Susan Oliver
Encyclopedia
Susan Oliver was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actress, television director and aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

.

Early life and family

Susan Oliver was born Charlotte Gercke, the daughter of journalist George Gercke and astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...

 practitioner Ruth Hale Oliver
Ruth Hale Oliver
Ruth Hale Oliver was a noted professional Hollywood astrologer, writer, and astrology teacher in the Los Angeles, California, area for decades. Introduced by her daughter,of late actress Susan Oliver, with whom she relocated with to Los Angeles several years after her divorce from journalist...

, in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1932. Her parents divorced when she was still a child. In June 1949, Oliver joined her mother in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

, where Ruth Hale Oliver was in the process of becoming a well-known Hollywood astrologer. Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, she responded to a newspaper 'help-wanted' posting for a position as a hostess at a nearby dude ranch figuring she would enjoy a California Western-style experience. She was interviewed for the job by legendary aviatrix, entrepreneur, Pancho Barnes
Pancho Barnes
Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes was a pioneer aviator, the founder of the first test pilots union and the owner of the Happy Bottom Riding Club, a bar and restaurant. She broke Amelia Earhart's air speed record in 1930...

, who owned the dude ranch known as the 'Happy Bottom Riding Club
Happy Bottom Riding Club
The Happy Bottom Riding Club, more formally known as the Rancho Oro Verde Fly-Inn Dude Ranch, was a dude ranch restaurant and hotel operated by Pancho Barnes on the site of current-day Edwards Air Force Base in southern California's Antelope Valley, in the southwestern part of the United...

.' The dude ranch was a famous 'watering hole' for test pilots, private plane owners and members of the Hollywood film community. The ranch had it own private airport, and many film and early TV personalities would fly into the ranch for week day and weekend get aways. During her three month employment at the Happy Bottom Riding Club, she would often accompany Pancho Barnes into the San Fernando Valley and Santa Monica airports to pick up and deliver guests in the ranch's airplane. As a result, she became fascinated with aviation, and started taking flying lessons from Pancho Barnes. It was also during her time at the ranch that Oliver made a decision to embark upon a career as an actress and chose the stage name Susan Oliver.

Early career 1955-1958

By September 1949, using her new name, Oliver returned to the East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...

 to begin drama studies at Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....

, followed by professional training at the Neighborhood Playhouse
Neighborhood Playhouse
The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre is an actor training school at 340 East 54th Street in New York City, generally associated with the Meisner technique of Sanford Meisner.-History:...

 in New York City. After working in summer stock
Summer Stock
For the article about the theatre genre, see Summer stock theatre.Summer Stock is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical made in 1950. The film was directed by Charles Walters and stars Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, and Phil Silvers...

, regional theater and in unbilled bits in daytime and primetime TV shows and commercials, she made her first major television appearance playing a supporting role in the July 31, 1955 episode of the live drama series Goodyear TV Playhouse, and quickly progressed to leading parts in other shows.

Broadway

In 1957, Oliver did numerous TV shows and had a starring role in a movie. She began the year with an important ingenue
Ingenue (stock character)
See also Disingenuous, which is not quite the antonym that it may seem!The ingénue is a stock character in literature, film, and a role type in the theatre; generally a girl or a young woman who is endearingly innocent and wholesome. Ingenue may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in...

 part, as the daughter of an 18th century Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 family, in her first Broadway play, Small War on Murray Hill, a Robert E. Sherwood
Robert E. Sherwood
Robert Emmet Sherwood was an American playwright, editor, and screenwriter.-Biography:Born in New Rochelle, New York, he was a son of Arthur Murray Sherwood, a rich stockbroker, and his wife, the former Rosina Emmet, a well-known illustrator and portrait painter known as Rosina E. Sherwood...

 comedy. Also in 1957, Oliver replaced Mary Ure
Mary Ure
Eileen Mary Ure was a Scottish actress of stage and film.-Early life:Born in Glasgow where she studied at the school of drama, Ure was the daughter of civil engineer Colin McGregor Ure and Edith Swinburne. She went to the independent Mount School in York and trained for the stage at the Central...

 as the female lead in the Broadway production of John Osborne
John Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....

's play Look Back in Anger
Look Back in Anger
Look Back in Anger is a John Osborne play—made into films in 1959, 1980, and 1989 -- about a love triangle involving an intelligent but disaffected young man , his upper-middle-class, impassive wife , and her haughty best friend . Cliff, an amiable Welsh lodger, attempts to keep the peace...

.

Television and films

The play's short run was immediately followed by larger roles in live TV plays on Kaiser Aluminum Hour, The United States Steel Hour
The United States Steel Hour
The United States Steel Hour is an anthology series which brought hour-long dramas to television from 1953 to 1963. The television series and the radio program that preceded it were both sponsored by the United States Steel Corporation....

and Matinee Theater. Oliver then went to Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...

, where she appeared in the November 14, 1957 episode of Climax!
Climax! (TV series)
Climax! is an American anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa...

, one of the few live drama series based on the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...

, as well as in a number of filmed shows, including one of the first episodes of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...

, aired on October 30, 1957. Three years later, she appeared with Brad Johnson in the November 9, 1960, Wagon Train episode entitled "The Cathy Eckhardt Story". She performed the title role of "Country Cousin", an installment of Father Knows Best
Father Knows Best
Father Knows Best is an American radio and television comedy series which portrayed a middle class family life in the Midwest. It was created by writer Ed James in the 1940s.-Radio:...

broadcast on March 5, 1958. She appeared in an episode of John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...

's 1959-1960 detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

 series, Johnny Staccato
Johnny Staccato
Johnny Staccato is an American private detective series which ran for 27 episodes on NBC from September 10, 1959 through March 24, 1960.-Synopsis:...

.

In July 1957, Oliver was chosen for the title role in her first motion picture, The Green-Eyed Blonde, a low-budget independent
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...

 melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...

 released by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 in December on the bottom half of a double bill. It is the only motion picture on which Oliver received top billing.

At the close of the year, Oliver returned to New York, appearing in Robert Alan Aurthur
Robert Alan Aurthur
Robert Alan Aurthur was an American screenwriter, director and TV producer.-Television:In the early years of television, he wrote for Studio One and then moved on to write episodes of Mister Peepers...

's "The Thundering Wave", the December 12, 1957 broadcast of the prestigious live drama series Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...

. Her performance in the John Frankenheimer
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films...

-directed teleplay was well-received and she was invited to Playhouse 90 two more times, March 26, 1959 and January 21, 1960.

As the next year began, Oliver continued to be a part of the Golden Age of TV Drama
Golden Age of Television
The Golden Age of Television in the United States began sometime in the late 1940s and extended to the late 1950s or early 1960s.-Evolutions of drama on television:...

, acting in the February 26, 1958 episode of Kraft Television Theatre and "The Woman Who Turned to Salt", the June 16, 1958 installment of Suspicion, an hour-long suspense anthology series produced by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

. Oliver's entry, directed by Robert Stevens
Robert Stevens (director)
Robert Stevens was a director, sometimes confused with the better-known director Robert Stevenson.Between 1955-1962, he directed 42 episodes of the TV Series Alfred Hitchcock Presents...

, also starred Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...

 along with Hitchcock's daughter, Patricia
Patricia Hitchcock
Patricia "Pat" Hitchcock O'Connell is a British-born American actress and producer.-Early life and career:Born in London as the only child of film director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville, the family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1939, as her father would quickly make his mark...

.

Patate

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
Theatre World Award
The Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...

 for "outstanding breakout performance." It was her last Broadway appearance.

West Coast career 1959-1980

Oliver spent the remainder of her career in Hollywood, going on to play in more than 100 television shows, five made-for-TV movies
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...

, as well as 12 theatrical features. She appeared in three more episodes of Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...

, four episodes of The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...

, three episodes each of Adventures in Paradise
Adventures in Paradise
Adventures in Paradise is an American television series which ran on ABC from 1959 until 1962. It starred Gardner McKay as Adam Troy, the captain of the schooner Tiki III which sailed the South Pacific looking for passengers and adventure. The show was created by James Michener...

, Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...

, and Dr. Kildare
Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional character, the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series of the same name and a comic book based on the TV show, and a short-lived 1970s television series...

. On April 12, 1961, she appeared in an episode of The Naked City
The Naked City
The Naked City is a 1948 black-and-white film noir directed by Jules Dassin. The movie, shot partially in documentary style, was filmed on location on the streets of New York City, featuring landmarks such as the Williamsburg Bridge the Whitehall Building and an apartment building on West 83rd...

, "A Memory of Crying". That same year, she guest starred in the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show is an American anthology drama television series which ran on NBC from September 1960 to September 1961. Barbara Stanwyck served as hostess, and starred in all but four of the half-hour productions. The four she did not star in were actually pilot episodes of potential...

.

She was fourth-billed in her second theatrical feature, 1959's The Gene Krupa Story
The Gene Krupa Story
The Gene Krupa Story is a 1959 biopic of American drummer and bandleader Gene Krupa. The conflict in the film centers around Krupa's rise to success and his corresponding use of marijuana.-Plot synopsis:...

. Her next movie was the 1960 Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

 vehicle Butterfield 8
BUtterfield 8
BUtterfield 8 is a 1960 Metrocolor drama film directed by Daniel Mann, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey. Taylor, then 28 years old, won an Academy Award for her performance...

. The subsequent three-year period between 1960 and 1963 saw Oliver do more than 30 guest-star appearances in primetime series as well as a fourth feature film in the role of psychiatric nurse Cathy Clark in Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 1963 hospital melodrama The Caretakers
The Caretakers
The Caretakers is a 1963 United Artists film drama starring Joan Crawford, Robert Stack, Polly Bergen and Janis Paige in a story about a mental hospital....

.

Oliver appeared three times in various story-lines and characters in Route 66 from 1961-1963. First in "Welcome to Amity" (1961). Then in the second season episode "Between Hello and Goodbye", Oliver played a dual role as a blond outgoing sister, Chris, and a brunette shy and retiring sister, Claire, both seemingly suffering from mental and emotional issues (actually one young woman with dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....

, a split-personality). When Glenn Corbett
Glenn Corbett
Glenn Corbett was an American actor best known for his role on CBS's adventure drama Route 66.-Acting career:...

 joined the cast in the role of Linc Case, Oliver played a love interest role to Case in Corbett's initial episode, "Fifty Miles from Home".

In 1963, Oliver guest starred on the Aaron Spelling series Burke's Law
Burke's Law
Burke's Law is a detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud...

where she played Janet Fielding, the secretary of a murdered psychologist. She was lured from her desk by a phone call indicating her mother was involved in a car accident, which proved to be false. In the same year, she appeared in "Never Wave Goodbye", a critically praised October 8–15, 1963 two-part episode of The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...

.

At the end of 1963, Oliver filmed a guest-starring spot on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 western The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (TV series)
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters is a 26-episode western television series based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Robert Lewis Taylor. The show aired in the 1963-1964 television season and was produced by MGM Television....

, which featured 12-year-old Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...

 in the title role. The 26-episode series about a westward-bound wagon train originally focused on the relationship between the boy and his free-spirited Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 physician father (Dan O'Herlihy
Dan O'Herlihy
Daniel O'Herlihy was an Oscar nominated Irish film actor.-Early life:O'Herlihy was born in Wexford, Ireland in 1919. His family moved to Dublin at a young age...

). The 13th episode, however, introduced the new wagonmaster Linc Murdock, played by Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...

 who, along with Russell's Jaimie, became the focus of the remaining storylines. The show's final installment, "The Day of the Reckoning", presented Oliver as Maria, Murdock's former love. With an eye towards expanding it, the filming was done on color stock and additional scenes were filmed to bring the running time to 75 minutes, the pre-commercial length of a 90-minute TV "movie of the week". Entitled Guns of Diablo
Guns of Diablo
Guns of Diablo is a Metrocolor 1965 Western directed by Boris Sagal, starring Charles Bronson, Susan Oliver and Kurt Russell. Charles Bronson is a wagon scout , who runs into difficulties when he meets old flame Maria , now married to corrupt lawman Rance Macklin .This was actually an expanded...

the "movie" has a cast composed of familiar TV faces from the 1960s with Oliver billed second.

In addition to six TV shows in 1964, Oliver had major roles in three features — Looking for Love
Looking for Love (film)
Looking for Love is a 1964 romantic musical-comedy film starring popular singer Connie Francis.-Plot:Francis plays Libby Caruso, who has spent a whole month trying to get into show business with her singing, and hasn't succeed. Libby then decides to retire and get a job where she can meet the right...

, The Disorderly Orderly
The Disorderly Orderly
The Disorderly Orderly is a 1964 American comedy film released by Paramount Pictures, and starring Jerry Lewis. The film was produced by Paul Jones with a screenplay by director Frank Tashlin, based on a story by Norm Liebermann and Ed Haas.-Plot:...

, and Your Cheatin' Heart
Your Cheatin' Heart (film)
Your Cheatin' Heart is a 1964 musical directed by Gene Nelson, starring George Hamilton, Susan Oliver and Red Buttons.-Cast:* George Hamilton as Hank Williams* Susan Oliver as Audrey Williams* Red Buttons as Shorty Younger...

, in which she was second-billed as Audrey Williams, wife of country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 legend Hank Williams, portrayed by George Hamilton
George Hamilton (actor)
George Stevens Hamilton is an American film and television actor.-Early life:Hamilton was the youngest son of bandleader George "Spike" Hamilton and his first wife, Ann Stevens . He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived in Blytheville, Arkansas...

. Hamilton, along with a number of other guest stars, also made a cameo appearance in Looking for Love, a Connie Francis
Connie Francis
Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...

 vehicle, with Oliver in support as Connie's friend.

The Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin, born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, also known as Tish Tash or Frank Tash was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director.-Animator:...

-directed Disorderly Orderly was another entry in the then-popular Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...

 theatrical series. Amid the wild slapstick, Oliver was cast in an oddly serious role as a beautiful former cheerleader from Lewis's high school days. She had a large role in "The Bow-Wow Affair", an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement...

from 1965. She played the role of former love interest of tennis player/spy Kelly Robinson (played by Robert Culp
Robert Culp
Robert Martin Culp was an American actor, scriptwriter, voice actor and director, widely known for his work in television. Culp first earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy , the espionage series in which he and co-star Bill Cosby played a pair of secret agents...

) in the TV series I Spy episode "One Thousand Fine" in 1966.

The Andy Griffith Show

One of Oliver's 1964 TV appearances was an infrequent outing on a sitcom. As in The Disorderly Orderly, her handful of comedy acting turns were played relatively straight, including an episode of CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

' top-rated The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...

called "Prisoner of Love". The storyline plays out almost entirely in the holding cell area of the Mayberry town jail.

The Twilight Zone

In the Rod Serling
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...

-scripted "People Are Alike All Over
People Are Alike All Over
"People Are Alike All Over" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Background:This episode was based on Paul W. Fairman's Brothers Beyond the Void, published in the March 1952 issue of Fantastic Adventures and also included in August Derleth's 1953 anthology...

", the last of three entries helmed for the series by veteran movie director Mitchell Leisen
Mitchell Leisen
Mitchell Leisen was an American director, art director, and costume designer.-Film career:He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments...

, Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...

 stars as Sam Conrad, an astronaut who lands on Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

, which he finds to be inhabited by a seemingly-human race, one of whom was played by Oliver. She is the romantic interest of McDowall's character, and she is tasked with helping to lure him into being a zoo exhibit.

Star Trek

Four years later, Oliver was cast in a storyline which evoked similar themes, "The Cage", the unsold 1964 pilot episode of Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...

. In what could have been a pivotal role of her career, she portrays Vina, the lone survivor of a long-ago crash landing on the distant planet Talos IV, whose idealized image becomes the irresistible fulfillment of love for Captain Christopher Pike
Christopher Pike (Star Trek)
Christopher Pike is a character in the Star Trek franchise. He was portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter in the original Star Trek pilot episode, "The Cage", as captain of the USS Enterprise. The pilot was rejected, and the character was dropped during development of the second pilot when Hunter decided that...

 (Jeffrey Hunter
Jeffrey Hunter
Jeffrey Hunter was an American film and television actor. His most famous roles are as Jesus in the film King of Kings, as Martin Pawley in The Searchers, and as Capt...

). Although the network executives saw no fault with the ensemble cast, "The Cage" is believed to have been deemed "too cerebral" and, in a rare move, NBC asked for a revised pilot, made a year later with William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...

 as Captain Kirk
James T. Kirk
James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk is a character in the Star Trek media franchise. Kirk was first played by William Shatner as the principal lead character in the original Star Trek series. Shatner voiced Kirk in the animated Star Trek series and appeared in the first seven Star Trek movies...

.

Seen ten weeks after Star Trek's September premiere, the November 17–24, 1966 two-part episode "The Menagerie" incorporated, in re-edited form, about 80 percent of "The Cage"'s footage. "The Menagerie" was well-received by the science-fiction community and garnered a Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...

 for dramatic presentation, although Oliver and Hunter were not recalled to film any additional revised scenes. Twenty-two years later, less than two years before Oliver's death (Jeffrey Hunter died in 1969), "The Cage" was finally telecast to a new generation of fans as a 1988 syndicated special, hosted by Gene Roddenberry
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...

. Finally, in the end-credit still images seen in early episodes of Star Trek, Oliver is shown as the archetypal green-skinned "Orion Slave Girl".

Additional genre performances

Remaining with the genre, Oliver was seen in two episodes of Quinn Martin
Quinn Martin
Quinn Martin was one of the most successful American television producers. He had at least one television series running in prime time for 21 straight years , an industry record.-Early life:...

's Larry Cohen
Larry Cohen
Lawrence G. "Larry" Cohen is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is best known as a B-Movie auteur of horror and science fiction films - often containing a police procedural element - during 1970s and 1980s...

-created alien-impostors-on-Earth series, The Invaders
The Invaders
The Invaders, a Quinn Martin Production , is an ABC science fiction television program created by Larry Cohen that ran in the United States for two seasons, from January 10, 1967 to March 26, 1968...

, "The Ivy Curtain" (March 21, 1967) and "Inquisition" (March 26, 1968), as well as playing the unreliable associate of dwarf-like recurring villain mastermind Miguelito Loveless (Michael Dunn) in "The Night Dr. Loveless Died", the September 29, 1967 episode of The Wild Wild West
The Wild Wild West
The Wild Wild West is an American television series that ran on CBS for four seasons from September 17, 1965 to April 4, 1969....

. She also appeared in non-genre episodes of Thriller
Thriller (US TV series)
Thriller is an anthology television series that aired during the 1960–61 and 1961–62 seasons on NBC. The show featured host Boris Karloff introducing a mix of macabre horror tales and suspense thrillers....

("Choose a Victim", January 24, 1961, directed by Richard Carlson, the star of a number of 1950s sci-fi films, such as It Came from Outer Space
It Came from Outer Space
It Came from Outer Space is a 1953 science fiction 3-D film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, and Charles Drake. It was Universal's first film to be filmed in 3-D.- Plot :...

) and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (in the title role of "Annabel", November 1, 1962, scripted by Psycho's Robert Bloch
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...

 from the novel by Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short-story writer most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times, notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951...

, and directed by another actor, Paul Henreid.

In a brief footnote, twelve years after her Twilight Zone performance, Oliver was seen in one of the stories on the January 5, 1972 episode of the Rod Serling-hosted Night Gallery
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although...

. In the 15-minute ghost tale "The Tune in Dan's Cafe", she is the unhappily-married wife of Pernell Roberts
Pernell Roberts
Pernell Elvin Roberts, Jr. was an American stage, movie and television actor, as well as a singer. In addition to guest starring in over 60 television series, he was widely known for his roles as Ben Cartwright's eldest son, Adam Cartwright, on the western series Bonanza, a role he played from...

, as the couple experiences an emotional epiphany, triggered by the single song ("If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry
If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry
"If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry" is a song made famous by country music singer Jerry Wallace. Originally released in 1972, the song became the only number-one song during Wallace's recording career....

", sung by Jerry Wallace
Jerry Wallace
Jerry Wallace was an American country and pop singer. Between 1958 and 1964, Wallace charted nine hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the #8 "Primrose Lane." He made his debut on the country music charts in 1965, entering it thirty-five times between then and 1980. In that timespan, Wallace...

) emanating from a cafeteria jukebox
Jukebox
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media...

.

Final theatrical films

Oliver spent most of 1966 in the continuing role of the tragic Ann Howard on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's prime-time serial Peyton Place
Peyton Place (TV series)
Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964 to June 2, 1969.Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in...

, and in 1967 had her a role in one of the first movies to portray the newly emerging counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...

, The Love-Ins. In the independently produced film, Richard Todd
Richard Todd
Richard Todd OBE was an Irish-born British stage and film actor and soldier.-Early life:Richard Todd was born as Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd in Dublin, Ireland. His father, Andrew William Palethorpe Todd, was an Irish physician and an international Irish rugby player who gained three caps for...

 starred as a Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...

-like professor who promotes himself into an LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...

-advocating media star. He lures Oliver's character into his hallucinogenic world, impregnates and rebuffs her, causing her to suffer a breakdown. In response, her former lover, underground publisher
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....

 James MacArthur
James MacArthur
James Gordon MacArthur was an American actor best known for the role of Danny "Danno" Williams, the reliable second-in-command of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad Hawaii Five-O.-Early life:...

, who has been supporting the demagogue in his paper, assassinates him at one of his mass rallies. Oliver's most memorable scene depicts her LSD "trip
Psychedelic experience
The term "psychedelic experience" is vague – characterized by polyvalence or ambiguity due to its nature – however in modern psychopharmacological science as well as philosophical, psychological, neurological, spiritual-religious and most other ideological discourses it is understood as an altered...

" in which she visualizes herself as "Alice in Wonderland". At the scene's abrupt conclusion, the image disintegrates as she tears off the remnants of her clothing. The sensational nature of the film caused it to be banned in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Oliver co-starred in three medium- to low-budget features released from 1968-69. She was one of two female leads in A Man Called Gannon, a western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 with Anthony Franciosa
Anthony Franciosa
Anthony Franciosa was an American actor, usually billed as Tony Franciosa during the height of his career.-Early life:...

, which was a little-noticed remake of the 1955 Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...

 vehicle Man Without a Star
Man Without a Star
Man Without a Star is a 1955 western film starring Kirk Douglas as a wanderer who gets dragged into a range war. It was based on the novel of the same name by Dee Linford.-Plot:...

. It received spotty local distribution at the end of 1968 and into 1969.

The remaining two films, Change of Mind and The Monitors may be considered science fiction, although neither fits into the traditional definition of the genre. Change of Mind was filmed in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 by Robert Stevens
Robert Stevens (director)
Robert Stevens was a director, sometimes confused with the better-known director Robert Stevenson.Between 1955-1962, he directed 42 episodes of the TV Series Alfred Hitchcock Presents...

, who had directed Oliver eleven years earlier in the episode of Suspicion. Despite the recently-found freedom of cinematic subject matter, the specter of implied miscegenation
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....

 was still reflected in the prejudices of the period, thus consigning Mind to exploitation grindhouse
Grindhouse
A grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly shows exploitation films. It is named after the defunct burlesque theaters located on 42nd Street in New York City, where 'bump n' grind' dancing and striptease were featured.- History :...

s upon its release on October 1, 1969.

Monitors, the last of the three titles, was released a week later, on October 8, 1969. The independently made, poorly distributed satire was filmed in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 by The Second City
The Second City
The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...

 troupe and depicted derby-wearing, slogan-chanting aliens who pacify Earth "for its own good" by negating human emotions and turning America into a passive nation, which spends its time watching brainwashed celebrities appear in TV ads designed to perpetuate the regime. Guy Stockwell
Guy Stockwell
Guy Harry Stockwell was an American actor who appeared in nearly 30 movies and 250 television series episodes....

 and Oliver starred as the leaders of an opposition underground dedicated to the overthrow of the ostensibly benevolent alien dictatorship. The numerous familiar faces in the film included Sherry Jackson
Sherry Jackson
Sherry Jackson is an American actress and former child star. She made her film debut at seven years old in the musical You're My Everything, starring Anne Baxter and Dan Dailey. During the course of appearing in several of the Ma and Pa Kettle movies during the 1950s as Susie Kettle, one of the...

, Larry Storch
Larry Storch
Lawrence Samuel "Larry" Storch is an American actor best known for his comic television roles, including voice-over work for top cartoon shows, including Mr...

, Avery Schreiber
Avery Schreiber
Avery Lawrence Schreiber was an American comedian and actor. He was a veteran of stage, TV, and film.-Biography:...

, Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....

, Ed Begley
Ed Begley
Edward James Begley, Sr. was an Academy Award-winning American actor.-Biography:Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Begley began his career as a Broadway and radio actor while in his teens. He appeared in the hit musical Going Up on Broadway in 1917 and in London the next year. He later acted in...

 and Peter Boyle
Peter Boyle
Peter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....

, with "alien TV" cameo appearances by Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...

, Adam Arkin
Adam Arkin
Adam Arkin is an American television, film and stage actor and director. He played the role of Aaron Shutt on Chicago Hope. He has been nominated for numerous awards, including a Tony as well as 3 primetime Emmys, 4 SAG Awards , and a DGA Award...

, Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat
Xavier Cugat was a Spanish-American bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a key personality in the spread of Latin music in United States popular music. He was also a cartoonist and a successful businessman...

, Stubby Kaye
Stubby Kaye
Stubby Kaye was an American comic actor. He was born Bernard Kotzin in New York City on the last day of the First World War, at West 114th Street in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan to first generation Jewish-Americans originally from Russia and Austria...

, Jackie Vernon and even the gravelly voiced U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen
Everett Dirksen
Everett McKinley Dirksen was an American politician of the Republican Party. He represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate...

, who died a month before the film's release.

Carter's Army

At the start of the following decade, Oliver appeared in the first of her five made-for-TV-movies, all of which placed her in supporting roles. Carter's Army, co-scripted by Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...

, premiered January 27, 1970 as one of the entries on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's Tuesday night 90-minute Movie of the Week. Oliver, as the sole female member of the cast, appears in a 10-minute role as Anna, a war widow in 1944 Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

, helping captain Beau Carter (Stephen Boyd
Stephen Boyd
Stephen Boyd was an Irish actor, from Glengormley, Northern Ireland, who appeared in around 60 films, most notably in the role of Messala in Ben-Hur.-Biography:...

), a racially insensitive Southerner
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

, and his all-black platoon capture a vital roadway over a dam. Following Oliver's controversial turn in Change of Mind, Carter's Army again (briefly) raises the flag of "forbidden" romance as Anna kisses the second-in-command, African-American lieutenant Wallace (Robert Hooks
Robert Hooks
Robert Hooks is an American actor of films, television and stage. With a career as a producer and political activist to his credit, he is most recognizable to the public for his over 100 roles in films and television, as well as his political and civil rights activities...

).

Third-billed in Carter's Army (after Boyd and Hooks), a year later Oliver fell to sixth (after Gene Barry
Gene Barry
Gene Barry was an American stage, screen, and television actor. Barry is best remembered for his leading roles in the films The Atomic City and The War of The Worlds and for his portrayal of the title character in the TV series Bat Masterson, among many roles.-Personal life:Barry was born...

, Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was an American actor who starred in a number of television series and appeared in more than 150 feature films. Bridges is best known for his role of Mike Nelson in Sea Hunt, the most-popular syndicated American TV series in 1958...

, Diane Baker
Diane Baker
Diane Carol Baker is an American actress who has appeared in motion pictures and on television since 1959.-Early life:...

, Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair...

 and Sidney Blackmer
Sidney Blackmer
Sidney Alderman Blackmer was an American actor.Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina. He started off in an insurance and financial business but gave up on it. While working as a builder's laborer on a new building, he saw a Pearl White serial being filmed and immediately...

) in her second made-for-TV film, NBC's Do You Take This Stranger?. The two-hour identity-switch suspenser, broadcast January 18, 1971, gave Oliver three scenes, but left most of the dramatics to the other cast members.

Emmy nomination

During 1975-76 she was a regular cast member of the soap opera Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...

and received her only Emmy
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

 nomination (for "Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress") in the 3-hour October 25, 1976 NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 made-for-TV movie, Amelia Earhart. Playing Amelia
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...

's (Susan Clark
Susan Clark
Susan Clark is a Canadian actress, possibly best-known for her role as Katherine on the American television sitcom Webster, on which she appeared with her husband, Alex Karras.-Personal life:...

) friend and mentor, aviatrix Neta Snook
Neta Snook
Neta Snook Southern , was a pioneer aviator who achieved a long list of firsts. She was the first woman aviator in Iowa, first woman student accepted at the Curtiss Flying School in Virginia, first woman "aviatrix" to run her own aviation business and first woman to run a commercial airfield...

, was a natural for Oliver, a genuine flying enthusiast who piloted her own aircraft. The two were further connected by a near-birthdate — "Snookie" (as she is called in the film), 80 years old at the time of production, was born on February 14 (1896) to Oliver's February 13. Neta Snook, who ultimately continued past her 95th birthday, died on March 23, 1991, outlived Oliver by ten-and-a-half months.

Oliver's final three theatrical features were dispersed between 1974 and 1979. In the first, 1974's Ginger in the Morning, she appeared with another rarely-seen black hairdo (apparently not a wig, since her hair stylist received a separate credit). Monte Markham
Monte Markham
Monte Markham is an American actor. During his career, Markham has appeared in film, in television, and on Broadway.Markham was born in Manatee County, Florida, the son of Millie Content and Jesse Edward Markham, Sr., who was a merchant.Of his television roles, Markham is perhaps most famous for...

 was billed first and Oliver second, but audiences first saw her 45 minutes into the 90-minute film, which gave its real star fourth billing: "and Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...

 as Ginger".

Three years later, Oliver had a supporting role in a theatrical movie, an obscure Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

-made item entitled Nido de viudas, which was barely shown in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 in December 1977 as Widow's Nest. Despite a cast which included Oscar winners Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal was an American actress of stage and screen. She was best known for her film roles as World War II widow Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still , wealthy matron Emily Eustace Failenson in Breakfast at Tiffany's , middle-aged housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud , for which she won...

 and Lila Kedrova
Lila Kedrova
Lila Kedrova was a Russian-born French actress.-Biography:Kedrova claimed to have been born in 1918, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Her parents were Russian opera singers. Lila Kedrova's brother was Nikolay Kedrov, Jr...

, the film quickly disappeared and has remained obscure.

At the end of the 1970s, Oliver appeared in her last theatrically released motion picture. It was a reunion with her old friend Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...

 in his self-directed comeback vehicle, Hardly Working
Hardly Working
Hardly Working is a comedy film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. It was filmed in 1979, and was released in Europe in 1980 and in the United States on April 3, 1981 through 20th Century Fox.-Plot:...

, in which she was second-billed as Jerry's long-suffering sister. Following the pattern of her earlier dramatic turn in The Disorderly Orderly, this role was a straight one, as the better part of an unhappy comedy which sat on the shelf for over two years before receiving a perfunctory release in 1980-81.

Director

By the late 1970s, with acting assignments becoming scarcer, Oliver turned to directing. She was one of the original nineteeen women admitted to the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

's Directing Workshop for Women
Directing workshop for women
-Origins:In the 1970s, though many women acted in major motion pictures, almost none directed them. In 1974, Mathilde Krim, a scientist and Rockefeller Foundation board member, approached the American Film Institute about using her influence with the foundation to help women in film...

 (AFI DWW) "who, upon her untimely death, left a good chunk of funding for the DWW." In 1977, twenty-eight years after her early experiences in Japan, she wrote and directed Cowboysan, her AFI DWW short film which presents the fantasy scenario of a Japanese actor and actress playing leads in an American western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

.

Oliver also directed two TV episodes, the October 25, 1982 installment of M*A*S*H and the December 4, 1983 entry of one of its sequel series, Trapper John, M.D.
Trapper John, M.D.
Trapper John, M.D. is an American television medical drama and spin-off of the film MASH, concerning a lovable surgeon who became a mentor and father figure in San Francisco, California. The show ran on CBS from September 23, 1979, to September 4, 1986....

, whose title character was her former Night Gallery co-star Pernell Roberts.

Late career

Oliver continued to act through the 1980s, playing supporting roles
Supporting actor
A supporting actor is an actor who performs roles in a play or film other than that of the leads.These roles range from bit parts to secondary leads. They are sometimes but not necessarily character roles. A supporting actor must also use restraint not to upstage the main actor/actress in the...

 in her final two films, Tomorrow's Child and International Airport, both TV movies
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...

 made for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

. Child, broadcast on March 22, 1982, was the second of two consecutive TV films about the then-sensational topic of surrogate motherhood (the first one, CBS' The Gift of Life was seen on March 16). Airport, shown on May 25, 1985, was an all-star unsold pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...

 integrating multiple stories
Dramatic structure
Dramatic structure is the structure of a dramatic work such as a play or film. Many scholars have analyzed dramatic structure, beginning with Aristotle in his Poetics...

 and characters
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 into a plot-driven
Plot device
A plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....

 mix of suspense and danger at a giant airport. Produced by Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...

, it had most of the multi-star elements typical of his successful shows Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...

and The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...

, which had already hosted Oliver in its January 24, 1981 episode.

In Oliver's last fully active year, she also appeared in the February 21, 1985, episode of Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....

, two episodes of Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...

(March 31 and December 1), the February 12, 1987, episode of Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon
Simon & Simon is an American detective television series starring Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker.-History:The original 1978 pilot called Pirate's Key was set in Florida...

, the January 10, 1988, episode of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 domestic drama Our House, and the November 6, 1988, episode of the syndicated horror anthology Freddy's Nightmares. In the "Nightmares" hour-long entry "Judy Miller, Come on Down", she appears in the second half-hour as a mysteriously gloomy maid who arrives at the young title character's home and reveals herself to "Judy" as seemingly her own gray-haired future self. In Oliver's final scene, she turns away from "Judy" and leaves the house, disappearing into the fog.

Aviator and author

After surviving a 1966 plane crash which almost took her life, Oliver co-piloted her Piper Comanche
Piper PA-24 Comanche
The Piper PA-24 Comanche is a four-seat, low-wing, all-metal, light aircraft of monocoque construction with retractable landing gear that was first flown in May 1956 according to a Piper Aircraft Company press release...

 to victory in 1970 in the 2760-mile transcontinental race known as the "Powder Puff Derby
Powder Puff Derby
The Powder Puff Derby was the name given to a transcontinental air race for women pilots inaugurated in 1947. For the next two years it was named the "Jacqueline Cochran All-Woman Transcontinental Air Race"...

", which resulted in her being named Pilot of the Year.

In 1967, she became the fourth woman to fly a single-engined aircraft solo across the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 and the second to do it from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. She was attempting to fly to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, her odyssey ended in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 after the government of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 denied her permission to enter its air space. Oliver wrote about her aviation exploits and philosophy of life in an autobiography published in 1983 as Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey.

Death

Oliver died from lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital
Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital
The Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital is a retirement community, with individual cottages, and a fully licensed, acute-care hospital, located at 23388 Mulholland Drive in Woodland Hills, California...

 in Woodland Hills, California, on May 10, 1990. However, as indicated on her death certificate, the lung cancer, diagnosed two months prior to her death, was a metastasis
Metastasis
Metastasis, or metastatic disease , is the spread of a disease from one organ or part to another non-adjacent organ or part. It was previously thought that only malignant tumor cells and infections have the capacity to metastasize; however, this is being reconsidered due to new research...

 from previously-diagnosed colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer, commonly known as bowel cancer, is a cancer caused by uncontrolled cell growth , in the colon, rectum, or vermiform appendix. Colorectal cancer is clinically distinct from anal cancer, which affects the anus....

 which resulted in a December 1989 surgery to remove the carcinoma.

Her age at death was 58, but in the city of her birth, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

obituary stated that she was 61 years old. Virtually all older editions of printed reference works have perpetuated outdated biographical details, giving her birth year as 1936 or 1937 although, according to the NYT obit, the actual year would have to be 1929.

As of the 2000s, the majority of biographical references have accepted 1932 as the most likely year. Additional details have been provided by the passenger manifest of the USAT General Daniel I. Sultan and Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....

 registration records. The manifest listed Charlotte Gercke as departing Yokohama, Japan, on May 28, 1949, and arriving in San Francisco on June 7. Her age on the manifest was given as 17, confirming the birth year as 1932. Swarthmore records also confirm this, showing that a student named Susan Oliver, born February 13, 1932, attended classes from September 1949 to May 1950.

External links

  • susanoliver.info Oliver biography and pictoral site
  • Filmbug An example of the dispute over Oliver's year of birth. The article contradicts itself, listing 1932 at the top and 1937 at the bottom
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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