Susannah York

A purposefully intriguing, enigmatic and noticeably uninhibited talent, she was born Susannah Yolande Fletcher on January 9, 1939 in Chelsea, London, but raised in a remote village in Scotland. Her parents divorced when she was around 6. Attending Marr College, she trained for acting at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, winning the Ronson Award for most promising student. She then performed classical repertory and pantomime in her early professional career.

Making an impression on television in 1959 opposite Sean Connery in a production of "The Crucible" as Abigail Williams to his John Proctor, the moon-faced beauty progressed immediately to ingénue film roles, making her debut as the daughter of Alec Guinness in the classic war drama Tunes of Glory (1960).

The lovely Susannah York, a gamin, blue-eyed, cropped blonde British actress, displayed a certain crossover star quality when she dared upon the Hollywood scene in the early 1960s.

Marrying writer Michael Wells in 1960, she focused on her personal life, raising their two children for a time.

She emerged quickly as a worthy co-star with the sensitively handled coming-of age drama Loss of Innocence (1961), the more complex psychodrama Freud (1962), as a patient to Montgomery Clift's famed psychoanalyst, and the bawdy and robust 18th century tale Tom Jones (1963), with Susannah portraying the brazenly seductive Sophie, one of many damsels lusting after the bed-hopping title rogue Albert Finney. Susannah continued famously both here and in England in both contemporary and period drama opposite the likes of Warren Beatty, William Holden, Paul Scofield and Dirk Bogarde. Susannah was a new breed. Free-spirited and unreserved, she had no trouble at all courting controversy in some of the film roles she went on to play.

She appeared in two Best Picture Academy Award winners: Tom Jones (1963) and A Man for All Seasons (1966).

Had appeared with Nigel Davenport in four films: Sands of the Kalahari (1965), A Man for All Seasons (1966), Sebastian (1968) and A Christmas Carol (1984).

Stepped into the role of Margaret in A Man for All Seasons (1966) as a last-minute replacement for Vanessa Redgrave, who opted out of the film in favor of appearing on stage in the tile role in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie".

She gained special notoriety as the child-like Alice in her stark, nude clinches with severe-looking executive Coral Browne in the lesbian drama The Killing of Sister George (1968).

Acting award ceremonies also began favoring her presence, winning the BAFTA film award as well as Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for her delusional Jean Harlow-like dance marathon participant in the grueling Depression-era film They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). Her crazy scene in the shower with Oscar-winner Gig Young was particularly gripping and just one of many highlights in the acclaimed film.

On television, she was Emmy-nominated for her beautifully nuanced Jane Eyre (1970) opposite George C. Scott's Rochester.

Susannah's film career started to lose ground into the 1970s as she continued her pursuit of challengingly offbeat roles as opposed to popular mainstream work. The film adaptations of Kurt Vonnegut Jr..

In the 1970s, she wrote the children's books "In Search of Unicorns" and "Lark's Castle".

's Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) opposite Rod Steiger and Jean Genet's The Maids (1975) with Glenda Jackson were not well-received.

A few years later, she and Elizabeth Taylor traveled similar territory with X, Y and Zee (1972).

She also copped a Cannes Film Festival award for her performance in Images (1972) playing another troubled character barely coping with reality.

Was also a writer of children's books. Her publications include "In Search of Unicorns" (1973) and "Lark's Castle" (1975).

Her performances in such films as Gold (1974), Conduct Unbecoming (1975) which starred another famous York (Michael York), That Lucky Touch (1975), Sky Riders (1976) and The Shout (1978) were overlooked, as were the films themselves.

Appeared with her namesake Michael York in Conduct Unbecoming (1975), although the two are not related, neither of them originally being called York.

Mother, with Michael Wells, of son Orlando Wells born 1976 and daughter Sasha Wells,born 1975 both of whom co-starred with their mother in A Christmas Carol (1984), portraying two of her character (Mrs. Cratchit)'s onscreen offspring.

In the one highly popular movie series she appeared in, the box-office smashes Superman (1978) and its sequel Superman II (1980), she had literally nothing to do as Lara, the wife of Marlon Brando's Jor-El and birth mother of the superhero. While the actress continued to pour out a number of quality work assignments in films and television, she failed to recapture the glow of earlier star. Wisely, Susannah began extending her talents outside the realm of film acting.

Attended and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, later becoming an Associate Member of RADA. Was a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1979. Was a member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1992.

The couple divorced in 1980.

She also found time to direct on stage and wrote the screenplay to one of her film vehicles Falling in Love Again (1980). On stage Susannah performed in such one-woman shows as "Independent State", 'Picasso's Women", "The Human Voice" and "The Loves of Shakespeare's Women", while entertaining such wide and varied theatre challenges as "Peter Pan" (title role), "Hamlet" (as Gertrude), "Camino Real", "The Merry Wives of Windsor", "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Private Lives", "Agnes of God" and the title role in "Amy's View".

Did her own translation of 'The Human Voice' and toured with it during 1984-85.

She was awarded Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by French culture minister Jack Lang in 1991.

At age 67, Susannah showed up once again on film with a delightful cameo role in The Gigolos (2006), and seemed ripe for a major comeback, perhaps in a similar vein to the legendary Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren. Sadly, it was not to be.

Diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, the actress died in January 15, 2011, six days after her 72nd birthday.