Overview

Susannah York (1939 - 2011) was a successful actress, active in the late 20th and early 21st century. This collection holds material related to her theatrical career.

Born Susannah Yolande Fletcher in London, her father was a merchant banker and her mother the daughter of a diplomat. Her parents divorced when she was five and after her mother remarried a Scottish businessman the family moved to Scotland, where she attended Marr College in Troon, Ayrshire. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where she won the Ronson award for most promising student, York began her film career in 1960 when she appeared in Tunes of Glory, co-starring with Alec Guinness and John Mills. In the same year she met and married Michael Wells, with whom she had two children, before they divorced in 1976.

The 1960s proved to be a golden period for her, during which she was to become one of the decade's most memorable faces. A string of successes culminated in her best-known role, starring with Jane Fonda in the Sydney Pollack-directed They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, for which she won a Bafta and an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. Critics also praised her performance as Childie, the young lesbian in Robert Aldrich's film adaptation of Frank Marcus's hit play The Killing of Sister George (1968), a role that was said to have demonstrated her versatility. Acclaim for her work continued into the 1970s, when she went on to appear with Glenda Jackson in The Maids (1975), and in Zee and Co (1972). She also played Superman’s mother Lara on the doomed planet Krypton in Superman (1978) and in its sequels, Superman II (1980) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987).

Her stage career underwent a particular rejuvenation in the 1990s when she played Gertrude and Mistress Ford in the RSC's productions of Hamlet and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Outside of the world of drama, York was also politically active and supported causes ranging from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament to the campaign to free Mordechai Vanunu, who was imprisoned after blowing the whistle on Israel's nuclear arms programme.

She passed away in 2011 following a long battle with bone marrow cancer. She is survived by her two children Sasha and Orlando, and her grandchildren.

What the collection holds

The archive of actress Susannah York's theatrical career. Contains programmes, cuttings, scripts, video, casette tapes and ephemera related to her acting, devising, translating and directing work. 

The online catalogue for this collection can be viewed here: 
BTC55 - Susannah York Archive

It is currently uncatalogued so please contact us for further information regarding its contents and access.

Further information

The archive of Susannah York's film work is deposited with the British Film Institute (BFI).