Tuesday Weld

Modeling

Left in financial difficulty by her husband's death, Weld's mother put Susan to work as a model to support the family. As the young actress told Life in 1971:

My father's family came from Tuxedo Park, and they offered to take us kids and pay for our education, on the condition that Mama never see us again. Mama was an orphan who had come here from London, but so far as my father’s family was concerned, she was strictly from the gutter. I have to give Mama credit—she refused to give us up… So I became the supporter of the family, and I had to take my father’s place in many, many ways. I was expected to make up for everything that had ever gone wrong in Mama’s life. She became obsessed with me, pouring out her pent-up love—her alleged love—on me, and it's been heavy on my shoulders ever since. Mama still thinks I owe everything to her.^[3]

Her name became Tuesday, an extension of her childhood nickname, "Tu-Tu", so named by her young cousin, Mary Ker, who could not pronounce "Susan". She officially adopted her name in October 1959.^[5]

Acting

Using Weld's résumé from modeling, her mother secured her an agent. Weld made her acting debut on television at the age of 12, and her feature film debut that year in a bit role in the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock crime drama The Wrong Man.^[6]

The pressures of her career resulted in a nervous breakdown at age nine, alcoholism by age 12, and a suicide attempt about the same time.^[3]

In 1956, Weld played the lead in Rock, Rock, Rock, which featured record promoter Alan Freed and singers Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon and Johnny Burnette. In the film, Connie Francis performed the vocals for Weld's singing parts.

On TV she appeared in an episode of Goodyear Playhouse, "Backwoods Cinderella". She understudied on Broadway in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

Weld was cast in a support role in the Paul Newman-Joanne Woodward comedy Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1958) made by 20th Century Fox. At Columbia, Weld was in The Five Pennies (1959), playing the daughter of Danny Kaye. She guest starred a number of times on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1958-59).

20th Century Fox

Weld's performance in Flag Boys impressed executives at Fox who signed her to a long term contract.^[7] They put her in the CBS television series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, being paid $35,000 for one year.^[8] Weld played Thalia Menninger, the love interest of Dobie Gillis (played by Dwayne Hickman), whose rivals for Thalia's affection included Milton Armitage (played by Warren Beatty). Although Weld was a cast member for only one season, the show created considerable national publicity for her,^[9] and she was named a co-winner of a "Most Promising Newcomer" award at the Golden Globe Awards.^[10][7]

At Columbia she had a leading role in a teen film, Because They're Young (1960), starring Dick Clark. She was second billed in Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) made by Albert Zugsmith at Allied Artists. She made a second film for Zugsmith, The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, made in 1959 but not released for two years later.

She guest starred on The Red Skelton Hour in "Appleby: The Big Producer" (1959) and on 77 Sunset Strip (1959) and The Millionaire (1960).

At Fox she played Joy, a free-spirited university student in High Time, starring Bing Crosby and Fabian Forte. She sang a love song to Fabian in the season opener of NBC's The Dinah Shore Chevy Show on October 9, 1960. Four weeks later, on November 13, Weld returned to the network as a guest star in NBC's The Tab Hunter Show. She guested in "The Mormons" for Zane Grey Theatre (1960).

For Fox, Weld was in Return to Peyton Place (1961), in the part played by Hope Lange in the original. Her portrayal of an incest victim was well received but the film was less successful than its predecessor.^[3] She supported Elvis Presley in Wild in the Country (1962), along with Lange. Weld had an off-screen romance with Presley.^[11]

Fox also used her as a guest star on Follow the Sun ("The Highest Wall") and Adventures in Paradise ("The Velvet Trap"). On November 12, 1961, she played a singer, Cherie, in the seventh episode of ABC's television series Bus Stop, produced by Fox, with Marilyn Maxwell and Gary Lockwood. It was an adaptation of the play by William Inge with Weld in the role originated on screen by Marilyn Monroe.

Weld supported Terry-Thomas in the Frank Tashlin comedy Bachelor Flat (1962), for Fox.

Weld's mother was scandalized by her teen daughter's affairs with older men, such as actor John Ireland, but Weld resisted, saying, "'If you don't leave me alone, I'll quit being an actress—which means there ain't gonna be no more money for you, Mama.' Finally, when I was sixteen, I left home. I just went out the door and bought my own house."

She was Stanley Kubrick's first choice to play the role of Lolita in his 1962 film of the same name, but she turned the offer down, saying: "I didn't have to play it. I was Lolita."^[12]

In 1963, Weld starred along with Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen in "Soldier in the Rain", written by Blake Edwards.

Tuesday Weld in 1964. She is seen here alongside David Janssen in the TV series The Fugitive.

Weld won excellent reviews for "A Case Study of Two Savages" in Naked City (1962). She guest starred on Route 66 in "Love Is a Skinny Kid" (1962), Ben Casey in "When You See an Evil Man" (1962), The Dick Powell Theatre in "A Time to Die" (1962) and "Run Till It's Dark" with Fabian (1962).

In 1963, Weld guest-starred as Denise Dunlear in The Eleventh Hour, in the episode "Something Crazy's Going on the Back Room" alongside Angela Lansbury. She was in "The Legend of Lylah Clare" for The DuPont Show of the Week (1963), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.

In 1964 she appeared in the title role of the episode "Keep an Eye on Emily" on Craig Stevens's CBS drama, Mr. Broadway. In the same year she appeared in "Dark Corner", an episode of The Fugitive.

Weld appeared with Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen in the 1963 comedy Soldier in the Rain; her performance was well received, but the film was only a minor success. That same year she and former co-star Dwayne Hickman appeared in Jack Palance's circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth on ABC, in separate episodes. She could also be seen in episodes of Mr Broadway (1964) and The Fugitive (1964) playing a blind woman.

Weld supported Bob Hope in the comedy I'll Take Sweden (1965).

Stardom

Weld appeared in 1965 in the successful Norman Jewison film The Cincinnati Kid, opposite Steve McQueen. There was some controversy when she refused to meet the local governor at a fund-raiser for hurricane victims, jumping out of a car in view of 70,000 people.^[13] The film was a big hit.

Weld got a star role in Lord Love a Duck (1966), with Roddy McDowall, Ruth Gordon and Harvey Korman. Weld received excellent reviews but the film was a box office disappointment.

She followed it playing Abigail in a TV adaptation of The Crucible (1967), opposite George C Scott and Colleen Dewhurst. After guest starring on Cimarron Strip (1967) Weld had the star role in Pretty Poison (1968), co-starring Anthony Perkins. The film became a cult success.

Around this time Weld became famous for turning down roles in films that succeeded at the box office, such as Bonnie and Clyde, Rosemary's Baby, True Grit, Cactus Flower and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.^[12] In a 1971 interview with the New York Times, Weld explained that she had chosen to reject these roles precisely because she believed they would be commercial successes: "Do you think I want a success? I refused 'Bonnie and Clyde' because I was nursing at the time, but also because deep down I knew it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of 'Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue' or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."^[12]

The films Weld did make included I Walk the Line (1970), opposite Gregory Peck; A Safe Place (1971), co-starring Jack Nicholson and Orson Welles and directed by Henry Jaglom; and Play It as It Lays (1972), again with Perkins, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.^[14]

TV Movie Star

Weld began to work again in television, starring in Reflections of Murder (1974) and F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood (1975) where she played Zelda Fitzgerald.

Weld attracted attention as the favored, out-of-control Katherine in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; later she appeared in Who'll Stop the Rain (1978) opposite Nick Nolte; and the comedy Serial (1980).

She played the lead in the TV movies A Question of Guilt (1978), in which she plays a woman accused of murdering her children, Mother and Daughter: The Loving War (1980), a remake of Madame X (1981) and a new version of The Rainmaker (1982).

In feature films Weld had a good support part in Michael Mann's acclaimed 1981 film Thief, opposite James Caan. She played Al Pacino's wife in Author! Author! (1982) and co-starred with Donald Sutherland in the TV movie The Winter of Our Discontent (1983). This performance earned her an Emmy nomination.

In 1984 she appeared in Sergio Leone's gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America, playing a jeweler's secretary who is in on a plan to steal a shipment of diamonds. During the robbery her character goads Robert De Niro's character, David "Noodles" Aaronson, into "raping" her with her complicity.

On TV Weld was in Scorned and Swindled (1984), Circle of Violence (1986) and Something in Common (1986). She had a support part in Heartbreak Hotel (1988).

Later career

Weld was reunited with Tony Perkins in an episode of Mistress of Suspense (1990).

In 1993 she played a police officer's neurotic wife in Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall. She had small roles in Feeling Minnesota (1996), Investigating Sex (2001) and Chelsea Walls (2001).