Susan Peters

Susan Peters has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures, at 1601 Vine St. A further album, The Four Marys, a collection of traditional celtic folk songs, followed in 1998. Her health continued to deteriorate until her death, in Visalia, California, from kidney disease and pneumonia, complicated by anorexia nervosa. She left Ruby Blue, which sank into obscurity, and concentrated on her acting career, starring in Mamet's plays and films - first the film Homicide, then in the play Oleanna, a part written for her. Returning to music in 1994, she released the solo album The Raven, followed by New York Girls' Club. Her career began to falter, and as her marriage ended, Peters began to suffer from depression. In the mid and late 1980s she was the main element of the folk/pop band Ruby Blue, but after meeting David while acting in his play Speed the Plow, became his wife in 1991. She toured in stage productions of The Glass Menagerie and The Barretts of Wimpole Street, and her performances were highly regarded, but her disability made her a difficult actress to cast. Rebecca Pidgeon is an actress, singer, songwriter and the wife of playwright David Mamet.

An unsympathetic role in The Sign of the Ram (1948) failed to win an audience, and a starring role as a detective in the television series Miss Susan (1951) was also unsuccessful. The accident left her permanently paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheel chair, however she attempted to continue her acting career. Married to the actor Richard Quine, she was with him on a hunting vacation in early 1945, when a rifle accidentally discharged, causing a bullet to be lodged in her spine. A starring role in Song of Russia (1943) earned her critical acclaim but the film was not a commercial success.

MGM began to groom her for starring roles, casting her in several lesser productions that allowed her to learn her craft. Her first substantial role, in Random Harvest (1942), earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination. For the first two years she used her given name and played small, often uncredited parts in films such as Meet John Doe (1941), before adopting her stage name. Before long she had impressed studio executives with her own talent, and they began casting her in films.

Her first job was to read with potential actors in their screen tests. Born Suzanne Carnahan in Spokane, Washington, Peters began working for MGM Studios after completing high school. Susan Peters (July 3, 1921 - October 23, 1952) was an American film actress.