Susan Cabot

Susan Cabot was born in Boston and spent her childhood in eight different foster homes. She attended high school in Manhattan, where she developed an interest in dramatics and joined the school's dramatic club. Later, while deciding between a career in music or art, she illustrated children's books during the day and performed as a singer at Manhattan's Village Barn at night. It was during this period that she made her film debut as an extra in Fox's New York-made *Kiss of Death* (1947) and worked in New York-based television. Maxwell Arnow, a casting director for Columbia Pictures, noticed Cabot at the Village Barn, which led to a co-starring role in that studio's B-grade South Seas drama *On the Isle of Samoa* (1950). While in Hollywood, Cabot was also cast as an Indian maiden in Universal's *Tomahawk* (1951) with Van Heflin. Subsequently signed to an exclusive contract by Universal, she co-starred in a long series of films with leading men such as John Lund, Tony Curtis, and Audie Murphy. Eventually, she grew tired of the recurring western and Arabian Nights roles, requested a release from her Universal contract, and accepted an offer from Harold Robbins to star in his play *A Stone for Danny Fisher* in New York. Roger Corman later brought her back to Hollywood to play the lead in the melodramatic rock-'n-'roll film *Carnival Rock* (1957), and she remained to star in five additional films for the ambitious young producer-director. After a highly publicized romantic involvement with Jordan's King Hussein in 1959, Cabot split her time between television work and roles in stage plays and musicals.