Actress Susannah York dies at 72

British film and stage actress Susannah York died on January 15, at the age of 72, after a battle with bone marrow cancer.


She was born Susannah Yolande Fletcher and when she was 13 she was expelled from school for swimming naked in the facility’s pool.

BBC News reported that she graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1958, winning the Ronson Award for most promising student.

York won a Bafta and received an Oscar nomination for her role in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses Don’t They. She won the award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in the 1972 film Images.

The Guardian reported that her most memorable performance was when she played a young lesbian in the film adaptation of the hit play The Killing of Sister George (1969). The movie’s extended lovemaking scene was so explicit that it was X-rated and banned in several locations.

She had roles in Tunes Of Glory (1960), Tom Jones (1963), A Man For All Seasons (1966), Battle Of Britain (1969), The Maids (1974) and Zee and Company (1972), as well as a television production of Jane Eyre (1970).

She played Superman’s mother in Superman (1978), Superman II (1980) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987).