Susan Anspach

Susan Anspach was born Susan Florence Anspach on 23 November 1942 in Queens, New York City. She grew up in a complex family environment, with a mother of Scottish‑Irish descent and a father of German‑Jewish and English heritage. After a turbulent childhood that included a brief stay with her great‑aunt and a runaway episode at age fifteen, she found stability through a Roman Catholic organization that placed her with a Harlem family. Anspach graduated from William Cullen Bryant High School in 1960 and earned a full scholarship to the Catholic University of America, where she studied music and drama. Her professional debut came in Thornton Wilder’s one‑act play Pullman Car Hiawatha at a Maryland summer theater, launching a journey that would soon see her on Broadway and off‑Broadway, most notably as Sheila in the original production of Hair and in a 1965 staging of A View from the Bridge alongside Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, and Dustin Hoffman.

In the 1970s, Anspach emerged as a distinctive screen presence, first gaining acclaim in Five Easy Pieces (1970), where Vincent Canby praised her as "one of America’s most charming and talented actresses." She followed this breakthrough with supporting roles in Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam (1972) and a leading part in Paul Mazursky’s Blume in Love (1973). Over her career she appeared in 19 feature films and eight television movies, including series such as The Yellow Rose and The Slap Maxwell Story. Beyond acting, she was an outspoken activist, marching with Cesar Chavez for United Farm Workers, protesting South African apartheid, and championing human‑rights causes in Central America. Anspach’s personal life was equally notable: she had two children—Catherine Curry and Caleb Goddard, the latter she claimed was fathered by Jack Nicholson—and was married to actor Mark God​dard (1970‑1978) and musician Sherwood Ball (1982‑1988). She died of heart failure on 2 April 2018 in Los Angeles at the age of 75, leaving a legacy of artistic daring and social commitment.