Susan Oliver

By September 1949 and using her new name, Oliver returned to the East Coast to begin drama studies at Swarthmore College, followed by professional training at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. After working in summer stock and regional theater, and in unbilled bits in daytime and primetime television shows and commercials, she made her first major television appearance in a supporting role in the July 31, 1955, episode of the live drama series Goodyear TV Playhouse, and quickly progressed to leading parts in other shows.

Oliver did numerous television shows in 1957, and appeared on stage. She began the year with an ingénue part, as the daughter of an 18th-century Manhattan family, in her first Broadway play, Small War on Murray Hill, a Robert E. Sherwood comedy.[2] That same year, Oliver replaced Mary Ure as the female lead in the Broadway production of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger.

The play's short run was immediately followed by larger roles in live television plays on Kaiser Aluminum Hour, The United States Steel Hour, and Matinee Theater. Oliver then went to Hollywood, where she appeared in the November 14, 1957, episode of Climax!, one of the few live drama series based on the West Coast, as well as in a number of filmed shows, including one of the first episodes of NBC's Wagon Train, Father Knows Best, The Americans, and Johnny Staccato.

In July 1957, Oliver was chosen for the title role in her first motion picture, The Green-Eyed Blonde, a low-budget independent melodrama scripted by Dalton Trumbo (under a pseudonym), and released by Warner Bros. in December on the bottom half of a double bill.[3] It is the only motion picture on which Oliver received top billing.

In mid-1958, Oliver began rehearsals for a co-starring role in Patate, her second Broadway play.[4] Its seven-performance run was even shorter than that of Small War on Murray Hill, but won Oliver a Theatre World Award for "Outstanding Breakout Performance"; it was her last Broadway appearance.

With Gardner McKay and Guy Stockwell in Adventures in Paradise (1961)

Oliver as Vina transformed into an Orion slave girl in the Star Trek episodes "The Cage" and "The Menagerie"

On April 6, 1960, the 28-year-old Oliver played a spoiled young runaway, Maggie Hamilton, who gets soundly spanked by scout Flint McCullough (Robert Horton), in "The Maggie Hamilton Story" on NBC's Wagon Train.[5] McCullough searches for her so the wagon train can proceed on schedule, and after rescuing her from some drunken hooligans and an Indian played by Leonard Nimoy, he is rewarded by her biting him and pulling his gun on him.[6] On November 9, 1960, she was cast as the lead guest star in "The Cathy Eckhart Story" on Wagon Train, with husband-and-wife actors John Larch and Vivi Janiss as Ben and Sarah Harness.

Oliver was cast in the 1960 episode of The Deputy as the long-lost daughter of star Henry Fonda's late girl friend, and appeared in Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre episode "Knife of Hate" as Susan Pittman. In 1961, Oliver played the part of Laurie Evans in the episode "Incident of His Brother's Keeper" on CBS's Rawhide,[5] and in 1963, she played Judy Hall in the episode "Incident at Spider Rock", Also in 1962, Oliver appeared as Jeanie in the television series Laramie in the episode "Shadows in the Dust".

Oliver was cast in episodes of Adventures in Paradise, Twilight Zone, Route 66, Dr. Kildare, The Naked City, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Burke's Law, The Fugitive, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., I Spy, The Virginian, The Name of the Game, and Mannix. She made one appearance on The Andy Griffith Show and ABC's family Western series, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters.[5] She also made two appearances in Quinn Martin's The Invaders (episodes: "Inquisition" and "The Ivy Curtain") on ABC.[5]

Her most challenging role during this time was as the ambitious wife of doomed country music legend Hank Williams (George Hamilton) in Your Cheatin' Heart (1964). The same year, she also starred opposite Jerry Lewis in The Disorderly Orderly, and appeared in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1965) and The Love-Ins (1967) with Richard Todd.[5]

Oliver appeared in television films, including Carter's Army. She had a continuing role as Ann Howard on ABC's primetime serial Peyton Place in 1966.

Oliver played the female lead character Vina in "The Cage" (1964), which was the first pilot of Gene Roddenberry's new show, Star Trek. Two years later, Oliver's performance was reused in the first season, two-part episode "The Menagerie" (1966).[5] The framing device was needed because of significant format and cast changes, and because the special optical effects used by the series were taking longer to complete than anticipated, which made missing an air date a real possibility.[7] In particular, Jeffrey Hunter played "Captain Christopher Pike" in the pilot episode, but was replaced by William Shatner as "Captain James T. Kirk" of the Starship Enterprise when the series was green-lit by NBC in 1966. For the fantasy sequence in the pilot, in which her character appeared as an "Orion slave girl", Oliver was covered in green makeup all over her body, and a dark brunette wig.[8] A still of her with green skin is frequently seen in the end credits of the television series, and it has since become an iconic image of Star Trek. Hence, the documentary about Susan Oliver's life in 2014 was titled The Green Girl.[9]

In 1970, she appeared as Carole Carson/Alice Barnes on the television Western "The Men From Shiloh" (rebranded name for The Virginian) in the episode titled "Hannah".

From 1975 to 1976, Oliver was a regular cast member of the television soap opera Days of Our Lives. In 1976, she received her only Emmy Award nomination (for "Outstanding Performance by a Supporting Actress") in the three-hour-long, made-for-TV movie Amelia Earhart, broadcast on October 15, 1976 on NBC-TV.

In addition to her scores of television appearances, Oliver also had roles in several theatrical features, including The Gene Krupa Story (1959), BUtterfield 8 (1960),[10] and The Caretakers (1963).[1]

By the late 1970s with acting assignments coming less frequently, Oliver turned to directing. She was one of the original 19 women admitted to the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women (DWW), and she left a "good chunk of funding for the DWW."[11] In 1977, she wrote and directed Cowboysan, her AFI DWW short film that presents the fantasy scenario of a Japanese actor and actress playing leads in an American western. Oliver directed two television episodes, the October 25, 1982, installment of M*A*S*H and the December 4, 1983, entry of one of its sequel series, Trapper John, M.D..[1]

In Oliver's last fully active years, she also appeared in the February 21, 1985, episode of Magnum, P.I., two episodes of Murder, She Wrote (March 31 and December 1), the February 12, 1987, episode of Simon & Simon, and the January 10, 1988, episode of the NBC domestic drama Our House. She made her last onscreen appearance in the November 6, 1988, episode of the syndicated horror anthology Freddy's Nightmares. During her career in Hollywood, Oliver appeared in more than 100 television programs.[1]

• The Green Girl (2014, biographical documentary film directed by George Pappy)[18]