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Susan Oliver

Susan Oliver (born Charlotte Gercke, February 13, 1932 – May 10, 1990) was an American actress, television director, aviator, and author.

Susan Oliver
Oliver in 1971
Born
Charlotte Gercke

(1932-02-13)February 13, 1932
New York City, NY, U.S.
DiedMay 10, 1990(1990-05-10) (aged 58)
Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
EducationSwarthmore College Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre
Occupation(s)Actress, television director, aviator, and author
Years active1955–1988

Career

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Early years

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Oliver did numerous television shows in 1957, and appeared on stage. She began the year with an ingénue part, as the daughter of an 18th-century Manhattan family, in her first Broadway play, Small War on Murray Hill, a Robert E. Sherwood comedy.[1] That same year, Oliver replaced Mary Ure as the female lead in the Broadway production of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger.

The play's short run was immediately followed by larger roles in live television plays on Kaiser Aluminum Hour, The United States Steel Hour, and Matinee Theater. Oliver then went to Hollywood, where she appeared in the November 14, 1957, episode of Climax!, one of the few live drama series based on the West Coast, as well as in a number of filmed shows, including one of the first episodes of NBC's Wagon Train, Father Knows Best, The Americans, and Johnny Staccato.

In July 1957, Oliver was chosen for the title role in her first motion picture, The Green-Eyed Blonde, a low-budget independent melodrama scripted by Dalton Trumbo (under a pseudonym), and released by Warner Bros. in December on the bottom half of a double bill.[2]

In mid-1958, Oliver began rehearsals for a co-starring role in Patate, her second Broadway play.[3] Its seven-performance run was even shorter than that of Small War on Murray Hill, but won Oliver a Theatre World Award for "Outstanding Breakout Performance"; it was her last Broadway appearance.[citation needed]

Television and films

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Oliver in 1959

On April 6, 1960, the 28-year-old Oliver played a spoiled young runaway, Maggie Hamilton, who gets soundly spanked by scout Flint McCullough (Robert Horton), in "The Maggie Hamilton Story" on NBC's Wagon Train.[4] On November 9, 1960, she was cast as the lead guest star in "The Cathy Eckhart Story" on Wagon Train, with husband-and-wife actors John Larch and Vivi Janiss as Ben and Sarah Harness.

Oliver was cast in the 1960 episode of The Deputy as the long-lost daughter of star Henry Fonda's late girl friend, and appeared in Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre episode "Knife of Hate" as Susan Pittman. In 1961, Oliver played the part of Laurie Evans in the episode "Incident of His Brother's Keeper" on CBS's Rawhide,[4] and in 1963, she played Judy Hall in the episode "Incident at Spider Rock", Also in 1962, Oliver appeared as Jeanie in the television series Laramie in the episode "Shadows in the Dust".

 
With Gardner McKay and Guy Stockwell in Adventures in Paradise (1961)

Oliver was cast in episodes of Adventures in Paradise, Twilight Zone, Route 66, Dr. Kildare, The Naked City, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Burke's Law, The Fugitive, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., I Spy, The Virginian, The Name of the Game, Longstreet, and Mannix. She made one appearance on The Andy Griffith Show and ABC's family Western series, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters.[4] She also made two appearances in Quinn Martin's The Invaders (episodes: "Inquisition" and "The Ivy Curtain") on ABC.[4]

Her most challenging role during this time was as the ambitious wife of doomed country music legend Hank Williams (George Hamilton) in Your Cheatin' Heart (1964). The same year, she also starred opposite Jerry Lewis in The Disorderly Orderly, and appeared in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965) and The Love-Ins (1967) with Richard Todd.[4]

Oliver appeared in television films, including Carter's Army. She had a continuing role as Ann Howard on ABC's primetime serial Peyton Place in 1966.

 
Oliver as Vina transformed into an Orion slave girl in the Star Trek episodes "The Cage" and "The Menagerie"

Oliver played the female lead guest character Vina in "The Cage" (1964), which was the first pilot of Gene Roddenberry's new show, Star Trek. Two years later, Oliver's performance was reused in the first season, two-part episode "The Menagerie" (1966).[4] Because the special optical effects used by the series were taking longer to complete than anticipated (which made a missed air date a real possibility), that pilot story was re-framed using newly filmed "current" footage and a time difference to explain the significant format and cast evolution since Oliver's scenes were filmed.[5] In particular, Jeffrey Hunter played "Captain Christopher Pike" in the pilot episode, but was replaced by William Shatner as "Captain James T. Kirk" of the Starship Enterprise when the series was green-lit by NBC in 1966. For the fantasy sequence in the pilot, in which her character appeared as an "Orion slave girl", Oliver was covered in green makeup all over her body, and a dark brunette wig.[6] A still of her with green skin is frequently seen in the end credits of the television series, and it has since become an iconic image of Star Trek. Hence, the 2014 documentary about Susan Oliver's life was titled The Green Girl.[7]

In 1970, she appeared as Carole Carson/Alice Barnes on the television Western The Men From Shiloh (rebranded name for The Virginian) in the episode titled "Hannah".

From 1975 to 1976, Oliver was a regular cast member of the television soap opera Days of Our Lives. In 1976, she received her only Emmy Award nomination (for "Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress") for playing pioneer aviator, Neta Snook, in the three-hour-long, made-for-TV movie Amelia Earhart, broadcast on October 15, 1976, on NBC-TV.

In addition to her scores of television appearances, Oliver also had roles in several theatrical features, including The Gene Krupa Story (1959),[8] BUtterfield 8 (1960)[9] and The Caretakers (1963).[9]

Directing and later years

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By the late 1970s with acting opportunities coming less frequently, Oliver turned to directing. She was one of the original 19 women admitted to the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women (DWW), and she left a "good chunk of funding for the DWW."[10] In 1977, she wrote and directed Cowboysan, her AFI DWW short film that presents the fantasy scenario of a Japanese actor and actress playing leads in an American Western. Oliver directed two television episodes, the premiere episode "Hey, Look Me Over" of the 11th season of M*A*S*H and the season-five episode "Fat Chance" of one of M*A*S*H's sequel series, Trapper John, M.D.

In Oliver's last fully active years, she also appeared in the February 21, 1985, episode of Magnum, P.I., two episodes of Murder, She Wrote (March 31 and December 1), the February 12, 1987, episode of Simon & Simon, and the January 10, 1988, episode of the NBC domestic drama Our House. She made her last onscreen appearance in the November 6, 1988, episode of the syndicated horror anthology Freddy's Nightmares. During her career in Hollywood, Oliver amassed 58 credits on various television programs.[4]

Aviator and author

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Oliver experienced an event in February 1959 that underscored her later aviation accomplishments. She was a passenger aboard Pan Am Flight 115, a Boeing 707 on a transatlantic flight from Paris to New York City when it dropped from 35,000 to 6,000 feet (10,700 to 1,800 m). It was February 3, 1959, the same day Buddy Holly died in an airplane crash. These events caused her to avoid flying for the next year, even turning down job offers, with the exception of auditioning for Butterfield 8, if they were so short notice that she could only travel by air. She eventually underwent hypnosis to overcome her fear of flying.[11]

In July 1964, local Los Angeles area news anchor Hal Fishman introduced her to personal flying when he took her on an evening flight over Los Angeles in a Cessna 172.[11] The experience motivated her to return the next day to the Santa Monica Airport to begin training for a private pilot certificate. In 1966, while preparing for her own transatlantic flight, she was a passenger in a Piper J-3 Cub when the pilot ran into wires while "show-boating";[11] the airplane flipped and crashed. She and the pilot escaped injury.[12]

In 1967, piloting her own Aero Commander 200, which was fitted with an extra fuel tank, she became the fourth woman to fly a single-engined aircraft solo across the Atlantic Ocean and the second to do it from New York City. Oliver's route included stops in Goose Bay, Canada, Narsarsuaq in Greenland, Keflavik in Iceland, and Prestwick in Scotland, before landing in Copenhagen, Denmark.[13] Although she was attempting to fly to Moscow, her odyssey ended in Denmark after the government of the Soviet Union denied her permission to enter its air space. She wrote about her aviation exploits and philosophy of life in an autobiography published in 1983 titled Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey.[11]

In 1968, she was contacted by Learjet to see if she was interested in obtaining a type rating on one of their jet planes with the intent to set record flights for them. She earned the rating and even flew some charters (having by that time acquired a commercial pilot certificate in single- and multiengined land airplanes), but did not fly any record flights in their jets.[11]

In 1970, Oliver co-piloted a Piper Comanche to victory in the 2760-mile transcontinental race known as the "Powder Puff Derby", which resulted in her being named Pilot of the Year by the Association of Executive Pilots. The pilot was Margaret Mead (not the famous anthropologist), an experienced pilot who had flown in several derbies with different co-pilots. In 1971, Oliver was inducted as a member of the Federal Aviation Administration's Women Advisory Committee on Aviation.[citation needed]

In 1972, her training for a glider rating was chronicled for an episode of the television series The American Sportsman, and the segment aired in March 1973.[14]

According to the FAA Registry, the glider rating was issued to Oliver on July 21, 1972. It was her last rating. The registry shows her to have earned commercial pilot ratings for airplane single-engined land, airplane multi-engined land, instrument airplane, and private privileges for glider. Her last aviation medical examination was in May 1976, so she could not legally pilot any aircraft except gliders after May 1978, marking the end of her piloting of powered aircraft.[15]

Death

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Oliver was diagnosed with colorectal cancer that later metastasized to her lungs, and she died on May 10, 1990 (aged 58), at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.[16]

Selected filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1955 Goodyear Playhouse Episode: "The Prizewinner"
1956 Studio One Flora Episode: "A Day Before Battle"
1956 Camera Three Dewey Dell Episode: "As I Lay Dying"
1957 The Green-Eyed Blonde Phyllis ("Greeneyes")
1957 The Kaiser Aluminum Hour Kay Episode: "So Short a Season"
1957 The United States Steel Hour Maria Episode: "The Bottle Imp"
1957 Crossroads Connie Willis Episode: "9:30 Action"
1957 Matinee Theater Episode: "End of the Rope"
1957 Climax! Pat Farley Episode: "Two Tests for Tuesday"
1957 Studio 57 Episode: "Seventh Brother, Seventh Son"
1957 Wagon Train Judy Rossiter Episode: "The Emily Rossiter Story"
1957 Playhouse 90 Louise Grant Episode: "The Thundering Wave"
1958 Father Knows Best Cousin Millie Episode: "Country Cousin"
1958 Kraft Television Theatre Pamela Episode: "The Woman at High Hollow"
1958 Matinee Theater Episode: "Button, Button"
1958 Suspicion Rosemary Russell Episode: "The Woman Turned to Salt"
1959 Playhouse 90 Ellie Episode: "A Trip to Paradise"
1959 The David Niven Show Ilsa Episode: "The Last Room"
1959 Armstrong Circle Theatre Episode: "The Monkey Ride"
1959 Trackdown Rebecca Ford Episode: "Blind Alley"
1959 The Millionaire Cathy Burnell Episode: "Millionaire Phillip Burnell"
1959 Johnny Staccato Barbara Ames Episode: "Murder in Hi-Fi"
1959 The Lineup Laurie Hayden Episode: "Run to the City"
1959 Alcoa Theatre Bernice Davis Episode: "The Long House on Avenue A"
1959 The Gene Krupa Story Dorissa Dinell
1960 BUtterfield 8 Norma
1960 Playhouse 90 Valerie Ferguson Episode: "A Dream of Treason"
1960 The DuPont Show with June Allyson Judy Episode: "The Blue Goose"
1960 Wanted Dead or Alive Bess Episode: "The Pariah"
1960 Wrangler Helen McQueen Episode: "Incident at the Bar M"
1960 The Deputy Julie Desmond Episode: "The Deadly Breed"
1960 The Untouchables Roxie Plumber Episode: "The Organization"
1960 Bonanza Leta Malvet Episode: "The Outcast"
1960 Wagon Train Maggie Hamilton Episode: "The Maggie Hamilton Story"
1960 Wagon Train Cathy Eckhart Episode: "The Cathy Eckhart Story"
1960 The Twilight Zone Teenya Episode: "People Are Alike All Over"
1960 Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre Susan Pittman Episode: "Knife of Hate"
1960 The Barbara Stanwyck Show Tracy Lane Episode: "No One"
1961 Naked City as Jessica Episode: "A Memory of Crying"
1961 The Aquanauts Laura West Episode: "Stormy Weather"
1961 Rawhide Laurie Evans S3:E21, "Incident of His Brother's Keeper"
1961 The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet Lori Episode: "Rick, the Milkman"
1961 Route 66 Joan Maslow Episode: "Welcome to Amity"
1961 Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre Hannah Smith Episode: "Image of a Drawn Sword"
1961 Thriller Edith Landers Episode: "Choose a Victim"
1962 Route 66 Claire/Chris Episode: "Between Hello and Goodbye"
1962 Laramie Jean Lavelle Episode: "Shadows in the Dust"
1962 Cain's Hundred Kitty Episode: "The Cost of Living"
1962 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Annabel Delaney Season 1 Episode 7: "Annabel"
1963 Rawhide Judy Hall Episode: "Incident at Spider Rock"
1963 Wagon Train Lily Episode: "The Lily Legend Story"
1963 77 Sunset Strip Kristine Seaver Episode: "Your Fortune for a Penny"
1963 The Caretakers Nurse Cathy Clark
1963 The Fugitive Karen Episode: "Never Wave Goodbye" (Parts 1 & 2)
1963 Dr. Kildare Carol Logan Episode: "The Eleventh Commandment"
1963 Route 66 Willow Episode: "Fifty Miles from Home"
1964 Looking For Love Jan McNair
1964 Guns of Diablo Maria Macklin
1964 Your Cheatin' Heart Audrey Williams
1964 The Disorderly Orderly Susan Andrews
1964 Destry Rebecca Fairhaven Episode: "One Hundred Bibles"
1964 The Andy Griffith Show Prisoner Episode: "Prisoner of Love" Season 4 Episode 18
1964 The Defenders Anna Leverton Episode: "The Hidden Fury""
1964 Star Trek Vina Pilot Episode: "The Cage"

Episode: "The Menagerie" (Parts 1 & 2) S1: E11 & E12 respectively (1966) (re-used footage from the pilot)

1965 Seaway Sue Murray Episode: "The Sparrows"
1965 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Ursula Alice Baldwin Episode: "The Bow-Wow Affair"
1965 The Virginian Martha Perry Episode: "A Little Learning"
1966 A Man Called Shenandoah Virginia Harvey Episode: "Rope's End"
1966 Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Julie Myers Episode: "A Date with Miss Camp Henderson"
1966 My Three Sons Jerry Harper Episode: "The Awkward Age"
1966 Peyton Place Ann Howard 48 episodes
1966 Star Trek: The Original Series Vina S1:E11-E12, "The Menagerie"
1967 Tarzan Peggy Dean Episode S1E18: "The Day the Earth Trembled"
1967 T.H.E. Cat Lori Neil Episode: "Twenty One And Out"
1967 The Love-Ins Patricia Cross
1967 The Wild Wild West Triste Episode: "The Night Dr. Loveless Died"
1967 The Invaders Stacy Cahill Episode: "The Ivy Curtain"
1968 A Man Called Gannon Matty
1968 The Invaders Joan Seeley Episode: "Inquisition"
1968 The Virginian Anne Crowder Episode: "The Storm Gate"
1969 Mannix Linda Jordan S2-Episode 21: "The Odds Against Donald Jordan"
1969 The Big Valley Kate Wilson Episode: "Alias Nellie Handley"
1969 Change of Mind Margaret Rowe
1969 The Monitors Barbara Cole
1970 Carter's Army Anna Renvic TV movie
1971 Company of Killers Thelma Dwyer TV movie
1971 Do You Take This Stranger? Mildred Crandall TV movie
1971 Dan August Leona Serling Episode: "Prognosis: Homicide"
1971 Sarge Fran Episode: "An Accident Waiting to Happen"
1971 Alias Smith and Jones Miss Blanche Graham Episode: "Journey from San Juan"
1972 Night Gallery Kelly Bellman Episode: "The Tune in Dan's Cafe"
1972 Medical Center Ruth Episode: "Vision of Doom"
1972 Gunsmoke Sarah Elkins Episode: "Eleven Dollars"
1973 The American Sportsman Herself Segment: "Soaring at El Mirage"
1973 Cannon Jill Thorson Episode: "Moving Target"
1973 Circle of Fear Ellen Pritchard Episode: "Spare Parts"
1973 Love Story Virginia Madison Episode: "The Youngest Lovers"
1974 Ginger in the Morning Sugar
1974 Police Story Rina Prescott Episode: "World Full of Hurt"
1974 Petrocelli Eleanor Warren Episode: "Edge of Evil"
1976 Amelia Earhart Netta Snook "Snookie"
1977 The Streets of San Francisco Gracie Boggs Episode: "Hang Tough"
1977 Nido de Viudas Isabel US title: Widow's Nest
1980 Hardly Working Claire Trent
1982 Tomorrow's Child Marilyn Hurst Television movie
1982 M*A*S*H Director, 1 episode
1983 Trapper John, M.D. Director, 1 episode
1982 International Airport Mary Van Leuven Television movie
1984 Murder, She Wrote Nurse Marge Horton Episode: "Armed Response"
1985 Magnum, P.I. Laurie Crane Episode: "Let Me Hear the Music"
1986 Murder, She Wrote Louise Episode: "Jessica Behind Bars"
1988 Our House Olga Zelnikova Episode: "Balance of Power"
1988 Freddy's Nightmares The Maid / Future Judy Miller Episode: "Judy Miller, Come on Down" (final appearance)

Documentary

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  • The Green Girl (2014), biographical documentary film directed by George Pappy.

See also

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Further reading

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  • Oliver, Susan (1983). Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey. Macmillan. ISBN 9780025929203.
  • 10. NTSB Identification: LAX67D0086

References

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  1. ^ The play's opening night at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre was on January 3, 1957, and 12 performances later, closing night was January 12. Leo Genn performed as General Howe.
  2. ^ The film was scripted by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo and credited to "front" Sally Stubblefield.
  3. ^ The melancholy comedy, written by French playwright Marcel Achard, played to sold-out theaters in Paris upon its premiere in 1957. Adapted for American audiences by Irwin Shaw, Patate (which in French means "spud", but can also mean "chump") paired Oliver with veteran leading man Tom Ewell (in the title role) and Lee Bowman. The play opened at Henry Miller's Theatre on October 28, 1958, and closed on November 1.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Susan Oliver". TVGuide.com. TV Guide. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  5. ^ Whitfield, Stephen; and Roddenberry, Gene. The Making of Star Trek (New York: Ballantine Books), 1968. ASIN: B0014C7WYK
  6. ^ Asherman, Allan (1983). The Star Trek Compendium. WH Allen, Star Books. p. 28.
  7. ^ "Star Trek's original Green Girl the subject of Kickstarter documentary". ew.com - Entertainment Weekly. February 13, 2013. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
  8. ^ Staff. "The Gene Krupa Story". TV Guide. TV Guide, a Red Ventures Co. Retrieved March 25, 2022.
  9. ^ a b "BUtterfield 8 (1960)". TCM.com. Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  10. ^ Women Directors in Hollywood, The Founding of the Directing Workshop for Women of the American Film Institute, a History, The Dream of the Marble Bridge, http://janhaag.com/ESessays.html
  11. ^ a b c d e Oliver, Susan (1983). Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey. Macmillan Publishing Co. ISBN 0-02-592920-8.
  12. ^ "NTSB No. LAX67D0086".
  13. ^ History.net: How a Hollywood Actress Became an Aerial Emissary
  14. ^ Robesonian newspaper archives, March 18, 1973; accessed March 7, 2015.
  15. ^ Profile, amsrvs.registry.faa.gov; accessed March 7, 2015.
  16. ^ "Susan Oliver Is Dead; Television Actress". The New York Times. May 15, 1990. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
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