This flinty blonde actress has specialized in spangly, trashy film femmes since her screen debut in "Shoot Out" (1971). Ironically, Susan Tyrrell began her career as a teenager playing the ingenue in the stage comedy "Time Out for Ginger" opposite Art Carney. After settling in NYC, though, she began to excel at playing women of questionable virtue in stage productions like "The Time of Your Life" and "Camino Real". In John Huston's "Fat City" (1972), Tyrrell offered a brilliant characterization of an alcoholic involved in an interracial romance and earned a richly deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. Like many female actors, however, she found good roles were few. Tyrrell was relegated to portraying hardened females, like the woman of easy virtue discarded by Gene Hackman in "Zandy's Bride" (1974) and George C Scott's mistress in "Islands in the Stream" (1976). Capitalizing on these qualities, she played Carroll Baker's sloppy daughter-in-law in "Andy Warhol's Bad" (1976), an unabashed lesbian apartment building manager in "Angel" (1984) and its sequel "Avenging Angel" (1985). She was also delightful as Johnny Depp's acid-breathing grandmother with a soft spot for a bad kid in John Waters' "Cry Baby" (1990). Her performances as motorchicks or 50s-style moms in films that were either self-consciously campy--like her turn as Midge in "Big Top Pee-Wee" (1988)--or so delirious that they descended into camp, as in "Rockula" (1990). Much of her small screen work has been in a similar vein like her prisoner in "Willow B: Women in Prison" (ABC, 1980) and the lady of the evening who engages in fisticuffs with Elizabeth Taylor's "Poker Alice" (CBS, 1987).
- Also Credited As:
Susan Jillian Creamer
- Born:
March 18, 1945 in San Francisco, California
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Job Titles:
Actor, Voice actor, Waitress
Milestones
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1953 Won lead role in the touring company of "Time Out for Ginger", co-starring Art Carney; profiled by LOOK magazine
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1971 Feature film debut in "The Steagle"
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1972 Had breakthrough film role in "Fat City" directed by John Huston; received Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination as the blowsy alcoholic involved in an interracial romance
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1973 Co-starred in "Catch My Soul", a musical based on Shakespeare's "Othello"
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1978 TV debut in the NBC movie "Lady of the House"
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1979 Co-starred in the Broadway play "Father's Day"; opened and closed on the same night
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1980 Appeared with Anne Archer in "A Couple of White Chicks Sitting Around Talking"
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1981 Series debut as a regular, played George Dzundza's wife in the ABC sitcom "Open All Night"
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1983 Provided character voices for the animated feature "Fire and Ice"
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1984 Cast as the lesbian landlady to the titular "Angel", a teenaged hooker
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1985 Had recurring role on the ABC police series "MacGruder and Loud"
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1985 Reprised her role as the lesbian landlady in the sequel "Avenging Angel"
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1987 Appeared opposite Elizabeth Taylor in the CBS movie "Poker Alice"
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1988 Co-starred in CBS miniseries "Sidney Sheldon's Windmills of the Gods"
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1990 Played Johnny Depp's grandmother in "Cry-Baby"
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1991 Wrote and performed the one-woman show, "My Rotten Life"
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1995 Co-starred in HBO original film "Comes the Dawn"
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1997 Did voice work on the syndicated animated series "Extreme Ghostbusters"
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1998 Stared in the L.A. premiere of Martin Sherman's play "A Table for a King"
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1999 Acted in "Buddy Boy"
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1999 Had cameo as the mother of a lesbian in "Relax, It's Just Sex"
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Raised in New Canaan, Connecticut
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Starred in the acclaimed L.A. production of Tom Eyen's "Why Hanna's Skirt Won't Stay Down", staged by Ron Link
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Worked Off-Broadway and in Lincoln Center productions, frequently cast as trollops and fallen women in such plays as "Camino Real" and "The Time of Your Life"