Susan Oliver

Susan Oliver (born Charlotte Gercke, February 13, 1932 – May 10, 1990) was an American actress, television director, aviator, and author.

Career Early years Oliver did numerous television shows in 1957, and appeared on stage. She began the year with an ingénue part, as the daughter of an 18th-century Manhattan family, in her first Broadway play, Small War on Murray Hill, a Robert E. Sherwood comedy. That same year, Oliver replaced Mary Ure as the female lead in the Broadway production of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger.

The play's short run was immediately followed by larger roles in live television plays on Kaiser Aluminum Hour, The United States Steel Hour, and Matinee Theater. Oliver then went to Hollywood, where she appeared in the November 14, 1957, episode of Climax!, one of the few live drama series based on the West Coast, as well as in a number of filmed shows, including one of the first episodes of NBC's Wagon Train, Father Knows Best, The Americans, and Johnny Staccato.

In July 1957, Oliver was chosen for the title role in her first motion picture, The Green-Eyed Blonde, a low-budget independent melodrama scripted by Dalton Trumbo (under a pseudonym), and released by Warner Bros. in December on the bottom half of a double bill.

In mid-1958, Oliver began rehearsals for a co-starring role in Patate, her second Broadway play. Its seven-performance run was even shorter than that of Small War on Murray Hill, but won Oliver a Theatre World Award for "Outstanding Breakout Performance"; it was her last Broadway appearance.

Television and films

On April 6, 1960, the 28-year-old Oliver played a spoiled young runaway, Maggie Hamilton, who gets soundly spanked by scout Flint McCullough (Robert Horton), in "The Maggie Hamilton Story" on NBC's Wagon Train. On November 9, 1960, she was cast as the lead guest star in "The Cathy Eckhart Story" on Wagon Train, with husband-and-wife actors John Larch and Vivi Janiss as Ben and Sarah Harness.

Oliver was cast in the 1960 episode of The Deputy as the long-lost daughter of star Henry Fonda's late girl friend, and appeared in Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre episode "Knife of Hate" as Susan Pittman. In 1961, Oliver played the part of Laurie Evans in the episode "Incident of His Brother's Keeper" on CBS's Rawhide, In particular, Jeffrey Hunter played "Captain Christopher Pike" in the pilot episode, but was replaced by William Shatner as "Captain James T. Kirk" of the Starship Enterprise when the series was green-lit by NBC in 1966. For the fantasy sequence in the pilot, in which her character appeared as an "Orion slave girl", Oliver was covered in green makeup all over her body, and a dark brunette wig. A still of her with green skin is frequently seen in the end credits of the television series, and it has since become a well-known image among Star Trek enthusiasts. Hence, the 2014 documentary about Susan Oliver's life was titled The Green Girl.

In 1970, she appeared as Carole Carson/Alice Barnes on the television Western The Men From Shiloh (rebranded name for The Virginian) in the episode titled "Hannah".

From 1975 to 1976, Oliver was a regular cast member of the television soap opera Days of Our Lives. In 1976, she received her only Emmy Award nomination (for "Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress") for playing pioneer aviator, Neta Snook, in the three-hour-long, made-for-TV movie Amelia Earhart, broadcast on October 15, 1976, on NBC-TV.

In addition to her scores of television appearances, Oliver also had roles in several theatrical features, including The Gene Krupa Story (1959), BUtterfield 8 (1960) and The Caretakers (1963). In 1977, she wrote and directed Cowboysan, her AFI DWW short film that presents the fantasy scenario of a Japanese actor and actress playing leads in an American Western. Oliver directed two television episodes, the premiere episode "Hey, Look Me Over" of the 11th season of M*A*S*H and the season-five episode "Fat Chance" of one of M*A*S*H'''s sequel series, Trapper John, M.D.In Oliver's last fully active years, she also appeared in the February 21, 1985 episode of Magnum, P.I., two episodes of Murder, She Wrote (March 31 and December 1), the February 12, 1987 episode of Simon & Simon, and the January 10, 1988 episode of the NBC domestic drama Our House. She made her last onscreen appearance in the November 6, 1988 episode of the syndicated horror anthology Freddy's Nightmares. During her career in Hollywood, Oliver amassed well over 100 credits. The experience motivated her to return the next day to the Santa Monica Airport to begin training for a private pilot certificate. In 1966, while preparing for her own transatlantic flight, she was a passenger in a Piper J-3 Cub when the pilot ran into wires while "show-boating";

In 1967, piloting her own Aero Commander 200, which was fitted with an extra fuel tank, she became the fourth woman to fly a single-engined aircraft solo across the Atlantic Ocean and the second to do it from New York City. Oliver's route included stops in Goose Bay, Canada, Narsarsuaq in Greenland, Keflavik in Iceland, and Prestwick in Scotland, before landing in Copenhagen, Denmark. Although she was attempting to fly to Moscow, her odyssey ended in Denmark after the government of the Soviet Union denied her permission to enter its air space. She wrote about her aviation exploits and philosophy of life in an autobiography published in 1983 titled Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey.

According to the FAA Registry, the glider rating was issued to Oliver on July 21, 1972. It was her last rating. The registry shows her to have earned commercial pilot ratings for airplane single-engined land, airplane multi-engined land, instrument airplane, and private privileges for glider. Her last aviation medical examination was in May 1976, so she could not legally pilot any aircraft except gliders after May 1978, marking the end of her piloting of powered aircraft.

Death Oliver was diagnosed with colorectal cancer that later metastasized to her lungs, and she died on May 10, 1990 (aged 58), at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.

Selected filmography Episode: "The Menagerie" (Parts 1 & 2) S1: E11 & E12 respectively (1966) (re-used footage from the pilot) 1965 Seaway Sue Murray Episode: "The Sparrows" 1965 Ben Casey Tina Khaskova Episode: "Pas De Deux" 1965 The Rogues Melinda Episode: "Money is for Burning" 1965 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Ursula Alice Baldwin Episode: "The Bow-Wow Affair" 1965 The Virginian Martha Perry Episode: "A Little Learning" 1966 A Man Called Shenandoah Virginia Harvey Episode: "Rope's End" 1966 I Spy Jean Episode: "One Thousand Fine" 1966 Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Julie Myers Episode: "A Date with Miss Camp Henderson" 1966 My Three Sons Jerry Harper Episode: "The Awkward Age" 1966 Peyton Place Ann Howard 48 episodes1966 Star Trek: The Original Series Vina S1:E11-E12, "The Menagerie" 1967 Tarzan Peggy Dean Episode S1E18: "The Day the Earth Trembled" 1967T.H.E. Cat Lori Neil Episode: "Twenty One And Out" 1967 The Love-Ins Patricia Cross 1967 The Wild Wild West Triste Episode: "The Night Dr. Loveless Died" 1967 The Invaders Stacy Cahill Episode: "The Ivy Curtain" 1968 A Man Called Gannon Matty 1968 The Invaders Joan Seeley Episode: "Inquisition" 1968The Virginian Anne Crowder Episode: "The Storm Gate" 1969 Mannix Linda Jordan S2-Episode 21: "The Odds Against Donald Jordan" 1969 The Big Valley Kate Wilson Episode: "Alias Nellie Handley" 1969 Change of Mind Margaret Rowe 1969 The Monitors Barbara Cole 1970 Carter's Army Anna Renvic ABC Movie of the Week 1971 Company of Killers Thelma Dwyer TV movie 1971 Do You Take This Stranger? Mildred Crandall TV movie 1971 Dan August Leona Serling Episode: "Prognosis: Homicide" 1971 Sarge Fran Episode: "An Accident Waiting to Happen" 1971 Alias Smith and Jones Miss Blanche Graham Episode: "Journey from San Juan" 1972 Night Gallery Kelly Bellman Episode: "The Tune in Dan's Cafe" 1972 The Smith Family Gloria Cramer Episode: "Where There's Smoke" 1972 Medical Center Ruth Episode: "Vision of Doom" 1972 Gunsmoke Sarah Elkins Episode: "Eleven Dollars" 1973 The American Sportsman Herself Segment: "Soaring at El Mirage" 1973 Cannon Jill Thorson Episode: "Moving Target" 1973 The Magician Susanna Episode: "Ovation for Murder" 1973 Circle of Fear Ellen Pritchard Episode: "Spare Parts" 1973 Love Story Virginia Madison Episode: "The Youngest Lovers" 1974 Ginger in the Morning Sugar 1974 Police Story Rina Prescott Episode: "World Full of Hurt" 1974 Petrocelli Eleanor Warren Episode: "Edge of Evil" 1974 Police Surgeon Diana Simpson Episode: "Time Bomb" 1974 Barnaby Jones Karen Macklin Episode: "Friends Till Death" 1975 Days of Our Lives Dr. Laura Horton 90 episodes 1975 The Manhunter Liz Butler Episode: "The Death Watch" 1976 Amelia Earhart Netta Snook "Snookie" 1977 The Streets of San Francisco Gracie Boggs Episode: "Hang Tough" 1977 Nido de Viudas Isabel US title: Widow's Nest 1980 Hardly Working Claire Trent 1982 Tomorrow's Child Marilyn Hurst Television movie 1982 M*A*S*H Director, 1 episode 1983 Trapper John, M.D. Director, 1 episode 1982 International Airport Mary Van Leuven Television movie 1984 Murder, She Wrote Nurse Marge Horton Episode: "Armed Response" 1985 Magnum, P.I. Laurie Crane Episode: "Let Me Hear the Music" 1986 Murder, She Wrote Louise Episode: "Jessica Behind Bars" 1987 Simon & Simon Cyd Greenwald Episode: "Tanner, P.I. for Hire" 1988 Our House Olga Zelnikova Episode: "Balance of Power" 1988 Freddy's Nightmares The Maid / Future Judy Miller Episode: "Judy Miller, Come on Down" (final appearance)

Documentary The Green Girl (2014), biographical documentary film directed by George Pappy.