Susanna Foster

Susanna Foster (born Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson; December 6, 1924 – January 17, 2009 ) was an American film actress best known for her leading role as Christine in the 1943 film version of Phantom of the Opera.

Early life Foster was born Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson in Chicago, Illinois, to Les and Adie Larson. Raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the family went into poverty in the Great Depression, and moved frequently due to evictions. Adie struggled with alcoholism and mental illness, and was reported to be abusive; at one point in her film career, Foster rented the home of actress Jean Arthur for her younger sisters, in an attempt to get them away from their mother. At eleven years old, she had "almost fatal" pneumonia.

Career At the age of twelve, Suzanne was taken to Hollywood by MGM, who sent her to school and groomed her for an acting and singing career. She claimed the high point of being at MGM was meeting her idol Jeanette MacDonald and Clark Gable, who treated her like "the Queen of England." MGM eventually let her go.

After hiring agent Milo Marchetti, Foster was signed by Paramount Pictures where she began to study voice for the first time with Marchetti's sister Gilda. She made her film debut at fourteen years of age where she was introduced as 'Susanna Foster' in The Great Victor Herbert (1939) opposite Mary Martin and Allan Jones. After seeing Foster in The Great Victor Herbert, William Randolph Hearst flew her to his estate Wyntoon for a private recital for him and Marion Davies. The following year for Paramount she appeared in There's Magic in Music opposite Allan Jones and Glamour Boy opposite Jackie Cooper. After two years, Foster left Paramount. The couple performed in operettas and stage musicals, touring extensively. After a debilitating miscarriage, their first son Michael was born 8 weeks premature in December 1950.

Evans was soon chosen as Mary Martin's co-star in London's South Pacific, the show that gave Sean Connery his start as a dancing and singing sailor. During the London engagement their second son was born, brought into the world by Queen Elizabeth's doctor, John Peel, who also attended in the births of others to the Royal family, including Prince Charles and Princess Anne. Philip was named in honor of the Queen's husband Prince Philip.

Later life and death In 1956, Foster abruptly divorced Evans, and for many years, lived in and out of poverty. Author Sharon Rich and Foster's son Michael later stated Foster herself struggled with mental illness and alcoholism. In the 1980s, Foster and her younger son, Philip, lived in a Hollywood apartment. In November 1985, Philip – who also struggled with alcoholism as well as drug addiction – lapsed into a hepatic coma on Foster's living room floor and died three days later in the Van Nuys Hospital from liver failure. In 2003, her elder son Michael brought her back to the East Coast, where she spent the last five years of her life living at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey. Foster died at 5:30 a.m. EST on .

Filmography + Film Year Title Role Notes 1939 The Great Victor Herbert Peggy 1941 The Hard-Boiled Canary Toodles LaVerne Glamour Boy Joan Winslow 1942 Star Spangled Rhythm Herself Uncredited 1943 Phantom of the Opera Christine DuBois Top Man Connie Allen 1944 Follow the Boys Herself Uncredited This Is the Life Angela Rutherford The Climax Angela Klatt Bowery to Broadway Peggy Fleming Barrie 1945 Frisco Sal Sally Warren That Night with You Penny Parker 1954 Mystification Rita 1992 Detour Evie (final film role) 2000 The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked Herself Video documentary