Susan Littler

Susan Littler (31 December 1947 – 11 July 1982) was an English actress born in Fleetwood, Lancashire, who built a substantial career across British television, film, and stage before her death from ovarian cancer at the age of 34. She trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London and began her professional life in repertory theatre at venues across Britain, including companies in Bolton, Darlington, Plymouth, and Nottingham.

Littler's television career began in 1970 with an ITV Playhouse production, Don't Touch Him, He Might Resent It, and expanded steadily through the early part of that decade. She appeared in a range of prominent British series, among them the soap operas Coronation Street and Emmerdale Farm, police dramas Z-Cars, Softly, Softly: Taskforce, and New Scotland Yard, comedies The Liver Birds and Porridge, and the prison drama Within These Walls. More substantial television work followed with Trinity Tales (1975), Alan Plater's contemporary adaptation of The Canterbury Tales, and the marriage guidance serial Couples (1975–76). Between 1974 and 1981, Littler appeared in four productions for the BBC's Play for Today anthology series. The most celebrated of these was Spend, Spend, Spend (1977), directed by John Goldschmidt, in which she played Viv Nicholson, a Yorkshire woman who won £152,316 on the football pools in 1961 and spent it all. The script was adapted by Jack Rosenthal from Nicholson's memoirs. Littler's portrayal earned her a BAFTA Best Television Actress nomination in 1977. Her other Play for Today credits were Taking Leave (1974), A Story to Frighten the Children (1976), and Baby Talk (1981). Her final television appearances included The Quiet Days of Mrs. Stafford (1981), A Voyage Round My Father (1982), and Whale Music, which was broadcast posthumously in 1983.

Her film work included a role in the 1973 production The Lovers and a part in Rough Cut (1980), starring Burt Reynolds. Littler was also a Royal Variety award winner.

On the stage, Littler appeared in several high-profile London productions in the latter part of her career. These included The Country Wife by William Wycherley at the National Theatre in 1977, Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov at the Hampstead Theatre in 1979, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, adapted by David Edgar, at the Aldwych Theatre in 1980, and Enjoy by Alan Bennett at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1980. She also originated her role in Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce in the National Theatre production, which played first at the Lyttleton Theatre before transferring to the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1978.

Littler brought her performance in Bedroom Farce to Broadway in 1979, representing her sole appearance on the New York stage. The production earned her both a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, both in 1979. She had been born in Fleetwood, Lancashire, though her Broadway biography identified her as originally from Sheffield, England.

Littler died of ovarian cancer on 11 July 1982. On 24 October 1982, Albert Finney hosted a memorial programme in her honor at the National Theatre in London, with proceeds directed to cancer research. The Daily Telegraph described her early death as the greatest premature loss of a British actress since Kay Kendall.