Biography
Susan Harrison had a short-lived career in movies and television in the late '50s and early '60s, appearing in just two feature films and a short string of television shows. Despite that short resume, however, she left a memorable impression with her extraordinary beauty and cold, detached demeanor. In
Alexander MacKendrick's The Sweet Smell of Success (1957), she put it to use as
Burt Lancaster's disturbed, brow-beaten younger sister, torn between her supposed love for jazz musician
Martin Milner and her bizarre devotion to her over-protective brother Lancaster; and in
Phil Karlson's
Key Witness (1960), she was equally memorable as the provocative and sadistic gang member Ruby. Her television credits, in addition to a small-screen version of
The Light That Failed starring
Richard Basehart and Eric Berry in which she played Maisie, included the 1961
Twilight Zone show "Five Characters in Search of an Exit," as the ballerina. Harrison quit acting in the mid '60s and married Cass Conger -- her daughter is Darva Conger, the hapless contestant on Fox's Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire (2000) who married and divorced supposed millionaire Rick Rockwell. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide