She was born Susan Abigail Tomalin on October 4th 1946
in Jackson Heights, New York. She grew up however in Edison, New Jersey as the eldest of 9 children, 5 girls and 4 boys. Her
family are of a Welsh Italian descent. Her father Phillip Tomalin was an advertising executive and her mother was Lenora
Marie Tomalin.
Susan attended a catholic school whilst growing up, which
was run by nuns. Susan's rebellious nature started to come forward then when she continually challenged the nuns with religious
conclusions. Susan was then later arrested for her inolvement in civil rights protests.
Susan then lived with her grandparents whilst at a catholic
university in which she studied Drama, English, Philosophy and Military strategy. She later gained a degree in Drama. She
earnt her money at the time by cleaning apartments, being a secretary and modelling for a magazine.
Susan never dreamt of being an actress but whilst doing a
show fell in love and married Chris Sarandon in September 1967. He helped her make the decision to become the actress she
is today.
Susan then took various modelling jobs whilst Chris found
acting work. In 1970 she accompanied Chris to try to get an agent and to her surprise the agency signed her
aswell. Less than a week later she attended an audition for the film "Joe" and was cast there and then.
More films then came her way most of them bad, she
took most of them probably to practise her acting skills. She took parts such as Patricia Kahlem in "As the world
turns" and on soap opera "Search for tomorrow."
She continued to play in "As the world turns"
but she then went on to work on "Lovin Molly", "The Front Page" and "The great Waldo pepper".
Susan then made the decision to appear in "The Rocky
Horror Picture Show" . She was advised to do the film by friend and co star Tim Curry (Frank n Furter). She agreed and
played character Janet Weiss for not very much money and also had to sing, which she had never done before. It was rumoured
that in one of the opening scenes Susan caught Pneumonia, which she bravely battled on through the film with. She then
suffered a nervous breakdown after finishing filming due to her illness.
The Rocky Horror show was a box office flop at first but
has developed its own cult over the years and is its 30th anniversary next year.
After Susan had recovered she then went on to film
some other films which were also a flop. "The dragonfly" and "The other side of midnight".
