Opera"". Retrieved September 26, 2021.
- ^ a b Rich, Sharon; Evans, Michael (January 19, 2009). "Susanna Foster's son responds…". Retrieved September 26, 2021.
- ^ "Movie Info: Detour". Rotten Tomatoes. 1992.
External links
- Susanna Foster at IMDb
- Susanna Foster at AllMovie
- Susanna Foster at AlloCiné (in French)
- Susanna Foster at the CinéArtistes (in French)
- Susanna Foster Chronicles (archived) her son Michael's blog