Susan Tyrrell (born March 18 1945 in San Francisco, California) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress of Irish descent.
Her father was a top agent at one time with the William Morris firm (talent agency). She built up her resumé in summer stock and regional plays, usually cast in standard ingénue roles, although her theatre roles would grow larger once she came to New York City.
After her film debut in Shoot Out (1971), her performance as Oma in Fat City brought her a 1972 Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Susan Tyrrell played Solly, a tough, foul-mouthed lesbian, in both 1980s cult-films Angel (1984 film) and Avenging Angel. In the first film she sparred with co-star Dick Shawn over a game of cribbage, and in the sequel, Solly acted as den-mother to a group of tranvestite prostitutes and raised an abandoned baby.
In early 2000, she suffered the loss of both legs as a result of blood clots due to the rare blood disease essential thrombocythemia. She has continued to work, playing Ella the Fortune Teller in Masked and Anonymous (2003) and the High Priestess in The Devil's Due at Midnight (2004).
She is sometimes credited as Susan Tyrell in her early films. At her request, her narration for Ralph Bakshi's Wizards was uncredited. However, the film brought her so much work, she later told Bakshi she regretted not taking a credit.
She is also a composer, credited with the song Witch's Egg in Forbidden Zone, the 1980 low-budget indie film by musical group Oingo Boingo (in which she also stars).
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 (I)'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 lesser quality material such as Killer Inside Me, The (1976), Andy Warhol's Bad (1977), Islands in the Stream (1977), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), and _9/30/55 (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. Toned down a bit for TV, she nevertheless demonstrated in both the one-season series "Open All Night" (1981) and on "MacGruder and Loud" (1985) that she wasn't about to change. When her TV and movie career started to simmer down, the Los Angeles-based actress opted for the avant-garde stage with such productions as "Why Hannah's Skirt Won't Stay Down" (1986), "Landscape of the Body" (1987), "The Geography of Luck" (1989) and her trenchant one-woman piece "My Rotten Life: A Bitter Operetta" (1989), which she performed over a long period of time. 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.
