My Romance with Movies: Susannah York

She was the pretty, flaxen-haired beauty who arose out of London's swinging 60s and whose most famous work came from that decade. For some reason, however, and despite the fact that she worked with top actors and directors and even made two Oscar-winning best pictures and continued to work through 2010, she never attained the glory that Maggie or Judi or Helen or Vanessa did.

Susannah York was a good actress and she loved doing it but she was given to avoiding publicity, whether to plug a film or in general to help improve her standing in the industry. She knew how she liked to work and be treated and she could be feisty if things didn't work out her way.

She was born in London in 1939. Her father was a merchant banker, her mother was the daughter of a diplomat and there was an elder sister. When she was five, her folks divorced and after her mother remarried the family moved to Scotland where York spent most of her youth. She was kicked out of a boarding school for enjoying a nude swim in the school pool. It's when she went to the next school that she discovered acting.

There were some in her circle that thought she'd be a success at it with her fetching, blue-eyed, blonde, gamine looks and an uninhibited talent for attracting attention.

York attended the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and before graduating in 1958 she won an award as most promising student. Her ambition was to be a stage actress and by most accounts she became a good one. She certainly appeared in a number of plays throughout her adult life, mostly in England, but no one would dispute her worldwide fame came from movies. She always had ambivalent feelings about being a movie star.

She became a movie actress with Tunes of Glory in 1960 although hardly a star. She plays the headstrong daughter of Alec Guinness in a dark, psychological military film concerning the conflict between a man who is retiring from his post and the one who is replacing him. It is a good film that holds an extra interest today as the film that gave York fans their first look.

If York wasn't quite a leading player in London's wild decade, it's because she married in 1960. The marriage would produce a son and a daughter. Her family was always the most important thing to her, sometimes at the expense of her career.

She had the leading role in 1961's The Greengage Summer (aka Loss of Innocence) about a young English girl's maturation while on vacation in France. I saw it about 10 years ago and was surprised how much I enjoyed the sensitively-told story.

Marilyn Monroe wanted to play the leading female role of a mental patient in Freud (1962) but her studio would not release her so York assumed the role in her first American film. A very emotionally ill Montgomery Clift had the title role and John Huston was the director. He had also directed Clift in The Misfits a year earlier.

Huston said that he did not like working with York because she was temperamental and haughty with the crew. He took a more serious dislike when she would resolutely refuse to perform certain scenes. Apparently calls were placed to her management people to instruct her to obey. Frankly, it's surprising she wasn't fired, especially considering it was her first film in the states.

She, however, said that she could not stand the way Huston treated the suffering Clift. The director, according to other accounts as well, harangued the actor at every opportunity. Clift was having such a bad time of it during a scene with York that when Huston again terrorized the actor, York punched Huston in the jaw. It's been said the homophobic Huston had a problem with Clift's homosexuality which he must have been unaware of on their earlier film. Despite the many setbacks, I thought this was a very nice film.

She turned down the leading female role in Tom Jones (1963) several times before giving in to director Tony Richardson. She must have been glad she accepted because the lusty film became a worldwide sensation and won best picture at the Golden Globes, BAFTA and the Oscars. She played the seductive Sophie opposite the outrageously randy Albert Finney and was virtually the only one in the starring cast to not be nominated for an Oscar.

Earlier I reviewed The 7th Dawn (1964), a war story filmed in Malaysia, about a guerrilla group that thrives on the heels of the end of WWII. I loved the story, the excitement, the photography, the musical score and the fact that two of my favorite actors and real-life lovers at the time, William Holden and Capucine, were in it. Because York was also in it, it's become my favorite movie of hers. It's not to be confused with her best work which is coming up in 1969.

With William Holden & Capucine in The 7th Dawn

From Malaysia to the Kalahari Desert went York to join the otherwise all-male cast in Sands of the Kalahari (1965). I thought the story of a plane that goes down in the desert with one of the survivors intent on killing the other six was worth the price of admission but it didn't do well with the public or critics.

She was lucky indeed to have been included among a who's who of acting greats in one of the most intelligent masterpieces I've ever seen, A Man for All Seasons (1966). The story concerned Sir Thomas More who stood up to bombastic Henry VIII when the latter wanted to ignore the Catholic church and remarry. Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw, Orson Welles and John Hurt starred. York received praise as Scofield's daughter. It won a number of Oscars... picture, actor, director, writing and cinematography among them... all richly deserved.

York joined another starry cast, Dirk Bogarde, Lilli Palmer and John Gielgud for Sebastian (1968). With its Cold War background, a code breaker with British Intelligence falls in love with a new employee causing unexpected consequences. It's a good thriller and a good role for York.

Duffy (1968) stars York with the James boys... Coburn, Mason and Fox, in a comedy crime caper about a playboy who hires a criminal to hijack his father's boat and steal the fortune that is on board. I liked it but York did not and told the brass that she would do no promotional work for it.

York played her first lesbian role in The Killing of Sister George (1968) and with it enters into a period of offbeat movies, three of which did nothing for her career and one her career highlight, bar none. Sister George is one of the mistakes as I see it and if one puts a focus on York, I believe one would find an obviously uncomfortable actress.

Sister George, played by Beryl Reid, reprising her Broadway role, is a hard-drinking, lesbian actress who fears she is about to be axed from her soap opera and her life falls apart as a result. York is her lipstick lesbian partner and Coral Browne a vicious lesbian studio exec. Robert Aldrich directed with his usual misogynistic touch. I thought it was poorly written and dull.

She registered as the feisty section officer in the testosterone-laden Battle of Britain (1969) but the film did not do well at the box office. Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Laurence Olivier, Robert Shaw, Trevor Howard and Curt Jurgens had most of the screen time.

One the of grimmest American movies one could ever hope to see is Sydney Pollack's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) but then it took place during the Depression. At its center is a marathon dance contest where a roomful of tragic folks dance around the floor for days or weeks at a time, largely without sleep (only during brief breaks). If either partner drops, they're out. The winner (if you will) collects some bucks, looks around for his misplaced humility and runs out the door.

York plays a wannabe actress who has made herself up to look like Jean Harlow in the hope that some Hollywood big shot will be in the audience. (Yes, people actually came to watch these sad events.) She received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress and as good as she is, she's no better than her costars Jane Fonda, Red Buttons, Gig Young (who did win an Oscar for his role as the mc), Bruce Dern, Bonnie Bedelia or Michael Sarrazin.
Though depressing it is a well-made film at every level. Oscar nomination or not, York said she didn't think much of her performance in it.

Brotherly Love (1972) was also known as Country Dance but few would doubt the first title seems the most appropriate. The always fascinating-to-watch Peter O'Toole's character enacts all kinds of silly stunts with his sister who has just moved in with him all the while masking the fact his true incestuous feelings. While the writers and director more than tiptoed around the subject, it grossed out much of the public.

O'Toole was supposed to play the architect role in X, Y and Zee (1972) who is cheating on his wife with a special mistress but Michael Caine assumed it. Elizabeth Taylor is the wife who will do anything to break up the romance with Susannah York including sleeping with her. One wonders if anyone actually looked at this entire film before it was released to the public because it is a bloody mess.

Images (1972) was directed and written by Robert Altman and wasn't so much a script as a collection of ideas... so very Altman and exactly why York declined the offer. Altman, however, pursued her with a vengeance until she gave in. The horror flick has York consumed by horrible thoughts that she doesn't know whether they come from a dream or reality. She got the Cannes Award for best actress and I didn't understand the hoopla.

The Maids (1975) is a filmed play co-produced by Ely Landau who had done the same earlier with The Iceman Cometh and A Delicate Balance. How one may regard the film could have everything to do with how one feels about the format. It's about three rather alarming women, a nasty, rich woman and her two maids who detest her and make fun of her behind her back. York loved working with Glenda Jackson and also Vivien Merchant as the employer.

In 1976 she divorced her husband. In the early to mid 70s she also wrote some children's fantasy novels and also found time to write a screenplay and direct a play. She also appeared in several one-woman shows.

I admired the acting, writing and the mystery of Conduct Unbecoming (1975). York plays the widow of a respected British military man in colonial India who is assaulted in the garden of a regimental party. The unusual trial makes for a fascinating film as does the cast which includes Trevor Howard, Christopher Plummer, Richard Attenborough, Michael York and Stacy Keach.

With Brando in Superman

Neither Superman (1978) nor its 1981 sequel did anything for York's career as the hero's non-earthly mother but they certainly attracted large audiences.

Her films had become so quirky, by and large, that her career lost a lot of its steam. A number of movies she would appear in in the future often did not feature her in starring roles. She didn't seem to mind. After 1981 I lost track of her. To my knowledge, other than a 1985 Love Boat guest shot, she worked no more in the states. She did, however, still appear in a number of British and European films and much television, including TV movies and miniseries.
She also continued working on the stage, including right up to a year before her passing.