**Susan Tyrrell**
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A bizarre, one-of-a-kind Hollywood gypsy and self-affirmed outcast, actress Susan Tyrrell was a teenager when she made her stage debut in "Time Out for Ginger." A product of the entertainment industry, her father was a top agent at one time with the William Morris firm. She built up her resumé in summer stock and regional plays usually cast in standard ingénue roles. Her nascent career took an abrupt shift in direction, however, when, as a member of New York's Lincoln Repertory Company, she was cast in an array of seamy, salty-tongued, highly dysfunctional character parts. After striking performances on and off Broadway in such fare as "The Rimers of Eldritch" (1967), "A Cry of Players" (1968), "The Time of Your Life" (1969) and "Camino Real" (1970) Hollywood took keen notice of this special talent and, in the early 1970s, began to cast her in their more offbeat projects.

In only her fourth film, Susan earned an Academy Award nomination for her powerhouse portrayal of a cynical, low-life boozer girlfriend opposite Stacy Keach's has-been boxer in John Huston's potent but high depressing Fat City (1972). Pulling out all the stops after this, she continued to show her fearless attraction toward the dark side throughout the late 1970s with flashy roles in The Killer Inside Me (1976), Andy Warhol's Bad (1977), Islands in the Stream (1977), and I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977) as various whores, harridans and grotesques. The 1980s proved no different with manic behavior on full display in Storie di ordinaria follia (1981) [Tales of Ordinary Madness], Liar's Moon (1982), Fast-Walking (1982), Night Warning (1983), and Big Top Pee-wee (1988), many of which have now achieved cult status.

Real-life tragedy struck in late April of 2000 when Susan contracted a near-fatal illness. Both of her legs had to be amputated below the knee as a result of multiple blood clots due to a rare blood disease -- essential thrombocythemia. Never say die, she has valiantly tried to maintain a positive outlook. She has continued to perform on occasion while going through rehabilitation. She also spends time writing and painting. A wild, boisterous trooper still today, she is the definitive underground raconteur for those who desire the more sordid side of Hollywood. (IMDB)

Quote:

"I'm a loner. I don't like beautiful people, but I find beauty in the grotesque. And in the sweet soul inside someone who has been able to get through their life without being a rat's ass. Such people should be collected, should be swept up immediately and kept in a box of broken people. I've collected people my whole life. Sometimes it ends badly, but it's absolutely never on my part. Because I know how fabulous I am. You're just going to have to take my word for it - I'm an incredible person. I do good deeds, and I love people, but the only way I can do these things is to stay apart. Because you can just stand so much. But the people who you meet in your life, who cross your path, the ones who are decent, should be collected."

Selected filmography:

Masked and Anonymous (2003)
Relax... It's Just Sex (1998)
Powder (1995)
Cry-Baby (1990)
Far from Home (1989)
Tapeheads (1988)
Big Top Pee-wee (1988)
Windmills of the Gods (1988)
The Offspring (1987)
Flesh+Blood (1985)
Avenging Angel (1985)
Angel (1984)
Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981)
Forbidden Zone (1980)
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
Andy Warhol's Bad (1977)
The Killer Inside Me (1976)
Fat City (1972)

"My So-Called Rotten LIfe" - LA Weekly
www.laweekly.com/general/f...life/5300/

Wiki:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Tyrrell

Imdb:
www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/

Cinemorgue:
www.cinemorgue.com/susantyrrell.html