Susan Strasberg - Biography

Susan Elizabeth Strasberg (May 22, 1938 – January 21, 1999) was an American film and stage actress.

Background and career

Strasberg was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of theatre director and drama coach Lee Strasberg of the Actors Studio and former actress Paula Strasberg. Her brother John Strasberg is an acting coach.

After a widely praised performance as a teenager in Picnic (1956), Strasberg originated the title role in the Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank and was nominated for a Tony Award at the age of 18. She later starred in the Italian Holocaust film Kapò which was nominated for an Academy Award as best foreign film of 1960.

From the 1960s into the 1980s Strasberg guest starred in many US television dramas, including The Virginian, The Invaders, Bonanza, The F.B.I., Breaking Point, Burke's Law, The Streets of San Francisco, Night Gallery, McCloud, Alias Smith & Jones, The Big Valley, Remington Steele. and The Rockford Files (1976), playing the lead character's ex-girlfriend (she had also appeared in a 1974 episode).

Strasberg later lived in Italy where she was widely called La Strasberg. In 1993 she was a jury member for the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.

Strasberg wrote two best-selling books. Bittersweet was an autobiography in which she wrote about her tumultuous relationships with actors Richard Burton and Christopher Jones along with her daughter's struggles with a heart defect. Marilyn and Me: Sisters, Rivals, Friends was about Strasberg's friendship with Marilyn Monroe, whom she called a "surrogate sister" and a "member" of the Strasberg family for many years.

Personal life

Strasberg's daughter Jennifer Robin was born March 14, 1966 in Los Angeles through her short marriage with actor Christopher Jones, with whom she had appeared in an episode of The Legend of Jesse James TV series. In her autobiography she joked that her daughter would be the "real Jennifer Jones," given the actress Jennifer Jones used a stage name.

Strasberg struggled with cancer for many years. She died in 1999 from thrombosis following an injury.

Filmography

• The Cobweb (1955)
• Picnic (1955)
• 1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration (1955) (short subject)
• Stage Struck (1958)
• Kapò (1959)
• Scream of Fear (1961)
• The Shortest Day (1962)
• Disorder (1962)
• Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962)
• The High Bright Sun (1964)
• The Trip (1967)
• Psych-Out (1968)
• The Name of the Game Is Kill (1968)
• Chubasco (1968)
• The Brotherhood (1968)
• Sweet Hunters (1969)
• The Sisters (1969)
• The Other Side of the Wind (1972) (unfinished)
• So Evil, My Sister (1974)
• The Legend of Hillbilly John (1974)
• The Stronger (1976) (short subject)
• Sammy Somebody (1976)
• Rollercoaster (1977)
• The Manitou (1978)
• In Praise of Older Women (1978)
• Acting: Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio (1981) (documentary)
• Bloody Birthday (1981)
• The Returning (1983)
• Sweet 16 (1983)
• The Delta Force (1986)
• Remembering Marilyn (1987) (documentary)
• Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend (1987) (documentary)
• The Runnin' Kind (1989)
• Prime Suspect (1989)
• Schweitzer (1990)
• The Cherry Orchard (1992)

External links

• John Strasberg Studios
• Susan Strasberg discussing Marilyn Monroe video, 6 min.,