Susan Clark

Susan Clark (born Nora Golding; March 8, 1943) is a Canadian actress. She made her big screen debut in the 1967 drama film Banning and the following year played the female lead in the crime thriller Coogan's Bluff. She later starred in films Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969), Colossus: The Forbin Project (1971), Valdez Is Coming (1971), Skin Game (1971), Showdown (1973), The Midnight Man (1974), Airport 1975 (1975), Night Moves (1975), The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975), Murder by Decree (1979), Promises in the Dark (1979) and Porky's (1981).

Clark received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for playing Babe Didrikson Zaharias in the 1975 television film Babe, and another Emmy Award nomination for playing Amelia Earhart in the 1976 television film Amelia Earhart. From 1983 to 1989, she starred as Katherine Papadopolis in the American sitcom Webster, on which she appeared with her husband, Alex Karras, receiving a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy nomination in 1985.

Early life

Clark was born as Nora Golding in Sarnia, Ontario and raised in Toronto, where she attended Northern Secondary School. She made her professional debut at the age of 15 on stage in the musical Silk Stockings, which starred Don Ameche. She studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, England and two years later acted in a number of classical and modern plays.

Career

In the early 1960s, Clark while living in London began appearing on British television, including guest appearances on The Plane Makers, The Sentimental Agent and The Benny Hill Show. She made her debut on the London stage in Poor Bitos. The play and Clark received good reviews but news from home about her father, who had fallen ill, led her back to Canada. She returned to Canada in 1965, when she appeared in a number of episodes of the anthology series Festival.

She was employed by Universal Pictures from 1967 where she appeared in several television series and made her feature film debut in the drama film Banning. Clark had leading roles in several Universal films, including Coogan's Bluff with Clint Eastwood in 1968, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here with Robert Redford in 1969, Valdez Is Coming with Burt Lancaster in 1971, Showdown with Dean Martin in 1973, Night Moves with Gene Hackman in 1975, the disaster film Airport 1975, The Apple Dumpling Gang with Bill Bixby in 1975, and another disaster film, City on Fire, in 1979.

Clark starred in the 1975 television movie, Babe, playing multi-sport athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Her performance won her an Emmy in 1976. In 1976, she starred in a three-hour made-for-television movie biography of the aviator Amelia Earhart which also covered her marriage to noted publisher G. P. Putnam; she received an Emmy nomination for Best Actress. She posed topless for Playboy in the February 1973 issue pictorial entitled "The Ziegfeld Girls: A dazzling review starring the talking pictures' own Susan Clark".

Clark played Dr. Cleo Markham in Colossus: The Forbin Project, hooker Cherry Forever in Porky's (in which Karras also starred), Elizabeth Murray in Emily of New Moon, Elaine Moore in the television movie Trapped, and Muriel Mulligan in the 1994 television movie Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story. She played murderess Beth Chadwick in the Columbo episode "Lady in Waiting". She and Karras played husband and wife together on the sitcom Webster for six years in the 1980s.

In 2006, Clark appeared at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in the Warehouse production of The Retreat from Moscow, and in the 2007 Mainstage production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Personal life

She married American football player turned actor Alex Karras in 1980. They met when they co-starred in Babe (and he played her husband, professional wrestler George Zaharias). They later co-starred on the popular primetime sitcom Webster together, portraying husband and wife. Their daughter Katie was born in 1980.

Clark and Karras remained married for 32 years until his death on October 10, 2012.

Filmography

Film

Television

External links

• at IMDb