The life of Hollywood actress Susan Peters

Susan photographed by Genevieve Naylor.

Susan Peters, born Suzanne Carnahan on July 3rd, 1921, was an American film, stage and television actress. Over the course of her decade-long career, she appeared in over twenty films. Though first beginning in uncredited roles, she would soon establish herself as a serious dramatic actress in the mid-1940s.

Born in Spokane, Washington, to Robert and Abby Carnahan, she was the elder sister to Robert Jr., born in 1923. Their father was a civil engineer of Irish decent, while their mother was a homemaker of French decent. Shortly after Susan's birth, the family moved to Portland, Oregon. Not much is known of the Carnahan's time here, but after father Robert was killed in a car accident, they relocated again, this time to Seattle, Washington. They moved once again, later to Los Angeles, where they lived with their French-born grandmother, Maria Patteneaude, a well-known dermatologist.

Susan studied at Laird Hall School for Girls, the LaRue School in Azusa, California, and Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy in Los Angeles. During her high school years, she worked after hours at a department store, where she earned money to help support her family. Susan's mother worked in a dress shop and managed an apartment building to provide for herself and her two children. Susan recalled on her childhood; "We were poor, but we managed, and we had fun." She was an avid swimmer and tennis player, and also grew up riding horses. Her talent as an equestrian allowed her to earn additional income by breaking and showing other peoples horses.

Susan transferred to Hollywood High School during her senior year, where she began taking drama classes, which she opted to enroll in place of cooking courses. "I took a drama course instead of a cooking course because I thought it was easier," Susan said. "Acting meant money, and [my family] needed money." While still in high school, she signed with a talent agent. She graduated from Hollywood High School in June 1939. With a newfound interest in acting, Susan earned a scholarship to the Max Reinhardt School of Dramatic Arts.

While performing in a showcase production of Philip Barry's Holiday at the Reinhardt School, Susan was spotted by a talent scout for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who gave her a walk-on part in director George Cukor's Susan and God (1940). During the shoot, Susan was reportedly so nervous that she fainted in front of the camera. Despite her apprehension on set, she became a protégée of Cukor's, who personally assigned her to private acting lessons with drama coach Gertrude Vogler. He believed Susan had star potential, but needed to not "talk through her nose." He later recalled that she reminded him of "a young Katharine Hepburn. Not as aggressive as Kate, but that same finishing school appearance and drive."

In early 1940, Susan screen tested for Warner Bros., who then offered her a contract. Still credited under her birth name, Suzanne Carnahan, she was cast in various small parts in the studios films; many being either uncredited bit parts or walk-on roles. During 1940, she appeared in small roles in Rivers End, Sockaroo, The Man Who Talked Too Much, Young American Flies, Money and the Woman, and Always a Bride.

Susan, then still credited as Suzanne
Carnahan, in an early 1941 portrait for
Warner Bros. Pictures.

Susan's first credited role, although minuscule, was in Santa Fe Trail (1940), a big-budget western film, which starred Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The film was one of the top-grossing films of the year, and the seventh Flynn–de Havilland collaboration. Susan portrayed a young woman from Boston who was in love with a Kansas military officer. During the press junkets to promote the film, Susan said she found the interviews overwhelming, later admitting; "I wasn't a good sport. I locked myself in my compartment during most of the trip."

After the filming of Santa Fe Trail, Susan had more small roles in 1941, starring in The Strawberry Blonde, Here Comes Happiness, Meet John Doe, and Scattergood Pulls the Strings, which all earned her favourable reviews in the press. Susan's first lead role was as an 'ingénue' in comedy Three Sons o' Guns (1941), followed by a dramatic role playing the girlfriend of a convict in The Big Shot (1942), which starred Richard Travis and Humphrey Bogart.

Urged by Warner Bros. to change her name to Sharon O'Keefe, Susan decided to drop her birth name and took the stage name Susan Peters. But by the end of 1942, the studio chose not to renew her contract.

Several months after being dropped by Warner Bros. Susan was contacted by MGM to come to the studio to test for a supporting role in Tish (1942), a comedy-drama which was a loose adaption of a series of stories by Mary Robert Rinehart. She won the role of Cora Edwards Bowzer and also signed a contract with the studio. At this time, Susan was one of the most screen-tested actresses in Hollywood. While filming Tish, she met her future husband, actor Richard Quine, who played Theodore Bowzer. Richard also starred in her second film for MGM, Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant (1942), alongside Van Johnson. Richard and Susan married on November 7th, 1943 at Westwood Community Church in West Los Angeles. 

Original caption: Actress Susan Peters and Richard 
Quine, former film actor now in the Coast Guard, were 
married here today. The actress, 22, is the daughter of
Mrs. Abby Carnahan of Spokane, Wash. Quine, formerly
of Detroit, is 23.

Susan's next role was a small one, in comedy Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942), in which she played the character of Sue. This film was also the feature debut of competitive swimmer-turned actress Esther Williams. After completing filming, director Mervyn LeRoy cast Susan in a dramatic role in Random Harvest (1942). Her character, Kitty Chilcet, is a young woman who falls in love with her step-uncle, played by Ronald Colman. The film was one of the top 25 highest-earning films of the year. Susan's highly acclaimed performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but she lost to Teresa Wright in Mrs. Miniver.

Susan in a publicity photo for 
Random Harvest, 1942.

The Success of Random Harvest led MGM to give Susan lead roles in other major films, such as Assignment in Brittany (1943), in which she portrayed a French peasant girl. This was followed with a minor but top-billed credit in the comedy Young Ideas (1943) with Herbert Marshall and Mary Astor, directed by Jules Dassin. She was subsequently cast as the female lead in Song of Russia (1943) opposite Robert Taylor. The role earned her further critical acclaim, with a review in The Hollywood Reporter noting her as "a dramatic actress of the first rank." The film however was controversial, as its portrayal of the Soviet Union was interpreted by some audiences and critics as being favourable and of a pro-Communist stance.

In early 1944, Susan was one of ten actors who were elevated from 'feature player' status to the studio's official 'star' category; the others including Esther Williams, Laraine Day, Kathryn Grayson, Van Johnson, Margaret O'Brien, Ginny Simms, Robert Walker, Gene Kelly, and George Murphy. An official portrait taken of MGM's contracted players during this period prominently features Susan sharing the front row with the head of the studio himself, Louis B. Mayer.

1st Row: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Lucille Ball, Hedy Lamarr, Katharine Hepburn, Louis B Mayer, Greer Garson, Irene Dunne, Susan, Ginny Simms, Lionel Barrymore
2nd Row: Harry James, Brian Donlevy, Red Skelton, Mickey Rooney, William Powell, Wallace Beery, Spencer Tracy, Walter Pidgeon, Robert Taylor, Pierre Aumont, Lewis Stone, Gene Kelly, Jackie Jenkins
3rd Row: Tommy Dorsey, George Murphy, Jean Rogers, James Craig, Donna Reed, Van Johnson, Fay Bainter, Marsha Hunt, Ruth Hussey, Marjorie Main, Robert Benchley
4th Row: Dame May Whitty, Reginald Owen, Keenan Wynn, Diana Lewis, Marilyn Maxwell, Esther Williams, Ann Richards, Marta Linden, Lee Bowman, Richard Carlson, Mary Astor
5th Row: Blanche Ring, Sara Haden, Fay Holden, Bert Lahr, Frances Gifford, June Allyson, Richard Whorf, Frances Rafferty, Spring Byington, Connie Gilchrist, Gladys Cooper
6th Row: Ben Blue, Chill Wills, Keye Luke, Barry Nelson, Desi Arnaz, Henry O’Neill, Bob Crosby, Rags Ragland

In late 1944, Susan filmed Keep Your Powder Dry, a war drama co-starring Lana Turner and Laraine Day, in which she portrayed Ann 'Annie' Darrison, the humble wife of a soldier.

Lana Turner, Susan, and Laraine Day in Keep
Your Powder Dry (1945)

On January 1st, 1945, Susan and husband Richard, along with his cousin's wife, went on a duck hunting trip in the Cuyamaca Mountains near San Diego. At one point during the trip, Susan attempted to reach for the rifle, which accidentally discharged through her abdomen. She was quickly rushed to Mercy Hospital, which was roughly 65 miles away, and underwent emergency surgery. The singular bullet damaged Susan's spinal cord, leaving her permanently paralysed from the waist down. She was required to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Keep Your Powder Dry premiered 3 months after the unfortunate incident, on March 8th, 1945. Susan's mother, Abby, stayed by her daughters side during her time in the hospital, but sadly died 9 months later in December 1945, leaving Susan even more distraught.

MGM continued to pay Susan a $100 weekly salary, along with medical expenses. Unable to find suitable projects, she decided to leave the studio. She later recalled: "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer kept sending me Pollyanna scripts about crippled girls who were all sweetness and light, which I kept turning down. I won't trade on my handicap." Among the projects offered to her were Joe Pasternak and Henry Koster's The Unfinished Dance (1947), a remake of Jean Benoît-Lévy's Ballerina. In the film, Peters was offered the role of a ballerina who receives a spinal injury that leaves her unable to perform, but she declined. Prior to her injury, Susan had begun filming the drama The Outward Room. The film's producers considered completing the project with stand-ins and refitting the script to allow Susan to appear in a wheelchair, but the project was ultimately shelved.

Susan and Van Johnson at
their radio performance
of Seventh Heaven.

Once Susan left MGM, she was approached by numerous acting jobs on radio programmes. She guest starred on the December 11th, 1945, radio episode of Seventh Heaven, a popular Broadway play written in the 1920', opposite her Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant co-star, Van Johnson. 

In 1946, Susan and husband Richard adopted a baby boy, Timothy Richard. That same year, Susan made her first public appearance since her accident at Ciro's nightclub in West Hollywood as the guest of honour. She watched the debut of bandleader and actor Desi Arnaz and His Orchestra. Accompanying her was Lucille Ball, her close friend and wife to Desi. Lucille hired an ambulance to bring Susan to the nightclub. The couple urged Susan to continue to seek out acting work. Not long after, Actor and friend Charles Bickford suggested that she option Margaret Ferguson's novel The Sign of the Ram, which focuses on a cripple woman who manipulates those around her. Susan decided to discuss the novel with her agent, and subsequently pitched the idea to Columbia Pictures, who were enthusiastic about making a film adaption.

Original caption: Actress Susan Peters, Paralysed
from the waist down as the result of a hunting accident,
was wheeled into court in Hollywood to testify in her
divorce request from Richard H. Quine, a producer-
director. She was granted the divorce after briefly testifying
that "our temperaments are different and we
 never agree on anything." She frequently dabbed at her
eyes with a handkerchief. The couple was married
NOV. 7, 1943. Quine was ordered to pay $300 a month
support for an adopted son, Timothy, 2.

Production began in July 1947, with it being directed by John Sturges. Susan told reporters that she had never played a character "with the emotional range that this character has. It was a real challenge for me." After production ended, Susan separated from Richard, claiming that he was cruel and would not speak to her for days at a time. Their divorce was finalised on September 10th, 1948. Richard was ordered to pay $300 a month to Susan to support their adopted son, Timothy, who was 2 at the time.

When The Sign of the Ram premiered in 1948, it was greeted with mixed reviews. Film critic Bosley Crowther, of The New York Times, gave a very 

harsh review. According to Bosley:  "The fortitude of Susan Peters in returning to the screen after a cruelly crippling accident, suffered three years ago, is worthy of a more substantial token of respect than it—and she—receives in The Sign of the Ram, a Columbia picture which came to Loew's State yesterday. And the talents of several other actors of competence who are with her in this film are deserving of fuller protection against embarrassment than any of them get. Plainly the story is claptrap. And the direction of John Sturges is such that the illogic and the pomposity are only magnified. By showing Miss Peters, in her wheelchair, as though she were an alabaster doll, with just about as much personality, he has completely denatured her role. And by directing Phyllis Thaxter, Peggy Ann Garner, Allene Roberts and Alexander Knox to hit such a slowness of tempo and such a sombreness of tone that the whole thing drifts into monotony, he has only emphasized the static qualities. If it weren't for the noisy interjection of thunder-drums and pounding surf from time to time, this would be an effective soporific. And it might have been kinder to let it be." In light of her divorce, and facing a lack of opportunity as an actress, Susan began suffering from chronic depression.

Susan with Judy Garland and daughter
Liza Minnelli at a charity event, 1949.

In 1949, she was cast as Laura in a touring stage production of Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie. The play was altered under Tennessee's supervision in order for Susan to be able to perform her part in a wheelchair. It made its debut on June 27th, in Norwich, Connecticut to rave reviews. She received a standing ovation on the plays opening night. The production then toured throughout the East Coast. The following year, in 1950, she was cast in a stage production of Rudolph Besier's The Barretts of Wimpole Street, playing the crippled poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, which earned her positive critical reception among press.

Susan in Miss Susan (1951)

In March of 1951, she signed onto the live NBC-TV television drama Miss Susan, in which she played Susan Martin, an attorney confined to her wheelchair. It was the first show to have a handicapped person as the star. She later elaborated in an interview: "I'll play a woman lawyer who was injured in an automobile accident. It won't be one of those tearful serials, though." Production on the first episode began in Philadelphia on March 5th, 1951. It was however temporarily delayed after Susan developed the flu and laryngitis upon arriving in Pennsylvania. After her short illness, the series began filming five days per week from March 12th to December 28th, 1951. Some viewers at the time were critical of the series, alleging that NBC had exploited Susan's real-life tragedy. In response, NBC shifted the focus from Susan to other peripheral characters, subsequently re-titling the series Martinsville, U.S.A.. However, after these changes failed to attract larger ratings, Colgate, the main sponsor of the series, cancelled it in late 1951. 

Susan with close friend Lucille Ball on a
fishing trip, 1940s.

After Miss Susan, she began a relationship with Robert Clark a U.S. Colonel. The two quickly announced their engagement. However, Robert broke off their relationship not long after, which sent Susan into a deeper depression. She relocated to Lemon Grove, California, to live on her younger brothers, Robert Jr., cattle ranch. While staying there, her health began to steadily decline. In mid-1952, she was admitted to a hospital in Exeter, California to undergo a skin graft procedure. She returned to her brothers ranch not long after, and lived in seclusion. She had plans to return to touring The Barretts of Wimpole Street the following year, but her strength had dwindled and she struggled to put on weight.

In August 1952, Susan told her physician, Dr. Manchester: "I'm getting awfully tired. I think it possibly would be better if I did die." Over the following two months, she began starving herself.

Susan died on October 23, 1952 at Memorial Hospital in Visalia, California at the age of 31. Her doctor attributed her death to a chronic kidney infection, a complication caused by her paralysis, and bronchial pneumonia. He also noted that her death was hastened by self-induced dehydration and starvation because, in the last few weeks of her life, she had "'lost interest' in eating and drinking and had lost the will to live.

Susan's funeral was held on October 27th in Glendale, California. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park next to her mother. At the time of her death, her son Timothy was living with ex-husband Richard Quine. Her estate was worth $6,000, equivalent to $57,767 in 2020. For her contribution to motion pictures, Peters was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1601 Vine Street.

Susan Peters (July 3, 1921 – October 23, 1952)