1926-04-08 ( 98 years old ) in Los Angeles, California, USA
While other actresses would have long given up a stalled career out of pure frustration after decades of mostly uncredited extra/bit parts and little reward, perennial starlet Sue Casey somehow found the stamina to maintain for six decades! In films from 1946, the voluptuous brunette, at most, became a campy vixen in a few 1960s "drive-in" bombs, yet has always held a remarkably appreciative outlook as to how things turned out.
Successfully establishing herself as a wholesome commercial actress, she pitched everything from cereal to automobiles in over 200 assignments. Light TV guest parts also came her way in episodes of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957), The Baileys of Balboa (1964), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961), The Farmer's Daughter (1963), The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) and Family Affair (1966), among others. As for the big screen, nothing changed. Obscure bit/extra parts continued with Bells Are Ringing (1960), The Ladies Man (1961), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Two Weeks in Another Town (1962), A New Kind of Love (1963) and The Carpetbaggers (1964).
Finally, after nearly two decades of pursuing her dream in Hollywood, Casey nabbed a leading role! As bad girl "Vicky Lindsay" in what is arguably one of film's biggest "turkeys" of all time, The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965), she attained a notoriety that led to minor cult status. The film had a non-existent budget and was received poorly in every way, shape and form upon its initial release. Casey even had to do her own hair and makeup and was forced to pick out her vixen character's clothes from her own closet. The actors were never paid until the movie was sold years later to TV (retitled as "Monster from the Surf") and that was a mere pittance. Over the years, however, the movie has reportedly gained a cult following. Two other easily dismissed co-starring roles in unmemorable campy films followed. She played a hillbilly mom in the fugitive drama Swamp Country (1966) (which starred pearly-toothed pre-Carol Burnett hunk Lyle Waggoner) and a manipulative mom and art forger in Catalina Caper (1967) (which starred former Disney star Tommy Kirk after his fall from studio grace, and (again) Lyle Waggoner).
In later years, she developed a successful real estate business. She found acting work (often without an agent) intermittently on film and TV. Featured in a couple of higher-scaled movie musicals -- as a lady attendant to Vanessa Redgrave's Queen Guinevere in Camelot (1967) and as one of John Mitchum's two wives in Paint Your Wagon (1969) -- her final film resume would add such films as The Main Event (1979), Evilspeak (1981), Whitesnake: Live... in the Still of the Night (2005) and A Very Brady Sequel (1996). In American Beauty (1999), an Oscar winner for "Best Picture" and "Best Actor", lead actress Annette Bening (a Best Actress nominee for the role), plays a desperate realtor trying to sell Casey's well-to-do character a house.
Movies
American Beauty
1999-09-15
A Very Brady Sequel
1996-08-23
Hysterical
1982-12-22
Evilspeak
1981-08-22
The Main Event
1979-06-22
Terror in the Sky
1971-09-17
Paint Your Wagon
1969-10-15
Catalina Caper
1967-12-01
Camelot
1967-10-25
Swamp Country
1966-04-01
The Beach Girls and the Monster
1965-09-01
A New Kind of Love
1963-10-10
Breakfast at Tiffany's
1961-10-06
The Ladies Man
1961-06-21
3 Ring Circus
1954-12-22
Rear Window
1954-08-01
Eight Iron Men
1952-12-01
Cattle Town
1952-09-06
The Merry Widow
1952-09-05
We're Not Married!
1952-07-11
The Las Vegas Story
1952-01-30
An American in Paris
1951-09-26
Secrets of Monte Carlo
1951-06-20
The Scarf
1951-04-06
For Heaven's Sake
1950-12-15
The Flame and the Arrow
1950-07-07
It's a Great Feeling
1949-08-01
The Great Sinner
1949-06-29
Blondie's Big Deal
1949-03-04
Words and Music
1948-12-31
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
1947-09-01
Holiday in Mexico
1946-08-15
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