Susan Peters

Born: 1921-07-03

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.


Placeholder

Random Harvest

as Kitty
Released: 1942-12-17

Wandered away from his asylum, an amnesiac World War I veteran falls in love with a music hall...

Movie page

Santa Fe Trail

as Charlotte
Released: 1940-12-20

As a penalty for fighting fellow classmates days before graduating from West Point, J.E.B....

Movie page

The Big Shot

as Ruth Carter
Released: 1942-06-13

Duke Berne, former big shot but now a three-time loser, fears returning to crime because a...

Movie page

Susan and God

as Party Guest (uncredited)
Released: 1940-06-07

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

Movie page

Tish

as Cora Edwards Bowser
Released: 1942-09-17

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

Movie page

Young Ideas

as Susan Evans
Released: 1943-08-02

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

Movie page

Keep Your Powder Dry

as Ann Darrison
Released: 1945-04-01

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

Movie page

The Sign of the Ram

as Leah St. Aubyn
Released: 1948-03-03

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

Movie page

Andy Hardy's Double Life

as Sue
Released: 1942-12-01

Andy is about to head off to college but he's got a few things to take care of before leaving....

Movie page

Song of Russia

as Nadya Stepanova
Released: 1944-02-10

American conductor John Meredith and his manager, Hank Higgins, go to Russia shortly before the...

Movie page

Twenty Years After

as (archive footage)
Released: 1944-01-01

This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits,...

Movie page

Assignment in Brittany

as Anne Pinot
Released: 1943-03-11

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

Movie page

Here Comes Happiness

as Miss Brown (uncredited)
Released: 1941-03-15

Jessica leaves her upper class home to assume an anonymous working class identity. She meets a...

Movie page

Always a Bride

as Girl
Released: 1940-11-02

A young man wants to marry his sweetheart, but her parents will agree to their wedding only on...

Movie page

Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant

as Mrs. Howard Allwinn Young
Released: 1942-11-01

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

Movie page

Three Sons o' Guns

as Mary Tyler
Released: 1941-08-02

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

Movie page

Young America Flies

as One of Jack's Girlfriends
Released: 1940-07-13

World War II propaganda film from Warner Brothers.

Movie page

Scattergood Pulls the Strings

as Ruth Savage
Released: 1941-05-23

Small-town store owner Scattergood Baines helps a runaway boy find his father, who has escaped...

Movie page

Money and the Woman

as Depositor (uncredited)
Released: 1940-08-17

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

Movie page

The Huntress

as uncredited
First aired: 2000-07-26

The Huntress is an American TV series that appeared on the USA Network over subsequent summers...

TV Show page