During this time, her most challenging role was as the ambitious wife of doomed country music legend Hank Williams ( George Hamilton, in offbeat casting) in Your Cheatin' Heart (1964). Filmwise, she found a few lead and support roles in the Elizabeth Taylor-starred BUtterfield 8 (1960) as a psychiatric nurse in the all-star hospital melodrama The Caretakers (1963) in the tailored-for-the-teens romp, Looking for Love (1964), as a friend to Connie Francis and in the hilarious Jerry Lewis slapstick vehicle The Disorderly Orderly (1964), in which she added rather heavy drama as a depressed hospital patient. On early 1960s television, Susan continued to offer a number of striking and often showy, neurotic performances on episodes of Bonanza (1959), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), Wagon Train (1957), The Virginian (1962), Adventures in Paradise (1959), Route 66 (1960), Dr. A brief return to the Broadway stage, with the comedy "Patate" starring Tom Ewell and Lee Bowman, would last only four days but Susan earned great notices and won New York's Theatre World Award World for her outstanding breakout performance. Two years later, Susan returned to the big screen as another tough cookie in the better-received biopic The Gene Krupa Story (1959), as a jazz singer who lures the renowned drummer (played by Sal Mineo) down the road to drugs and near ruin. Topbilled, she played the rebellious delinquent leader at a girls' reformatory and lent class to the rather exploitative material, which was written by blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. The film was shot in black and white, so it didn't matter that Susan's eyes were blue. Susan made her cinematic debut as the tough yet doomed title role in Warner Bros.' low-budget melodrama The Green-Eyed Blonde (1957). At this juncture, she decided to migrate back to Los Angeles for more on-camera opportunities and attained guest roles on such popular prime-time series as Wagon Train (1957), Father Knows Best (1954), The Millionaire (1955) and The Lineup (1954). Susan continued to find extensive dramatic work in live East coast television plays, with roles on The Kaiser Aluminum Hour (1956), The United States Steel Hour (1953), Studio 57 (1954) and Matinee Theatre (1955). That same year, when she replaced British actress Mary Ure as Allison Porter in the superior kitchen sink drama "Look Back in Anger". A far more potent and substantial role fell her way in October of The year 1957 began with a debut ingénue role as a Revolutionary War-era daughter in the Broadway comedy "Small War on Murray Hill", which opened and closed at the Ethel Barrymore Theater after only nine days. Commercials and daytime/prime-time television work started coming Susan's way and, by that time, she had already changed her stage moniker to the more flowing name of Susan Oliver. She then continued her training at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse, while finding stage work in both summer stock and regional theaters. However, by that fall, Susan was back East, studying drama at Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College (for four years). In the spring of 1949, Susan briefly rejoined her mother, who was now remarried, residing in Los Angeles, and gaining a solid reputation as Hollywood's astrologer to the stars. Much later in her career (1977), in fact, Susan would write and direct Cowboysan (1978), a short film which told of Japanese actors performing in an American western. While there (1948-49), she studied at the Tokyo International College and developed an interest in Japan's deep obsession with the American popular culture. As a teenager, she lived with her father and traveled with him overseas to Japan, where he maintained a news post. As a privileged adolescent, she went to various public and boarding schools. Born Charlotte Gercke on Februin New York City, she was the daughter of well-to-do George Gercke, a political reporter and journalist for the New York World, and his astrology practitioner wife, Ruth Oliver (aka Ruth Hale Oliver), both of whom divorced while Susan was still quite young (age 3). She left a fine legacy of work in theater, motion pictures and television. A fascinating aura of mystery seemed to surround the characters portrayed by blue-eyed blonde actress Susan Oliver, whose trademark high cheekbones, rosebud lips and heart-shaped face kept audiences intrigued for nearly three decades.
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