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Susanna Foster

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Susanna Foster
Foster in 1943
Born
Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson

(1924-12-06)December 6, 1924
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
DiedJanuary 17, 2009(2009-01-17) (aged 84)
Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation(s)Actress, singer
Years active1939–1992
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1948; div. 1956)​

Susanna Foster (born Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson,[1][2][3] December 6, 1924[4] – January 17, 2009[5]) was an American film actress best known for her leading role as Christine in the 1943 film version of Phantom of the Opera.

Early life

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Foster was born Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson in Chicago, Illinois,[6] to Les and Adie Larson. Raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the family went into poverty in the Great Depression, and moved frequently due to evictions. Adie struggled with alcoholism and mental illness, and was reported to be abusive; at one point in her film career, Foster rented the home of actress Jean Arthur for her younger sisters, in an attempt to get them away from their mother. At eleven years old, she had "almost fatal" pneumonia.[7][8]

Career

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At the age of twelve, Suzanne was taken to Hollywood by MGM, who sent her to school and groomed her for an acting and singing career. 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 [sic]."[7] 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.[9] MGM eventually let her go.

After hiring agent Milo Marchetti, Foster was signed by Paramount Pictures where she began to study voice for the first time with Marchetti's sister Gilda. She made her film debut at fourteen years of age where she was introduced as 'Susanna Foster' in The Great Victor Herbert (1939) opposite Mary Martin and Allan Jones.[9] For her stage name, she chose "Susanna" from the song Oh Susanna and Foster from its writer Stephen Foster.[10][11] After seeing Foster in The Great Victor Herbert, William Randolph Hearst flew her to his 67,000-acre (270 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. After two years, Foster left Paramount.[7]

Within weeks of leaving Paramount, Foster 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. She also turned down a joint concert tour with Nelson Eddy, which she later regretted.[7]

In 1945, Foster quit the film business. 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, an aspiring singer herself who admired Foster.

In 1946, Foster 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.[12] The couple performed in operettas and stage musicals, touring extensively. After a debilitating 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,[13] the show that gave Sean Connery his start as a dancing and singing sailor.[14] During the London engagement 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.[15]

Later life and death

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In 1956, Foster abruptly divorced Evans, and for many years, lived in and out of poverty. Author Sharon Rich and Foster's son Michael later stated Foster herself struggled with mental illness and alcoholism.[16][17] In the 1980s, Foster and her younger son, Philip, lived in a Hollywood apartment. In November 1985, Philip – who also struggled with alcoholism as well as drug addiction – lapsed into a hepatic coma on Foster's living room floor and died three days later in the Van Nuys Hospital from liver failure.[17]

In 1992, Foster made her final appearance with a minor role in the remake of the 1945 film Detour. The film, her first in 43 years, was released straight-to-home video.[18] In 2003, her elder 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 in Englewood, New Jersey. Foster died at 5:30 a.m. EST on January 17, 2009(2009-01-17) (aged 84).[7][5]

Filmography

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Film
Year Title Role Notes
1939 The Great Victor Herbert Peggy
1941 The Hard-Boiled Canary Toodles LaVerne
Glamour Boy Joan Winslow
1942 Star Spangled Rhythm Herself Uncredited
1943 Phantom of the Opera Christine DuBois
Top Man Connie Allen
1944 Follow the Boys Herself Uncredited
This Is the Life Angela Rutherford
The Climax Angela Klatt
Bowery to Broadway Peggy Fleming Barrie
1945 Frisco Sal Sally Warren
That Night with You Penny Parker
1954 Mystification Rita
1992 Detour Evie (final film role)
2000 The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked Herself Video documentary

References

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  1. ^ "Names". American Names Society. 1975: 245. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 65.
  3. ^ The Movie Makers
  4. ^ Mank, Gregory W. (1999). Women in Horror Films, 1940s. McFarland & Co. p. 224. ISBN 0-7864-0464-7.
  5. ^ a b Evans, Michael David. (2009). "The Susanna Foster Chronicles: Phantom of the Heart".
  6. ^ Katz, Ephraim (1994). The Film Encyclopedia. HarperCollins. p. 477. ISBN 0-06-273089-4.
  7. ^ a b c d e Rich, Sharon (January 19, 2009). "Susanna Foster on Phantom of the Opera, Nelson Eddy, Jeanette MacDonald and Judy Garland". Jeanette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy Home Page. Mac/Eddy Club. Archived from the original on August 15, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  8. ^ Rich, Sharon; Evans, Michael (January 31, 2009). "Susanna Foster's real horror story was not Nelson Eddy's Phantom of the Opera…but real life". Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  9. ^ a b Coons, Robin (June 1, 1940). "The High C's Are Very Low Down When Susanna Foster Sings". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
  10. ^ Adrian Room (July 1, 2010). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins, 5th ed. McFarland. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-7864-5763-2.
  11. ^ Evelyn Foster Morneweck (1944). Chronicles of Stephen Foster's family. Vol. 2. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 590.
  12. ^ Lamparski, Richard (1982). Whatever Became of-?. Crown Publishers. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-517-54346-7.
  13. ^ Davis, Ronald L. (2008). Mary Martin, Broadway Legend. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-8061-3905-0.
  14. ^ Pfeiffer, Lee; Lisa, Phillip (2001). The Films of Sean Connery. Citadel Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 0-8065-2223-2.
  15. ^ "Son to Susanna Foster". New York Times. September 5, 1952.
  16. ^ Rich, Sharon (January 18, 2009). "Interviewing Susanna Foster in regards to working with Nelson Eddy in "Phantom of the Opera"". Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  17. ^ a b Rich, Sharon; Evans, Michael (January 19, 2009). "Susanna Foster's son responds…". Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  18. ^ "Movie Info: Detour". Rotten Tomatoes. 1992.
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