Biography for
Susanna Foster More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

6 December 1924, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Date of Death

17 January 2009, Englewood, New Jersey, USA (heart failure)

Birth Name

Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson

Nickname

Susie

Height

5' 3½" (1.61 m)

Mini Biography

Susanna Foster was brought to Hollywood at the age of 12 by MGM, who sent her to school and groomed her for a singing and acting career.Two of her classmates in school were Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Oddly enough, MGM never used her, and she was signed by Paramount in 1939, where she made The Great Victor Herbert (1939). William Randolph Hearst was so impressed with her, after seeing her in that film, that he had her flown out to his mansion for a private recital for him and Marion Davies. She signed with Universal in 1941, and was used basically as leverage against Deanna Durbin, to keep her in line. Reportedly, Phantom of the Opera (1943), Susanna's most famous role, was a Durbin reject.As such, her roles kept going downhill, even though she was immensely popular at that time. After That Night with You (1945), she'd had it. She made her last film for Universal in 1945, but was still under contract. She went overseas to study voice for three years, paid for by Universal. When she quit Universal in 1948, she sold her mink stole and used the money to move to the east coast, where she eventually met and married Wilbur Evans, who was 20 years her senior. The Evans' did a lot of stage work, doing operettas and musicals of the time, touring quite extensively. In between all of this, Susanna miscarried her first child, but went on to have two sons; Phillip and Michael. Susanna had tired of show business and wanted a more 'normal' life, so when she and Evans divorced in 1956, she quit performing altogether and got jobs to support her and her children. With the children raised (Phillip passed away) she set back out to California, and lived in her car for a while until she got established. Sadly, any dream of making a comeback was hampered by several health problems.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Chris Parsons <cpe@in-motion.net>

Mini Biography

Singer and later leading lady in US films from 1939 to 1945, whereupon her film career completely vanished.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Bill Takacs <kinephile@aol.com>

Spouse

Wilbur Evans

(23 October 1948 - 1956) (divorced) 2 children

Trivia

Noteworthy if only for her attendance at the "great unveiling" of Claude Rains in Universal's Technicolor Phantom of the Opera (1943). She was found living in a car in 1982.

Signed by MGM, she was handed the lead in National Velvet (1944), which she declined because there "wasn't any singing in it". This led to MGM's decision to drop her. The role went to young Elizabeth Taylor who became a star as a result.

After seeing Foster in The Great Victor Herbert (1939), William Randolph Hearst flew her to his 67,000-acre estate for a private recital for him and his companion Marion Davies.

She abruptly quit the film business in 1945 in order to rescue her two younger teenage sisters from their abusive alcoholic mother. She sold her mink coat and rented Jean Arthur's house for them on the Monterrey peninsula for a time.

Was guest soloist for the White House Press Photographer's Ball with President Harry Truman and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in attendance.

Foster walked out of her marriage to opera baritone Wilbur Evans, citing the reason that she was no longer in love with him. She later struggled in raising her two children and sometimes lived in dire poverty.

Her son Philip was named in honor of England's Prince Philip. In 1985 he lapsed into a hepatic coma (liver failure) on the family's living room floor and died three days later in a Los Angeles (Van Nuys) Hospital. Her surviving son, Michael eventually brought her back to the East Coast, where she spent the last years of her life living in various nursing homes. She died at age 84 at The Lillian Booth Actor's Home in Englewood, New Jersey, where she had been residing since 2003.

Relocating to Manhattan, she trained herself and found work as a receptionist for several Wall Street firms and an answering service operator.

Started her film career at MGM in 1937 when the studio had just let Deanna Durbin go. She had just gotten over a serious case of pneumonia about six months before.

Never met one of her singing idols, Nelson Eddy, the whole time she was at MGM, then finally got to work with him in Phantom of the Opera (1943). Later Eddy, a sculptor, did an original bust of Susanna. He also tried to persuade her to do a concert tour with him after "Phantom", but she was still young, developed cold feet and politely declined.

Personal Quotes

I was never really ambitious. At least not in the cutthroat way that's required to succeed. The truth is that I hated a career and everything that went with it.

[in a 1963 interview] I thought I was Jeanette MacDonald, my idol. When I looked in the mirror, that's who I was. I did not see me. When I first saw myself on the screen in The Great Victor Herbert (1939), I thought, "Oh my God, I'm not Jeanette MacDonald!" I was so disappointed. I never liked myself on the screen.