All language subtitles for The.Green.Girl.2014.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG

Survivor: Is Earth all right?

Pike: The same old Earth, and
you will see it very soon.

Tyler: And you won't believe
how fast you can get back.

Well, the time barrier
has been broken.

Our new ships can ...

Haskins: This is Vina.

Larry: Susan Oliver's Vina
is really kind of iconic.

Aside from Spock's ears and
the Talosians' big buttheads,

that was really one of
the big pops of alien-ness

that NBC could sell
RCA color TVs with.

Susan is kind of like the
bright light of that episode.

It was Gene's way of pushing
that censorship envelope

as much as he could,

and his Green Girl,
Orion slave girl,

is actually one of
the personas of Vina,

who was the pivotal
guest star character

that Susan Oliver
wound up playing.

But then it wound up
being just another

unsold pilot on the pile.

And then they reboot the show.

The show is going,

and lo and behold,

they go back and take "The Cage"

when they get under the
gun on time schedules

and they get behind

because Star Trek is a massively
hard show to do in 1960's.

So they go back and
they reuse "The Cage"

and make it the one
and only two-parter

of the original series.

It's our "save our ass" moment.

For the producers of
the original Star Trek,

they used the one hour,

make it into a two-hour,

and bottom line, here's
Susan, and Vina lives.

Hank: When I first
put up a website,

this was around '95,

and of all the things
I put up then or since,

I think I had more
emails from people

about Susan Oliver
than any other subject,

so I wasn't the only one
who was fixated on her,

who sort of thought,

"My God, she was amazing,"

and there is sort of something
very haunting about her.

Mark: "The Menagerie,"

which, for years, was my
favorite Star Trek episode,

and probably had
a great deal to do

with the fact that
she was in it.

Stephen: She wasn't just
an iconic Star Trek figure,

which a lot of people
are immediately drawn,

"Oh, I know who she is,"

but she was a
fine, fine actress.

Hank: What happened?

How did somebody
who was that good,

who lit up the screen like that

not have an endless career,

not have the kind of star career

that her star power
sort of justified?

Because there
really was something

kind of magical about her.

Stephen: And her
background, her history,

her whole life is fascinating.

Nina: Her father had remarried,

and he had children,

and the finances were just
not there to continue.

And when she first told me

she was going to be an actress,

I thought, "That's
interesting," .

That's so different

from what I would have expected

from her very
retiring personality.

David: I met Susan

in September 1950.

We were both going to The
Neighborhood Playhouse School

of the Theater in New York,

and we worked with Sandy
Meisner and Martha Graham.

We had people in class like

Joanne Woodward
and Steve McQueen,

Syd Pollack,

a lot of wonderful,
wonderful people,

so we got great training.

I thought she was terrific.

She was one of the
better ones in class.

James: It was a gang
of broke actors,

I mean the typical
quintessential story,

wait tables, do this,
do what you have to do

until you get
noticed and whatever.

Susan: I began spending my time

trying to figure
out a stage name

for I couldn't imagine seeing,

"Gable's back, and
Gercke's got him!"

on any billboard.

Monte: All of the time
she had in New York

in the early days,

that was all great work.

I do remember seeing the
earliest "Playhouse 90"

and the earlier New York shows,

and very little
that's ever done now,

a live performance or
something like that,

and she was a part of all that.

David: She also
came to Hollywood,

and we started to date,

and we had wonderful
times together.

Susan: I met a man
from Warner Bros.,

who said, "Susan, they're
casting a small film

"about a girl's
reform school called

"'The Green-Eyed Blonde."

"But I have blue eyes."

He said, "That's OK.

"They're shooting
in black and white."

Within one week of coming to
Hollywood for the first time,

I'd gotten the lead in a film.

Greeneyes: He's all
right, isn't he?

He's fat.

He's a lot better off than
he was when we got him.

He smiles all the time now.

Margaret: Greeneyes,
you can't keep him.

You know that, don't you?

John: And she
somehow, miraculously,

was being offered a seven-year

non-exclusive contract
by Warner Bros.

Paul Newman and Natalie Wood
were under contract to Warner's

and neither one of them

could get a
non-exclusive contract.

And Susan had only
done this one,

kind of almost a B-grade movie.

Greeneyes: Kiss me, Cliff.

Kiss me so hard we won't
even know there's a fence.

John: They did a lot of PR.

There was a lot of
things going on about it.

Susan: I was now being written
up in Louella Parsons' column

and escorted to big stars'
and producers' formal parties

and given publicity
buildup at the studios.

David: They were taking pictures
and she'd be on top of me,

and she'd be playing
with my hair,

and all that stuff
for the cameras,

which meant nothing.

Finally, the interview was over,

and she said to me,

"Whew!

"Thank God we're
through with that shit!"

She said, "shit!"

And she meant it.

She hated that sort of thing.

And I said, "Well, it's
all part of the game.

"The studio wants you to do it."

She didn't like doing all
that kind of phony publicity,

which you have to do when
you're a young starlet.

Nina: She was then playing
the leading role in

"Look Back in Anger,"

because Mary Ure
had left the cast,

and Susan took over the part.

Susan: In order to do the play,

I had to allow Warners
the right to call me back

with a two-week notice.

They did that now
for an opus called

"Up Periscope!"
with James Garner.

I read the script
and told them nicely,

"Up your periscope!"

Jon: Garner said
that "Up Periscope!"

was just another piece of crap
that Warner Bros. put him in.

You just had no choice.

You had to do whatever
they asked you to do,

and if you didn't, they
suspended you without pay

and added the time to
the end of your contract.

Lee: She wanted to do theater

and took the chance
and broke the contract.

John: No, you don't do that.

Jack Warner, he
picks up a telephone,

and it's just like
an underground cable

that goes almost to every studio
and everybody in Hollywood

that says, "Susan
Oliver is taboo."

Jon: By all accounts,
not just Garner's,

he was a nasty individual.

Even his brothers
couldn't stand him.

He was a vindictive person,

so it wouldn't surprise me
if he were somehow involved

in keeping her from working.

David: Whether he did or not,

he probably couldn't
have cared less.

He had so many actresses
and so many people.

I'm sure she never thought,

"I should never have done it.

"I should never have left."

I'm positive, knowing her.

Kathleen: That sounds
like her .

I probably would have
done the same thing.

Lee: No, I can see her doing it.

She was strong-willed

and wanted to do theater.

Theater was most important.

Kathleen: Actors like to
be in front of an audience.

There's nothing like being
in front of an audience.

Thomas: On paper, it
probably was good for her,

but professionally
for her movie career,

it hurt it.

In the early '60s, you
still needed a studio,

and she did have that
contract with Warner Bros.,

and I think that was
a mistake on her part

if she really wanted
to be a movie star.

Warner Bros. was very good about

getting their contract players
experience on television

but then also propelling them

to big-time movie roles.

Susan: Maybe I didn't
appreciate how rare it was

to get a movie contract

since I had gotten
mine so easily.

Maybe I just really
didn't feel comfortable

playing the game
side of Hollywood.

The studio gave me $8,000
worth of severance.

Soon thereafter, I was asked

to replace an
actress on Broadway

in an imported hit, "Patate."

We only lasted a week,

but I received a Theatre World
Award for Promising Newcomer

along with Larry Hagman.

At the presentation,
I looked up and saw

a small woman
beaming and waving.

"Congratulations, dear.

"I only came because
of you and Larry."

It was Helen Hayes.

I decided to heal the wounds
from the play's closing

and take my Warners
money and go blow it all

on a first trip to Europe.

On the return trip from Paris,

Gene Kelly helped me get a seat

on the supposedly full
Pan Am Boeing 707.

Michael: She's flying
across the Atlantic

at 30,000 feet from
Europe to New York,

and the plane suddenly takes
a dive down to 3,000 feet.

It was something where the
autopilot malfunctioned.

Clay: She said that the captain
was crawling on the aisle,

going from,

pulling himself
from seat to seat

to get back to the cockpit.

Dick: It leveled off, I guess,
at the very last second.

I said, "Boy, that must
have been pretty scary.

"What were you thinking

"when you thought you
were going to die?"

She said, "Well, I'm
ashamed to tell you."

Susan: I remember thinking,

"I can't go now.

"My billing will be lousy."

A headline flashed
in front of me,

"Big Commercial
Airline Disaster!

"Gene Kelly Killed!"

Then under "Other victims,"

my name listed alphabetically.

Dick: I said,
"You're about to die

"and all you're thinking
about is your billing?"

and she said, "Yes."

She said, "You must never
tell this story to anybody."

Nina: She said,

"Never again will I fly."

Clay: She didn't like
flying after that.

And I don't blame her.

Nina: You couldn't very well
have a career in the movies

if you didn't fly.

What were you going
to do, take a boat?

Susan: California now seemed

where my work and
home were to be,

so I gave up the
New York apartment.

And my mother also moved
out to the West Coast.

Lee: Once you've done
theater, a lot of theater,

and a big paying
job comes along,

you really can't blame her
for coming back to Hollywood

and being here to
get in on the money

that was being offered

Thomas: In "The Gene
Krupa Story," she
played sexy and a vamp.

Dorissa: Why don't we have
supper or breakfast or both

and get to like each other?

Gene: There happens
to be a girl.

Dorissa: There always is.

Gene: It's her birthday, and
we're celebrating it tonight.

Dorissa: Maybe if you
called her and asked,

"Pretty please?"

Thomas: In her next
movie, "Butterfield 8,"

she's the good girl,
jealous that her boyfriend,

Eddie Fisher, has more
interest in Elizabeth Taylor,

eliciting sympathy.

Norma: Just for the record,
what did happen to your dress?

Gloria: Well,
it's a funny thing.

One minute it was there,

the next minute it wasn't.

Norma: Much like your
virtue, I presume .

Thomas: She was
just so versatile,

and I think for TV,

she was sort of
like a chameleon,

and for television,
it was perfect.

Jay: Television was
really coming into its own

in terms of production values
and quality entertainment.

It was really almost as good
as the movies that you saw.

Hank: Growing up in the
late '50s, early '60s,

watched a lot of television.

I'd recognize the same
actor or actress appearing

many times in
different episodes,

and Susan Oliver was
somebody whom I remember.

Jay: When you saw the name
"Susan Oliver" in TV Guide

and you're with your family
and you're figuring out

what you're going
to watch that night,

you went with a
show that she was in

because you knew it was
going to be different, good.

Hank: There aren't that
many actors I can think of

that we remember so
much from guest spots.

Voiceover: Susan Oliver.

Voiceover: Susan Oliver.

Jay: You have Susan Oliver
who was almost always

on the first choice list
to be the female guest star

in these shows,

and by the nature of it,

she got some of these
incredible parts

that are part of pop culture.

Mark: There aren't too
many shows you can find

from the late '50s
to the mid-'70s

that she didn't appear in
at one time or another.

She plays a Russian
in "Ben Casey."

She did a "T.H.E. Cat" episode,

"The Outsider,"
"Johnny Staccato."

Johnny: Your father tried
to hire me. I thought that -

Barbara: I know.

He built a cage around
me, with a big sign,

"Don't touch!"

and nobody did.

Mark: I mean you
could just rattle off

100 different shows
and still have more

that you've forgotten.

Stephen: I was absolutely
bowled away in "The Lineup."

I thought, "OK, I
know her character

in her first two lines,"

and yet you watch
the whole progression

of the teleplay,

and good, bad, or indifferent,

she still does a performance.

Lori: Sounds
funny coming out of you.

Robert: I hope so.

Lori: What makes you so
much better than them, huh?

Robert: I didn't say
I was so much better.

Lori: But you think
it just the same!

Robert: Come on,
you want to fight?

Come on, put them up.

Lori: I don't think I'm
going to like you one bit.

John: She was stroking my head

as we were going through lines.

Her phone started ringing,

and I stopped

and looked to where
her phone was,

and I said, "Are you going
to answer the phone?"

And then she kind of
smiled, and she said,

"You know, that's the first time

"I've not answered
the telephone."

I was flattered
by that.

The telephone would be
ringing all the time,

but she'd be answering
it all the time,

and she would want to
do whatever it was,

and it was all mostly TV.

Leta: It's having
people look up to you,

and it's walking
down the street,

knowing that nobody is talking
about you behind your back.

Clay: What did those
Cartwrights do to you anyway?

Leta: They treated
me like a lady.

Nina: "The Twilight Zone."

Mark: I remember reading
in "The Twilight Zone" book

that Scott Zicree wrote,

if there were Martians,

they certainly wouldn't look
like Susan Oliver .

Cathy: Now men look at me,

makes me feel like someone new.

Preacher: I know, I've seen it.

Stephen: She was on
"Wagon Train" four times.

Judy: Did you ever see
a girl shoot so good?

Flint: Sure.

Judy: But not a pretty girl.

Jay: "Route 66" was a
very popular '60s show,

and she did some really
good dramatic work there.

Stephen: Susan was
in three of those.

She had one of her best
parts in one of them.

She played a woman with
a split personality

who has a romance
with Martin Milner,

and it's this big
meaty dramatic role.

Dr. Reisman: What if
you had floated away?

Claire: No please.

Dr. Reisman: Where do you
suppose you'd have gone?

Catalina?

Honolulu?

Inland?

Claire: I don't know.

Dr. Reisman: Pick a place.

Claire: I don't want
to pick a place!

I don't want to float away!

Stephen: She did an early
"Ozzie & Harriet" episode.

She played a junkie
on "The Nurses."

She was great in that.

Sarah: The key to the
fourth floor cabinet.

Lenny: Oh boy!

Sarah: I never used it!

I never touched anything
in the hospital!

Lenny, just this
once, this last time!

I'm going out of my skull!

Nina: She told me
she studied voice

with Maria Callas' teacher.

Lily: Sleep
all the night through

Go to sleep

Go to sleep

Close your eyes now and rest

Mark: She played so many
different characters.

Eliot: Maxie Schram
was killed last night.

Does that mean anything to you?

Roxie: Is that why
you dragged me in?

Bums like him get
knocked off every day.

I'm busy.

I've got some shopping to do.

Ursula: Are you going
to bodyguard me?

Or should I say,
"guard my body?"

Bess: I'm the only one
who wants to help him!

Josh: Yes, ma'am.

But would you please go home?

Shirley: Waited
'til you got back,

[waited some more
for connection],

Man, you flipped out?

You know how long
since I've had a fix?

I got to get straight,
Harry, like now.

Maria: You have to get
out of here before ...

before it's too late.

Linc: It's already
too late, Maria

You know it and I know it.

Maria: It, it can't be.

I have to marry Rance.

Stephen: She was on "The
Virginian" four times.

Bert: You're the one
who married me, honey.

Martha: Maybe that's because
I couldn't stand it either.

Kathy: Who is he, Mommy?

Ellen: He is an
old friend, Kathy.

Biff: Rawhide.

Rowdy: I guess you'll have
to come along with us.

Judy: Who needs you?

Rowdy: We're just
trying to help you out.

Judy: Help?

How do you think I
got in this mess?

Dick: Hitchcock.

Annabel: Please
try to understand.

You've been pretending
so long now,

you don't know what,

what's true anymore,

or what isn't.

David: Who are you?

Annabel: You know who I am.

David: Oh, of
course, now I know.

You're an imposter, aren't you?

You're one of Gerald's friends.

Peter:
People respected her

and then wanted her on the shows

because she could deliver.

Kitty: I'm not
impressing you, am I?

Nick: Yes.

Yes, you are.

Peter: She is really
one of the most

astounding consistently
good actresses

that worked in this business,

and she had a lot of qualities
that burst off the screen.

You liked her.

You believed her.

And she held that screen.

When the closeup was here,

she was thinking.

Gary: She wanted to be
associated with quality,

and you definitely got
that from her persona.

We had wonderful writers

who wrote that light,

those light moments for her,

and she pulled it off because
she was a good actress.

Burke: Are you sure
you didn't have a man

here with you tonight?

Janet: What for?

Burke: Do you smoke cigars?

Janet: Oh, I must have let it
go out in all the excitement.

Oh, what a
shame, no matches.

Oh goody.

Burke: Have you been
smoking cigars long?

Janet: Only since I
gave up pipes .

You see,

Daddy was very fond of
pipes and cigars .

Burke: I thought you
said you hated Daddy.

Janet: Hate, love,
hot, cold .

Gary: She was always
looking out through glasses

with those gorgeous eyes.

Even black and white,

there was color in her eye.

Monte: We all had lust in
our heart for Susan Oliver.

I mean she was very,
very dynamic, powerful,

always good in
everything she was doing.

Mark: She did an "Andy
Griffith" episode.

Stephen: She played a con
artist who sort of seduces

both Andy and the Deputy
Barney Fife separately.

She's able to act, but it also

emphasizes her sex appeal,
which was considerable.

Jan: And you're a deputy.

I should have guessed
from your star.

Deputy Barney Fife: Star?

Oh.

Oh, that.

Say,

it is shaped like a star.

Jan: And you wear it right
over your heart, don't you?

Deputy Barney Fife: Uh-hmm.

Mark: She played a great nut job

in several shows,
like "The Defenders."

Lawrence: Who yelled at you?

Anna: Daddy!

Daddy yelled at me!

And he, he,

he sent me away!

Mark: I think she was
great on "The Fugitive,"

the two-parter.

The story I heard was that
it was only supposed to be

a regular one-part episode,

but either the
producer or director

just fell in love with her

and made it into a two-parter.

Stephen: It was
one of the episodes

that kind of defined that show,

which is now considered one of
the best dramas of the '60s,

because she played
this tragic blonde

who falls in love
with Richard Kimble.

Karen: Stay a few more weeks.

Richard: All right.

A few more weeks.

Karen: Good.

Stephen: She's great in it.

That's her kind of part.

She's left alone looking off
sadly, wistfully at the end.

Mark: She was mainly

thought of as a TV actress.

I don't really think her
film career took off,

which I don't understand why.

Thomas: "Caretakers"
is interesting.

Joan Crawford made sure,

when there were scenes
with Diane and Susan,

that she didn't wind
up in a two-shot

or a three-shot with them,

and she would stand,
according to Diane McBain,

over to the left so the
camera was just on her,

or there was Robert Stack
with her in the scene,

but she made sure that
she was not sharing scenes

with the two pretty blondes.

And if you watch the movie,

there is rarely a scene where

they're all on the same frame.

Lee: And I've heard of actresses

who really didn't
want to

want to spend too much time

with someone
absolutely gorgeous.

Susan was that,

and she kept that
beauty for so long.

Thomas: Susan did sign a
contract in '63 with MGM,

but she deserved better
than playing second fiddle

to Connie Francis in a
musical, "Looking for Love."

John: One feature that Susan
did was "Your Cheatin' Heart"

with George Hamilton.

It was a very good part.

Jay: She completely was able to

assume the character as
it aged through the film.

That, to me, was
like an eye opener.

It was like, "My God,
this isn't just one of the

"starlets of the day."

I don't think you
could have seen

Tuesday Weld do that maybe,

or Diane McBain or any
of the other starlets.

Hank: The point is what I was,

I am and I always will be.

Audrey: You know, that's
the one tune of yours

that I am just sick
to death of hearing!

Just a poor country boy

dragging your heels all the way!

And when you get to the top,

you act like you sneaked
in the back door,

somebody going to throw
you out any minute!

Thomas: She gives a
fabulous performance,

and the critics
took notice of it,

but I don't think it did well.

It was a small picture.

I think that's why she
wasn't pushed by MGM.

When she got there in '63, '64,

the top two were Jane
Fonda and Yvette Mimieux.

What happened with
"Dr. Zhivago" was that

MGM produced it,

David Lean was the director,

and MGM was pushing Jane
Fonda first to star in it,

and then MGM started to push
Yvette Mimieux for the part.

The problem for Susan was

she should have been
mentioned for it,

especially when she was on
the contract to the studio

that was making
the motion picture.

I think after that,
they probably let her go

because MGM started to let
their contract players go

by '65 and '66.

Jay: The first Jerry Lewis movie

is I think the first
thing I saw her in,

"The Disorderly Orderly."

That was my first, like, "Wow!"

because he always had a
beautiful actress as a co-star.

It was not a comedy role.

She was playing a girl
with mental problems.

Hank: I don't think
it's a great movie.

I don't think it's a
great Jerry Lewis movie,

but she's fantastic.

Jerome: "I'm yours
if you want me,"

you said that.

Or didn't you?

Susan: Yes, I just said that.

Jerome: You said it
because you're grateful.

Susan: Yes, I am
grateful now, but

in time, I'll learn
to love you because

you're good and you're kind.

It won't be hard to love you.

Jay: America, at that time,

was very much in front of
their TV sets in the '60s,

I know, I grew up in that era,

more than going
out to the movies.

Gary: Three networks,
that was it.

And if you had a
fairly popular show,

you could get up there,

where you would have 45, 50%
of the audience on that night.

So if you went out
the following morning,

everybody had seen it.

Not like today,

there is a lot of
selections today.

Stephen: Nowadays,

it's sort of understood
that there's a continuity,

and if you're in season one of
"ER" playing some character,

then you might turn up
again in season eight

playing that character,

so you can't ...

once you've done
that, you're done.

But in the '60s, the
rule of thumb was

it was really once a year.

You could do a show once a year

and then you come
back the next year

playing a different character.

And it was just sort of thought

that audiences wouldn't
notice or care.

It wouldn't throw them.

It made sense because
these were good actors

and the producers liked
to bring them back,

and they wanted
to write for them.

"Adventures in Paradise"
was on for three seasons,

and she did one every year.

She was on "The
Virginian" four times.

So clearly, the producers
of these shows thought,

"Oh, this is perfect for Susan,"

or, "I'll look for
a script for Susan."

Mark: And apparently,

from everything that
I have heard and read,

she was easy to get along with,

easy to work with.

Everything was word of mouth,

and so she stayed very busy.

Stephen: "Peyton Place" was
an important show for her

because she was on it
for about five months.

Stephen: "Peyton Place"
was on four times a week.

It was that popular.

It was television's first
primetime soap opera.

Ann: There he was,

way down on the rocks,

and they were all looking
at me, and they were,

they were saying, "She did it!

"She did it!

Michael: Ann!

Ann: "She did!"

Stephen: When she
was a little kid,

she pushed this kid,

this other kid off a cliff,

and now he's grown
up and he's blind.

Allison: I didn't
know what to say.

Ann: How could you?

The girl you were so anxious
for Chris Webber to meet

turns out to be the
monster they all say

caused his blindness.

Stephen: I think most people
were really getting into her,

her drama.

Everybody was rather stunned

that she was written
out so quickly.

Stephen: And it does not
end well for her character.

Timathea: Well, my favorite
thing that she's done

is "Star Trek."

Vina: Perhaps they made me out
of dreams you've forgotten.

Capt. Pike: What,
and dressed you

in the same metal
fabric they wear?

Vina: Well, I have
to wear something,

don't I?

Larry: Yeah, it is
amazing to think

that millions of times
around the world,

for all these years,

Susan Oliver's face has
been the last thing you saw

when you watched
early Star Trek.

And that story about just
coming out with the crew there,

I mean it's 1964,

and you don't get to do that
kind of thing very often

in '64 television.

And for those guys,
in full living color,

to have the green girl just ...

That's hysterical,

talking about her reaction about

they were either leering
or afraid to leer.

And she gives it all,

and I know that the final edit

didn't even have
all of her dance.

I mean it got a little

not raunchier, by
today's standards,

but just a little
more animalistic.

And it's fascinating
now to learn

that Susan wasn't actually
a dancer by trade,

but she was a smart
and talented woman,

and a week of
choreography gave us

what we see on screen.

Voiceover: "The
Invaders" in color.

Roy: "Invaders" was '67, '68,

wherein I met Susan Oliver.

David: Your husband's
working for Midlands Academy.

Sooner or later, it
could get him killed.

Stacy: Darling, I don't
know what this is all about,

but if what he is saying is
true, then please stop now.

Roy: The secret of
working with good actors

is they make one another better,

more profound.

There is an understanding
of the material

that you may have missed,

a nuance,

and she never missed nuance.

And if it wasn't written,

it was in her eyes,

and that's magic.

That's why everyone
loves her eyes.

Joan: Oh, Andy.

We used to be friends
once, remember?

Roy: Obviously, a beautiful
face and a demeanor

that was off-putting.

I knew there was a
formidable person there.

Joan: A case without
much evidence,

but we have a great
deal of outrage

over the death of
a beloved senator,

and you want me to help
you make that case,

don't you, Andy?

Roy: Quinn Martin hired the
best of every department.

Stephen: Quinn Martin always
paid top dollar for actors.

He believed in production value.

He did more location shooting

than most shows did at the time.

He liked to use the
same actors again

and had really set ideas
for who should play

what kind of role.

One way that was important
to Susan was that

he had a lot of
shows on the air.

Voiceover: A Quinn
Martin production.

Gary: I think my attitude
would have been with her

that she was in here
doing this role.

Now why isn't she
doing a series?

Mark: There were
very few actresses

who were that prolific

who didn't get a regular series.

Gary: She's beautiful.

She is extremely well equipped.

She's intelligent.

But where is her shot?

Voiceover: Susan
Oliver does not believe

that a series spells success

for a young and
aspiring actress.

She has turned down no
less than three of them.

Susan: I had to do a
lot of soul-searching.

What are the reasons
for a series?

First, to make money.

Second, to be known.

But it takes you out of the
movie and theater arena.

I decided I had plenty of
time to do a series later.

Lee: She turned it down.

That is surprising.

Celeste: Being a series regular,

that was not the big deal.

Having that guest starring
role, it meant you were a star,

wheras if you were
stuck playing one role

on a television series,

you were exactly that.

You were stuck!

Lee: I did a series for
seven years, "Barnaby Jones,"

and that took up
a lot of my time,

and I wasn't able to do
anything else but that.

John: They wanted to offer
me a series, "The Aquanauts,"

a bunch of guys underwater.

I didn't want to do
just TV.

I wanted to do good movies.

Kathleen: She didn't want to
ever be locked into anything.

She didn't want
to be controlled.

Celeste: She was
in the catbird seat

as being the perfect guest star

that went from show
to show to show.

Lee: You could work a
short period of time,

get a lot of exposure
in television

with just a few days'
effort of working.

You could almost do
one every other week.

Dick: I don't think I
set her for any films

when I represented her.

It was all television.

But she just worked constantly.

When we'd have lunch
at a restaurant,

boy, people would
walk up to her,

"Can I have your autograph?

"I saw you in this,

"I saw you in that."

I thought she's so
recognizable and so well-liked

and so well-respected
both within and outside

of the industry

that I thought, "Why didn't
anybody ever move her

"onto the big screen?"

Voiceover: Had she
taken the TV series,

it would have meant half a
million dollars to the agency.

Her agents proceeded
to take revenge.

Two directors asked
her why she turned down

parts in their movies.

Susan didn't even
know about the roles

and would have been
quite interested.

Gary: Was there something
actually beneath her

that she should have done

that would have given
her more notoriety?

Susan: I found myself
doing a terrible film

called "The Love-Ins."

I turned it down flat at first,

but the director
and James MacArthur,

who was an old friend,

had come to my house bearing
flowers and champagne

and promises from the
producers that it would be done

with taste and empathy.

David: We all take on things,

and we feel that,

"Well, the script's
not very good,

"but I'll make
something of the part."

It never works.

It never works.

If the script is not
there, forget it.

Forget it.

Thomas: Her LSD freakout
scenes is a standout.

The movie is not.

Larry: For your own
good, put down the LSD.

John: She's really doing
this kind of weird dance,

and her long blonde hair,
she's throwing it all over.

I think that was, like,
shocking, in a way,

because I didn't see that.

Susan always kept
it kind of cool,

the good scout girl,

and that's how she really was,

but that was something
sensual and disturbing.

Jay: It was amazing.

And the picture was in color,

and it did have at least
good production values.

But I can't remember her
looking more beautiful

than she did in that sequence.

Thomas: It's kind
of sad, on one hand,

to see that she was
reduced to doing that.

On the other hand, she
was in her late 30s,

and she was playing
a college girl,

and she looked in her early 20s.

Lee: Susan had a
lightness to her,

a sweetness that she appeared
younger than she was.

Artemus: You're very beautiful.

Triste: That's
what they tell me.

Dr. Ferris: The fact
that she had to play

those younger roles
for so much longer than

one would think
would be appropriate

is an indicator of the fact that

there just weren't other roles.

There weren't middle roles
for middle-aged women

that she could play.

Susan: The night of
our wrap party at MGM,

I went alone to an
empty sound stage

and sat there in the dark

and wept over lost dreams
and compromised principles.

Thomas: A lot of
these, Yvette Mimieux,

Sue Lyon, Carol Lynley,

they were all up for
"Bonnie and Clyde."

Their names are mentioned
for "Rosemary's Baby,"

"The Graduate."

Susan's name never comes
up for those big roles,

and I think it's because

without signing that
contract early on

in the early '60s, late '50s,

it did really hurt her.

She's just as talented
as those actresses

and should have been
considered for those big roles,

but she just didn't have
the backing of the studios.

And by the late '60s, with
the studio systems collapsing

and her doing a
lot of television,

her name meant nothing
at the box office.

She headed for TV.

Linda: Thank you.

Clute: [And then I might
get to be warden, Kate].

Kate: It takes a
fox to be warden.

Pig's too dumb.

Lee: Because she was able
to change her persona,

Susan went from one to the
other to the other to the other.

Dan: Two men are
dead because of you.

Don't you understand that?

Leona: But that
was all a mistake!

I never meant for it to
work out that way at all.

Blanche: Well, you're
something special.

Hannibal: So are you.

Nicola: You're late.

Carter: Late for what?

Ellie: What's love like, Mama?

Virginia: You're asking me?

Ellie: Why, you've been
in love, haven't you?

Virginia: Only once.

Mark: She would have hit 40

by the early '70s,

and she still kept
working a decent amount

until mid-'70s, I'd say.

Chas. Floyd: There
was no denying

when I would watch
her work on screen,

either in film or television,

why she was successful
as an actress.

Father Samuel: I want to
know all about Jeff Carter.

Fran: Everything, I'll
tell you everything

I know about him.

Father Samuel: Where
did he get his money?

Fran: Except that.

Father Samuel: Oh!

Thomas: She wound up
in independent movies

earlier than her counterparts.

Barbara: You were
going to shoot him!

Col. Stutz: To keep him from
falling into enemy hands!

Max: This is my stop.

Col. Stutz: You're
not going anywhere!

You both know too much.

Barbara: Well, you told us!

Stephen: She did have
a great canon of work.

Even when the scripts
aren't that good,

or even the photography
might not be that flattering,

she comes across very
good as an actress.

Margaret: Goddamn it, David!

What do you want me to do?

Do you want me to
take an aphrodisiac?

Do you want me to get stoned?

Do you want me to walk into
your bed under hypnosis?

David: Have I been wallowing
in my own self

Margaret: Sinking!

Stephen: Sometimes,
they are overlooked

because they're
in weak projects.

Isabel: After all, my
brother's an attractive man.

Dolores: Carlos must go!

Isabel: But why do you have
to make such a big fuss,

just because a poor widow had a-

Carmen: She was a virgin!

Isabel: What?

Stephen: Navarro failed
as a director in that

sometimes when you
have great actors

and you let them have their way,

they can go over the top.

Susan is almost the
only one that is

not giving a performance

but being a character.

She does a wonderful
job in that film.

I do remember
Patricia telling me

Susan would look at
her mother, Ruth,

and "Is this scene,

"Did I do that scene OK?'

She did direct Susan
to a certain amount.

Timathea: I wonder if
Ruth was jealous of Susan

because Susan was so
beautiful and was so talented

and was having all these
really amazing opportunities,

and Ruth wanted to have
that spotlight on her.

Stephen: Her mother
was a very important

Los Angeles,
Hollywood astrologist.

Michael: She made most
of her money that way.

Timathea: I would think she
probably used Susan's fame

to help her business.

Voiceover: Sue Oliver and
her mother, Mrs. Oliver,

who is hidden there,

a wonderful woman.

John: Her mother being a
major Hollywood astrologer

and in touch with
everybody in the industry,

there's nothing wrong for
them to be on close contact,

but it did seem a little
excessive somehow.

Biff: Her mother was an
overwhelming influence

in Susan's life.

Timathea: My family put
out my birth announcement

with no date on it

because they didn't want
her reading my charts

and setting up my life
for me before I had even

had a chance to live it.

And I know that she did
this for Susan frequently,

and I've heard a lot
of stories about her

from my grandmother, her sister,

which are not necessarily
beautiful stories .

Biff: Her looks
matched her demeanor,

a shriveled old bag.

I couldn't stand her .

Library Ghost:

Ghostbusters:

David: She was a lovely lady,

and she called me and
invited my wife and I over,

and she made her this chart
for Alexandra, my daughter,

which was quite good,
very interesting.

She was a very clever woman.

Biff: And she adored her mother.

She just worshipped her.

I couldn't believe that,

that this sunshine person
would like this cloudy day.

James: The circumstances
of Susan's early childhood

with a single mother and
strained economic resources

were very unstable,

and they would bounce
around from place to place.

Joan: Do you really think
I have illusions about her?

That I invented memories
that never happened?

Sweet nothings?

Me, walking down the street
in a little white frock,

with Momma holding
me by the hand?

James: It undoubtedly created
a certain bond between them

that I think explains the
nature of their relationship.

Timathea: And I think a lot
of Susan's self-confidence

or lack of self-confidence

was probably because of the way

that her mom treated her.

Carol: I don't feel
very lovely, Vera.

I just had a
session with Mother.

Timathea: I was at her home
down here in Los Angeles

in the living room, in the dark,

in a dark corner,

and Ruth walked
in to the kitchen.

And Susan motioned
for me to be quiet,

Ursula:
Don't make a sound!

Timathea: And they just kind
of talked across the room,

and then Ruth went
up to go to sleep,

and then Susan continued
the conversation with me.

Biff: You can't
control your daughter

unless you live there.

I mean no, she was ...

omnipresent.

Mike: When I was over
the house a few times,

she'd come in there, and I mean

she'd sit down in
the conversation,

and I mean took it over.

I didn't even come
over to see her.

Ron: When they clashed,

they clashed.

Timathea: I do remember
Susan being very angry

of Ruth taking over
certain parts of her life

and really stepping in places

that she should not
have been stepping in.

Michael: To give you
a feel for the thing,

Susan had some gold stock,

and her mother sold it.

And when Susan
found out about it,

she was just incensed.

Ann: I want to know the
reasons, all the reasons,

Mother.

Biff: So steering
Susan's life away from,

I don't know,

romance and goddamn fun!

Nancy: Somewhere along the line,

a mutual friend said,

"You know, Susan's a pilot."

And I said, "A pilot?

"What do you mean a pilot?

"You mean like flying, a pilot?"

And she said, "Yeah.

"She's quite amazing."

Voiceover: A high-flying
TV and film actress,

Susan Oliver makes
final preparations

for a daring light plane
solo flight to Moscow.

Peter: Oh my God!

I never knew that.

Roy: A treacherous trip crossing
the Atlantic in the North.

Lee: Wow!

Peter: How brave!

Susan: In 1964, an old friend,

Hal Fishman, called.

He'd just gotten his
private pilot's license.

Clay: Hal was a fabulous guy,

and he really liked Susan.

Susan: I found myself
at Santa Monica Airport

in front of my
first light plane.

I literally threw myself
prone in front of it, crying.

Hal stuffed me in
the right seat.

I clenched the arms of
the seat, galvanized.

We took off.

It was beautiful.

The next day, I drove
out to the airport

and plunked down my $625
for the complete course

leading to private pilot.

Nina: She went to a hypnotist
about her fear of flying,

and

it's my personal feeling

that she was really
over-hypnotized

because not only did she
no longer have that fear,

but she felt she had to fly.

Clay: She was a good pilot.

She caught on real quick.

I mean she didn't toot
her own horn too much.

She just tried to do it.

And I believe that if
she could have traded

her acting career to being
a professional pilot,

she might have made the switch.

James: The flying
community is pretty tight,

so there was a lot
of reinforcement

when you did these things

and a lot of encouragement.

Skip: As opposed to
acting, which was kind of

clawing and tough.

Michael: I often
wondered whether

when the acting
roles didn't come in,

the really good ones,

that she just naturally went
to where she found herself

having more fun and
more challenges.

Susan: I came across an article

about a dashing Czechoslovakian

who was an ace pilot as
well as having won air races

and done competition aerobatics.

He was also a champion
hydroplane racer.

His name was Mira John Slovak.

The photo showed he
had dark good looks.

Clay: I really liked
Mira because he ...

He's done some
crazy damn things.

Susan: In 1953, he
defected to the West

by hijacking a Czech
Airlines C-47 Dakota.

He and three friends
knocked out the pilot

and locked the cockpit door.

I thought I'd like
to meet the man.

Preparation for the 1966
Reno Celebrity Air Race

became a good excuse to do that.

Mira: And then I got a
call, and I called her,

she called me, and
we got together.

Susan: As for the
400-mile cross-country

Celebrity Air Race,

James Franciscus came in first,

with me next by only
a couple of seconds.

I had been in the
lead most of the way,

but my partner gave me a
wrong heading near the end.

He apologized profusely,
but I didn't mind.

I was still of the school
that held a man should win.

Mira: It was very unusual
because she kind of really

devoted herself to flying,

which, from my point of
view, I admire her for it.

Michael: They were buddies
because of the flying,

but there's more
to the relationship

than just flying.

Mira: Being with her,

we always had nothing
but lots of laughs.

Hal suggested, "Why
don't you go to Moscow

"for the film festival?"

and even added, "Why
don't you fly there?"

And she came to me and she said,

"Would you mind to help me?"

I said, "I have flown
Atlantic before,

"so I'm more than happy.

"But we're going
to do it one way.

"It's going to be my way."

Susan: He is a severe,
almost angry task master.

Absolutely no girlish
excuses or tears are allowed.

Mira: I flew with her from
Houston to Los Angeles

in a thunderstorm,

and she want to keep going.

I said, "Susan, there is no way,

"no way we're going go
through the thunderstorm."

So that gave me indication

she was so anxious to do it

that her safety and common sense

have been pushed on the side.

Who was pushing?

If the company was
pushing who sponsored her

or if she was pushing,

probably she.

"I want to do it,
I want to do it,"

because she was a
very determined lady.

Dr. Caldwell: I hope she wasn't

pushed into flying across
the Atlantic

for Rockwell or to
impress her boyfriend.

Michael: And they weren't
really particularly

interested in helping
her do the job,

just as long as they
could get her out there

on the Atlantic,

and then whatever
happened would be news.

Mira: It was a wrong time,
wrong dates to fly Atlantic,

beginning of wintertime.

If she had a problem,
if she went down,

in these days, Atlantic is mean.

Michael: You can't survive
in the North Atlantic water

for more than 54 seconds.

Mira: Many, many people
never made the Atlantic.

And when they said
that she is ready,

I said, "No, she is not ready."

Michael: Coming from
a Navy background

where safety was paramount

and then seeing what she
was going to go through

as a novice kind of panicked me.

Mira: She had the touch,
she had the feelings for it,

but she didn't have
any experience,

and Atlantic takes
lots of experience.

Michael: Anyone working
with Susan at the time

could have been so upset
by her trying to do this

with the lack of
experience she had.

If they cared about it,

they would be trying to
tell her not to do it.

And if she was just going
to go ahead and do it,

they would just say, "I
can't deal with it anymore,"

and walk away from it.

Susan: There is a new mix-up
regarding the departure date

because of the Russians.

I call Mira to tell him.

"I have to come
East now," I plead.

"Then I wash my hands of
the whole thing!" he shouts.

"Go kill yourself by yourself!"

He slams the phone down.

Those are his last words.

Mira: I must have
hurt her feeling,

but I wouldn't
have the conscience

to say, "Go ahead."

Michael: I could see she
was really distressed,

maybe, "Why am I doing
this?" kind of thing,

"but I can't get out of it.

"Too much is in motion already."

Voiceover: It's her first
trip of any length over water.

She'll make seven
stops between New York

and the Russian capital

while attempting to
set speed records.

Susan: I was functioning
in a sort of fog,

compounded by my
eagerness to be off.

The media people were there
too, waiting in the rain.

Lots of goodbyes and good lucks.

I let the engine warm

then turned and waved
to the group in the rain

and taxied slowly away,

moving towards my
appointment with Destiny.

Michael: The thing about
the flight that stunned me

was her approach into Greenland

and how she was committed
to go in there in the fog

and there was no other option.

She had to do it.

Dr. Caldwell: She
could see the wrecks of

three or four other airplanes
that had crashed there.

One of them had crashed
just only a few weeks,

I think, before
she flew in there.

Michael: And the mere fact
that she could do that

showed me this woman
had nerves of steel.

Dr. Caldwell: To get
out, she had to take off

and then make a circling climb,

stay within the walls of
that , not hit those,

and then go up
through that overcast.

Susan: There is such
absolute reality here.

No clanging civilization,
no Hollywood,

no background music
or script to save you,

no discordant or
phony relationships,

only yourself and
your own challenge.

Dr. Caldwell: Coming into
Scotland, she iced up

and she was losing
altitude because the plane

was loaded up with ice.

Fortunately, she
got into warmer air.

Ray: And she had
to land in Denmark

because the Russians
refused her airspace.

Susan: All I want to do
is fly my little plane

and get away from
the hocus-pocus

of either Hollywood or politics.

I just want to be
left alone to be,

to be free,

even to feel stupid,

which is how I feel now.

Arriving at JFK in New York,

I again meet some press.

Only this time, it's
just one photographer

for I have not
arrived in triumph.

He keeps insisting I hike up
my skirt higher above my knees.

Did they ever ask Lindbergh
to bare his biceps?

Monte: I talked to her shortly

after she didn't
make it to Moscow,

I had read it in the paper,

and I had located her and
called her, got somehow in,

and she was
heartbroken about that.

But she was tough.

Meredith: Anyone that
would break world's records

and fly solo halfway
around the world

has got to be independent

in some of the other
things that you've done.

And yet you say that you
actually took up flying

and made this course for a man,

who then, when you get back,

turns out not to be there or
not to be a part of your life.

Susan: I thought he'd just be
proud of me, but he wasn't.

Mira: I cannot say .

No, that would be a
wrong thing to say.

I would say we disagree

and probably she was a
hothead and I was a hothead,

and we clashed.

Ron: We were drinking from
a bottle of wine .

And then she said, "Yeah,
that asshole broke my heart."

Mira: I didn't want
to hurt her feelings.

I just disagree.

And why she didn't let it
go, I have no slightest idea.

Jean: Boy, do I have
lousy luck with my men.

Ron: That was the last time

she was going to
have anything to do,

she basically said,

to do with men.

Jay: I've seen so much
writing on the Internet

everybody asking because
she never got married

what her preference was.

My experience was that
every time I saw her,

she was with a man.

David: I don't think
she was gay at all.

I think she was
very heterosexual.

Michael: She got to know
a lot of baseball players.

I think she even
dated Mickey Mantle,

and she dated other people.

Rev. Rosey Grier: I asked
her could I take her,

buy her a hotdog or hamburger.

To my amazement, she
said yes .

This was a time when

blacks and whites
didn't mingle that much.

She had no problem with
mingling with anybody.

She was just a wonderful woman.

Biff: It was about
1:30 in the morning and

I just decided to knock
on her front door.

She said, "Yeah?"

And I said, "I want
to sleep with you."

She said, "What?"

I said, "No, I'm serious.

"I just want to be able to say,

"I slept with Susan Oliver.

"We don't have to have sex.

"I just want to sleep with you."

So she said, "Come on in."

Michael: The first
time we visited her

at her house in Laurel Canyon,

she surprised us by
saying she had a friend

that was coming to
visit and take us out,

and this young
gorgeous man came up

and put us in his
Bentley and drove off,

and it was George Hamilton.

Dick: I met Kathy and then
we later became married,

and Susan was the maid
of honor at our wedding.

She showed up with Sandy Koufax,

and it was
kind of distracting

because of all the people
that were at the wedding,

Robert Stack and Carolyn
Jones and Aaron Spelling,

the person who got the
most attention

was Sandy Koufax.

Michael: The relationship
with Sandy Koufax

was far more serious than any
of the others that she had

as far as we know.

Susan: A love story, oh goody!

Does it have a happy
ending, Doctor?

Dr. Davenport: I don't know.

It isn't over yet.

Nina: She told me
something about

her not being Jewish
being a big negative

in his eyes.

Ron: I don't think
it had anything to do

with her not being Jewish.

I think it's Susan being Susan.

Janet: I'm sorry
I'm late, Captain,

but you can't have lunch
and break your engagement

all in a half hour.

Ron: She didn't want to
be your little flower.

She was her own flower.

Judy: I'm not most ladies.

Gil: I agree, I agree.

Ron: The way she brushed it
off was, "That macho guy."

Paul: I told you I can't
stand a smart aleck broad.

Ron: Because no matter what
a guy can call himself to be,

"Oh, I'm for women's lib,"

Susan would have
tested him on it.

Cowboy: You're a wild one.

Cathy:

Ron: It wasn't like she
didn't want to get married

and not have children.

She just couldn't
find the right person.

And to be honest with you,

I don't think there weren't too
many right people back then.

James: She had plenty of
opportunities to marry,

plenty of proposers,

and no one met
whatever standard,

perhaps an impossible standard

that she evaluated them by.

Dick: I think you have the
makings of a pretty good wife.

Why don't you want
to get married?

Judy: Maybe I've seen too
many married men and women.

Michael: Susan may have
had the feeling that

she didn't want something
that stand in the way

of her acting career,
like marriage.

But I believe, and
my mom believes,

that she really
wanted to get married.

Jan: What's wrong
with getting married

and having your career?

Libby: You can't have both.

Michael: Maybe it was
her acting career,

maybe it was her mother.

Timathea: I think the reason

that she never ended up marrying

was because her mom
talked her out of it.

Mira: She was a very quiet lady.

She was very pleasant,
everything else,

but I think that
an airline pilot

was not good enough for Susan,

that's what I thought.

Timathea: That either the
guy wasn't good enough

or something Ruth would
do to make Susan feel like

the relationship was not going
to be in her best interests.

Susan: I called Mira and said,

"I thought we could get together
and at least say hello."

He said icily, "Can't
you understand?

"I don't want to see you again!"

and slammed down the phone.

I sobbed some and drank some

and then did both
at the same time.

All the pretty pop
songs of my childhood

had promised happily ever after.

Somehow I got
myself to Universal,

where I met with a
producer and director

of Darren McGavin's new
series, "The Outsider."

In wardrobe, as they
fitted me for a bikini,

I was painfully
aware of the ribs

on my now 90-pound frame.

Diane: You're lonely.

David: No.

I'm alone.

There's a difference.

Diane: There's no
difference, David.

I know.

You're alone, you're lonely.

Voiceover: Shame on Hollywood
for not giving Susan Oliver,

one of their own,

the recognition she deserves
for her brave flight.

This is a town where
they pay many tributes

to dubious achievements
of negligible worth,

but did they honor her?

No.

Not even with a
sandwich named after her

at Junior's Delicatessen.

Nina: And I think that
she may have even enjoyed

being with people

like herself who loved to fly

more than some of the people
that she was working with

in Hollywood.

Michael: She was one
of the first women

to fly the Learjet, I believe.

Clay: Susan was very
interested in the Lear,

and I think Bill Lear
wanted her to fly it.

Michael: I know that she's
been up with Air Force pilots.

Anytime Susan
could get her hands

on any airplane or
flight simulator,

she was there.

Nina: She won five world
records in flying light planes.

Margaret: And I
was always amazed

that she could have
as demanding a career

as acting and still be
such an accomplished pilot.

I had tried desperately to get
a sponsor for the air race,

called on Maidenform
Bra ,

on a lot of companies
who I thought might

be good choices for the
editorial publicity.

Then I thought, "Aha!

"I think I'll find Susan Oliver

"and see if she would
consider going."

Well, not only did
she want to go,

she said, "Oh, I can
get us a sponsor."

She made one phone call and
boom, we had Virginia Slims.

Clay: She and Susan
were a good team,

a very good team because
they were both serious.

Margaret: It was a cross-country
air race for women only.

Her mother did, at certain
times, tell her not to fly.

Clay: Because of
astrology or something,

there are certain days that
maybe she shouldn't go flying.

Margaret: That bothered
me a lot in the beginning.

I thought, "Oh my goodness.

"What are we going to do if
I think the winds are right

"and we need to go now?"

But it turned out
it was no problem.

She was very good.

It was extremely important
that you had a partner

who was totally accurate with
their pinpointing navigation,

and I enjoyed her.

She was quite a person.

Michael: When she won
the Powder Puff Derby,

she went on to The Tonight
Show with her trophy

and showed it,

and it was obvious
that Johnny Carson

was not impressed with the
Powder Puff Derby or the trophy.

I felt it was very
unfortunate for her

that she even was put
in that situation.

Susan: I'd flown
conventional aircraft,

even across the Atlantic.

But now, this 60-mile
jaunt in a soaring machine

suddenly worried me.

Dr. Caldwell: She was
an excellent pilot

and a very quick
study on the Glider.

Susan: Remarkable, really.

I mean for an engine pilot,

it's incredible.

Instructor: OK, now-

Susan: Wow.

Whoo!

Instructor: When we
work these things,

there are several things-

Dr. Caldwell: She really
just expressed the feeling

that you would get the first
time you have the controls

all by yourself when
you're alone in the Glider.

It really wasn't acting
when she was flying

because I think she
really did enjoy that.

I know she had a lot of fun
while she was out there.

Clay: She didn't have a real
happy life, I don't think.

Like all of us, I
think a lot of people

aren't real, real happy,

but you get happy by
doing something you enjoy,

and I think flying
made her happy.

Susan: I found soaring
to be a kind of

miraculous wedding of
freedom and discipline.

It was kind of like
a Bach concerto.

There is a rigid form to it,

and yet within that strict form,

there breathes a
passion and a beauty.

Clay: She asked
me if she could go

with me on an
airline commercial,

and I took her one time,

and boy, she loved that,

seeing that big airplane real
close to us all the time.

I remember her saying
something about,

"I really enjoy this
movie work" .

Stephen: I think she had
such eclectic desires

where she wanted
to go with her life

that sometimes right
when good things

were about to happen
in her career,

she would walk away from it.

And I find this with a lot
of creative individuals,

people who are very, very
good in what they do.

Sometimes they don't look
at the whole picture,

and they do sabotage
their work by walking away

or changing direction.

Charlie: Other things become
more important to you than me!

Your social work,
your political causes,

activities!

Stephen: She wanted to do more

than what was offered.

Paula: You're right.

It isn't much fun for me.

I want ...

Mike: What?

What do you want?

Paula: More.

Stephen: It's very difficult
for a woman even today

to work outside of acting.

Susan: I'm Susan Oliver,

and I like being a woman,

but enough is enough!

Women, since the
beginning of civilization,

have been thought of
as passive, fragile,

the weaker of the sexes.

Nancy: If you're a woman
in the 20th century

or the 21st century,

you don't have a lot
of areas where you can

have your ego expand.

Susan: The first thing to
do to overcome these fears

is to understand
ourselves, our interests,

our capabilities.

Find out what we
really want to do

and then set out to do it.

Chas. Floyd: I think
she didn't really put

any limitations on who she was.

I really don't
think she did that.

I think it was like if it's
there and I want to try it,

why not?

Jay: It would be
perfectly OK for men

to go into directing,

like so many of them
have, like Clint Eastwood,

Robert Redford,

but women, it would
be considered, like,

"Yeah, right."

Gary: For a woman
to direct a film

would be like a woman playing
professional football.

That's how bad it was.

Bill: All right, Betty, would
you continue now with Ruth?

Betty: As a child, my
daughter wanted to be ...

Ruth: A Marine.

Stephen: She must have
been tired of being given

the same roles over
and over again.

Monte: For guys,
the roles are there.

You're always working.

Always, you're working.

And for women,

"Yeah, I'm always doing
the same damn thing."

Nancy: My intelligence
was far beyond

what I was getting to say,

and it was harder
and harder to make,

"Here's your coffee, honey,"

sound like something
out of Ibsen.

Stephen: That's the point
where you sort of hit,

hit the career
point and you think,

"What am I going to do now?"

Because I may have been
making a good living

as an actress at 30,

but now when I'm 40 going on 45,

you might want to
have a backup plan,

even if you're one
of the top actors.

Monte: An actor hasn't
a lot of control,

and I said, "Directing,
it seems like

"you would have a
better shot at it,"

and she said, "I'm
working on that."

Ron: She was changing.

She no longer wanted
to be recognized

as that blue-eyed blonde

that everybody can
fall in love with.

"I want to be recognized as
an intelligent human being."

She wanted to direct.

She wanted to write.

Chas. Floyd: She was
almost a maverick

in terms of wanting to
do that at that time.

They weren't a lot
of women directors.

Gary: I don't think I ever
worked with a woman director.

David: Did I ever work
for a woman director?

Peter: Rare.

Nancy: No, it never
occurred to me

that a woman could direct.

Never.

I mean we just always
visually saw men.

Susan: When I'm told a
woman can't do something,

I must prove them wrong.

Gary: Most actors are really
highly creative people,

and the acting part
never fulfills that.

I don't care who you are.

Why Brando ended up
being a wacko, I think,

because I think he
was a creative person,

but you're not creating
up on that screen.

You're a performer.

And when you're an artist,

you get to do art
whenever you want.

I can go over there
and finish my painting

or start a new one.

I can do it tonight if I want.

I can't do that as an actor.

I got to wait on a
whole series of people.

I got to wait on an agent,

and I got to wait on the lawyer,

and then I got to
wait on the producer,

and then I got to
wait on the studio.

Timathea: The directing was what

she was really excited about

because I think she
had a creative vision

for where she wanted
to take things,

and she would get very
excited about her projects.

I can remember
when I visited her

seeing boxes filled
with notes and ...

Jan: Tables had books
and papers and objects,

and obviously, she was
a person just involved

in many, many, many things.

Biff: She told me
that she had signed up

for that woman directorship
program at AFI,

and I said, "That's wonderful.

"It's about time, Susan."

She said, "Yes, it is.

"I just hope it's time now."

Jan: It was very hard to
get a whole crew together

and make the calling
card that they could show

a potential backer or studio
that they had directing talent.

Ron: She was saying,

"What do you think about me
having a Japanese cowboy?"

First, I told her, I said,

"You're out of your mind,
but it can work" .

Biff: And then she asked me
to be in this production.

I was so flattered,

especially with the cast,

with Will and Woody and Ted.

Kathleen: We knew so many people

that we would get them involved,

and we did.

Everybody had somebody or
two somebodies in their film.

Tom: Will Sampson,

this guy was just
larger than life.

He had been in "One Flew
over the Cuckoo's Nest."

Ted Cassidy was on
"The Addams Family."

Heroine/Wife: Get me down!

Get me down, please!

Baddie: Sorry, ma'am.

Heroine/Wife: Help, help!

Ron: So she was offbeat with
her little things, you know.

Like back then, people would go,

"Whoa!

"What the heck is this?"

But you look at it today,

it fits in.

She was definitely in charge,

there is no mistake about that.

And when she finished it,

she was proud.

Chas. Floyd: I admired her
so for wanting to do it

and getting it done

and adding one more notch
on the belt in her resume.

That was just who Susan was.

Susan: I think what counts is
taking charge of your life.

I know who I am, what I
am, and where I'm going,

and I love it.

Ron: She had agents
that would beg her,

"Take this.

"Maybe you can get in
and get a directing job."

That was a lot of
money back then,

to be a guest star.

And she'll go, "I
don't want that."

That takes a lot of guts.

She started taking roles
that were worthwhile.

Snookie: Yeah, I'll do it.

Paul:
Snooki:

Paul: Thanks, doll!

That's my girl!

Susan: My agent said
that there was this part

on a daytime show,

and I said, "Thanks
but no, thanks."

Next thing I knew,

I was over at NBC under those
hot lights and explaining,

"I just came by to see what
daytime is all about, folks,

"but I'm not here to stay."

David: Early on in
my career, I said

"I would never do a soap.

"A soap?

Are you kidding?"

Lee: Oh !

Soap opera then,
"Oh, soap opera."

Voiceover: "Days of Our Lives"

added a touch of class this fall

with the appearance
of Susan Oliver

as psychiatrist
Dr. Laura Horton.

Exactly 134 actresses
were up for the part,

but they were no
match for Susan.

David: You're at a certain age,

and you know that
you can handle it

because of your
theater experience.

Lee: It's a phenomenal challenge

that every actor should
have to face at least once.

Voiceover: Susan Oliver
has asked for and received

her release from her
continuing role in NBC's

"Days of Our Lives" in
order to spend full time

on the motion picture
property, "Yellow Bird,"

which she has developed.

She will also produce
and star in the film.

Susan: I want to make films.

Do you realize that in my
18 years in the business,

I've never worked
with a woman director?

When I went to the Cannes
Film Festival last summer,

I used the money
from selling my plane

to buy the rights to a novel.

And now I'm writing
the screenplay myself.

Ron: They probably just wanted
her to sit on the wayside

and just take producing credits
while they hire a writer,

get a director.

I think that's what happened.

She withdrew the project

because I know she
still had the rights.

Skip: I remember her
talking about that,

that try as hard as she could,

there was really nobody.

There were no openings.

Michael: Susan had a lot
of financial obligations.

She invested well.

She had a lot of real estate.

Ron: When I met her,
she had nine properties,

and she was renting
the houses out,

and she was doing
the work herself.

Biff: When I rented a
cottage, a guest house,

this was in the
front of her mansion

up the circular brick drive.

It was across a little bridge,

and there was a creek that
ran through Laurel Canyon.

I was impressed by the estate.

Ron: She started trusting
real estate partners,

people that I wouldn't trust,

and she signed contracts,

and it was very sad.

I remember one day she
called and she said,

"I lost practically
all of my houses."

James: It was almost
day-to-day, hand-to-hand,

kind of hand-to-mouth
kind of stuff.

Ron: She was living
off of the house.

Biff: But I heard about
the bridge washing away.

It was a sturdy bridge .

Ron: You couldn't
take the car across.

It was dangerous.

But she finally scrapped
some cash and got it rebuilt.

Timathea: It felt as if
things were falling apart,

and I know she did mention
something about the fact

that it was really
expensive to keep it warm,

so that's why it was colder.

Ron: Then as the roofs
started leaking ...

Chas. Floyd: I never
saw those problems.

She was able to listen to me,

and we'd talk and exchange,

and I always felt
like she didn't have

a problem in the world.

Ron: She was too proud
to say, "I need help."

She was struggling
like basically any
other actor out there.

Claire: All you have
to do is talk Barney

into giving Bo a job,
and he'll get it.

What?

You will?

Oh, that's terrific!

Thank you, honey!

You won't be sorry!

Thomas: I'm probably
one of the few people

who really liked that
, "Hardly Working."

I saw it in the theater.

It was really nice to
see Susan get top billing

in a movie that got
real theatrical release.

Like I said, for 1980,
you couldn't find

Carol Lynley or Diane
McBain in a movie

that was theatrically released.

And I was surprised
how funny Susan was.

Ron: Every once in
a while, she goes,

"Oh, I got to do
this stupid show.

"Don't watch it."

Kay: I'm one of the rich
kids on the block .

And I'd swap it all for a pair
of warm feet on a cold night.

Ned: Well, have you
tried the Yellow Pages?

Celeste: There is
an amazing idea

that people have about
having been an actor.

They think that you
have made a fortune

and you're set for life.

Charles: There used to be
a bar called "Residuals,"

and the walls were papered
with residual checks

that people brought in,

which were checks for
maybe 89 cents or $1.53

or that sort of thing.

Well, I see quite a
few of those .

Nancy: Seventeen cents for
the last show .

Roy: The ATM at my
bank just rejected

a residual check
for eight cents.

Lee: No residuals.

For a year, I think
we got something,

but since then, nothing.

David: You hardly got money
doing a series in those days.

And I think it changed
around in the '70s.

It started going.

And then the stars were
making massive sums.

I wish I had waited 10 years.

Celeste: There were no residuals

that come to me from Star Trek.

I'm the Star Trek Barbie.

Did I make a penny?

Gary: We made a living,

and making a living means
you get your paycheck,

you spend your
paycheck, get a house.

Instead of living way
out in the Valley,

you live maybe in Westwood.

Instead of a used car,
you had maybe a new car.

That was it.

Ron: People thought she was
getting all those residuals,

but she wasn't getting anything.

Susan: Most women who
work have no choice.

They need the income.

Secretary: I want to
have a successful career,

but I know it will be tough.

There is so much male
chauvinism to wade through.

Stephen: In the '80s,
I'm sure she faced

a bit of opposition

wanting and becoming a director.

Ron: As liberal as
Hollywood may seem to be,

it's a business and it's
not as liberal as it seems.

Nancy: If you look at the group

that have come out of AFI,

they do wonderful first films,

and ...

Kathleen: it was very
hard to get a job

even with these films.

That was the time.

Ron: Even a woman of her
stature and her name,

for it to take that long,

you would think she would
have been directing sooner.

Stephen: The MASH episode,
I think, is terrific.

Ron: It was a
really nice episode.

It was Susan.

It had her stamp on it.

Kellye: Sshhh.

It's OK.

I'm here.

Sandler: Sarah?

Kellye: Yeah.

It's, it's Sarah.

Sandler: I'm scared.

Don't leave.

Kellye: It's OK.

I'm here.

I'm not going anywhere.

Sandler: I feel awful.

Kellye: Don't think about that.

Just think about the good stuff,

like all the things we'll
do when you get better.

We could have a picnic maybe.

Sandler: No, not
your fried chicken.

It's horrible.

Stephen: She directed a MASH.

That was a very
prestigious show.

That should have given
her clout and credibility

far and above and beyond

a lot of wannabes.

Nancy: You can sometimes
get a first one,

but the second one
is the toughest.

Roy: Even today, 2013,

there are very few
female directors,

unless they're
independents who finally

get something done on their own.

Monte: Women in film, in
a production, are at 28%.

That's the highest
it's ever been.

I said, well, that's executive
producers, producers, writers

but damn few directors.

Laurie: I think last year,

it was only five
percent of feature films

were directed by women,

and it's shocking.

Drew Ann: People not wanting
to take risks to begin with,

which perpetuates a
situation that already exists

and will not change, in my mind,

unless people go out of
their way to make a change.

Nancy: We have all
these actresses,

Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock

and all these other actresses,

Laura Linney,

who get up when they're
getting awards and say,

"This is shocking and terrible

"that there are no
women directors."

I haven't seen them
go out and say,

"I'm not going to do this movie

"unless you hire
a woman director."

Charles: Before Susan,

whether or not I was
ever directed by a woman,

I honestly can't remember,

so that probably means no.

Lance: You remember my
mother, Margaret Havenhurst?

Dr. Stanley Riverside:
Mrs. Havenhurst!

Of course, my goodness!

Are our gallstones
acting up again?

Margaret: Frankly,
they've never stopped.

Dr. Stanley Riverside:
Well, we haven't recommended

surgery for some time.

You're staying right here and
getting this thing over with.

Now that is a very smart
young boy you have there,

Mrs. Havenhurst.

Come along.

We'll take a look at you.

Charles: It seemed that the crew

was not particularly happy,

and in some cases,

maybe even a little derisive
of what she was doing

or what she seemed to know

or what she seemed not to know,

and that's pretty lethal

for a director to have
a crew feeling that way.

Drew Ann: People have
these stereotypes

of the way someone is
supposed to be on a set

and they're supposed to behave.

And if you're outside
of that stereotype,

then you're not doing the job

the way you're
supposed to do it.

Charles: One of the producers,

I think it was Don Brinkley,

indicated that he thought

the crew had treated her badly.

Laurie: It would be
very easy for the crew

to sabotage what you're doing.

It can happen from the
crew being very slow

and they're telling you,

"Well, we can't really
move the camera,"

or not giving you a heads up

about something that
you should know.

Jay: As far as
working with actors,

she was fantastic,

very gracious.

A lot of directors
ignore the actors,

particularly at my
level, the day players.

Stephen: Pernell Roberts,

fine actor, give
him that credit,

but not only from
one but many sources,

he was a difficult man.

Jay: Shirley Hemphill,

she had come from a
sitcom background,

and I heard that Pernell
Roberts was in fact

brutal to her,

criticizing her for her
unprofessional behavior

and lack of knowledge
about how to act on film.

You can imagine Susan Oliver
standing in the middle of that.

She has her lead,
for Christ's sakes,

who is supposed
to carry the show,

and that dynamic is happening.

How does she handle it?

What I heard was that the
producers were not happy

with the end result of the show,

and they felt that
she didn't understand

the movement of the camera.

Charles: I think
that's bogus probably,

the idea that she didn't
know how to use a camera.

That was not an adventurous
show, camera-wise.

It was a very
old-fashioned show.

It was somewhat stodgy or staid,

I think you could call it.

Drew Ann: I don't buy
that for a second.

I worked with male directors
on television shows

who were just
completely clueless

and the shows came out fine.

Charles: In the fifth year,

which is when she came
and did the episode,

the style was completely set,

and it would be really
hard for somebody

to ruin that style

or to interfere with it.

David: When new
directors come on,

the director of photography
is always a big help,

unless he is a bastard.

Nancy: I had a relationship
with the cameramen,

and I'd say, "Look, I
don't know how to do this.

"You're the man.

"You tell me how to do this."

And I said, "We'll
work together on this."

"Oh, how wonderful."

They would be thrilled
then because they were

being so generous with their
knowledge and so helpful.

Charles: I could see
Nancy surmounting

obstacles that
maybe Susan couldn't

because I know Susan
had her strengths

certainly as a human being,

but it seems to me that she
had her vulnerabilities too

and maybe she wasn't able
to fight that kind of fight.

Stephen: She wasn't pushy.

Ron: She didn't know
how to defend herself

against a pack of wolves.

Chas. Floyd: If they
don't want you there

and if they are not
particularly welcoming,

they don't necessarily
lend helping hands.

Charles: I suspect,

I suspect,

that our crew just wasn't ready,

wasn't ready for a female
director at that time.

Laurie: As a director, you
are the guest on the show.

Everyone else does it
for six months a year

year after year.

As a director, you're
on for 10 days.

Drew Ann: They didn't
know who she was,

and she just came
in, and in principle,

they didn't want her there,

and they just raked
her over the coals.

I can totally see
that happening.

Nancy: It is a boys' club.

Charlie: Remember, we're
talking 1979 to 1986,

a kind of a transition
period, I would say,

in society and in television.

It was a white male
show on screen and off,

and she was only one
of two directors,

female directors to
work on the show.

Drew Ann: I think also the
fact that she was so attractive

probably got in her way a bit

because people just didn't
take her that seriously

because she was way
too pretty to be smart.

Charles: People at
least used to not take

women all that seriously
if they were pretty.

You could be one or the other,

pretty or smart but not both.

Thomas: It doesn't matter
what they look like.

I think just they didn't take
seriously women directors.

Chas. Floyd: We see that kind
of chauvinism in our business

and in many places
in our society.

And when you have women like
Susan doing it early on,

I'm not surprised at that.

Ron: We decided, "Oh,
let's get drunk."

She'd go, "Oh,
good old boys' club!"

and then she'll
laugh right after

because she wasn't going
to let that get her down.

Drew Ann: Because there are
so many fewer women doing it,

they're all sort of
in the spotlight.

Charles: It's a small town,

and people talk to one another.

And in fact, if somebody was
looking to hire a director

and they didn't
know the director,

they would be very
likely to call

the director's former employers.

And if those people said,

"You know, I wouldn't
if I were you.

"We had a lot of trouble,"

that'd be it.

Ron: You're only as
good as your last job.

So as a director, she
was basically

John: Susan did everything she
could to get into Star Trek

because she wanted to
direct one of the episodes.

They told her no
because she lacked

special effect qualifications.

Larry: The directors
that they had

that didn't have
experience working with

visual effects and blue screen,

that can cause a lot of
headaches and a lot of costs.

Drew Ann: That's why you have
a special effects supervisor

because they explain to
you what you need to know.

Laurie: There's a
lot of buzzwords

that women get
used to being told,

"special effects," "action."

Those types of things
where they're reasons

why you can't get hired.

Nancy: I don't know anything
about special effects,

nothing.

Drew Ann: What you
don't know, you learn.

I mean you make it your
business to find out.

Things are constantly
changing anyway.

Larry: I have the feeling that
she could have gone to school

and boned up and studied with
a couple of guys on the run

and been just fine.

Nancy: I would call the
guys on the set and I'd say,

"Come on, I have
to have this guy

"walk through a wall,

"and I'm not quite sure
I set it up correctly.

"Could you just check it out
and make sure it's right?"

"Oh, we'd love to."

You got to work the system.

Timathea: She would tell
me how frustrated she was

about the fact that
things weren't going

the way that she wanted them to.

James: The Latin
aphorism, if you will,

was, "Illegitimi
non carborundum ,"

which is, "Don't let the
bastards get you down,"

one of Susan's favorite sayings.

Michael: She really wanted to
write some scripts of her own.

Ron: She says, "How about
you and I working together?"

She wanted it to be
a action adventure

with a black lead and
a female British agent.

You see, once again, the
tough lady that kicks ass.

Michael: They never
really got too far

because she couldn't
get the backing

that she was looking for.

Ron: One of the first
things they would say,

"Oh, we can get
another director."

And so the first
thing we would say,

"Oh, we'll take
it somewhere else.

"Thank you."

Timathea: And I wonder how
much she discarded herself

when she got frustrated

because I know when
I would visit her,

the world that she lived in,

if it's a representation
of who she was,

was pretty dismal.

She was saying to me
that her life was not

what she had expected.

Ron: She realized that she
was fighting a losing battle.

Michael: And we
felt sorry for her.

I mean later on in her acting,

she was doing things
like "Murder, She Wrote."

It's almost embarrassing
to watch those nowadays

because the scripts
are so terrible.

Louise: What we need is someone
the police will respect.

We have that somebody.

Prisoner: Where?

Louise: Right here.

Prisoners: Oh.

Michael: She just looked old,

and she shouldn't have been old.

Timathea: That's true.

The "Murder, She Wrote,"
she definitely didn't look

the way she should be looking.

Ron: She wasn't taking
care of herself.

She started getting more paler.

She started losing weight

because she was almost
anorexic at one point.

Mike: Biff had his roast
at The Comedy Store.

Biff: This was in 1988,

and here was Susan.

Mike: Oh, I couldn't
believe it was her.

Biff: I was shocked
how she had dissipated.

It was sad.

John: She just kind
of withered somewhat,

and her health was not very
good in the later part,

and I was shocked one time
when I did watch something.

"My God!" I thought.

"That's Susan.

"What the hell happened to her?

"What's wrong?"

Tom: And of course,
she came to the set

made up and everything,

and she looked gaunt

and older than I
remembered seeing her,

and she didn't look
100% healthy, frankly.

In those days, lots of times,

we'd have actors come in.

They just wanted to work
to keep their benefits up

if they hadn't
worked for a while.

And I don't know if that
was the situation with her

because I was kind of surprised
that she came in to do

kind of a low-budget cult show.

Ron: Every once in
a while, she goes,

"Oh, I got to do
this stupid show.

"I got to keep my
health insurance going."

Tom: The day she showed up,

people were buzzing
that she was coming,

but they never said,
"Susan is coming."

They said, "Vina is coming."

I think she had a lot
of personal demons

by the time we worked together,

and as I said, it kind of came
through in the performance.

If you watch the
episode, you'll see it

there's something
behind her eyes.

Most everything she did,
there was a sadness.

James: As a single person
supporting her mother

with a waning economic career,

she had her challenges.

Michael: There were times when

Ruth and Susan lived apart,

and one time in particular
was when Ruth lived in a house

that was built by
Susan's half-brother.

Ron: Ruth took it as Susan
trying to get rid of her.

James: The house was built
utilizing standard materials

but materials that

Ruth felt were toxic.

Michael: Now whether the
chemicals really bothered her,

whether Ruth just decided she
wanted to live with Susan,

we don't know.

Ron: Susan was going, "What
am I going to do

James: After
sleeping in the yard

and having all
kinds of problems,

ultimately, Ruth moved
back to California.

Michael: It was quite
a burden for Susan,

and she really wanted
to have her freedom.

Ron: And she put
money into those

get-rich-quick
pyramid-type schemes.

That was an act of desperation

because she wasn't that way
before she lost the houses.

She got this crowd around her,

"Susan Oliver, they're using
you to get more people in."

She didn't see it that way

because at these meetings,

of course, she was the big star.

John: But it didn't
ultimately come out to be

a big movie star-type life,

which it absolutely could have.

Joan: Oh.

Poor woman.

Poor Mama.

Ron: After losing
everything else

and then her mother like that,

dying in a convalescent
home in North Hollywood,

it's not probably the
way she pictured it.

Skip: I do think she felt
the loss of Ruth very deeply,

as complex as that whole
lifelong relationship had been.

Ron: Her whole world
collapsed on her.

So she was planning on
packing and leaving.

She was going to try
and get into Broadway.

This was right
before she got sick.

Timathea: She could have
been ill a lot earlier

than when she actually
got diagnosed.

I don't know how often she
actually went to be checked.

James: Her illness was
discovered in, I believe,

October of '89,

and she declined the
course of treatment

recommended by the physician

and at that point went to Mexico

to seek her alternative remedy.

Ron: The first thought
I didn't tell her was,

"Are you out of your mind?

"Cancer is serious."

Michael: Susan really
didn't want people to know.

She didn't even want me to know.

She didn't want James to know.

Ron: But then things
started going south.

Michael: I felt it was
necessary to call James.

James: I didn't
really know Michael.

He introduced himself,
explained who he was.

Michael: James went
down to Mexico.

James: I then spoke to her
physician in this clinic.

He said she needed
to get out of here,

that these treatments
were not effective.

But I talked to Susan
and she, on the one hand,

wished and believed in
the alternative treatment,

and on the other hand understood
that it wasn't working.

The tumor was hemorrhagic.

It was growing.

Ron: She had an operation.

James: It was more effective
than the surgeon had expected.

And he left us with an idea

of a reasonably
positive prognosis.

Ron: And she was cleared,

but she had to do the
chemo and follow up,

but she didn't want to do it.

James: Distaste at some level

of Susan seeing her mother
in a hospital environment

when she was dying

did have an impact.

Michael: She may have felt
that it just was not going to

do any good for her.

Nancy: Aside from being
terribly touched and upset

about her personal illness,

I was upset and touched about
the fact that the soldiers

that we were in those days,

I was losing one of my soldiers.

Timathea: But I think that
she was really struggling hard

and fighting against a life

that was very
difficult at the end.

And then without her mom there,

without the opportunities

that she really wanted
to have in her career,

I think it was
just really tough.

Ron: It's not that she gave up.

She believed too much in the
holistic method of healing.

James: It proved to only
be a matter of months

before the metastatic
manifestations of the tumor

became evident.

Ron: She was saying,
"I just saw the doctor,

"and I have a few
months to live."

James: And then she was in and
out Motion Picture Hospital

in April of that year.

Michael: Jerry Lewis
offered to take care of

whatever Susan's needs were

as soon as he found
out that she was ill.

Timathea: I mean she
didn't take Jerry Lewis'

offer to get help,

so I wonder whether she felt
like she shouldn't take it

or whether there was no help.

James: She was not
emotionally distressed.

She was calm.

She called her answering machine

and left a valedictory message,

which obviously
represents some awareness.

She knew this was probably

her final communication
to the world.

When we did her will,

she left her estate

a third to the children
of her mother's family

and a third to the children
of the Gercke side.

Timathea: Which really
touched my heart

because I didn't
know that we were

all that important to her.

So the fact that she
didn't have kids,

now that I'm a mom,

really breaks my heart.

Skip: And she had
said it publicly,

she'd rather be unmarried

and have a child than
have no child at all

way before people thought

that that was even

reasonably acceptable.

James: She had a
tortuously complex way

to select a donor father

and then try and
have this child.

And she had a particular donor

who ultimately didn't consent,

and that was the end of that.

Skip: Had she had a child,

would she have gone
through these decisions

when she became ill?

Would she have
kind of stepped up?

James: There were undone
things in her career,

but I don't think she thought
of her career as a failure.

Ron: I got a hold
of Johnny Grant,

the mayor of
Hollywood back then,

and I said, "Hey, we got to
get together and put a star

"on Hollywood
Boulevard for Susan."

I thought I did really well
and then I'm proud of myself,

so I go, "Susan, they're going
to put a star up for you."

She looked at me and she said,

"You're not putting
a star up there.

"I don't want a star."

It humbled me a lot
because it made me realize

you don't do it because
you want to be a star.

James: She was dying the
way she had chosen to live,

on her terms,

and she was at peace with that.

Ron: Hal Fishman, that night,

because we were watching TV,

and he mentioned she passed,

and I think he was the only one.

Hal: It's also with
great personal sadness

that I report tonight the
passing of actress Susan Oliver,

who died tonight at the

Motion Picture &
Television Country Hospital

in the San Fernando Valley.

Susan was 58 years old.

Ron: Sandy Koufax called back

and gave his condolences
and felt sorry.

But everybody else
that I called, nada.

Nada.

No one else called back.

Hal: She'll be missed.

She leaves a magnificent
legacy of her talent,

her films, and her intellect.

The memorial service
was at a theater

up above Sunset a few blocks.

Gene Roddenberry was there.

A number of other people

would stand up in the audience

and just present
their recollections.

Timathea: One person would
get up and talk about

a completely different woman

than any of the rest of us knew,

but she had the same
character and the same warmth

and dedication and energy.

Michael: And we found out that

she had compartmentalized
her life

in many private sectors.

Timathea: And a couple
of people towards the end

even started saying
that they had learned

so much more about her
than she had ever shared.

Michael: Someone said that
she was a fire marshal

at one of the studios.

Timathea: Maya Angelou
had a letter written,

and I thought that
would have been so great

to talk to Susan about.

Michael: People
didn't want to leave.

They just wanted to take in
all of this love that was there

and all of this cheer
about what a full life

this young lady had.

Nina: And all of us
should really enjoy

what she had to offer.

I wish she could
have appreciated

just how much that was.

Stephen: What's left
behind should be looked at

because young actors need to
learn where they came from,

and a lot of them don't get it.

But if you watch Susan Oliver

despite the material,

watch the performances,

and sometimes it
will astound you.

Gary: To get to do what she did

and to be known the
way she was and so on,

that's still one in a million.

Stephen: I think
had she concentrated

and had she had the
opportunities in the '90s,

she could have proven
herself very much

a very important director.

Ron: She was a square that
didn't fit into the circle,

and she was always
fighting that.

Rev. Rosey Grier: She had
a great sense of humor.

I thought she was just
a tremendous woman.

Nancy: Lovely human being

and very caring.

Chas. Floyd: One of the very
special people I ever met.

Dick: Would that the entire
industry were made up

of people like Susan Oliver,

it would be a much more
enjoyable industry.

Kathleen: I will
love her forever.

She was very special.

She was a good egg.

David: I'm so happy
that I got to know her,

that I got to know
Charlotte Gercke

when she was very young

and the woman that
became Susan Oliver.

Ron: Because you don't
find many people like that.

Biff: She was just so
watchable and endearing,

you wanted to embrace her.

You wanted to protect her.

I didn't want to go there.

Susan: Hi Susan, this is Susan.

On May 1st, uh, Tuesday.

And it's 12:34 afternoon,

and uh, calling,
in the hospital,

and I'm waiting
for Ron and James.

And I'm running very
short of breath.

So, I just wanted
to say I'm gonna

certainly hold on
till the lawyer gets
here at 4, hopefully,

and - got to take care
of that, just got to.

And I just want to say
how much I love everybody

and happy I've been
in sharing this

imperfect, but
magnificent world of ours.

And, uh, I wish that you all
find your dreams and your love.

And I love you.

Adios.

Sayonara.