Susan Strasberg

Susan Elizabeth Strasberg (May 22, 1938 - January 21, 1999) was an American actress.

Strasberg, a Jewish American, was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of theatre director and drama coach Lee Strasberg and former actress Paula Strasberg. Her brother, John Strasberg, is an acting coach. Strasberg died in 1999 from breast cancer, aged 60. She had a daughter, Jennifer Robin Jones (born March 14, 1966 in Los Angeles, by '60s actor Christopher Jones). She joked in her autobiography "Bittersweet" that her daughter would be the "real Jennifer Jones" as the actress Jennifer Jones had taken it as a stage name.

Career

After a widely praised performance as a teenager in Picnic, Strasberg originated the title role in the Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank at the age of 18 and was nominated for a Tony Award. Her stature on the stage was symbolized when Julie Harris presented to her a handkerchief which Helen Hayes had used in portraying Victoria Regina and had presented to Harris to honor her performance in I Am a Camera. Strasberg also starred in the Italian holocaust film Kapò, which was nominated for an Academy Award as best foreign film of 1960. She lived for several years in Italy, and was delighted to be called "La Strasberg" in the Italian idiom.

Strasberg wrote two best-selling books: Bittersweet, an autobiography, in which she discussed her tumultuous relationships with actors Richard Burton and Christopher Jones, as well as her daughter's struggles with a birth defect, and Marilyn and Me: sisters, rivals, friends which recounted her relationship with her "surrogate sister" Marilyn Monroe who was very close to the Strasberg family for a number of years.