Susan Sullivan Bio - Susan Sullivan Biography

Susan Sullivan: Biography

Susan Sullivan is best known for her work in televison shows such as Falcon Crest, Dharma and Greg, and It's a Living. She is a very talented actress with a range from comedy to drama, her roles vary from victim to heroine to the snobby rich. Her shows always seem to draw in millions of people. She has also starred on broadway in Jimmy Shine and just recently The Fourth Wall along with many others before landing in the daytime soap Another World.

Susan Sullivan: (on the fame that comes with a TV hit) I don't think I ever wanted fame. When I'd go on talk shows, it was so terrifying being with Johnny Carson. You knew you were supposed to be quick-witted, so I'd do this self-deprecating - I'd put myself down before they'd start in on me. That's also about shame, about not feeling entitled to have what you have. It's very complicated, and I think a lot of actors feel this way. It's the ambivalence. It's 'I'm out there and I want to be successful.' It's 'I don't feel worthy and I don't want to be hurt.'(edit)
Susan Sullivan: (on why she became an actress) As a little girl, 5 years old, I was in a Brownie show. It was one of those seminal moments for me. I came from a very chaotic, dysfunctional, alcoholic-father background that a lot of artists come out of, and to construct order I'd do little plays, because there was form and shape to my acting in them. So I wiggled, I winked at the mothers, and recently I remembered a moment I hadn't thought of in 30 years. I mean, I'm a narcissist, as all actors are to varying degrees on the pendulum, and when I did that little Brownie show, I remember this little girl pointing, saying, 'There she is, there's the showoff.' Sometimes these things come up on you and you don't know how they fit together. Here I am doing Buffalo Gal and this memory has come up. As I learn this role, I think I understand the reason for it.(edit)
Susan Sullivan: (On actor's insecurities) This is a very important aspect of what it means to be an actor - maybe younger actors aren't as burdened with this as I've been. I live and share my life with a wonderful man, a psychologist and author, Connell Cowan. He took a continuing-education course on narcissism, desire, and shame. Now, I'd just done this TV pilot in which I played an old kind of diva actress who really thinks she's grand. She sings - and I don't sing - in the pilot. I did it, and yes, it was fun, but I was so embarrassed by it. I said to Connell that I felt depressed after I did this big number and everybody applauded, regardless of whatever they thought of it. I said, 'I don't know what this is; maybe I don't really want to be an actor anymore.' He said, 'You feel shame.' And, you know, he was right: I was feeling shame because I didn't quite feel entitled to be a showoff, which is part of what you are as an actor.
(edit)
Susan Sullivan: (on her early career) I started out doing theater and a soap in New York and that's... sort of what I got stuck in. I was blessed enough to have long runs, and it's sort of hard sometimes then to get out. (edit)
Susan Sullivan: (on Mitch Ryan) Mitch and I have known each other for such a long time, and we're both so pleased to be given this opportunity at this point in our lives to play characters that we've never really had a chance to play before. It's a great gift. Plus we're wise enough to appreciate it. (edit)
Susan Sullivan: If you're cast right you can actually just let yourself go because all your gestures will be right, all your intonations will be right because you just somewhere understand who this person is. (edit)
Susan Sullivan: (when she co-starred with Jane Wyman on "Falcon Crest," long before her death in 2007) When I was on that show, I said, 'I'm watching Jane. I'm a diva in training!' because she was both things: She did want to be with the crew and she knew everybody's name, but she was the queen of that show.(edit)
Susan Sullivan: (When asked about her tears on the episode of Falcon Crest her husband died) It was P.M.S.(edit)

Susan studied at Hofstra University.(edit)
Susan got a Golden Globe nomination in 1998 for her work in the series Dharma and Greg. (edit)
David Selby told the story about the time Susan went into the bathroom to slip into something more comfortable for her role (in Falcon Crest), and when the passion of the scene reached fever-pitch, she dropped the robe to reveal a body-stocking crammed with bottles, cans and tubes of toothpaste.(edit)
Susan continues to stay in touch with several Falcon Crest stars.(edit)
Susan's character on Falcon Crest was killed off because she wanted to leave the show.(edit)
Susan is probably best known for her role as Maggie Gioberti Channing on Falcon Crest.(edit)
Susan got her start in acting Broadway play Jimmy Shine.(edit)
Susan got an Emmi nomination fer her role as Peter Strauss' lover in the miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II.(edit)
Susan was in the production of A.R. Gurney's Love Letters at the Apollo Theatre in Martinsburg, West Virginia (October 2003).(edit)
Susan was in the play Honour at the Matrix Theatre in West Hollywood, California (August 2005).(edit)
Susan has a sister called Brigid.(edit)
Susan has been a spokeswoman for Tylenol for many years.(edit)
Susan worked at the National Repertory Theatre in Washington D.C.(edit)
Susan's height is 5' 7�" (1.71 m).(edit)
Susan dated Cary Grant, at the age of twenty-three.(edit)
Susan continued appearing in plays when she was working on Falcon Crest .(edit)
Susan is a former Playboy Bunny.(edit)