Susan Peters

Luminous American actress whose career was brought to an end by a tragic accident.

Peters’ first job on leaving high school was with MGM, reading with potential actors in their screen tests. Studio executives soon began casting her in films, though for the first two years it was only in small, often uncredited parts in films such as 1941’s Meet John Doe, where she played an autograph collector.

Her first substantial role, in Random Harvest (1942), earned her an Oscar nomination  for Best Supporting Actress.

MGM then began to groom Peters for starring roles, casting her in several lesser productions that allowed her to learn her craft. By 1944 she was one of ten actors who were elevated from "featured player" status to the studio's official "star" category; the others included Esther Williams, Laraine Day, Kathryn Grayson, Van Johnson, Margaret O'Brien, Robert Walker and Gene Kelly. An official portrait taken of MGM's contracted players during this period prominently features Peters sharing the front row with the head of the studio himself, Louis B. Mayer, and alongside such illustrious actors as James Stewart, Katharine Hepburn and Hedy Lamarr.

Peters was with her husband on a hunting vacation in early 1945 when a rifle accidentally discharged, leaving a bullet lodged in her spine and paralysing her from the waist down.

MGM continued to pay her a small salary, but, unable to find suitable projects, Peters subsequently left the studio. An unsympathetic role in Columbia's The Sign of the Ram (1948) failed to help her - she played is a paralysed woman who wrecks her family by domination and murder - and a starring role as a lawyer in the television series Miss Susan (1951) was also unsuccessful. She toured in stage productions of The Glass Menagerie and The Barretts of Wimpole Street, and her performances were highly regarded, but her disability made her a difficult actress to cast.

Her career faltered, and as her marriage came to an end in September 1948, Peters began to suffer from depression. Her health continued to deteriorate until her death at the age of 31 from kidney disease and pneumonia complicated by anorexia nervosa.

This is a very pretty vintage sepia photograph (7" x 5"), neatly signed in happier times in dark blue ink. In very good condition. VERY RARE.