Susan Douglas

Susan Douglas

Nacimiento : 1925-04-13, Vienna, Austria

Muerte : 2013-01-23

Historia

Susan Douglas Rubes is an Austrian-born actress and producer. She was born Zuzka Zenta in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Alfred and Charlotte Burstein. When she was young, her parents moved to a ranch in central Bohemia, Czechoslovakia. Her family took her to the theater or opera in Brno, and on occasion, they would visit Zuzka's maternal grandmother in Vienna, who was the manager of the Burgtheater. She began studying ballet at the age of eight. In 1939, her Jewish parents moved to Paris, and a year later Zuzka moved to the United States with her mother to escape the war in Europe. Emigration to the U.S. was allowed on the basis of annual quotas. Charlotte was allowed in the country on the basis of her birth in Italy, because the quota of Italy had not been filled for that year. Alfred moved to London to work for the Czechoslovak government-in-exile. Zuzka learned English (her fourth language) by seeing three movies a day. Under the name Suzi Burstein, she attended George Washington High School in New York. After graduating in 1943, she changed her name to Susan Douglas. Her first name, Zuzka, is Czech for Susan, while she selected Douglas from a phone book. Beginning in 1945, she began a career spanning radio, television, theater and film; she was both an actress and producer. Her 1947 movie debut was in The Private Affairs of Bel Ami.  Following the film, she was offered a standard seven year contract by Albert Lewin of MGM, but turned it down to live in New York.  Between 1946 and 1959, she appeared on hundreds of television shows,  including both the radio and TV versions of the soap opera The Guiding Light. As her character was unmarried and she was pregnant three times during her appearance on The Guiding Light, the producer had her character sick and in an oxygen tent for the first child, and using a wheelchair for the second child, then finally had her character killed off for the third. In 1959, she moved to Toronto, Canada and in 1963, she began introducing plays to schools.  She founded the Young People's Theater in Toronto in 1965, with the goal of introducing children to the live theater experience.  This was renamed the Susan Douglas Rubes Theater Center in 1977. (It later became the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People in honor of Kevin Kimsa's mother, after receiving a generous donation from Kevin.)  In 1972 she served as associate editor of A Collection of Canadian plays, volume 4.  She remained artistic director of the center until 1979,  then moved to CBC Television.  From 1982–86, she was the head of CBC Radio Drama. From 1987–89, she was president of the Family Channel. She married the Czech-Canadian opera singer Jan Rubes on September 22, 1950, in New York City.  That same year the couple appeared together in Forbidden Journey.  The couple had three children: Christopher (died 1996), Jonathan, and Anthony.  They remained married until his death in 2009.

Perfil

Susan Douglas
Susan Douglas

Películas

The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick
Bryna Glick
The early 1960s: In preparation for his Bar Mitzvah, a Jewish boy, Max Glick (Noam Zylberman) from a small Manitoba community with an overbearing family tries to navigate his coming-of-age with his family's condescension and bigotry using his sarcastic, Jewish humour. The town's rabbi dies, and a sub-plot develops in which Max's father (Aaron Schwartz) and grandfather (Jan Rubes)-both synagogue leaders-are saddled with a traditional Hassidic rabbi who sticks out like a sore thumb among the otherwise assimilated Jewish community. To make matters more difficult, Max likes a Catholic girl (14 year old Fairuza Baulk in just her third film), whom he later competes with in a piano competition. The quirky, fun-loving rabbi tries to help him with his problems, yet harbours a secret ambition of his own. Filmed in Winnipeg and rural Beausejour, Manitoba, Canada.
Haunted by Her Past
Karen's Mother
While staying at an inn in a colonial-recreation village for her anniversary, a young woman becomes possessed by her murderous ancestor through an antique mirror and compelled to murder her husband.
Last Bride Of Salem
Grace Fletcher
A woman tries to protect her family from supernatural forces who are trying to take control.
Face-Off
Mrs. Hunter
Love story involving a Canadian professional hockey player and a hippie folk singer. Their union is tumultuous, as both try to come to terms with their differences in careers and lifestyles.
El héroe anda suelto
Other at the Drive-In
Cuando el viejo actor Byron Orlock comprueba que la vida real supera con creces la violencia de sus películas de terror, decide abandonar el cine. Sin embargo, el joven y ambicioso director Sammy Michaels lo convence para interpretar un último papel, muy distinto a los habituales. Mientras tanto, un veterano del Vietnam, que había sido siempre un hombre amable y cordial, empieza a sentir una enfermiza fascinación por las armas. En un arrebato de locura dispara y mata a su mujer, a su madre y a todo el que se cruza en su camino. Acosado por la policía, se refugia en el cine donde se estrena la última película de Orlock, que se encuentra allí para despedirse definitivamente del público. El monstruo cinematográfico tendrá que enfrentarse al monstruo real.
Five (Cinco)
Roseanne Rogers
El mundo queda destruido por una hecatombe nuclear. Sólo cinco personas sobreviven: una mujer embarazada, un neo-nazi, un afro-americano, un anciano y un derrotista que ve en esta catástrofe una oportunidad para empezar de nuevo...
El color de la sangre
Shelly Carter (as Susan Douglas)
Un médico (Mel Ferrer), su esposa (Beatrice Pearson) y sus hijos, todos ellos técnicamente de raza negra, se hacen pasar por blancos en una ciudad de Nueva Inglaterra.
La vida privada de Bel Ami
Suzanne Walter
El escritor Georges Duroy (George Sanders) pasa por un momento difícil cuando se encuentra con su antiguo compañero de regimiento, Charles Forestier, quien le invita a trabajar con él en su periódico. Duroy no tarda en hacerse un lugar con la ayuda de Madeleine Forestier (Ann Dvorak), la esposa de Charles, y pronto tendrá tiempo para dedicarse a enamorar a mujeres bien posicionadas, con lo que se abrirá paso en el éxito que tanto ansía.