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A captivating aura of mystery surrounded the blue-eyed, blonde actress Susan Oliver, whose signature high cheekbones, rosebud lips, and heart-shaped face captivated audiences for nearly thirty years. She left behind a distinguished body of work in theater, film, and television.
Born Charlotte Gercke on February 13, 1932, in New York City, she was the daughter of affluent George Gercke, a political reporter and journalist for the New York World, and his wife Ruth Oliver (also known as Ruth Hale Oliver), an astrology practitioner. Her parents divorced when Susan was just three years old. As a privileged youth, she attended various public and boarding schools. In her teenage years, she lived with her father and traveled with him to Japan, where he worked as a correspondent. During 1948-49, while in Japan, she studied at Tokyo International College and became fascinated by Japan’s strong interest in American popular culture. Later in her career, in 1977, Susan wrote and directed Cowboysan (1978), a short film about Japanese actors performing in an American western.
In the spring of 1949, Susan briefly reunited with her mother, who had remarried and was establishing herself as Hollywood’s astrologer to the stars in Los Angeles. By fall, however, Susan returned east to study drama at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she spent four years. She then pursued further training at New York City’s Neighborhood Playhouse while gaining stage experience in summer stock and regional theaters. Commercials and television roles soon followed, and by this time she had adopted the stage name Susan Oliver.
In 1957, she made her Broadway debut playing a Revolutionary War-era daughter in the comedy Small War on Murray Hill, which ran only nine days at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. That October, she took on a more substantial role, replacing British actress Mary Ure as Allison Porter in the acclaimed kitchen sink drama Look Back in Anger. Susan also acted extensively in live East Coast television dramas on programs such as The Kaiser Aluminum Hour (1956), The United States Steel Hour (1953), Studio 57 (1954), and Matinee Theatre (1955). She then moved back to Los Angeles seeking more on-camera roles, landing guest spots on popular prime-time shows including Wagon Train (1957), Father Knows Best (1954), The Millionaire (1955), and The Lineup (1954).
Susan’s film debut came in 1957 with the title role in Warner Bros.' low-budget melodrama The Green-Eyed Blonde, where she portrayed a rebellious delinquent leader at a girls' reformatory. Filmed in black and white, her blue eyes went unnoticed, and she brought dignity to a script by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. Two years later, she appeared as a tough jazz singer in the well-received biopic The Gene Krupa Story (1959), playing a woman who leads the famed drummer, portrayed by Sal Mineo, into drugs and near ruin. A brief Broadway return in the comedy Patate, starring Tom Ewell and Lee Bowman, lasted only four days, but earned Susan rave reviews and the Theatre World Award for her breakout performance.
Throughout the early 1960s, Susan delivered striking, often intense performances on television series including Bonanza (1959), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), Wagon Train (1957), The Virginian (1962), Adventures in Paradise (1959), Route 66 (1960), Dr. Kildare (1961), and The Fugitive (1963). Her film roles included parts in BUtterfield 8 (1960) starring Elizabeth Taylor; as a psychiatric nurse in the ensemble hospital drama The Caretakers (1963); as a friend to Connie Francis in the teen-targeted Looking for Love (1964); and a hospital patient grappling with depression in Jerry Lewis’s slapstick The Disorderly Orderly (1964). Among these, her most challenging film role was as the ambitious wife of country music legend Hank Williams (played by George Hamilton) in Your Cheatin' Heart (1964).
Susan remained active on television with appearances on The Andy Griffith Show (1960), The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963), Burke's Law (1963), Dr. Kildare (1961), Ben Casey (1961), Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964), My Three Sons (1960), The Invaders (1967), and Mannix (1967). She starred in memorable episodes such as "People Are Alike All Over" (1960), portraying the beautiful Martian Teenya who encounters astronaut Roddy McDowall, and the unsold pilot The Cage (1966), as Vina, the sole survivor of a crashed spaceship who captivates Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter). This pilot footage was later incorporated into the two-part episode "The Menagerie". In 1966, Susan made headlines when her regular role as Ann Howard in the prime-time soap Peyton Place (1964) was abruptly ended by the character’s death, a decision that saddened both her and audiences after only five months of a planned year-long arc. She later starred in the pilot Apartment in Rome, which was not picked up.
Despite working opposite notable leading men in various late 1960s films, Susan’s career struggled to advance. These included the LSD-themed drama The Love-Ins (1967) with Richard Todd and James MacArthur; the western A Man Called Gannon (1968) starring Anthony Franciosa; and the sci-fi films Change of Mind (1969) with Raymond St. Jacques and The Monitors (1969) with Guy Stockwell. The 1970s offered little improvement, with roles in Ginger in the Morning (1974), where she wore a black wig; the Spanish drama Nido de viudas (1977); and Hardly Working (1980), reuniting with Jerry Lewis in what was intended as his comeback, though the film was shelved before a limited release years later.
Susan was a regular cast member on Days of Our Lives (1965) for one season (1975-76) and earned a Supporting Actress Emmy nomination for the TV movie Amelia Earhart (1976), portraying aviatrix Neta "Snookie" Snook, mentor and friend to the title role played by Susan Clark. This role was well suited to Susan, who by then was a licensed commercial pilot.
Her passion for flying had been shaken in 1966 following a harrowing commercial plane incident that left her grounded for over a year due to fear. She eventually overcame this trauma and, in 1970, co-piloted a single-engine Piper Comanche to victory in the Powder Puff Derby air race, earning the title "Pilot of the Year." Although she attempted to fly to Moscow, the Soviet government denied her entry into their airspace, forcing her to end the trip in Denmark. Susan later recounted her aviation adventures in her autobiography, Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey (1983).
In her final years, Susan focused on television, appearing in TV movies such as Tomorrow's Child (1982) and International Airport (1985), and guest-starring on The Love Boat (1977), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Simon & Simon (1981), and Freddy's Nightmares (1988). She also directed episodes of M*A*S*H (1972) and Trapper John, M.D. (1979). A longtime smoker and never married, Susan was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away with quiet dignity at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, at age 58—a premature loss of a talented and beautiful woman.
