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Susan Cabot Profile
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| (Harriet Pearl Shapiro) |
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| 9 July 27 | is born in Boston, Massachusetts, of Jewish Russian descent. Her mother's maiden name is Charterisky. |
| ? | her mother has emotional problems and is institutionalized |
| ? | her father disappears |
| ? | is raised in a series of eight foster homes |
| early 40s | attends high school in Manhattan, where she takes an interest in dramatics and joins the drama club |
| 44 | marries Martin Sacker, an interior decorator |
| Late 40s | illustrates children’s books by day and sings at Manhattan’s Village Barn at night, where she is spotted one evening by Max Arnow, casting director for Columbia Pictures. She also sings some drugstore commercials on a "Calvacade of Bands" show starring Jack Carter, at the same time while designing jewelry at Gimbel's. |
| 47 | makes her film debut as an extra in Fox’s New York-made Kiss of Death and works in New York-based television |
| Late 40s | has almost arranged a scholarship to La Scala, but does not have the fare, so somebody takes her to a Columbia Pictures talent scout. “I went to Hollywood and signed a seven-year contract so naively that I was sure at the end of six months they would let me go. In six months, I did a 10-minute dancing bit trying to seduce Jeff Chandler. I packed up to come back at the end of six months—and they told me I was going to star with Jeff in The Battle of Apache Pass." |
| ? | changes her name to Susan Cabot because “Cabot is one of the best names in Boston" |
| 50 | as a result of meeting Max Arnow, she travels to Hollywood and is cast in Columbia’s On the Isle of Samoa |
| 12 November 50 | separates from Martin Sacker and plans on beginning divorce proceedings |
| 1 December 50 | her photos appears in newspapers across the country. She is cuddling three kittens whose acquaintance she made at the studio. “Mickey Mouse had better be careful in the future.” |
| 22 December 50 | Bill Goetz signs her for Tomahawk and then discovers that she sings—and beautifully. He may dust off one of Deanna Durbin’s old pictures and remake it with her. |
| 5 February 51 | she and Alex Nicol, on tour for Tomahawk, visit the Red Cross Blood Bank in Syracuse, but are routed by a storm from seeing movie fans |
| 51 | is 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 104 pounds, and has dark brown hair and eyes |
| 24 May 51 | Erskine Johnson writes that Universal-International will launch her with a big sexy fanfare as the star of Pantang. “The studio’s new Yvonne de Carlo?” |
| 51 | makes a film for Universal-International, who then signs her to an exclusive contract |
| 9 June 51 | getting ready to do a scene with towering Jeff Chandler in Flame of Araby, she tells Erskine Johnson: “They’ll have to get a stepladder for me. I get the shakes working with big hunks of men. But then I think of Gloria Swanson, Bette Davis, and Helen Hayes, and I feel better. They did all right as short girls.” |
| 12 June 51 | while learning a sexy dance for a scene in Flame of Araby, she tells the dance director she doesn’t think she is moving her feet correctly. “With a figure like yours,” says Dance Director Hal Belier, “the only person who’ll look at your feet will be Arthur Murray.” |
| 16 August 51 | movie studio photographers nominate her for queen of National Sweater Week, to be celebrated in September. The United Outwear Foundation agrees and crowns her "Miss Motion Picture Sweater Girl of 1951." She will reign for one year. |
| 51 | divorces Sacker |
| 1 October 51 | dates TV producer Fred Amel at the Saddle and Sirloin |
| 30 October 51 | wails to the press, “I had five ulcers before they let me play Jeff Chandler’s Indian wife in The Battle of Apache Pass. They said Jeff was too tall for me. I went running from office to office politicking for the part. I reminded them that Helen Hayes had played with Gary Cooper in Farewell to Arms and that the picture was one of Hollywood’s greatest love stories.” She wants to battle against playing “dark, exotic little things.” “I’m either in jungles or gypsy wagons. I don’t know why. My coloring is exactly like Elizabeth Taylor’s. Do they put her in a sarong? No.” |
| 18 December 51 | her photo is used in newspapers to advertise Hollywood Bread. Mention is made of her current film, Flame of Araby. |
| 1 March 52 | both Arthur Kim and Matty Fox squire her to hear Connie Moore at the Coconut Grove |
| 7 March 52 | her two-year separation from her husband is about to end in divorce. The suit will reveal that her married name is Mrs. Mark Sczekarkiwiecz. |
| 26 March 52 | is interviewed in Syracuse during a short visit and says, "About all I do in the movies is speak strange languages I don’t understand. If the day ever comes when I can sing in the movies, that will be the peak.” She is on her second personal appearance tour, a tour of the East, and finds it tiring. She does TV and radio shows/interviews four to five times a day—with no script to help. She tells Rotarians all about how to make a movie and high school girls how to put on makeup. She longs for the opportunity to show herself as just a typical American girl, but instead has always been cast as an exotic. “It’s odd what I fell into in the movies. Because my eyes and skin are dark, I suppose I was a natural Indian maid. I’d like to be an American on the screen just once.” She snorts politely at the “Boston beauty” tag some of her press agents have used. “I was born in Boston, yes, but my family moved to New York when I was four. I’m straight from the Bronx and proud of it. California is fine for some things, but there’s no place quite like New York.” |
| 16 August 52 | Universal-International turns down a loanout for her to do a film in Egypt |
| 3 October 52 | her photo appears in newspapers across the country showing her skill with a bow and arrow, which she had to learn to use for an upcoming movie |
| 17 October 52 | she and Johnny Grant are an item at the Encore Room |
| 1 November 52 | she and Hugh O’Brian have gotten around to each other |
| 20 November 52 | travels to Harlingen, Texas, with a caravan of screen stars to present a 45-minute performance on Jackson Street between First and “A” at 3:15 p.m. Sponsored by the Texas Council of Motion Picture Organizations, the caravan also includes Vera-Ellen, Chill Wills, Wayne Morris, and Frederick de Cordoba. |
| 6 March 53 | she and Audie Murphy stop in Milwaukee on a personal appearance tour and are interviewed on the “Grenediers” television program |
| 14 May 53 | during her vacation, she again takes her ball team to The Keys on Lankershim Boulevard, across from Universal Studios; they won. |
| 23 May 53 | attends the premiere of the 3-D film House of Wax with Hugh O'Brian. She is photographed for newspapers squinting through a pair of 3-D glasses, called polaroids, which are being held by Hugh. |
| 8 June 53 | she and Universal-International are calling it a day |
| 29 June 53 | lunches at the Universal-International commissary with Manuel Rojas and Piper Laurie. Piper will help Rojas work out his scene for his screen test. |
| 3 July 53 | she and Manuel Rojas head to the Mocambo after the Peggy Lee opening |
| 14 July 53 | dates writer-comedian Jackie Barnett |
| 7 August 53 | is excited about her role in Ride Clear of Diablo because it’s the first time in her screen career that she wears a dress all through a picture. Usually she’s in blue jeans and cowboy boots. |
| 16 August 53 | she and Manuel Rojas, near wedding bells a few months back, have cooled way down. Rojas is the polo player once beloved by Rita Hayworth. |
| 3 December 53 | Estell Harman, Universal’s talent coach is busy rehearsing a stage play with the studio’s actors and actresses. It will be presented to the executives of several major studios, various casting offices, talent scouts, and almost 100 Universal distributors from all over the country at the studio's annual convention. This will give them the chance to see the performers in a live show. Normally they only see them on film before they sell their product. She is in the cast along with Audie Murphy, Rock Hudson, Russell Johnson, Chubby Johnson, Hugh O’Brian, Dick Long, Gregg Palmer, Lance Fuller, Brett Halsey, Bart Roberts, Brad Jackson, Bill Leslie, Barbara Rush, Kathleen Hughes, Mamie Van Doren, Mara Corday, Sara Shane, and Ruth Hampton. |
| 21 February 54 | she recently returned from a tour to discover that a Kingsville, Texas, newspaperman called her “the most beautiful woman in the world!” |
| 1 March 54 | Filmland will send nine more stars to Argentina to complete the American delegation for the motion picture festival at mar del Plata in March. Y. Frank Freeman, board chairman of the Association of Motion Picture Producers names the stars today. They are Susan Cabot, Corinne Calvet, Wendell Corey, Kathleen Hughes, Rosita Moreno, Lori Nelson, Mary Pickford, Charles (Buddy) Rogers, and Claire Trevor. |
| 9 March 54 | unusual canapés tempt her and her date, actor Hugh O’Brian, at a cocktail party at Ciro’s |
| 30 March 54 | movie actress Kathleen Hughes tries to use Susan’s room at the Barbizon Plaza without registering (just as a lark and also to save a few bucks) and gets trapped by the housedick, who didn’t let her beauty interfere with duty and made her register |
| March 54 | participates in "Inside U-I," the annual stage show to show off new talent |
| 2 April 54 | her reported pitty-pat for M. Brando has gone limp. She rendezvous at Major’s Cabin with Iran’s Prince Kaze Kashani. |
| 11 May 54 | her photo is again used for advertising for Hollywood Bread. Her current film, Ride Clear of Diablo, is mentioned. |
| August 54 | dates young actor Richard Anderson |
| 1 September 54 | while Walter Winchell is on vacation Lee Mortimer writes in the New York Confidential column: “The Not So Sunny Sunset Strip: All the Marlon Brando romance rumors (including those heretofore printed here) are the bunk, they tell me. Susan Cabot is the girl who cooks dinners for him at her home and has the dates after dinner with him, and maybe this is bunk, too, but who cares? (I don’t)…” |
| 12 September 54 | is scheduled to get a Decca recording contract |
| 6 October 54 | option time fell for several dolls at Universal-International recently. She and Lori Nelson, among others, declined to stay without a pay raise. Mara Corday decides to remain, drawing the same salary, $175 a week. |
| 50s | becomes fed up with the succession of Western and Arabian Nights roles and asks for a release from her Universal pact |
| Mid-50s | accepts an offer from Harold Robbins to star in his play A Stone for Danny Fisher in New York |
| meets director Roger Corman in New York. He casts her for his upcoming Carnival Rock |
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| 12 January 55 | she and Philip Pine display their acting talents in A Stone For Danny Fisher |
| 30 June 56 | stars at the Myrtle Beach Playhouse in Champagne Complex, Tuesday through Sunday, weekly, through Labor Day |
| 2 September 56 | the Triple Cities Playhouse in Binghamton enters its final week with the musical Knickerbocker Holiday, a musical with Will Geer, Biff McGuire, and her heading the cast |
| 57 | director Roger Corman lures her back to Hollywood, where she becomes a close friend of his during the filming of The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent. Fellow actor Richard Devon later remembers her as being a bit standoffish on the set. |
| 2 June 58 | helps Mort Sahl recover from the blow of having his ex-wife marry one of his best friends. She has a penchant for comedians; she used to date Jules Munshin. |
| 22 December 58 | she and shipbuilder James Hanson are blazing. He once courted Audrey Hepburn. |
| 7 January 59 | Walter Winchell writes that Ben Cooper, the fastest draw in Hollywood, and she are a new coo-some |
| 59 | sleeps in a Napoleonic campaign bed, sort of a cot, “an elegant settee,” which Napoleon’s men carted around with them. “They must have been very short soldiers,” she says. “My big toe hangs over the end of it." |
| 59 | has a highly publicized affair with young King Hussein of Jordan, whom she met at a Hollywood party. He's 23; she's 31. She calls him "the most charming man I ever met." |
| 12 April 59 | flies to New York this Sunday night, thereby encouraging rumors she is having a romance with Jordan's King Hussein, who is currently in Detroit and due to be in New York on Tuesday. She is in New York to star in an off-stage personal version of The King and I. Her arrival is ostensibly to try out for a play, but she refuses to give details of the theatrical venture. Of Hussein she says, “I am introverted to the extend that I don’t care to discuss my most personal affairs in public.” |
| 13 April 59 | this Monday night in Detroit, King Hussein denies any romantic link to her, saying she may have been among the many people he had met while in Hollywood. “But I did not date her.” |
| 21 April 59 | in his newspaper column, Earl Wilson writes that Café Society resented Hussein's claiming he did not know her. He said he merely sat across a narrow table from her the entire evening at a Hollywood party ten days ago, feasting his eyes on her and her sari. Her close friends consider that remark unkingly and ungallant. |
| 22 April 59 | is still secretly seeing King Hussein. His statement that he doesn’t know her was “purely political.” |
| ? | Hussein discovers that she's Jewish and ends the affair |
| ? | is seen driving Princess Margaret's Bentley, a gift from Hussein, and a Mercedes with the personalized license plate "SOOOZ" |
| 24 April 59 | has a romance with Mir Kashani, a price related to the Shah of Iran, on Long Island |
| 6 May 59 | Earl Wilson takes her and her escort Marty Mills to El Morocco, Toots Shor’s, and the Latin Quarter, where she tells them how she ducked the New York press recently when the best reporters were looking for her. Very simply, she got out of town—went right to Washington. She insists she did not see Hussein after she left Hollywood. Would she see him again? Long, long pause. “I think he has too many worries in his country without getting involved with any one person. He’s harassed on all sides, even by his neighbors. He’s a very sensitive person, and I respect him.” What did she call Hussein when the dated? Formally, she called him “Your Majesty,” but she has a sense of humor, and the name she likes most in all the world is Sam. Wilson hears she called Hussein “Your Majesty, Sam.” |
| she also says she aspires to do a musical and be on the Ed Sullivan TV show. She is also signed to do an Ellery Queen and “Pantomime Quiz” show. |
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| 28 May 59 | now going around with George deWitt, she will star in Seven-Year Itch with Mel Torme in Dayton and other summer spots |
| 1 July 59 | lands a co-star part in a Broadway play |
| 9 July 59 | actor Mark Damon is invariably linked with a Susan. In the past year the ladies were Susan Cabot, Susan Strasberg, Suzanne Pleshette, Susan Oliver, and Susan Kohner |
| 26 August 59 | is with Arthur Cowan at the Chateau Madrid |
| September 59 | “I had been everything from a gun moll to a high priestess in science fiction to a juvenile delinquent. I guess Tomahawk with Van Heflin was my best picture. All this happened because I didn’t have fare to Italy.” |
| September 59 | “I love opera—and I love horses with a passion. I just love that animal. I go riding in Central Park." |
| September 59 | plays opposite Tom Poston in the new Broadway show The Golden Fleecing, which Abe Burrows is directing. “I play the Admiral’s daughter. I fall in love with Tom Poston. He’s a Navy man--and I’ve had it up to my teeth with Navy men.” |
| 9 September 59 | her new admirer is a New York restaurateur who sends hot meals ackstage where’s she’s rehearsing The Golden Fleecing |
| 12 September 59 | when you see her on the “Pantomime Quiz” TV show, you probably don’t suspect that she’s going home to worry about burglars and porch climbers trying to get into her tumble-down apartment over a French restaurant. “I romanticize about everything, and I think of it as my studio. Actually, I guess it’s just a very old building that ‘s listing and sinking 2 or 3 inches every month. It’s in the restaurant and nightclub neighborhood. One night I was on the phone chatting away when I saw the bottom of my window opening up right before my eyes! I stood fixed to the sport wondering how to turn off the light on the other side of the room. I kind of belly-crawled across the room and got to the switch. I heard the prowler jump down and run away. I’ve had some other scenes there that are like the “Late, Late Show.” One night I was watching Bette Davis in Elizabeth and Essex on TV. I had gone to the kitchen to make coffee…and all of a sudden I heard a couple of shots. Suddenly it occurred ‘I don’t remember any shooting in Elizabeth and Essex.’ It became like a private eye thing…wondering about those shots…then I heard scuffling…heard a flash…somebody screamed...the police were chasing somebody on my roof!” |
| 21 September 59 | is expected to elope with Stanley Sherman, the Friend of the Court |
| 26 September 59 | Bob Merrill’s play in Boston during the run of Take Me Along (for which he wrote the score) is enlivened not only by the show’s warm reception but also by his dates with her. She trekked to the Hub as a member of the company of another Broadway-bound play, The Golden Fleecing, but she was replaced by another actress during the tryout. |
| October 59 | is playboy Francisco “Baby” Pignatari’s date at El Morocco |
| 14 January 60 | Sal Mineo escorts her to El Morocco |
| 4 March 60 | does not care who knows how much she cares about Pygmalion pianist Charles Cochran. He’s social, which is why he as to work. |
| 15 June 60 | Charles Revson (the landlord at Revlon) makes her his No. 1 habit (since his abrogation) on the Danny’s, Little Club, Ember’s circuit |
| 60 | leaves the screen to concentrate on singing and stage acting |
| 22 January 61 | Lawrence Ingram buys out Billy Reed’s Club for the night of February 20 and will personally escort her, Kim Novak, and Carey Lanmer |
| 12 January 62 | is a duo with Ralph Meeker |
| 3 April 62 | she is Desi Arnaz’s date at his Chateau Madrid party for CBS execs |
| 11 June 62 | she and Red Buttons are a duo at Voisin |
| 21 February 63 | has recovered from a burst appendix and peritonitis. She was at P.J. Clark’s with Arthur Solomon, ready to start acting in a show in Canada. |
| 27 January 64 | her son, Timothy Scott, is born prematurely out of wedlock. She refuses to identify he father. Timothy is afflicted with dwarfism. She begins taking a growth hormone prescribed for her son, possibly a factor in heightening her mental illness. |
| 27 January 65 | Sebastian Cabot gallantly tells her at the Brasserie: “I’m sure I’m your long-lost cousin”—but he isn’t |
| 68 | meets young actor Michael Roman during an acting class. They marry within ten days. He's 25; she's 40. Susan tells Roman that she was married "to an English diplomat and Tim is the issue of that marriage." |
| ? | Michael adopts Timothy, making him Timothy Scott Roman |
| 81 | Roman divorces her. In 1998 he will remember: "She was a good person, but she was crazy." |
| 10 December 86 | is bludgeoned to death by her twenty-two year old son, Timothy, with a weight-lifting bar, in her Encino/San Fernando Valley, California, home. Her body is found in her bedroom at the one-time expensive home, which has fallen into disrepair. There are rumors that Timothy is the love child of either actor Christopher Jones or Jordan’s King Hussein. |
| Police Detective Joe Diglio said discrepancies in Timothy’s story led to his arrest. He was booked for investigation of murder and held without bail. The young man first claimed a burglar dressed in the robes of a Japanese Ninja warrior murdered his mother and stole $70,000. Timothy, a student at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, appears to have had a long-running feud with his mother. Three dogs impeded the investigation for a while. |
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| 86 | is interred at Hillside Memorial Park, Culver City, Los Angeles County, California. She rests in the Sunland Gardens section, wall crypt C, space #242. |
| 11 October 89 | Timothy Scott Roman is convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of his mother. He cites years of abuse and could receive up to four years in state prison when he is sentenced on November 29 in Van Nuys Superior Court. Roman's first attorney, Chester Smith, argued that Roman sustained brain damage from experiments to boost his growth. That first trial ended in a mistrial because Smith became ill. |
| 29 November 89 | Timothy Scott Roman is given a three-year suspended sentence by Judge Darlene Schempp of Van Nuys Superior Court and is placed on probation because he has already spent close to three years in custody since the December 1986 death of his mother. He now stands to inherit her estate. |
| 98 | interviewed for "E! Mysteries & Scandals," Timothy declares: "I never intended to hurt my mother." |
| 22 January 03 | her son dies at age 38 |
| Sources: Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes by Tom Weaver, Fallen Angels by Kirk Crivello, E!, Photoplay, Screenland, Brian?s Drive-In Theater Web site, Syracuse Herald Journal, Tri-City Herald, Post-Standard, Chronicle Telegram, Warren Times Mirror, Lowell Sun, Appeal Democrat, Traverse City Record Eagle, The Times Recorder, Valley News, Mansfield News Journal, The Lima News, The Daily Times News, Edwardsville Ingelligencer, The Daily Ingelligencer, Walla Walla Union Bulletin, Oswego Palladium Times, The Monessen Daily Independent, Dixon Evening Telegraph, The Newport Daily News, Coshocton Tribune, The Zanesville Signal, Nevada State Journal, The Lethbridge Herald, Manitowoc Herald Times, Van Nuys News, Pottstown Mercury, The Post Standard, The Independent Record, Reno Evening Gazette, The Harrisburg Daily Register, Council Bluffs Nonpareil, The Clearfield Progress, Harlingen Valley Morning Star, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, www.Ancestry.com, www.Findagrave.com, | |
| Recommended Books: | |
| Links: Filmography Susan Cabot at Spooky's Nightmare Mansion | |