8 Things You Didn’t Know About Suzan Ball

➡ Suzan Ball Biography

Suzan Ball is a well-known American actress. Suzan Ball’s tragic story is one of the saddest to have come out of Hollywood. She had only appeared in eight films (two of which she was uncredited) when her career and life were abruptly ended. Fate chose to give her a lot of pain and anguish in her brief life, which began in 1934 in Jamestown, New York, and ended 21 years later in California. Let’s learn more about this talented actress by looking at the eight interesting unknown facts listed below.

8 Things You Didn’t Know About Suzan Ball

1. Accomplished Singer

She was a talented singer. As She was a member of the “Mel Baker Orchestra” from 1948 to 1953, when she signed a standard contract with Universal-International.

2. Barely Remembered

Ball’s films are barely remembered today. She is more likely remembered for being Lucille Ball’s second cousin, marrying actor Richard Long (later Barbara Stanwyck’s son Jarrod Barkley in The Big Valley), and dying.

3. Always Wanted To Be In Movies

She had always wanted to work in film since she was a child. Cousin Lucy must have piqued Suzan’s interest in that subject. She had a passion for singing and hoped to turn it into something resembling a job.

4. Performed In Chorales and Operettas

In high school, she performed in chorales and operettas before landing on a TV show where bandleader “Mel Baker” spotted her and hired her as his vocalist for three years. Ball, like many other young aspiring actors of the time, moved into “The House of the Seven Garbos”, a large and well-appointed boarding house in the hills above LaBrea.

5. Her Inspiring Looks Took her To Act

When she was in boarding house, Mary Castle, a Universal contract actress, thought Ball’s dark, exotic looks would fit in perfectly. Universal took one look at the young lady and immediately signed her. Her screen test with the enthusiastic Scott Brady demonstrated that she, too, could act.

6. Surprised By The Studio’s Interest In her

As the buildup began, Ball was surprised by the studio’s interest in her. They sent her on publicity junkets for films in which she was not cast. They had her picture published in every movie magazine. She went on studio-arranged dates with actors who were physically equal to her in order for them to be photographed.

7. The New Cinderella Girl

Universal labeled her “The New Cinderella Girl of and cast her in “Untamed Frontier,” a western starring “Joseph Cotten” and starring the same Scott Brady.

8. Injury That Took Her Life

Suzan suffered an injury to her right leg while rehearsing a dance number for East of Sumatra (1953). She ignored the injury, but a short time later she was a passenger in a car that was side-swiped, and the same knee collided with a door handle. It was painful, but she refused to see a doctor about it, which led to her death. ^[1]