Susannah Yolande Fletcher (9 January 1939[1][2] – 15 January 2011), known professionally as Susannah York, was an English actress. Her appearances in various films of the 1960s, including Tom Jones (1963) and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), formed the basis of her international reputation.[3] An obituary in The Telegraph characterised her as "the blue-eyed English rose with the china-white skin and cupid lips who epitomised the sensuality of the swinging sixties", who later "proved that she was a real actor of extraordinary emotional range".[4]
York was born in Chelsea, London, in 1939, the younger daughter of Simon William Peel Vickers Fletcher (1910–2002), a merchant banker and steel magnate, and his first wife, the former Joan Nita Mary Bowring. They married in 1935, and divorced prior to 1943.[6][7][8][9] Her maternal grandfather was Walter Andrew Bowring, CBE, a British diplomat who served as Administrator of Dominica (1933–1935); she was a great-great-granddaughter of political economist Sir John Bowring.[4][7][10][11] York had an elder sister, as well as a half-brother, Eugene Xavier Charles William Peel Fletcher, from her father's second marriage to Pauline de Bearnez de Morton de La Chapelle.[6][12][13][14][15]
In early 1943, York's mother married a Scottish businessman, Adam M. Hamilton, and moved, with her daughter, to Scotland.[16][17] At the age of 11, York entered Marr College in Troon, Ayrshire.[4][18] Later, she became a boarder at Wispers School in Midhurst, Sussex. At 13, she was removed, effectively expelled, from Wispers after admitting to a nude midnight swim in the school pool, and she transferred to East Haddon Hall School in Northamptonshire.[4][18]
York was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). She snubbed the Academy when, regarding her nomination, she declared it offended her to be nominated without being asked. She was highly praised for her performance, though she said "I don't think much of the film, or of myself in it." She did attend the ceremony but lost to Goldie Hawn for her role in Cactus Flower.[22]
In 1997, York starred as Olivia in the British comedy Loop co-starring with Andy Serkis, based on the script by Tim Pears.
In 2003, York had a recurring role as hospital manager Helen Grant in the BBC1 television drama series Holby City. She reprised this role in two episodes of Holby City's sister series Casualty in May 2004. Her last film was The Calling, released in 2010 in the UK.
She was a patron of the Children's Film Unit and appeared in several of their films.
Stage
"York's greatest achievement was to escape the pigeonholing that is the curse of her profession and to overcome the perception of her as the flaxen-haired beauty of 1960s British movies. In her richly fulfilled later career, she proved that she was a real actor of extraordinary emotional range, not just a movie star."[3]
In 2007, she appeared in the UK tour of The Wings of the Dove, and continued performing her internationally well-received solo show, The Loves of Shakespeare's Women. Also in 2007, she guest starred in the Doctor Who audio play Valhalla. In 2008, she played the part of Nelly in an adaptation by April De Angelis of Wuthering Heights.[26]
In the 1970s, York wrote two children's fantasy novels, In Search of Unicorns (1973, revised 1984) which was excerpted in the film Images, and Lark's Castle (1976, revised 1986).[29]
She was a guest, along with David Puttnam on the BBC Radio 4 documentary I Had The Misery Thursday, a tribute programme to film actor Montgomery Clift, which was aired in 1986, on the 20th anniversary of Clift's death.[30] York had co-starred with him in Freud: The Secret Passion, John Huston's 1962 film biography of the psychoanalyst.[29]
Personal life
In 1959, York married Michael Wells, with whom she had two children: daughter Sasha (born May 1972), and son Orlando (born June 1973). They divorced in 1976. In the 1984 TV adaptation of A Christmas Carol, she played Mrs. Cratchit and both of her children co-starred as Cratchit offspring. York's first grandchild by way of Orlando was born in 2007.[31]
Politically, York was left-leaning, and publicly supported Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli dissident who revealed Israel's nuclear weapons programme.[32] While performing The Loves of Shakespeare's Women at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv in June 2007, York dedicated the performance to Vanunu, evoking both cheers and jeers from the audience.[33]
^Marriage between Joan N.M. Bowring and [Simon] William P. Fletcher listed in England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1916–2005, accessed on ancestry.com on 16 January 2011
^Though York claimed she was born in 1942, the birth of Susannah Y. Fletcher to a mother whose maiden name was Bowring is recorded as having occurred in 1939 in England & Wales Birth Index: 1916–2005, accessed on ancestry.com on 16 January 2011
^Arthur Charles Fox Davies, Armorial Families (Hurst & Blackett, 1929), page 199
^The London Gazette, 28 August 1942, page 3,799, gives the full maiden name of York's stepmother as Pauline Laura Aylmer Eugenie de Bearnez de Morton de La Chapelle and gives her former married name as Marsh. The Nobilities of Europe (Elbiron.com, page 327) states that she was a granddaughter of French historian Jean Joseph Xavier Alfred de La Chapelle, Count de La Chapelle and Morton.
^Eugene Xavier C. W. P. Fletcher was born to Simon Fletcher and his second wife, née de La Chapelle, in late 1942, in London, according to England & Wales Birth Index, 1916–2005, Volume 1a, page 435, accessed on ancestry.com on 16 January 2011. He is also listed in the same book (Volume 5c, page 5/62), same date, same location, but with the mother's maiden name being given as "Le Bearney Morton de la Chapelle".
^England & Wales Marriage Index, 1916–2005 (Volume 1a, page 705) states that Simon Fletcher married Pauline E.L.A. de Bearnaz de Morton de La Chapelle (formerly Mrs Marsh) in early 1943. The couple had divorced by early 1949, when Pauline Fletcher married her third husband, Richard G. Williams.
^The marriage between Joan N.M. Bowring Fletcher, and Adam M. Hamilton, took place in London, England, in early 1943, according to England and Wales Marriage Index, 1916–2005, accessed on ancestry.com on 16 January 2010
^Groocock, Veronica (27 September 2008). "My perfect weekend: Susannah York". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
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