Susan Clark(I)
- Actress
- Producer
Award-winning Canadian actress Susan Clark, born on March 8, 1943, took
up acting at an early age (12) in her hometown of Sarnia, Ontario. Her
family moved to Toronto around that period of time and she joined the
Toronto Children's Players Theatre. Her first professional curtain call
took place on the musical stage in a 1955 production of "Silk
Stockings" which starred veteran actor
Don Ameche.
The "acting bug" bit hard and a very determined Susan pressed her
family to allow her to study at London's prestigious Royal Academy of
Dramatic Arts. She gained valuable experience in repertory, making her
London debut in "Poor Bitos" in the early 1960s. She even got a taste
of on-camera work when she won multiple roles on a 1965 episode of
The Benny Hill Show (1957).
Returning to Canada, however, due to the illness of her father, she
subsequently decided to trek, instead, to Los Angeles to continue her
professional career. In search of on-camera work, she attracted notice
in some guest roles on TV and this eventually led to a Universal
contract. The ten-year contract was one of the last of its kind as
Hollywood was witnessing the demise of the studio contract system.
After gaining some exposure on episodes of
The Virginian (1962) and
Run for Your Life (1965),
Susan's first screen assignment for Universal was as the second female
lead in the soap-styled drama
Banning (1967) starring
Robert Wagner, in one of his
typical jet-setting playboy parts, and the scintillating
Jill St. John, who would wed her "Banning"
leading man two decades later. From there, Susan only grew in stature.
Playing the second female lead again in the critically-praised crimer
Madigan (1968) starring
Richard Widmark and
Inger Stevens, she finally earned top
female billing opposite Clint Eastwood in
Coogan's Bluff (1968) playing a
sexy parole officer and enjoying romantic clinches with the
up-and-coming film icon on film.
Tall and willowy with incandescent blue eyes, Susan continued to
impress on celluloid with roles in
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969),
Valdez Is Coming (1971) and, in
particular, Skin Game (1971). It was
70s TV-movies, however, that would take full advantage of Susan's
vibrant, intelligent acting talents. First came the tender-hearted
mini-movie
Something for a Lonely Man (1968).
While a vehicle for Bonanza's Dan Blocker,
co-star Susan made a strong, spunky impression as his small-town
romantic interest. This was followed by choice roles in
The Challengers (1970)
and The Astronaut (1972).
1975 was a banner year for Susan who not only provided a couple of
excellent scenes as Gene Hackman's wife in
the film-noir Night Moves (1975) but,
made a resounding, Emmy-winning impression on TV audiences as feminist
track-and-field Olympian-turned-golf star
Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who is
later felled by cancer, in the TV mini-bio
Babe (1975). This was a pronounced
victory for Susan both professionally and personally for it was on this
set that she met her second husband, co-star
Alex Karras, who played Babe's spouse
George. Susan was in immediate demand and was quickly cast as another
feisty, ill-fated heroine, this time in the form of famed aviatrix
Amelia Earhart (1976).
Predictably, Susan was wonderful and earned a second Emmy nomination
for her efforts (she didn't win).
She and Karras (who had a child, Katie, in 1980) went on to jointly act
in and/or produce various film and TV projects, including the TV movies
Jimmy B. & André (1980),
and
Maid in America (1982),
and the films
Nobody's Perfekt (1981) and
Porky's (1981). This culminated in their
biggest collaborative effort with the sitcom series
Webster (1983) wherein both were
unmercifully upstaged by the hopelessly cute antics of its tyke star
Emmanuel Lewis. While the series hardly
tested the couple's acting mettle and the plot was pretty much a
"Diff'rent Strokes" rehash, the show proved quite popular on its own
and put Clark and Karras firmly on the TV map between 1983 to 1988.
Susan, herself, earned a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Actress in a
Comedy Series".
Following the sitcom' demise, Susan relinquished the limelight a bit
and found contentment on the local Southern California stage. Relishing
acting challenges in such wide-ranging plays as "Meetin's on the Porch"
(1990) with Patty Duke and
Carrie Snodgress, "Afterplay" (1998),
"Bicoastal Women" (2003) and "The Importance of Being Earnest" (2004)
(as Lady Bracknell), she eventually became a dedicated member of the
Rubicon Theater Company in Los Angeles, gracing such plays there as
"The Glass Menagerie", "Dancing at Lughnasa", "The Devil's Disciple"
and, most recently, "A Delicate Balance."
Featured in the TV movies Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story (1994), Tonya & Nancy: The Inside Story (1994) and Toe Tags (1996), she was last seen on camera co-starring in the dramatic TV series Emily of New Moon (1998) as ever-rigid Aunt Elizabeth, who assists in raising her orphaned niece.
Susan has a daughter, Katie, by husband Karras who died of kidney failure in 2012.
up acting at an early age (12) in her hometown of Sarnia, Ontario. Her
family moved to Toronto around that period of time and she joined the
Toronto Children's Players Theatre. Her first professional curtain call
took place on the musical stage in a 1955 production of "Silk
Stockings" which starred veteran actor
Don Ameche.
The "acting bug" bit hard and a very determined Susan pressed her
family to allow her to study at London's prestigious Royal Academy of
Dramatic Arts. She gained valuable experience in repertory, making her
London debut in "Poor Bitos" in the early 1960s. She even got a taste
of on-camera work when she won multiple roles on a 1965 episode of
The Benny Hill Show (1957).
Returning to Canada, however, due to the illness of her father, she
subsequently decided to trek, instead, to Los Angeles to continue her
professional career. In search of on-camera work, she attracted notice
in some guest roles on TV and this eventually led to a Universal
contract. The ten-year contract was one of the last of its kind as
Hollywood was witnessing the demise of the studio contract system.
After gaining some exposure on episodes of
The Virginian (1962) and
Run for Your Life (1965),
Susan's first screen assignment for Universal was as the second female
lead in the soap-styled drama
Banning (1967) starring
Robert Wagner, in one of his
typical jet-setting playboy parts, and the scintillating
Jill St. John, who would wed her "Banning"
leading man two decades later. From there, Susan only grew in stature.
Playing the second female lead again in the critically-praised crimer
Madigan (1968) starring
Richard Widmark and
Inger Stevens, she finally earned top
female billing opposite Clint Eastwood in
Coogan's Bluff (1968) playing a
sexy parole officer and enjoying romantic clinches with the
up-and-coming film icon on film.
Tall and willowy with incandescent blue eyes, Susan continued to
impress on celluloid with roles in
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969),
Valdez Is Coming (1971) and, in
particular, Skin Game (1971). It was
70s TV-movies, however, that would take full advantage of Susan's
vibrant, intelligent acting talents. First came the tender-hearted
mini-movie
Something for a Lonely Man (1968).
While a vehicle for Bonanza's Dan Blocker,
co-star Susan made a strong, spunky impression as his small-town
romantic interest. This was followed by choice roles in
The Challengers (1970)
and The Astronaut (1972).
1975 was a banner year for Susan who not only provided a couple of
excellent scenes as Gene Hackman's wife in
the film-noir Night Moves (1975) but,
made a resounding, Emmy-winning impression on TV audiences as feminist
track-and-field Olympian-turned-golf star
Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who is
later felled by cancer, in the TV mini-bio
Babe (1975). This was a pronounced
victory for Susan both professionally and personally for it was on this
set that she met her second husband, co-star
Alex Karras, who played Babe's spouse
George. Susan was in immediate demand and was quickly cast as another
feisty, ill-fated heroine, this time in the form of famed aviatrix
Amelia Earhart (1976).
Predictably, Susan was wonderful and earned a second Emmy nomination
for her efforts (she didn't win).
She and Karras (who had a child, Katie, in 1980) went on to jointly act
in and/or produce various film and TV projects, including the TV movies
Jimmy B. & André (1980),
and
Maid in America (1982),
and the films
Nobody's Perfekt (1981) and
Porky's (1981). This culminated in their
biggest collaborative effort with the sitcom series
Webster (1983) wherein both were
unmercifully upstaged by the hopelessly cute antics of its tyke star
Emmanuel Lewis. While the series hardly
tested the couple's acting mettle and the plot was pretty much a
"Diff'rent Strokes" rehash, the show proved quite popular on its own
and put Clark and Karras firmly on the TV map between 1983 to 1988.
Susan, herself, earned a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Actress in a
Comedy Series".
Following the sitcom' demise, Susan relinquished the limelight a bit
and found contentment on the local Southern California stage. Relishing
acting challenges in such wide-ranging plays as "Meetin's on the Porch"
(1990) with Patty Duke and
Carrie Snodgress, "Afterplay" (1998),
"Bicoastal Women" (2003) and "The Importance of Being Earnest" (2004)
(as Lady Bracknell), she eventually became a dedicated member of the
Rubicon Theater Company in Los Angeles, gracing such plays there as
"The Glass Menagerie", "Dancing at Lughnasa", "The Devil's Disciple"
and, most recently, "A Delicate Balance."
Featured in the TV movies Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story (1994), Tonya & Nancy: The Inside Story (1994) and Toe Tags (1996), she was last seen on camera co-starring in the dramatic TV series Emily of New Moon (1998) as ever-rigid Aunt Elizabeth, who assists in raising her orphaned niece.
Susan has a daughter, Katie, by husband Karras who died of kidney failure in 2012.