Susanna Foster
Encyclopedia
Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson (known professionally as Susanna Foster) (December 6, 1924 – January 17, 2009) was an American
film
actress best known for her leading role as Christine
in the 1943 film version of The Phantom of the Opera
.
, Illinois
, and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota
. She was taken to Hollywood at the age of twelve by MGM, who sent her to school and groomed her for an acting and singing career. Two of her classmates at this school were Mickey Rooney
and Judy Garland
. She claimed the high point of being at MGM was meeting her idol Jeanette MacDonald
and Clark Gable
, who treated her like "the Queen of England." Foster was originally slated to star in the MGM production of B Above High C, a film that was never made. The movie's title referred to the top of her vocal register. MGM offered her the lead in National Velvet
, which she declined because there "wasn't any singing in it". This in part, led to MGM dropping her. It later would become Elizabeth Taylor
's breakthrough role.
where she began to study voice for the first time with Marchetti's sister Gilda. She soon would go on to make her first film at fourteen years of age where she was introduced as 'Susanna Foster' in The Great Victor Herbert (1939) opposite Mary Martin
and Allan Jones.
After seeing Foster in The Great Victor Herbert, William Randolph Hearst
flew her to his 67000 acres (271.1 km²) estate Wyntoon
for a private recital for him and Marion Davies
. The following year for Paramount she appeared in There's Magic in Music opposite Allan Jones and Glamour Boy opposite Jackie Cooper
. She then signed with Universal Studios
, where she portrayed the ingénue in the 1943 film version of the Gothic melodrama Phantom of the Opera
opposite Nelson Eddy
and Claude Rains
. The film garnered two Academy Awards
and was Universal's biggest money-maker that year. Hearst columnist Louella Parsons
, who had the power and reputation to make or break stars, stated, “Susanna Foster establishes herself as one of the great stars of today.” She became so popular the studio set her on a meteoric rise with back-to-back pictures during the years 1943 to 1945, including Star Spangled Rhythm
, Top Man, This Is the Life
, The Climax, Bowery to Broadway
, Frisco Sal, and That Night With You.
Despite the meteoric rise that delivered a wondrous prosperity to her poverty-stricken family and a dozen movies for Universal and Paramount on her resume, she abruptly quit the film business in 1945. She also turned down a joint concert tour with Nelson Eddy, which she later regretted.
She soon would attempt to rescue her two younger teenage sisters by selling her mink coat and renting the home of actress Jean Arthur
, who was living in Monterey, California
at the time. 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 Dusolina Giannini
.
On her return from Europe, she was pressed by Universal to appear as guest soloist for the White House Press Photographer’s Ball with President Harry Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt
in attendance. After the performance, Truman and Roosevelt praised Foster with their turn at the microphone. She shared the table with Roosevelt, Truman, and his daughter Margaret
. With Margaret being only ten months Foster’s senior and an aspiring singer herself, she was thrilled to meet the musical guest.
Back in New York, she 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. The couple performed in operettas and stage musicals, touring extensively. After a debilitating and tragic miscarriage, their first son Michael was born 8 weeks premature in December 1950.
Evans was soon chosen as Mary Martin’s co-star in London’s
South Pacific
, the show that gave Sean Connery
his start as a dancing and singing sailor. During the London engagement is when their second son was born, brought into the world by Queen Elizabeth
’s doctor, John Peel, who also attended in the births of others to the Royal family
, including Prince Charles
and Princess Anne
. Philip was named in honor of the Queen’s husband Prince Philip
.
, the director of her hit film Phantom of the Opera offered her several spots on TV shows at the time including Mr. Ed of which he was producing. One of the stipulations was that she would have to relocate to Los Angeles
with her two boys. Evans reportedly became enraged, immediately taking Foster to court suing for custody of the two boys. It was a public fight with articles in many of the New York and Philadelphia papers, with one headline declaring "Wilbur Evans Calls Ex-Wife Beatnik."
Evans lost the custody suit but was successful in keeping his ex-wife from living further than "100 miles of Columbus Circle
" in New York City
. Ironically, Evans would soon withhold payments for rent, alimony and child support, disappearing from the lives of his two boys. Soon, Foster and her two boys Michael and Philip were evicted and lived for a time in several hotels on the upper west side of Manhattan. Foster found work as a receptionist for several Wall Street firms and an answering service operator. She would often work 80 hours a week trying to make a home for her two boys. For the bulk of this time they lived in a small one bedroom apartment on West 82nd street in New York City. This was when the boys became "latchkey kid
s" and "things went terribly down hill from there" as Foster would later tell a reporter.
In 1985 Philip lapsed into hepatic coma
(liver failure) on Foster's living room floor and died three days later in the Van Nuys Hospital. Her surviving 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
.
since 2003.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
actress best known for her leading role as Christine
Christine Daaé
Christine Daaé is the main female character in Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera , the young singer with whom the main character Erik, the Phantom of the Opera falls in love.- Character history :...
in the 1943 film version of The Phantom of the Opera
Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)
Phantom of the Opera is a 1943 Universal horror film starring Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, directed by Arthur Lubin, and filmed in Technicolor. The original music score was composed by Edward Ward....
.
Early life
Foster was born in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. She was taken to Hollywood at the age of twelve by MGM, who sent her to school and groomed her for an acting and singing career. Two of her classmates at this school were Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
and Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
. She claimed the high point of being at MGM was meeting her idol Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy...
and Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
, who treated her like "the Queen of England." Foster was originally slated to star in the MGM production of B Above High C, a film that was never made. The movie's title referred to the top of her vocal register. MGM offered her the lead in National Velvet
National Velvet (film)
National Velvet is a 1944 drama film, in Technicolor, based on the novel by Enid Bagnold, published in 1935. It stars Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp and a young Elizabeth Taylor....
, which she declined because there "wasn't any singing in it". This in part, led to MGM dropping her. It later would become Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
's breakthrough role.
Career
After hiring agent Milo Marchetti, Foster was signed by Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
where she began to study voice for the first time with Marchetti's sister Gilda. She soon would go on to make her first film at fourteen years of age where she was introduced as 'Susanna Foster' in The Great Victor Herbert (1939) opposite Mary Martin
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...
and Allan Jones.
After seeing Foster in The Great Victor Herbert, William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
flew her to his 67000 acres (271.1 km²) estate Wyntoon
Wyntoon
Wyntoon is the name of a private estate on the McCloud River in rural Siskiyou County, California, owned by the Hearst Corporation. Famous architects Willis Polk, Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgan all designed structures for Wyntoon....
for a private recital for him and Marion Davies
Marion Davies
Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....
. The following year for Paramount she appeared in There's Magic in Music opposite Allan Jones and Glamour Boy opposite Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...
. She then signed with Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
, where she portrayed the ingénue in the 1943 film version of the Gothic melodrama Phantom of the Opera
Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)
Phantom of the Opera is a 1943 Universal horror film starring Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, directed by Arthur Lubin, and filmed in Technicolor. The original music score was composed by Edward Ward....
opposite Nelson Eddy
Nelson Eddy
Nelson Ackerman Eddy was an American singer and actor who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred...
and Claude Rains
Claude Rains
Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
. The film garnered two Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
and was Universal's biggest money-maker that year. Hearst columnist Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons was the first American news-writer movie columnist in the United States. She was a gossip columnist who, for many years, was an influential arbiter of Hollywood mores, often feared and hated by the individuals, mostly actors, whose careers she could negatively impact via her...
, who had the power and reputation to make or break stars, stated, “Susanna Foster establishes herself as one of the great stars of today.” She became so popular the studio set her on a meteoric rise with back-to-back pictures during the years 1943 to 1945, including Star Spangled Rhythm
Star Spangled Rhythm
Star Spangled Rhythm is a 1943 all-star cast musical film made by Paramount Pictures during World War II as a morale booster. Many of the Hollywood studios produced such films during the war, generally musicals, frequently with flimsy storylines, and with the specific intent of entertaining the...
, Top Man, This Is the Life
This Is the Life (1944 film)
This is the Life is a 1944 American film starring Donald O'Connor, Susanna Foster, and Peggy Ryan. This is one of the several films that Universal Studios rushed O'Connor and Ryan through before O'Connor was drafted into the Army to serve in World War II....
, The Climax, Bowery to Broadway
Bowery to Broadway
Bowery to Broadway is a 1944 American film starring Maria Montez, Jack Oakie, and Susanna Foster. Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan also had a small specialty act, and it was the only film they were in together where they didn't have a name or character....
, Frisco Sal, and That Night With You.
Despite the meteoric rise that delivered a wondrous prosperity to her poverty-stricken family and a dozen movies for Universal and Paramount on her resume, she abruptly quit the film business in 1945. She also turned down a joint concert tour with Nelson Eddy, which she later regretted.
She soon would attempt to rescue her two younger teenage sisters by selling her mink coat and renting the home of actress Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur was an American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. She remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. As James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur...
, who was living in Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
at the time. 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 Dusolina Giannini
Dusolina Giannini
Dusolina Giannini was an Italian-American soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory....
.
On her return from Europe, she was pressed by Universal to appear as guest soloist for the White House Press Photographer’s Ball with President Harry Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
in attendance. After the performance, Truman and Roosevelt praised Foster with their turn at the microphone. She shared the table with Roosevelt, Truman, and his daughter Margaret
Margaret Truman
Mary Margaret Truman Daniel , also known as Margaret Truman or Margaret Daniel, was an American singer who later became a successful writer. The only child of US President Harry S...
. With Margaret being only ten months Foster’s senior and an aspiring singer herself, she was thrilled to meet the musical guest.
Back in New York, she accepted the lead role in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera’s production of Naughty Marietta
Naughty Marietta (operetta)
Naughty Marietta is an operetta in two acts, with libretto by Rida Johnson Young and music by Victor Herbert. Set in New Orleans in 1780, it tells how Captain Richard Warrington is commissioned to unmask and capture a notorious French pirate calling himself "Bras Priqué" – and how he is helped and...
headed by Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
associate Edwin Lester. In 1948 she married her leading man Wilbur "Wib" Evans
Wilbur Evans
Wilbur "Wib" Evans was an American actor and singer who performed on the radio, in opera, on Broadway, in films, and in early live television.-Biography:...
, a renowned baritone 20 years her senior. The couple performed in operettas and stage musicals, touring extensively. After a debilitating and tragic miscarriage, their first son Michael was born 8 weeks premature in December 1950.
Evans was soon chosen as Mary Martin’s co-star in London’s
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
, the show that gave Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
his start as a dancing and singing sailor. During the London engagement is when their second son was born, brought into the world by Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
’s doctor, John Peel, who also attended in the births of others to the Royal family
Royal family
A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning...
, including Prince Charles
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
and Princess Anne
Anne, Princess Royal
Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
. Philip was named in honor of the Queen’s husband Prince Philip
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
.
Later life
Foster did make several attempts at a comeback. In 1962, Arthur LubinArthur Lubin
Arthur Lubin was an American film director and producer who directed several Abbott & Costello films and created the TV series Mr. Ed.Arthur Lubin was born Arthur William Lubovsky in Los Angeles, California in 1898...
, the director of her hit film Phantom of the Opera offered her several spots on TV shows at the time including Mr. Ed of which he was producing. One of the stipulations was that she would have to relocate to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
with her two boys. Evans reportedly became enraged, immediately taking Foster to court suing for custody of the two boys. It was a public fight with articles in many of the New York and Philadelphia papers, with one headline declaring "Wilbur Evans Calls Ex-Wife Beatnik."
Evans lost the custody suit but was successful in keeping his ex-wife from living further than "100 miles of Columbus Circle
Columbus Circle
Columbus Circle, named for Christopher Columbus, is a major landmark and point of attraction in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South , and Central Park West, at the southwest corner of Central Park. It is the point from...
" in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Ironically, Evans would soon withhold payments for rent, alimony and child support, disappearing from the lives of his two boys. Soon, Foster and her two boys Michael and Philip were evicted and lived for a time in several hotels on the upper west side of Manhattan. Foster found work as a receptionist for several Wall Street firms and an answering service operator. She would often work 80 hours a week trying to make a home for her two boys. For the bulk of this time they lived in a small one bedroom apartment on West 82nd street in New York City. This was when the boys became "latchkey kid
Latchkey kid
A latchkey kid or latchkey child is a child who returns from school to an empty home because his or her parent or parents are away at work, or a child who is often left at home with little or no parental supervision.- History of the term :...
s" and "things went terribly down hill from there" as Foster would later tell a reporter.
In 1985 Philip lapsed into hepatic coma
Hepatic encephalopathy
Hepatic encephalopathy is the occurrence of confusion, altered level of consciousness and coma as a result of liver failure. In the advanced stages it is called hepatic coma or coma hepaticum...
(liver failure) on Foster's living room floor and died three days later in the Van Nuys Hospital. Her surviving 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
Lillian Booth Actors Home
The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund is an assisted living facility in Englewood, New Jersey operated by the Actors Fund. The facility was the subject of the 2000 film Curtain Call. The facility was established in 1928 at the former mansion of Hetty Green.-History:On May 8, 1902, the...
.
Death
Susanna Foster died unexpectedly at 5:30 a.m. EST on . She had been residing at The Lillian Booth Actor's Home in Englewood, New JerseyEnglewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 27,147.Englewood was incorporated as a city by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of...
since 2003.
Filmography
- The Great Victor HerbertThe Great Victor Herbert-Cast:* Allan Jones as John Ramsey* Mary Martin as Louise Hall* Walter Connolly as Victor Herbert* Lee Bowman as Dr. Richard Moore* Susanna Foster as Peggy* Judith Barrett as Marie Clark* Jerome Cowan as Barney Harris* John Garrick as Warner Bryant...
(1939) - There's Magic in Music (1940)
- Glamour Boy (1941)
- Star Spangled RhythmStar Spangled RhythmStar Spangled Rhythm is a 1943 all-star cast musical film made by Paramount Pictures during World War II as a morale booster. Many of the Hollywood studios produced such films during the war, generally musicals, frequently with flimsy storylines, and with the specific intent of entertaining the...
(1942) - Phantom of the OperaPhantom of the Opera (1943 film)Phantom of the Opera is a 1943 Universal horror film starring Nelson Eddy, Susanna Foster and Claude Rains, directed by Arthur Lubin, and filmed in Technicolor. The original music score was composed by Edward Ward....
(1943) starring Claude RainsClaude RainsClaude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr... - Top Man (1943)
- This Is the LifeThis Is the Life (1944 film)This is the Life is a 1944 American film starring Donald O'Connor, Susanna Foster, and Peggy Ryan. This is one of the several films that Universal Studios rushed O'Connor and Ryan through before O'Connor was drafted into the Army to serve in World War II....
(1944)
- The Climax (1944)
- Bowery to BroadwayBowery to BroadwayBowery to Broadway is a 1944 American film starring Maria Montez, Jack Oakie, and Susanna Foster. Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan also had a small specialty act, and it was the only film they were in together where they didn't have a name or character....
(1944) - Frisco Sal (1945)
- That Night with You (1945)
- Detour (1992)
- The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked (2000) (documentary)
External links
- The Susanna Foster Chronicles, the story of Susanna Foster and her family as blogged by her son Michael David Evans
- Susanna Foster at the CinéArtistes