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Susanna Foster (born Suzanne DeLee Flanders Larson) (December 6, 1924 – January 17, 2009) was an American film actress best known for her role as Christine in the 1943 film, The Phantom of the Opera.
Death of Susanna Foster
Susanna Foster died unexpectedly at 5:30 a.m. EST on January 17, 2009 (aged 84). She had been residing at The Lillian Booth Actor’s Home in Englewood, New Jersey since 2003
Trivia
Susanna Foster turned down the role for National Velvet, this role went to Elizabeth Taylor.
Later Life
By 1983 Foster had been on and off welfare, lived in her car, then moved back to Hollywood from the east coast to make a "comeback." She lived for a time with a doting fan in a tiny apartment on Cherokee Avenue in Hollywood. For a time she attended the occasional film convention or Phantom of the Opera screening and signed autographs, interacting with her fans. She claimed her son Philip was a drug addict and he also became an alcoholic. In 1985 Philip lapsed into hepatic coma (liver failure) on Susanna’s living room floor and died three days later in Van Nuys Hospital. Eventually, she was unable to keep a job or support herself. Her surviving son, Michael, who had tried in vain to help her, finally brought her back to the east coast where she spent the last years of her life living in nursing homes.