Susan Kohner

Susan Kohner is an American actress born on November 11, 1936, in Los Angeles, California. Her father, Paul Kohner, was a film producer of Bohemian Jewish descent, originally from Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, and her mother, Lupita Tovar, was a Mexican-born Hollywood actress of Mexican and Irish descent who practiced Roman Catholicism. Kohner retired from acting in 1964.

The majority of Kohner's film work was concentrated in the late 1950s and early 1960s. She co-starred with Sal Mineo in Dino (1957) and again in The Gene Krupa Story (1959). Her most prominent screen role came in Imitation of Life (1959), a Douglas Sirk-directed production starring Lana Turner and released by producer Ross Hunter. In that film, Kohner portrayed Sarah Jane, a light-skinned Black woman who attempts to pass as white. The film was the second adaptation of the 1933 novel of the same name, following a 1934 version, and its plot was substantially revised to reflect the concerns of its era. The production was a box-office success, and Kohner received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. She won two Golden Globe Awards for the role: one for Best Supporting Actress and one for Best New Actress. Following that film, she appeared in All the Fine Young Cannibals alongside Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, and George Hamilton. Her final film appearance was in Freud: The Secret Passion (1962), in which she co-starred with Montgomery Clift.

Kohner's television career began on February 4, 1956, with an appearance in the episode "Long After Summer" on The Alcoa Hour. She subsequently took guest roles on several series, including Hong Kong, Going My Way, and Temple Houston.

On Broadway, Kohner made her debut in 1958 in Love Me Little, written by John G. Fuller and performed at the Helen Hayes Theatre, where she played Emily Whittaker. The database credit Little Me is also associated with her Broadway work. She later appeared in Pullman Car Hiawatha by Thornton Wilder at the Circle in the Square Theatre in 1962, taking the role of Harriet Milbury. In 1963, she performed in Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw at the Vancouver Theater Festival, a production that also involved Mike Nichols.

In 1964, Kohner married John Weitz, a German-born fashion designer and novelist, and retired from acting that same year. The couple had two sons, Chris and Paul Weitz, who both became film directors and producers. Together the brothers produced American Pie (1999) and About a Boy (2002), and Chris Weitz directed New Moon (2009), part of The Twilight Saga. On April 23, 2010, Kohner attended the TCM Film Festival in Los Angeles for a screening of a new print of Imitation of Life (1959). Following the screening, she and co-star Juanita Moore participated in a question-and-answer session hosted by TCM's Robert Osborne, and both women received standing ovations from the audience.