Tell me everything about Suzanne Pleshette

After her first husband died, she married Tom Poston. Bob Newhart introduced them.

How did Mary Frann feel about Suzanne’s appearance in the final episode of Newhart?

Sexy voice. I remember her in some weird TV movie with Tom Berenger as her boxer son and there was some off incest subtext or something to that effect. This was years ago I must have been very young . She was very pretty.

fun interview.

She dazzled on Johnny Carson. One of the great talk show guests.

Bedroom eyes.

She was freaking hilarious as Karen's mom on Will & Grace.

Couldn’t keep her hands off the men in this movie. She was gorgeous.

She was an occasional guest star on Route 66. She was such a stunner.

Far too pretty as Leona Helmsley even though they tried to make her harder looking. The young Leona was attractive, but Suzanne was exquisite. She said in an interview that she had the opportunity to meet Leona but turned it down.

From her obit in the L.A. Times:

Off-camera, Pleshette was known for being what an Orlando Sentinel reporter once described as "an earthy dame, an Auntie Mame who isn't afraid to tell a dirty story." Or, as TV Guide put it in 1972: "Her conversations — mostly meandering monologues — are sprinkled with aphorisms, anecdotes, salty opinions and X-rated expletives."

In the pantheon of campfests, her turn as Leona Helmsley is only bested by Mommie Dearest.

I like her in the silly "If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium" with sexy Ian McShane.

R12 "I'm the only one who snaps around here.", a classic line. Also, "Just buzz em', honey."

Ian and Suzanne

She was runner-up to Sandra Church in the OBC of Gypsy.

Her Annie...

Were she and Stefanie Powers up for some of the same roles back in the day?

The tv academy interview is great fun. A bit full of herself but lots of great stories. David Janssen was her great love, where the timing was never right.

Ruth Gordon wrote in her memoir that she was walking down a street on Broadway with Mary MacArthur, Helen Hayes’ daughter when the came across a theater marquee with Suzanne Pleshette’s name in it. “I hate her,” said Mary. They’d been up for the same part.

I read she was married to hunky Troy Donahue.

Stefanie did Palm Springs Weekend, r18. Suzanne said (kidding) Stefanie never forgave her for turning it down.

She took over for Anne Bancroft on Broadway in The Miracle Worker, and to the surprise of many was a sensation. She was only in her 20s with little experience. She and co-star Patty Duke did not get along. In fact, they hated each other and tried to hurt each other when fighting on stage.

She talks about it in her TV Academy interview.

Banger?, R13, R15. Beer spews.

She and David Janssen had an on-again, off-again thing for years. They kept catching each other in between other relationships but never made a real go of it.

Her first husband was movie star Troy Donahue, whom she divorced in less than a year.

Her second husband was oil man Tommy Gallagher, who was rumored to be gay or bi. They married in 1968 and the marriage lasted until his death from lung cancer in 2000.

Her third husband was actor Tom Poston. They married in 2001. He died in 2007, then she died of lung cancer in 2008.

Never someone who could carry a film by herself, but could in ensemble or supporting parts. Perfect for tv dramas and sitcoms.

r23, she studied at Neighborhood Playhouse and had 3 Broadway appearances under her belt...

She loved to smoke cigarettes.

She preferred ranch to bleu cheese as a dip for her Buffalo wings. That never quite sat right with me.

R2 , that ending was coined by Newharts real wife . Fran was very hurt , that's Why they added the part of his Dream wife was pretty and wore great Sweaters . Suzanne did not stay for the wrap party. Remember watching it with my first partner at the old Crazy Rayz in Atlanta .

I believe Donald Trump went to her funeral.

Troy Donahue as a husband seemed like a real hiccup on her life story. I wouldn't have imagined him as her type at all.

She and Tom Poston went back a long way. As young actors they both appeared in a Broadway flop in 1959 called Golden Fleecing.

Did she have an eye job in later years? She always looked different to me after Bob Newhart Show ended but I could never pinpoint how exactly.

She was a classy broad.

her relating the Patty Duke episode / on the Youtube/ interview

"Helen Keller SAW that night!!"

DataLounge must viewing

I lived in LA in the 1970s and she was a gay favorite back then. The rumors at the time (of which I presume none of them were true) were that she was married to hair dresser, lived in a high rise condo on Sunset and Doheney, and was really a lesbian.

She was cousin to actor John Pleshette of Knots Landing fame.

Wow! Just spent the last hour and a half watching her in that interview in its entirety at r4. So smart and entertaining! Thanks for posting.

Her digs...

r29, so that's how she got that deep voice.

She said that while she liked Steve McQueen as a friend, he was the cheapest person she ever met.

Klass with a capitol K!

[quote] She said that while she liked Steve McQueen as a friend, he was the cheapest person she ever met.

He was just saving money for that long, long life he was going to have.

She molested me on the Universal backlot.

She liked being caned and she was a great friend of Tennessee Williams.

DL fave Susie Lee said that she'd always just assumed Pleshette was a lesbian, but didn't cite any proof.

She replaced me in a sitcom pilot and I’m a guy.

She was great in The Fugitive; I mean especially it was a great show, Stephen King called it the greatest TV show of all time. David Janssen was voted the greatest leading man in television of all time, he was kinda the male counterpart to Mary Tyler Moore. Cool that she played Karen's mom in Will and Grace.

I see a rivaling string of TV shows between the Lorre crew and Kohan/Mutchnick in the 90s, later 80s and 2000s; and Cybill, Spin City, a bit Defenders of the Earth (Lorre started with Comics), Two and a Half Men, somewhat Lost, a little bit the Fugitive reboot, and maybe MacGyver et. al. on the one hand and on the other Will and Grace, Frasier, Cheers, and I guess Golden Girls (Kohan/Mutchnick I think met at the Golden Girls, Marc Cherry started-ish(?) there as well), somewhat Desperate Housewives, ER, a little bit Alf (e.g. Max Wright played a progressive, left wing politician in a two-part episode on Cheers and was a very accomplished theatre actor, as several others at least somewhat in that line-up string). Wright also had a starring role in Reds, which was the mainish project of Warren Beatty's life, Beatty's wife Annett Bening was the female lead in The American President with Michael Douglas, which also starred John Mahoney and Wendy Malick, both as members of the White House staff, who would later be reunited in Frasier, playing a couple. The movie was written by Aaron Sorkin, who had a short affair with Kristin Davis, who had a complementary role to Grace in an episode of W&G.

Michael J Fox's role was inspired by George Stephanopolous and would help him get the lead in Spin City afterwards, as did Martin Sheen's role with The West Wing, which connects The West Wing with TAAHM and the Lorre Wing, but I guess it is closer to the W&G, Cheers, Frasier, DH wing. Adrian Lester's role in Primary Colors was also inspired by Stephanopolous, and it had Emma Thompson as Hillary Clinton, who had played Frasier's first wife in Cheers, and Maura Tierney in a main role as well, who was an integral part on ER, which I guess is a bit connected to the W&G, Cheers, ... wing, and had the husband of Felicity Huffman in it, who also had a small role in Frasier, besides DH main role. The movie also had Diane Ladd in it, whose husband, Bruce Dern, had memorable roles as villain in The Fugitive, which connects Primary Colors more with the Lorre wing, one next to his wife. Alison Janney had a role in it as well, and she played a small but important role in Lost.

I see the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Cheers and Frasier as a trilogy, and I Love Lucy and W&G as Alpha and Omega, also great that they had a reminiscence episode of I Love Lucy in the second last episode of W&G. I regard The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Fugitive as integral parts of the different strings, and somewhat complementary to each other, also their leads and The Honeymooners as something like an ILL complementary, antagonistic Alpha leading to the Lorre string. David Paymer was in The American President, a few episodes of Cheers and in Nixon, as was David Hyde Pierce. Nixon was played by Anthony Hopkins, e.g. called the greatest actor alive about 13 years ago by Hugh Grant in an interview, who called it the best thing he's ever done, who played Hitchcock a few years ago. Roz Doyle's mom in Frasier was played by Eva Marie Saint, one of the last surviving members of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Fellow North by Northwest costar Philip Ober was third husband to Vivian Vance.

r49, Phil Ober was Vivian's second husband.

I enjoyed her on Nightingales. Too bad it was cancelled so quickly.

I had a huge crush on her when I was a kid.

r49 - tl:dr

She said on The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson asked her about her marriage to Troy Donahue: "We were married for about 20 minutes back in the 60's."

I think in the interview she talks about how he called her from his business manager's office a few months after they were married and told her that she had to divorce him by the end of the year or she would be on the hook for a big tax bill that was coming due. She appreciated that!

Great color on her...

I was so enchanted with the long interview posted above, I had a look at Suzanne's IBDB credits and was kind of shocked to see how few A list films she made, even at the height of her youthful glory. The Birds might be considered her only really respectable film credit and, of course, she's the 4th (or so) lead.

It's surprising that Hollywood didn't treat her better in the 1960s as she arrived there with major Broadway credits and, god knows, was as beautiful and sexy as any of her contemporaries like Jane Fonda or Natalie Wood. I wonder if there was a rebelliousness against the system that scared off producers? But then again, she worked consistently for over 40 years even if most of it was in schlocky films and TV movies and TV guest spots. Ultimately, her sitcom work might have been where she shone the brightest.

Sorry, that should read above as: IBDM credits.

Though her IBDB (Broadway) credits are not bad!

I remember her on The Tonight Show with Rodney Dangerfield doing standup. When he told a good joke, you could hear her off camera with that throaty laugh.

Well again , r56, she turned down Palm Springs Weekend. She was being put in the starlet mold along with Stefanie and Connie Stevens. Fonda came from Hollywood royalty and there were expectations/opportunities of/for her to rise above starlet level. Natalie had acted since childhood so there was never a period where they needed to push her as a starlet. Bancroft had almost a decade of film (B-level) and TV before she broke through with The Miracle Worker (and got serious DRAMATIC actress cred). I won't say Pleshette is the poor man's Bancroft, but I think Bancroft's features and acting work better on the big screen and Pleshette's on the small.

Suzanne Pleshette and Tony Curtis starred in "40 Pounds of Trouble" (1962), a significant chunk of which was filmed in Disneyland.

They also both appeared in "Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came" (1970).

My dad thought she was hot.

I only began to appreciate her late in her career. She used to gloat that she kept her own nose!

Such a great face. She could do sultry and yet still be cute.

Her chance for A list Hollywood stardom happened in the early 1960s, which IMHO was the nadir of Hollywood filmmaking. There were so few great films then that starred young sexy American women.

And then by the time everything got adult and started changing in 1967/68 with Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Easy Rider, etc. she was too associated with the old fashioned idea of a Hollywood star and new faces were sought. Timing was everything.

Used to hang out at Chasen's a lot with Sol Syler, the owner of Playtone Records.

She was good on "Columbo" where killer Eddie Albert romanced her to keep her quiet.

She knew how to carry a torch.

Along Came a Spider

I loved this TV movie. Can't believe it's been 50 years.

She was like Jessica Walters in that she should have had a bigger movie career but did some essential tv stuff.

Jessica *Walter*

Wow R50 you actually made it to the last sentence of R49's post just to rebuke him. Congrats.

Are you kidding, r71? I didn't read any of r49's post but the last sentence caught my eye because of Viv's name.

Does anyone remember a TV movie she made with Gil Gerard when he was so hot in the 1990s? It was a silly romcom but very cute.

Didn’t she mess around with Robert Loggia while married to Poston?

I think Loggia bragged about sipping champagne from her pussy.

I seem to remember Poston was alive at the time of Loggia’s bragging.

[quote]Does anyone remember a TV movie she made with Gil Gerard when he was so hot in the 1990s? It was a silly romcom but very cute.

They were both in:

"Help Wanted: Male" (1982)

"For Love or Money" (1984)

Could it be one of those?

R62 lolol her nose was about as real as Ivanka Trump’s!

She played a fantastic Leona Helmsley...... "Droplets on my salad!!!! You're FIRED, how dare you!!!!"

Never had a nose job. It's rare but it happens.

According her her interview (which I also watched in full, it's fantastic) she and Tom P were not introduced by Newhart. Poston was in a play in Philly in 1959. She was flown in to replace the leading lady. Tom P called her in her hotel room and asked is she wanted to run lines. She said 'um but I'm in my robe' and he said 'That's fine!' and they screwed for the duration of the play. After she divorced Troy she was in NYC and he came over to her room at The Plaza and provided his services. Then that was that and Poston guest starred on Newhart many times (he knew Newhart even longer, since the early 50s) which I suppose cemented the connection between Suzanne, Tom and Newhart in people's mind. They reconnected when both were widowed.

I thought she was more beautiful in her 40s than her early 20s. I remember her from TV movies at the time and she had an exquisite face. In her youth she was more cute than beautiful.

R73 That movie you're thinking of was called Help Wanted: Male and it is on Youtube and Gil Gerard is indeed great looking in it.

She had great presence and exuded charisma and charm in her Carson appearances which makes me think she would have been a perfect fit playing a lawyer or politician if the industry had been different at the time. I can easily imagine her in a Veep/West Wing/Good Wife type show.

And damn that interviewer for cutting her off as she mentioned the movie where she played a mother who was having sex with her son (a young Tom Berenger). On the plus side he cut her off to ask about Leona Helmsley.

For R73

So did he get the job? (So to speak.)

Another campy tv movie featuring a bunch of 80s soap stars that DL will probably remember (no shade!)

I always laugh when people talk about older movie and tv stars and say they could have had bigger careers. Maybe she had exactly the career she wanted. She worked continuously. She obviously had a great reputation and worked non-stop. She seemed to have more than enough money. She had what looked like a long term successful marriage and then shorter one with Tom Poston. It looked like she fucked a ton of hot guys in her 20's and then settled down. She was on a successful sitcom. She worked until she died. She didn't seem to have any regrets. She was kind of a broad. Seemed like a pretty charmed life to me.

I remember her from, "The Ugly Dachshund". I was just a tot of a lesbo. I always wanted a great dane and finally had two once I had my own home. I think Dean Jones was in the movie with her.

R83 Took the words out of my mouth. She had the life I would want if I could chose. I would never want a 'big A list career' but I would want what Suzanne had which was steady work, enough money to live very well and then be in the circles to meet and be friends with these people but without the pressures of having to be them. Suzanne eulogized Lew Wasserman so she was fairly well connected although they didn't lead to work. She says in the interview she wouldn't ask for career help and risk the friendship, she preferred to have fabulous dinners with these people. Sounds like she enjoyed the lifestyle more than 'the work'.

And she had DL Garden McKay!

She not only made her bed and laid in it, r83....

R84 We had a Great Dane when I was a child. Beautiful dogs. Never had the space since so have moved over to cocker spaniels.

And to keep the thread on track. Here is Suzanne's real life dog coming out with her on Carson. The dog's name is Gypsy. Suzanne almost got the part of Gypsy in the original 'Gypsy'.

Like many, I enjoyed her on Johnny Carson. I always thought she would have been great to know as a friend.

I remember someone posting here before that Suzanne was a size queen. And that her original fling w/Poston was in part due to his size.

Definitely not hot when he was older but I could see some BDF

Good body

She was closeted until the day she died, but the all female pall bearers were telling.

She wasn’t fucking closeted. Jesus Christ. Those were her best girlfriends as pallbearers.

R42 Susanne and McQueen's wife Neille Adams were party girls in Hollywood. Suzanne would tell great stories on Carson's show. She was a great 'broad' -- would have made a great friend!

Did she and Carson ever hook up?

Can someone please start a Gardner McKay thread? I want to know all about him!

Was she one of those "old broads?"

In The Bob Newhart Show, when she and Bob were saying goodnight in bed, she turned off the light and a simulated moonlight turned on just at that moment. How did the moon know to ome on just at that instant?

A picture is worth a thousand words, r95. Anyway,

Oops, sorry, r95...

I remember reading that when she was doing a Disney movie, they let her use their facilities to design her sheets. The problem was that they had such a complete range of colors and the printers didn't have that full a range with their available inks to match them.

Suzanne and Gardner

Yes, she was closeted. Her longest marriage was to a gay man. They lived on Doheny and Tommy liked the bars on Santa Monica Blvd.

Suzanne liked the kiss of the cane on her bottom.

I thought she lived in the Empire West throughout her second marriage?

She was Edie Wasserman's best friend

I tracked down the 'incest movie' mentioned a few times on the thread. If you've only seen Suzanne in sitcoms and fluff, the seduction scene with Berenger that starts from the 1:20:00 mark is worth a watch. Gives an idea of what she was capable of if cast right and given a script to work with.

Did Suzanne have female lovers? If so, who?

Love her

She had Poo.

R107 Only name that gets thrown out on DL is Tina Sinatra which seems too obvious to me if SP was gay/bi.

In this picture at David Janssen's funeral, they do look like sister wives/sister widows though, he must have had them both.

She was close friends with an actress named Madlyn Rhue.

Was close to Steve McQueen who protected her like a kid sister. He saw her flirting with a much older man when she was a teen and he went over and ran the guy off before offering to take her home.

Love the jetset party scene and was s a frequent guest at Hotel Du Cap, the Gstaad Palace and the Dorchester.

There's a portrait of her on the wall in La Scala restaurant in Bev Hills

Once hosted the Tonight Show pre-Joan Rivers

Was close to the Clintons through her friendship with the Wassermans who hosted fundraising dinners for Clinton

Was Jewish

Grew up on West End Ave and 81st in NYC

Close friend of Roddy McDowall

The Sinatra girls paid for her star on the Walk of Fame

Got her break after graduating from the Neighborhood Playhouse by fucking Dean Stockwell who was cast in 'Compulsion' and asked the producers to give his gf a part, she was girl #5 or something.

Had a writing career and a production company called Marshmallow Manor. Rumored to have done a lot of punch up work on scripts ala Carrie Fisher but refused to speak about her writing career or disclose her penname in interviews.

Anecdote about her potty mouth: Abby Singer, the production manager on Bob Newhart, chewed up the wardrobe girls for spending too much on a dress for Suzanne. Suzanne heard about and called him into her dressing room. She said 'So I heard you're a VP now'. Abby said 'No Suzy, maybe next season I'm still just production manager'. To which Suzanne replied 'You're a vicious prick!'

Random list but OP did ask for everything!

Her special friend was Tina Sinatra.

Steve McQueen was an interesting man, wasn't he?

After reading Ali MacGraw's bio when someone posted the excerpts on a DL thread, my opinion of McQueen is VERY low. He seemed like an insecure, chauvinistic, violent sack of shit.

He also swang both ways, no?

No idea but he supposedly very homophobic and would threaten to beat up gay men and generally had all the hallmarks of being very insecure and overcompensating, 'toxic masculinity' if you will.

r112, it sounds from your post like you didn't watch that long interview she did for the Television Academy near the top of this thread at r4. You must, she elaborates on a lot of your points including her script writing and pen name, the West End family apartment and the Neighborhood Playhouse.

bump

FUN FACT: Peter Macdissi wore one of her old wigs in "Uncle Frank"

Plus, r112, you forgot to mention....

R111, Madlyn Rhue played Lt. Marla McGivers, who betrayed the Enterprise to Khan on 'Star Trek.'

She had a good sense of humor about her distinctive voice.

She was also pretty good as Leona Helmsley in "Leona Helmsley: The Queen Of Mean".

Always a welcome sight, good to see her get some DL love for her fine work on the excellent “Columbo” episode, “Dead Weight”. As a vulnerable divorcee being romanced by murderer Eddie Albert in an attempt to throw Columbo off his trail, Pleshette (in an atypical role) was a delight.

She was also a hoot as a vain opera star (!) on “It Takes a Thief”, and as gangster Donald Sutherland’s smart but innocent girlfriend on an interesting episode of “The Name of the Game” titled “The Suntan Mob”.

I think she claimed to turn down a role in “Marnie” (1964). I wonder if she had a bad time filming “The Birds” with Hitchcock. Either way I wish she’d starred in more classics; she had a good presence.

Speaking of Tina Sinatra, is that her in the rear right in R91’s link to Suzanne’s pallbearers? Before seeing the later references to her, my immediate reaction to that link was that that was Tina.

Bump

She was in a two character play on Broadway in 1982 titled 'Special Occasions'. It closed on opening night. Afterwards she went on Carson to joke about it.

^^ Her co-star was Richard Mulligan of Empty Nest and Soap fame. It should've been Newhart.

Well, it wasn't a bed of roses for Miss Miss Diane Baker, r125....

Trying to find the video of Mario Cantone impersonating Suzanne in THE BIRDS when she’s instructing her students on how to evacuate the school.

No Suzanne had a great time filming The Birds and stayed so close to the Hitchcocks (she seemed very, very good and making and keeping friendships with powerful people) that she was up in the Hitchcock's Monterey house shortly before he died. She mentions Hitch reading dirty limericks and if I'm not mistaken that very scenario was in the Sienna Miller Tippi film and presented as sexual harassment. Suzanne says he told them to her and she wrote them down then sat on his lap and read them back to him.

Yes that is Tina Sinatra as her pallbearer. I can also see Nikki Haskell and James Gardner's daughter who I believe was Suzanne's goddaughter.

Thanks for suggesting the 'It Takes a Thief' episode R124. It is indeed a hoot, so camp and a young RJ Wagner looks great.

I should clarify that in the Sienna Miller film it is Tippi that Hitchcock is reading these dirty limericks to, which she takes as being inappropriate and harassment. Reading back my post it sounded like I was saying they showed him reading them to Suzanne!

bump

That Diane Baker interview at R130 is bizarre. Hitchcock hit on her, Sean Connery hit on her (even twisting her arm), — the interviewer had his hands full trying to keep her on-topic.

R135 yeah just watched it too. I can believe she was the deluded starlet from the 60s who was posted about a few years ago.

R115 I got to meet Steve McQueen on the set of "The Thomas Crown Affair." And I joined him for lunch that day. I sat across from him while he talked about his charity work and his interest in helping native Americans. He would organize clothing and food drives for various reservations. Doesn't mean he wasn't a prick to some people. But he did seem sincere about the charitable contributions.

She strikes me a real "tough broad" - not my type at all.

R137 cool story

Is that Tina Sinatra in the right rear among the pallbearers in R91's link?

R136, by all accounts, Diane Baker was indeed the subject of that fun and juicy starlet thread from a few years ago. I think the OP of that thread either had it removed or at least removed the link, but it was great while it lasted!

Great interview. She's like a female Bill Clinton, full of self serving bullshit but she says it with such charm and authority you buy it. That kind of smooth charm is rare in a woman, she should have been a politician.

R2, I'm sure Frann wasn't thrilled; hey, this thing you just did for seven years? yeah, we liked Emily better.

Suzanne stole the show with her withering disdain for Dick's, er, Bob's 'dream.'

But Frann laughed all the way to the bank.

Plus, maybe they let her keep Joanna's sweaters?

She was fantastic in the overlooked 1965 movie "A Rage to Live"

where she played a naive girl who became a nymphomaniac after an older man (stud Mark Goddard) forces himself on her

While a respectable girl from a wealthy family, she can't control her need for dick and has sex in cars and other seedy places

In one scene, Brett Somers, playing the mother of Mark Goddard, catches Suzanne's character and her son In flagrante delicto in the darkened family rec room...this movie should have been recognized the Academy for this scene alone...

Is that Matched Game Bret Somers? I think so.....Hilarious.

Suzanne was nominated for an Emmy playing Leona Hemsley; she didn't win. Competitions was fierce, but when they read her name with the other nominees the crowd went wild.

Lynn Whitfield won for The Josephine Baker Story.

Glenn Close was also nominated for Sarah, Plain and Tall.

[quote]R144 “A Rage to Live" where she played a naive girl who [bold]became a nymphomaniac after an older man (stud Mark Goddard) forces himself on her.[/bold]

Because that happens all the time.

Lost in Space never had such a hot extraterrestrial stripper.

She was supposed to have been immortal!

She thought herself above me.

The whore of Chasen's.

R150 if she thought herself above you, then she thought herself above your peers too like Vanessa a Redgrave and Maggie Smith and other actresses of your ilk. But in fairness, did you really have the stuff to play a nymphomaniac?

This bitch is stealing scenes from me. Fire her ass and get me Diane Baker for the part.

The deluded starlet might also have been Shirley Knight, here are a few gems from an interview with her:

You guest starred on Johnny Staccato, with John Cassavetes.

“John was such a nice man. He was so funny. He said, “You know, I have so many parts for you, but my wife [Gena Rowlands] is going to play them all.””

That’s remarkable, in a way, that after two Oscar nominations you would uproot yourself and sort of start over again with Strasberg.

“I had moments of regrets, but not really. Because most of what I would call my extraordinary work has been in the theater.”

Which means that I haven’t seen your best work.

“Oh! Well, let me put it this way. My Blanche in Streetcar – I was absolutely born to play that role. Tennessee came backstage and said, “Finally, I have my Blanche. My perfect Blanche.” And then he sat down and wrote a play for me. That was thrilling. Also, I think my Cherry Orchard was probably definitive. I was pretty darn good in Horton Foote’s play, Young Man From Atlanta. And Kennedy’s Children; I certainly did that part well.”

So in most of the films and TV performances we’ve been discussing, you couldn’t see anything around you while you were performing.

“There’s another actress of my calibre that I admire very much, Vanessa Redgrave, and she’s absolutely blind as a bat as well. And Ingrid Bergman was blind without her glasses, and she did all those films and couldn’t see a thing. My theory is that you cut out a lot because you can’t see, and your imagination is really working because you can’t see.”

Her part in The Birds was offered first to Anne Bancroft. Suzanne had taken over for Bancroft in The Miracle Worker on Broadway.