Susan Peters

Acting

Susan Peters

Born 1921-07-03 · Spokane, Washington, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Susan Peters (born Suzanne Carnahan; July 3, 1921 – October 23, 1952) was an American film, stage, and television actress who appeared in over twenty films over the course of her decade-long career. In 1942, the year she signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Peters had a featured role in the Mervyn LeRoy-directed drama Random Harvest. That role earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and established her as a serious dramatic performer. Peters went on to appear as the lead in numerous films for MGM, including roles in the romantic comedy Young Ideas (1943), and several war films: Assignment in Brittany (1943), Song of Russia (1944), and Keep Your Powder Dry (1945). On New Year's Day 1945, Peters's spinal cord was damaged from an accidental gunshot wound, leaving her permanently paraplegic. She returned to film portraying a wheelchair-bound villain in The Sign of the Ram (1948). Peters then transitioned to theater, appearing as Laura Wingfield in a critically acclaimed 1949 production of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. She followed this with a production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street, in which she portrayed crippled poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. By 1952, however, Peters had been suffering from clinical depression for several years due to the dissolution of her marriage and her limited career options. In late 1952 she began starving herself, which combined with her paralysis led to chronic kidney infections and pneumonia. She died of ensuing health complications that year at age 31.

Acting credits

Santa Fe Trail poster
5.8

As a penalty for fighting fellow classmates days before graduating from West Point, J.E.B. Stuart, George Armstrong Custer and four friends are assigned to the 2nd Cavalry, stationed at Fort Leavenworth. While there they aid in the capture and execution of the abolitionist, John Brown following the Battle of Harper's Ferry.

Santa Fe Trail

1940

Random Harvest poster
7.3

Wandered away from his asylum, an amnesiac World War I veteran falls in love with a music hall star but his amnesia makes it difficult to last.

Random Harvest

1942

The Strawberry Blonde poster
7.0

Biff Grimes is desperately in love with Virginia, but his best friend Hugo marries her and manipulates Biff into becoming involved in his somewhat nefarious businesses. Hugo appears to have stolen Biff's dreams, and Biff has to deal with the realisation that having what he wants and wanting what another has can be very different things.

The Strawberry Blonde

1941

Susan and God poster
6.5

A flighty socialite neglects her family to promote a new religious group.

Susan and God

1940

Twenty Years After poster
8.0

This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.

Twenty Years After

1944

Young Ideas poster
5.3

A widow's grown children try to break up her romance with a college professor.

Young Ideas

1943

Assignment in Brittany poster
7.1

A French Resistance fighter discovers he's a dead ringer for a Nazi official.

Assignment in Brittany

1943

Always a Bride poster
5.7

A young man wants to marry his sweetheart, but her parents will agree to their wedding only on one condition: he must run for mayor--and win. Comedy.

Always a Bride

1940

Money and the Woman poster
4.4

An embezzler's wife begs his boss for forgiveness, only to fall in love with him.

Money and the Woman

1940

The Big Shot poster
6.2

Duke Berne, former big shot but now a three-time loser, fears returning to crime because a fourth conviction will mean a life sentence. Finally, haunted by his past and goaded by his cohorts, he joins in planning an armoured car robbery.

The Big Shot

1942

Here Comes Happiness poster
6.0

Jessica leaves her upper class home to assume an anonymous working class identity. She meets a blue collar guy, Chet and falls in love with the poor but ambitious man. Chet observes a series of suspicious, clandestine meetings with her rich father and his chauffeur which makes him think she is stringing along a "Sugar Daddy" on the side. Financial trickery and sequences of misunderstandings and coincidences culminate with a wedding that turns out much differently than planned.

Here Comes Happiness

1941

The Sign of the Ram poster
6.0

A wheelchair-bound woman manipulates her family to a point where they suspect she may be unhinged.

The Sign of the Ram

1948

Andy Hardy's Double Life poster
5.0

Andy is about to head off to college but he's got a few things to take care of before leaving. For starters, he must try and sell his junk car for $20 to pay for a bill and he must convince his father not to go with him to college. Worst of all is that Polly wants to make up but her best friend decides to give Andy a test.

Andy Hardy's Double Life

1942

Song of Russia poster
6.2

American conductor John Meredith and his manager, Hank Higgins, go to Russia shortly before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Meredith falls in love with beautiful Soviet pianist Nadya Stepanova while they travel throughout the country on a 40-city tour. Along the way, they see happy, healthy, smiling, free Soviet citizens, blissfully living the Communist dream. This bliss is destroyed by the German invasion.

Song of Russia

1944

Keep Your Powder Dry poster
6.1

A debutante, a serviceman's bride and a girl from a military family join the Women's Army Corps.

Keep Your Powder Dry

1945

Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant poster
6.5

The doctor (Lionel Barrymore) has a Kansan (Van Johnson), an Australian and an Asian from Brooklyn to choose from.

Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant

1942

No artwork available
7.0

World War II propaganda film from Warner Brothers.

Young America Flies

1940

Three Sons o' Guns poster
7.0

Three reckless brothers dodge the draft then sign up and become men.

Three Sons o' Guns

1941

Scattergood Pulls the Strings poster
7.0

Small-town store owner Scattergood Baines helps a runaway boy find his father, who has escaped after being unjustly imprisoned, and a young chemist who is trying to invent a color television but is being opposed by his girlfriend's father, who wants the girl to marry a pharmacist like himself instead of some crazy inventor.

Scattergood Pulls the Strings

1941

Tish poster
6.5

In this comedy, the town gossip fills her time running the lives of others. Naturally, she is also a matchmaker.

Tish

1942

No artwork available
NR

In this "Romance of Celluloid", MGM showcases performers whose careers are just starting. Excerpts from their recently released films are included. The narrator says that moviegoers will have to decide whether these fledgling actors and actresses have that certain quality that made superstars out of MGM players Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and Lana Turner.

Personalities

1942