- 9 hours ago
The Green Girl - actress Susan Oliver documentary
A feature-length documentary about Susan Oliver, known primarily today as Star Trek's first iconic Green Orion Slave Girl in the original 1964 pilot, which was reused in the 1966 classic 2-part episode The Menagerie. One of the most recognizable women of the 1960’s, she was a highly- prolific actress who worked frequently from the 1950's until well into the 1980's. Susan was also a record-setting female aviator who won five world records for light planes and eventually became one of the first women qualified to fly the Lear Jet. The 1970’s saw her interests turn largely towards writing and directing. An original member of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women in 1974, she fought Hollywood’s entrenched “boy’s club” mentality to eventually become one of the only women directing major TV shows in the early 1980's, including M*A*S*H. Tragically taken by cancer in 1990 at just 58 years old, Susan Oliver has been inexplicably forgotten by many in the industry to which she gave so much of herself. This documentary chronicles and celebrates the remarkable achievements of her enigmatic and all-too-short life. Features over 3-dozen interviews, including Susan Oliver's contemporaries Lee Meriwether, David Hedison, Kathleen Nolan, Nancy Malone, Roy Thinnes, Gary Conway, Peter Mark Richman, Monte Markham, Rosey Grier, Celeste Yarnall, John Gilmore, Charles Siebert, Tom DeSimone, Chas. Floyd Johnson, Biff Manard and Clay Lacy.
A feature-length documentary about Susan Oliver, known primarily today as Star Trek's first iconic Green Orion Slave Girl in the original 1964 pilot, which was reused in the 1966 classic 2-part episode The Menagerie. One of the most recognizable women of the 1960’s, she was a highly- prolific actress who worked frequently from the 1950's until well into the 1980's. Susan was also a record-setting female aviator who won five world records for light planes and eventually became one of the first women qualified to fly the Lear Jet. The 1970’s saw her interests turn largely towards writing and directing. An original member of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women in 1974, she fought Hollywood’s entrenched “boy’s club” mentality to eventually become one of the only women directing major TV shows in the early 1980's, including M*A*S*H. Tragically taken by cancer in 1990 at just 58 years old, Susan Oliver has been inexplicably forgotten by many in the industry to which she gave so much of herself. This documentary chronicles and celebrates the remarkable achievements of her enigmatic and all-too-short life. Features over 3-dozen interviews, including Susan Oliver's contemporaries Lee Meriwether, David Hedison, Kathleen Nolan, Nancy Malone, Roy Thinnes, Gary Conway, Peter Mark Richman, Monte Markham, Rosey Grier, Celeste Yarnall, John Gilmore, Charles Siebert, Tom DeSimone, Chas. Floyd Johnson, Biff Manard and Clay Lacy.
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PeopleTranscript
00:00be your little flower she was her own flower i'm not most ladies i agree i agree the way she
00:08like
00:08brushed it off was that uh macho guy i told you i can't stand a smart aleck broad because no
00:15matter
00:15what a guy can call himself to be oh i'm for women's live susan would have tested him
00:32it wasn't like she didn't want to get married and not have children she just couldn't find the
00:38right person and to be honest with you i don't think there weren't too many right people back
00:45then we should plenty of opportunities to marry uh plenty of proposers and no one met whatever
00:52standard perhaps an impossible standard that she you know evaluated them by i think you have the
00:59makings of a pretty good wife why don't you want to get married maybe i've seen too many married men
01:05and women susan may have had the feeling that she didn't want something to stay in the way of her
01:10acting career like marriage but i believe and my mom believes that she really wanted to get married
01:17what's wrong with getting married and having your career you can't have both maybe it was her acting
01:24career maybe it was her mother i think the reason that she never ended up marrying was
01:29because her her mom talked her out of it she was a very quiet lady she was a very pleasant
01:36everything
01:37else but i think that the airline pilot was not good enough for susan that's what i thought that
01:43either the guy wasn't good enough or something ruth would do to make susan feel like the relationship
01:49was not going to be in her best interest i called myra and said i thought we could get together
01:54and at
01:54the police say hello he said icily can't you understand i don't want to see you again and slam
02:00down the phone i sobbed some drank some and then did both at the same time all the pretty pop
02:06songs
02:07of my childhood had promised happily ever after somehow i got myself to universal where i met with the
02:13producer and director of darren mcgavin's new series the outsider in wardrobe as they fitted me for a
02:19bikini i was painfully aware of the ribs on my now 90 pound frame you're lonely no i'm alone there's
02:30a
02:30difference there's no difference david i know you're alone you're lonely shame on hollywood for not giving
02:40susan oliver one of their own the recognition she deserves for her brave flight this is a town where
02:45they pay many tributes to dubious achievements of negligible worth but did they honor her no not
02:52even with a sandwich named after her at junior's delicatessen and i think that she may have even
02:57enjoyed being with people like herself who loved to fly more than some of the people that she was
03:04working with in hollywood she was one of the first women to fly the lear jet i believe susan was
03:09very
03:10interested in the lair and i think bill there wanted her to fly it i know that she's been up
03:16with air
03:16force pilots anytime susan could get her hands on any airplane or flight simulator she was there
03:22she won five world records in flying light planes and i was always amazed that she could have as
03:29demanding a career as acting and still be such an accomplished pilot i had tried desperately to get a
03:36sponsor for the air race called on maiden form bra on a lot of companies who i thought might be
03:43good
03:44choices for the editorial publicity then i thought aha i think i'll find susan oliver and see if she
03:50would consider going well not only did she want to go she said oh i can get us a sponsor
03:55she made one
03:56phone call and boom we had virginia slims she and susan were a good team a very good team because
04:02they
04:02were both serious it was a cross-country air race for women only her mother did at certain times tell
04:09her not to fly because astrology or something certain days that maybe she shouldn't go flying
04:15that bothered me a lot in the beginning i thought oh my goodness what are we going to do i
04:20think the
04:20winds are right and we need to go now but it turned out it was no problem she was very
04:25good it was
04:25extremely important that you had a partner who was totally accurate with their pinpointing
04:31navigation and i enjoyed her she was quite a person when she won the powderpuff derby she went on to
04:37the night show with her trophy and and showed it and it was obvious that johnny carson was not
04:43impressed with the powderpuff derby or the trophy i felt it was very unfortunate for her that she even
04:48was put in that situation i'd flown conventional aircraft even across the atlantic but now this 60
04:55mile jaunt in a soaring machine suddenly worried me she was an excellent pilot you know and a very
05:00quick you know study on the glider remarkable really i mean you know for for an engine pilot
05:07it's incredible okay now when we work these things she really just expressed the feeling you know that
05:15you would get the first time you have the controls all by yourself you're alone in the glider it really
05:22wasn't acting when she was flying because i think she really did enjoy that i know i know she had
05:27a lot of
05:27fun while she was out there she didn't have a real happy life i don't think like all of us
05:32i think a
05:33lot of people aren't real real happy but you get happy by doing something you enjoy and i think flying
05:39made her happy i found soaring to be a kind of miraculous wedding of freedom and discipline
05:45it was kind of like a bach concerto there's a rigid form to it and yet within that strict form
05:52there breathes a passion and a beauty she asked me if she could go with me on an airline commercial
06:00and i took her one time and boy she loved it seeing that big airplane real close to us all
06:05the time
06:05i remember her saying something about i really enjoy this movie work you know i think she had such uh
06:13eclectic desires and where she wanted to go with her life that sometimes right when good things were
06:23about to happen in her career she would walk away from it and i find this with a lot of
06:28creative
06:29individuals people who are very very good in what they do sometimes they don't look at the whole picture
06:34and they do sabotage their work by walking away or changing direction other things become more important
06:41to you than me your social work your political causes activities and she wanted to do more than what
06:50was offered you're right it isn't much fun for me i want what what do you want more it's very
07:01difficult
07:02for a woman even today to to work outside of uh acting i'm susan oliver and i like being a
07:09woman
07:10but enough is enough women since the beginning of civilization have been thought of as passive
07:17fragile the weaker of the sexes if you're a woman in the 20th century of the 21st century
07:23you don't have a lot of areas where you can have your ego expand the first thing to do to
07:30overcome
07:30these fears is to understand ourselves our interests our capabilities find out what we really want to do
07:37and then set out to do it i think she didn't really put any limitations on who she was
07:43i really don't think she did that i think it was like if it's there and i want to try
07:47it why not
07:48it would be perfectly okay for men to go into directing like so many of them have like clint eastwood
07:55robert redford but women it would be considered like yeah right for a woman to direct a film would
08:02be like a woman playing professional football that's how bad it was all right betty would you
08:08continue now with ruth as a child my daughter wanted to be a marine she must have been tired of
08:16being given the same roles over and over again for guys the roles are there you're always working
08:23always are working and for women i'm always doing the same damn thing my intelligence was far beyond
08:29what i was getting to say and it was harder and harder to make here's your coffee honey sound like
08:37something out of ibsen that's the point where you sort of hit it hit the career point you think what
08:42am
08:42going to do now because i may have been making a good living as an actress at 30 but now
08:47that i'm
08:4740 going on 45 you might want to have a backup plan even if you're one of the top actors
08:53an actor has a
08:54not a lot of control and i said directing it seems like you'd have a better shot at it and
08:59she said
08:59i'm working on that she was changing she no longer wanted to be recognized as a blue-eyed blonde that
09:08everybody can fall in love with i want to be recognized as an intelligent human being she
09:15wanted to direct she wanted to write she was almost a maverick in terms of wanting to do that at
09:22that
09:22time there weren't a lot of women directors i don't think i ever worked with a a woman director did
09:27i
09:27ever work for a woman director rare no it never occurred to me that a woman could direct never i
09:34mean
09:34we just always visually saw men when i'm told a woman can't do something i must prove them wrong
09:40and most actors are really highly creative people and the acting part never fulfills that i don't care
09:47who you are like brando ended up being a wacko i think because i think he was a creative person
09:51but
09:52you're not creating up on that screen you're a performer and when you're an artist you get to
09:57do art whenever you want i can go over there and finish my painting or start a new one i
10:03can do it
10:03tonight if i want i can't do that as an actor i gotta wait on a whole series of people
10:08i gotta wait
10:09on an agent i gotta wait on the lawyer and then i gotta wait on the producer then i gotta
10:14wait on the
10:15studio the directing was what she was really excited about because i think she had a creative vision for
10:20where she wanted to take things and she would get very excited about her projects and i can remember
10:25when i visited her seeing boxes filled with notes and tables had books and papers and objects and
10:33obviously she was a person just involved in many many many things she told me that she had signed
10:40up for that women's directorship program at afi and i said well that's wonderful it's about time
10:46susan she said yes it is i just hope it's time now it was very hard to get a whole
10:52crew together and
10:53make the calling card that they could show a potential backer or studio that they had directing talent
11:01she would say what do you think about me having a japanese cowboy first i told her you're out of
11:07your mind but it can work you know and then she asked me to be in this production you know
11:13i was so
11:13flattered especially with the cast with will and woody and ted we knew so many people that we would get
11:23them involved and we did everybody had somebody or two somebodies in their film will sampson this guy
11:32was just larger than life he had been in one flew over the cuckoo's nest ted cassidy was on the
11:38adams
11:48family
11:48hey get me that get me that please
11:52what'd you do
11:52ah sorry ma'am
11:55help help
12:14So she was off beat with her little things, you know, like back then people go, oh, what
12:21the heck is this? You know, but you look at it today, it fits in. She was definitely in charge.
12:29There's no
12:29mistake about that. And when she finished it, she was proud. I admired her so for wanting to do it
12:36and getting it done and adding one more notch on the belt in her resume. That was just who Susan
12:42was.
12:42I think what counts is taking charge of your life. I know who I am, what I am, where I'm
12:49going,
12:49and I love it. She had agents that would beg her, take this, maybe you can get in and get
12:57a directing
12:57job. That was a lot of money back then to be a guest star. And she'll go, I don't want
13:03that.
13:03That takes a lot of guts. She started, you know, taking roles that were worth, wow.
13:10Yeah, I'll do it. Thanks, Dom. That's my girl.
13:14My agent said that there was this part on a daytime show, and I said, thanks, but no thanks.
13:19Next thing I knew, I was over at NBC under those hot lights and explaining, I just came
13:24by to see what daytime's all about, folks, but I'm not here to stay.
13:28Early on in my career, I would never do a soap. A soap? Are you kidding?
13:34Soap opera then.
13:36Days of Our Lives added a touch of class this fall with the appearance of Susan Oliver as
13:40psychiatrist Dr. Laura Horton. Exactly 134 actresses were up for the part, but they were
13:46no match for Susan.
13:47You're at a certain age, and you know that you can handle it because of your theater experience.
13:54It's a phenomenal challenge that every actor should have to face at least once.
14:01Susan Oliver has asked for and received her release from her continuing role in NBC's
14:06Days of Our Lives in order to spend full time on the motion picture property Yellowbird,
14:10which she has developed. She will also produce and star in the film.
14:14I want to make films. Do you realize that in my 18 years in the business, I've never worked
14:20with a woman director? When I went to the Cannes Film Festival last summer, I used the money
14:25from selling my plane to buy the rights to a novel, and now I'm writing the screenplay myself.
14:29They probably just wanted her to sit on the wayside and just take producing credits while
14:36they hire a writer, get a director. I think that's what happened. She withdrew the project
14:43because I knew she still had the rights.
14:46I remember her talking about that, that try as she, as hard as she could, and there was
14:51really nobody. There were no openings.
14:53Susan had a lot of financial obligations. She invested well. She had a lot of real estate.
15:00When I met her, she had nine properties, and she was renting the houses out, and she was
15:05doing the work herself.
15:06When I rented the cottage, the guest houses, this was in the front of her mansion, up the
15:11circular brick drive. It was across a little bridge. There was a creek that ran through Laurel
15:17Canyon. I was impressed by the estate.
15:19She started trusting real estate partners, people that I wouldn't trust, and she signed
15:28contracts, and it was very sad. I remember one day she called, and she said, I lost practically
15:36all of my houses.
15:37It was almost day-to-day, hand-to-hand, kind of hand-to-mouth kind of stuff.
15:42She was living off of the house.
15:44I heard about the bridge washing away. It was a sturdy bridge, too.
15:48It couldn't take the car across, or it was dangerous. But she finally scrapped some cash
15:54and got it rebuilt.
15:55It felt as if things were falling apart, and I know she did mention something about the
15:59fact that it was really expensive to keep it warm, so that's why it was colder.
16:03Then the roof started leaking.
16:06I never saw those problems. She was able to listen to me, and we'd talk and exchange,
16:13and I always felt like she didn't have a problem in the world.
16:17She was too proud to say, I need help. She was struggling like basically any other actor
16:25out there.
16:25All you have to do is tell Barney into giving Bo a job, and he'll get it.
16:30What?
16:30You will?
16:31Oh, that's terrific. Thank you, honey. You won't be sorry.
16:37I'm probably one of the few people who really like them. Hardly working. And I saw it in
16:43the theater. It was really nice to see Susan get top billing in a movie that got real theatrical
16:47release. And like I said, for 1980, you couldn't find Carol Lindley or Diane McBain in a movie
16:52that was theatrically released. And I was surprised how funny Susan was.
16:57Every once in a while, she goes, oh, I got to do this stupid show. Don't watch it.
17:01I'm one of the rich kids on the block. And I'd swap it all for a pair of warm feet
17:06on
17:07a cold night.
17:08Well, have you tried the Yellow Pages?
17:11There's an amazing idea that people have about having been an actor. They think that you
17:18have made a fortune and you're set for life.
17:21There used to be a bar called Residuals, and the walls were papered with residual checks
17:28that people brought in, which were checks for maybe $0.89 or $1.53 or that sort of thing.
17:34Well, I see quite a few of those.
17:35$0.17 for the last show.
17:39The ATM at my bank just rejected a residual check for $0.08.
17:44No residuals. For a year, I think we got something. But since then, nothing.
17:53Gene Harvey got money doing series in those days. And I think it changed around in the
17:5870s. It started going. And then the stars were making massive sums. I wish I'd waited 10 years.
18:06There are no residuals that come to me from Star Trek. I'm the Star Trek Barbie. Did I
18:10make a penny?
18:11We made a living. Making a living is you get your paycheck, you spent your paycheck, you
18:15got a house. Instead of living way out in the valley, you could live maybe in Westwood.
18:19Instead of a used car, you had maybe a new car. That was it.
18:23People thought she was getting all those residuals, but she wasn't getting anything.
18:28Most women who work have no choice. They need the income.
18:31I want to have a successful career, but I know it'll be tough. There's so much male chauvinism
18:37to wade through.
18:38In the 80s, I'm sure she faced a bit of opposition, wanting and becoming a director.
18:46As liberal as Hollywood may seem to be, okay? It's a business, and it's not as liberal as
18:55it seems.
18:56If you look at the group that have come out of AFI, they do wonderful first films, and...
19:04It was very hard to get a job, even with these films. That was the time.
19:14Even a woman of her stature and her name, for it to take that long, you would think she would
19:24have been directing sooner.
19:26You know, the MASH episode, I think, is terrific. It was a really nice episode. It was Susan.
19:33It had her stamp on it.
19:36Shh. It's okay. I'm here.
19:39Sarah?
19:41Yeah. It's Sarah.
19:44I'm scared. Don't leave.
19:47It's okay. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere.
19:55I feel awful.
19:57Don't think about that. Just think about the good stuff, like all the things we'll do
20:02when you get better. We could have a picnic, maybe.
20:05No, not your fried chicken. It's horrible.
20:07She directed a MASH. That was a very prestigious show. That should have given her clout and credibility,
20:13you know, far and above and beyond a lot of wannabes.
20:19You can sometimes get a first one, but the second one is the toughest.
20:23Even today, 2013, there are very few female directors, unless they're independents who finally get something done on their own.
20:33Women in film in the production are like up 28%. It's the highest it's ever been.
20:38I said, well, that's executive producers, producers, writers, but damn few directors.
20:43I think what last year was only 5% of feature films were directed by women, and it's shocking.
20:49People not wanting to take risks to begin with, which perpetuates a situation that already exists,
20:56and will not change in my mind unless people go out of their way to make a change.
21:01We have all these actresses, Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock and all these other actresses,
21:06Laura Linney, who get up when they're getting awards and say,
21:09this is shocking and terrible that there are no women directors.
21:12I haven't seen them go out and say, I'm not going to do this movie unless you hire a woman
21:16director.
21:17Before Susan, whether or not I was ever directed by a woman, I honestly can't remember.
21:23So that probably means no.
21:24You remember my mother, Margaret Havenhurst?
21:29Mrs. Havenhurst.
21:30Of course, my goodness, are our gallstones acting up again.
21:36Frankly, they've never stopped.
21:37Well, we have been recommending surgery for some time.
21:40You're staying right here and getting this thing over with.
21:42Now, that is a very smart young boy you had there, Mrs. Havenhurst.
21:45Come along, we'll take a look at you.
21:46It seemed that the crew was not particularly happy, and in some cases maybe even a little derisive,
21:53of what she was doing or what she seemed to know or what she seemed not to know.
21:59And that's pretty lethal for a director to have a crew feeling that way.
22:04People have these stereotypes of the way someone is supposed to be on a set and they're supposed to behave.
22:09And if you're outside of that stereotype, then you're not doing the job the way you're supposed to do it.
22:15One of the producers, I think it was Don Brinkley, indicated that he thought the crew had treated her badly.
22:21It would be very easy for the crew to sabotage what you're doing.
22:25It can happen from the crew being very slow, they're telling you, well, we can't really move the camera,
22:30or not giving you a heads up about something that you should know.
22:33As far as working with actors, she was fantastic, very gracious.
22:37A lot of directors ignore the actors, particularly at my level, the day players.
22:42Purnell Roberts, fine actor, give him that credit.
22:45But not only from one, but many sources, he was a difficult man.
22:49Shirley Hemphill, she had come from a sitcom background,
22:53and I heard that Purnell Roberts was in fact brutal to her,
22:58criticizing her for her unprofessional behavior and lack of knowledge about how to act on film.
23:03You can imagine Susan Oliver kind of standing in the middle of that.
23:07She has her lead, for Christ's sakes, is supposed to carry the show.
23:11And that dynamic is happening, is how does she handle it?
23:14What I heard was that the producers were not happy with the end result of the show,
23:20and they felt that she didn't understand kind of the movement of the camera.
23:25I think that's bogus, probably.
23:27The idea that she didn't know how to use a camera,
23:30that was not an adventurous show, camera-wise.
23:33It was a very old-fashioned show.
23:35It was a somewhat stodgy state, I think you could call it.
23:37I don't buy that for a second.
23:39I've worked with male directors on television shows who were just completely clueless,
23:44and the shows came out fine.
23:46In the fifth year, which is when she came and did the episode,
23:50the style was completely set.
23:52And it would be really hard for somebody to ruin that style, or to interfere with it.
23:58When new directors come on, the director of photography is always a big help,
24:03unless he's a bastard.
24:05I had a relationship with the cameraman, and I'd say,
24:07Look, I don't know how to do this.
24:09You're the man, you tell me how to do this.
24:11And I said, We'll work together on this.
24:15Oh, how wonderful.
24:17You know, they would be thrilled then, because they were being so generous with their knowledge,
24:21and so helpful.
24:23I could see Nancy surmounting obstacles that maybe Susan could...
24:27I know Susan had her strength, certainly, as a human being,
24:30but it seems to me that she had her vulnerabilities too,
24:33and maybe she wasn't able to fight that kind of fight.
24:36She wasn't pushy.
24:38She didn't know how to defend herself against a pack of wolves.
24:42If they don't want you there, and if they're not particularly welcoming,
24:48they don't necessarily lend helping hands.
24:51I suspect, I suspect that our crew just wasn't ready.
24:55Wasn't ready for a female director at that time.
24:57As a director, you are the guest on the show.
25:00Everyone else does it for six months, a year, year after year.
25:04As a director, you're on for ten days.
25:05They didn't know who she was, and she just came in,
25:08and in principle, they didn't want her there.
25:10And they just, you know, raked her over the coals.
25:14I can totally see that happening.
25:15It is a boys club.
25:17I mean, we're talking from 1979 to 1986,
25:20a kind of a transition period, I would say, in society and in television.
25:25It was a white male show on screen and off,
25:27and she was only one of two female directors to work on the show.
25:31I think also the fact that she was so attractive
25:35probably got in her way a bit
25:37because people just didn't take her that seriously
25:40because she was way too pretty to be smart.
25:42People at least used to not take women all that seriously if they were pretty.
25:46You could be one or the other, pretty or smart, but not both.
25:49It doesn't matter what they look like.
25:50I think just they didn't take seriously women directors.
25:53We see that kind of chauvinism in our business
25:55and in many places in our society.
25:58And when you have women like Susan doing it early on, I'm not surprised at that.
26:03We decided, oh, let's get drunk.
26:05And she go, oh, get our boys club.
26:08And then she'll laugh right after.
26:10Because she wasn't going to let that get her down.
26:13Because there's so many fewer women doing it, you know, they're all sort of in the spotlight.
26:18It's a small town and people talk to one another.
26:20And in fact, if somebody was looking to hire a director
26:23and they didn't know the director,
26:25they would be very likely to call the director's former employers.
26:28And if those people said, you know, I wouldn't if I were you.
26:32We had a lot of trouble. That would be it.
26:34You're only as good as your last job.
26:36So as a director, she was basically...
26:40Susan did everything she could to get into Star Trek
26:45because she wanted to direct one of the episodes.
26:48They told her no because she lacked special effect qualifications.
26:54The directors that they had that didn't have experience
26:57working with visual effects and blue screen,
26:59that can cause a lot of headaches and a lot of cost.
27:01That's why you have a special effects supervisor
27:04because they explain to you what you need to know.
27:06There's a lot of buzz words that women get used to being told.
27:11Special effects, action.
27:16There's those types of things
27:17where there are reasons why you can't get hired.
27:20I don't know anything about special effects. Nothing.
27:23What you don't know, you learn.
27:25I mean, you make it your business to find out.
27:27Things are constantly changing anyway.
27:29I had the feeling that she could have gone to school
27:32and boned up and studied with a couple of guys on the run
27:36and been just fine.
27:37I would call the guys on the set and I'd say,
27:39come on, I have to have this guy walk through a wall
27:42and I'm not quite sure I set it up correctly.
27:45Could you just check it out and make sure it's right?
27:47Oh, we'd love to.
27:49Got to work the system.
27:50She would tell me how frustrated she was about the fact
27:53that things weren't going the way that she wanted them to.
27:56The Latin aphorism, if you will, was illegitimi non-carborundum,
28:02which is don't let the bastards get you down.
28:03One of Susan's favorite sayings.
28:07She really wanted to write some scripts of her own.
28:09She says, how about you and I working together?
28:13She wanted it to be a action adventure with a black lead
28:18and a female British agent.
28:22You see, once again, the tough lady that kicks ass.
28:25They never really got too far
28:27because she couldn't get the backing that she was looking for.
28:29One of the first things they would say,
28:32oh, we can get another director.
28:36So the first thing we would say,
28:38oh, we'll take it somewhere else. Thank you.
28:40And I wonder how much she discarded herself
28:42when she got frustrated
28:43because I know when I would visit her,
28:47the world that she lived in,
28:49if it's a representation of who she was, was pretty dismal.
28:53She was saying to me that her life was not what she had expected.
28:57She realized that she was fighting a losing battle.
29:02And we felt sorry for her.
29:04I mean, later on in her acting,
29:06she was doing things like a murder she wrote.
29:09It's almost embarrassing to watch those nowadays
29:11because the scripts are so terrible.
29:13What we need is someone the police will respect.
29:17We have that somebody right here.
29:22She just looked old.
29:24And she shouldn't have been old.
29:25That's true.
29:26The murder she wrote,
29:27she definitely didn't look the way she should be looking.
29:30She wasn't taking care of herself.
29:32She started getting more pills.
29:35She started losing weight.
29:37You know, because she was almost anorexic at one point.
29:41Biff had his roast at the Comedy Store.
29:44This was in 1988, and here was Susan.
29:47Oh, I couldn't believe it was her.
29:50I was shocked how she had dissipated.
29:53It was sad.
29:54She just kind of withered somewhat,
29:57and her health was not very good in the later part.
30:02And I was shocked one time when I did watch something.
30:07My God, I thought,
30:08that's Susan.
30:10What the hell happened to her?
30:12What's wrong?
30:12Of course, she came to the set made up and everything,
30:14and she looked gaunt and older than I remembered seeing her.
30:18And she didn't look 100% healthy, frankly.
30:20In those days, lots of times we'd have actors come in.
30:23They just wanted to work to keep their benefits up
30:25if they hadn't worked for a while.
30:26And I don't know if that was the situation with her,
30:28because I was kind of surprised that she came in
30:30to do kind of a low-budget cult show.
30:32Every once in a while, she goes,
30:33oh, I got to do this stupid show.
30:35I got to keep my health insurance going.
30:38The day she showed up,
30:38people were buzzing that she was coming, you know.
30:41But they never said, Susan is coming.
30:43They said, Veena is coming.
30:44I think she had a lot of personal demons
30:46by the time we worked together.
30:47And as I said, it kind of came through in the performance.
30:50If you watch the episode,
30:51you'll see it as something behind her eyes.
30:53Most everything she did, there was a sadness.
30:56As a single person supporting her mother
30:59with a waning economic career, she had her challenges.
31:03There were times when Ruth and Susan lived apart.
31:07One time in particular was when Ruth lived in a house
31:11that was built by Susan's half-brother.
31:14Ruth took it as Susan, like trying to get rid of her.
31:17The house was built utilizing standard materials,
31:20but materials that Ruth felt were toxic.
31:24Now, whether the chemicals really bothered her,
31:26whether Ruth just decided she wanted to live with Susan,
31:30we don't know.
31:31Susan was like, what am I going to do?
31:35After, you know, sleeping in the yard
31:38and having all kinds of problems,
31:42ultimately Ruth moved back to California.
31:44It was quite a burden for Susan,
31:45and she really wanted to have her freedom.
31:48And she put money into those get-rich-quick-ermid type schemes.
31:52That was an act of desperation,
31:54because she wasn't that way before she lost the houses.
31:59She got this crowd around her,
32:01Susan Oliver, they're using you to get more people in.
32:06She didn't see it that way.
32:09Because at these meetings, of course, she was the big star.
32:13But it didn't ultimately come out to be a big movie star type life,
32:18which it absolutely could have.
32:24Poor woman. Poor mama.
32:29After losing everything else, and then her mother like that,
32:34you know, dying in a convalescent home in North Hollywood,
32:38it's not probably the way she pictured it.
32:41I do think she felt the loss of Ruth very deeply,
32:46as complex as that whole lifelong relationship had been.
32:52Her whole world collapsed on her.
32:55So she was planning on packing and leaving.
32:59She was going to try and, you know, get into Broadway.
33:02And this was right before she got sick.
33:05She could have been ill a lot earlier
33:07than when she actually got diagnosed.
33:09I don't know how often she actually went to be checked.
33:12Her illness was discovered in, I believe, October of 89.
33:16And she declined the course of treatment recommended by the physician.
33:20And at that point, went to Mexico to seek her alternative remedy.
33:25The first thought, I didn't tell her.
33:27I'm going, are you out of your mind?
33:30The cancer is serious.
33:32Susan really didn't want people to know.
33:34She didn't even want me to know.
33:35She didn't want James to know.
33:36But then things started going south.
33:40I felt it was necessary to call James.
33:42I didn't really know Michael.
33:44He introduced himself, explained who he was.
33:46James went down to Mexico.
33:48I then spoke to her physician in this clinic.
33:51He said she needed to, like, get out of here,
33:53that these treatments were not effective.
33:55But I talked to Susan, and she, on the one hand,
33:58wished and believed in the alternative treatment,
34:00and, on the other hand, understood that it wasn't working,
34:03that the tumor was hemorrhagic.
34:05It was growing.
34:06She had an operation.
34:08It was more effective than the surgeon had expected.
34:11And he left us with an idea of a reasonably positive prognosis.
34:18And she was clear, but she had to do the chemo and follow up,
34:23but she didn't want to do it.
34:26Distaste at some level of Susan seeing her mother
34:28in a hospital environment as she was dying did have an impact.
34:33She may have felt that it just was not going to do any good for her.
34:37Aside from being terribly touched and upset about her personal illness,
34:42I was upset and touched about the fact that the soldiers
34:44that we were in those days, I was losing one of my soldiers.
34:49But I think that she was really struggling hard
34:52and fighting against a life that was very difficult at the end.
34:55And then without her mom there, without the opportunities
35:01that she really wanted to have in her career,
35:03I think it was just really tough.
35:05It's not that she gave up.
35:06She believed too much in the holistic method of healing.
35:15It proved to only be a matter of months
35:17before the metastatic manifestations of the tumor became evident.
35:21She was saying,
35:23I just saw the doctor and I have a few months to live.
35:27And then she was in and out of Motion Picture Hospital in April that year.
35:32Jerry Lewis offered to take care of whatever Susan's needs were
35:35as soon as he found out that she was ill.
35:37I mean, she didn't take Jerry Lewis's offer to get help.
35:41So I wonder whether she felt like she shouldn't take it
35:44or whether there was no help.
35:46She was not emotionally distressed.
35:49She was calm.
35:50You know, she called her answering machine and left a valedictory message,
35:55which obviously represents some awareness.
35:58You know, she knew this was probably her final communication to the world.
36:02When we did her will, you know, she left her estate,
36:06a third to the children of her mother's family
36:09and a third to the children of the Gerke side.
36:12Which really touched my heart because I didn't know that we were all that important to her.
36:16So the fact that she didn't have kids now that I'm a mom really breaks my heart.
36:21And she had said it publicly.
36:23She'd rather be unmarried and have a child than have no child at all.
36:27Way before people thought that that was even, you know, reasonably acceptable.
36:35She had a tortuously complex way to select a donor father
36:40and then try and have this child.
36:43And she had a particular donor who ultimately didn't consent.
36:46And that was the end of that.
36:47Had she had a child, would she have gone through these decisions when she became ill?
36:53Would she have kind of stepped up?
36:57There were undone things in her career,
36:59but I don't think she thought of her career as a failure.
37:01I got a hold of Johnny Grant, the mayor of Hollywood back then.
37:06And I said, hey, we got to get together and put a star on Hollywood Boulevard for Susan.
37:11I thought I did really well.
37:14And then I'm, you know, proud of myself.
37:16So I go, Susan, we're going to put a star up for you.
37:20She looked at me and she said, you're not putting a star up there.
37:24I don't want a star.
37:26It humbled me a lot because it made me realize you don't do it because you want to be a
37:35star.
37:36She was dying the way she had chosen to live on her terms.
37:40And that's, and she was at peace with that.
37:43Hal Fishman that night, because we were watching TV and he mentioned she passed.
37:50And I think he was the only one.
37:52It is also with great personal sadness that I report tonight the passing of actress Susan Oliver,
37:58who died tonight at the Motion Picture and Television Country Hospital in the San Fernando Valley.
38:04Susan was 58 years old.
38:07Sandy Colfax called back and gave his condolences and felt sorry.
38:13But everybody else tonight called nada, nada.
38:18No one else called back.
38:20She'll be missed.
38:21She leaves a magnificent legacy of her talent, her films, and her intellect.
38:27The memorial service was at a theater up above Sunset a few blocks.
38:32Jean Roddenberry was there.
38:33A number of other people would stand up in the audience and just present their recollections.
38:38One person would get up and talk about a completely different woman than any of the rest of us knew.
38:43But she had the same character and the same warmth and dedication and energy.
38:47And we found out that she had compartmentalized her life in very private sectors.
38:53And a couple of people towards the end even started saying that they had learned so much more about her
38:57than she had ever shared.
38:58Someone said that she was a fire marshal at one of the studios.
39:01Maya Angelou had a letter written and I thought that would have been so great to talk to Susan about.
39:06People didn't want to leave. They just wanted to take in all of this love that was there and all
39:13of this cheer about what a full life this young lady had.
39:16And all of us should really enjoy what she had to offer. I wish she could have appreciated just how
39:23much that was.
39:24What's left behind should be looked at because young actors need to learn where they came from.
39:30And a lot of them don't get it. But if you watch Susan Oliver, despite the material, watch the performances
39:38and sometimes it'll astound you.
39:40To get to do what she did and get to be known the way she was and so on, that's
39:47still one in a million.
39:48I think had she concentrated and had she had the opportunities in the 90s, she could have proven herself very
39:55much a very important director.
39:57She was a square that didn't fit into the circle. And she was always fighting that.
40:04She had a great sense of humor. I thought she was just a tremendous woman.
40:08Lovely human being and very caring.
40:10One of the very special people I ever met.
40:13Would that the entire industry were made up of people like Susan Oliver, it would be a much more enjoyable
40:18industry.
40:18I will love her forever. She was very special. She was a good egg.
40:25I'm so happy that I got to know her, that I got to know Charlotte Gerke when she was very
40:32young and the woman that became Susan Oliver.
40:35Because you don't find many people like that.
40:41She was just so watchable and endearing.
40:47You wanted to embrace her. You wanted to protect her.
40:55I didn't want to go there.
41:01Hi Susan. This is Susan on May 1st, Tuesday.
41:10And it's 12.30 for afternoon.
41:15And I'm calling in the hospital.
41:20And I'm waiting for Ron and James.
41:25And I'm running very short of breath.
41:29So I just wanted to say I'm going to certainly hold on until the lawyer gets here at 4, hopefully.
41:40And I've got to take care of that.
41:43Just got to.
41:44And I just want to say how much I love everybody.
41:49I'm happy.
41:50I've been sharing this in perfect, magnificent world of ours.
42:00And I wish that you all find your dreams and your love.
42:08And I love you.
42:12Adios.
42:15Sayonara.
42:15Fine.
42:19Fine.
42:31Fine.
42:34Noah.
42:34I've been sharing.
42:34How's to describe Dios?
42:35Um?
42:39I've been sharing and sharing yourieren and understanding your lamp.
42:41So yes with gaining and deciding others.
42:41I've gotych Eg braucht train.
42:41I know.
42:41Howículo has gone through.
42:41I'm delivering.
42:42I've lived there's spiritual honour rounds.
42:42So yes with this,
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