Susan Harrison

Susan Stewart Harrison (August 26, 1938 – March 5, 2019) was an American actress born in Leesburg, Florida. She received her early training at the High School of Performing Arts in New York City before attending Boston University, where she studied under director Peter Kass. Kass cast her as Abigail in a production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible during her time there.

Harrison's professional career began in 1956 with the live television drama Can You Coffeepot on Skates?, followed by appearances on Matinee Theatre and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Her film debut came with the 1957 noir Sweet Smell of Success, in which she played the sister of Burt Lancaster's character, with Tony Curtis also starring. She credited her mentor Kass with introducing her to writer Clifford Odets, a connection she believed contributed to her casting. Reflecting on the production in 2011, she described the collaborative atmosphere on set, noting that daily table discussions and revisions were open to the entire cast and crew, including herself.

On October 19, 1957, Harrison made her Broadway debut at the Bijou Theater, opening in William Saroyan's The Cave Dwellers, where she played a character billed as "the Girl." The production received uniformly positive reviews. The following year she appeared in the Playhouse 90 television production In Lonely Expectation, a role that brought her to the attention of Rod Serling and led to her casting as a ballerina in the Twilight Zone episode "Five Characters in Search of an Exit." In 1960 she appeared in the first-season Bonanza episode "Dark Star" and played Ruby, the female lead, in the film Key Witness alongside Jeffrey Hunter and Dennis Hopper.

Harrison was the mother of three children: Darva Conger, who appeared on the reality television program Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?, and two others, D. H. Colin and Daniel Colin. She died on March 5, 2019, at a nursing facility in North Hills, California, at the age of 80.