# Susan Tyrrell
**Susan Tyrrell** (born Susan Jillian Creamer; 1945 – June 16, 2012) was an American character actress known for playing abrasive, offbeat women on stage and screen, most notably the alcoholic barfly Oma in [John Huston](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-huston)'s boxing film *Fat City* (1972), which brought her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in only her fourth film.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) • [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) She preferred to be called SuSu.[3](https://elpais.com/smoda/placeres/2026-10-08/susan-tyrrell-una-de-las-mejores-borrachas-de-la-historia-del-cine.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | Susan Jillian Creamer, 1945, San Francisco, California; raised in New Canaan, Connecticut[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) • [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) |
| Died | June 16, 2012, at her home in Austin, Texas, aged 67[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) |
| Signature role | Oma, the young barfly in *Fat City* (1972), opposite Stacy Keach; Oscar nomination, Best Supporting Actress[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/awards/) |
| Other honors | Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for *Bad* (1977); second place for Best Supporting Actress from the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle, both for *Fat City*[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/awards/) |
| Output | Appeared in more than 75 movies and television shows[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) |
| Late years | Both legs amputated below the knee around 2000 after complications from a blood clotting disorder; used a wheelchair for her final 12 years[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) |
## Early life and stage career
Tyrrell was born in San Francisco to a father who worked as a talent agent, at one time with the [William Morris](https://www.edgepedia.org/william-morris) firm, and helped advance her early acting career.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) • [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) She made her stage debut as a teenager in the comedy *Time Out for Ginger* in 1962 and made her Broadway debut at 17.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) After building her résumé in summer stock and regional theater, usually in ingénue roles, her career shifted when, as a member of New York's Lincoln Repertory Company, she was cast in seamy, salty-tongued character parts.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) She won several off-Broadway roles, usually as a sexpot.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html)
Her stage credits included *The Rimers of Eldritch* (1967), *A Cry of Players* (1968), *The Time of Your Life* (1969), and *Camino Real* (1970), the last three at [Lincoln Center](https://www.edgepedia.org/lincoln-center).[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) • [5](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-30-ca-14390-story.html) In a 1986 interview with the Los Angeles Times, she described her attitude toward the craft bluntly: she had never done acting exercises, quit after every job, and once called in sick at Lincoln Center and quit the next day because "the stuff was just lame."[5](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-30-ca-14390-story.html)
## Fat City and the Oscar nomination
In *Fat City* (1972), John Huston's film about washed-up boxers in [Stockton, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/stockton-california), Tyrrell played Oma, a cynical, hard-drinking woman who becomes involved with [Stacy Keach](https://www.edgepedia.org/stacy-keach)'s has-been boxer; her character spends much of the film drunk on cream sherry.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) • [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) The Washington Post called it one of the screen's most convincing and textured portraits of alcoholism.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) She was 27 when she received her first and only Academy Award nomination.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) She later said she never appreciated anything about the film because it was so unpleasant, and that *Fat City* "should have been the beginning of a marvelous career, instead it was like the end."[5](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-30-ca-14390-story.html)
## Film and television work
Through the late 1970s and 1980s she took flashy roles in offbeat material: *The Killer Inside Me* (1976), [Andy Warhol](https://www.edgepedia.org/andy-warhol)'s *Bad* (1977), *Islands in the Stream* (1977), *I Never Promised You a Rose Garden* (1977), and *September 30, 1955* (1977).[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) She won the 1978 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for *Bad*.[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/awards/) Her 1980s films included *Forbidden Zone* (1980), *Tales of Ordinary Madness* (1981), *Liar's Moon* (1981), *Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker* (1981), *Fast-Walking* (1982), and *Big Top Pee-wee* (1988), in which she played a three-inch-tall woman.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) • [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) In the prostitute-as-vigilante *Angel* films she played Solly Mosler, a lesbian friend of the title character, in *Angel* (1984) and *Avenging Angel* (1985).[6](https://www.sensacine.com/actores/actor-5671/filmografia/) • [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) She was [Johnny Depp](https://www.edgepedia.org/johnny-depp)'s biker grandmother Ramona in [John Waters](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-waters)'s *Cry-Baby* (1990).[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) • [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) Her later screen work included *Powder* (1995), *Buddy Boy* (1999), and *Kid-Thing* (2012).[6](https://www.sensacine.com/actores/actor-5671/filmografia/) On television she played Gretchen Feester in the one-season comedy *Open All Night* (1981–82).[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) • [7](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Radio-Programming/TV-Stars-The-Complete-Directory-to-Prime-Time-1964-Present-B--221117.pdf)
## Later stage work and final years
When her film and television work slowed, she moved to avant-garde theater, appearing in *Why Hannah's Skirt Won't Stay Down* (1986), *Landscape of the Body* (1987), and *The Geography of Luck* (1989), and mounting a one-woman autobiographical piece, *My Rotten Life: A Bitter Operetta* (1989), which she performed over a long period.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) • [2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html)
In late April 2000 she contracted a near-fatal illness, and both of her legs were amputated below the knee as a result of blood clots from a rare blood disease.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) She continued to perform occasionally during rehabilitation and spent time writing and painting.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) She died on June 16, 2012, at her home in [Austin, Texas](https://www.edgepedia.org/austin-texas), at 67; her death was confirmed by her niece Amy Sweet, and IMDb lists the cause as essential thrombocytosis, a blood disease.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/)
## Personal life and reputation
Tyrrell cultivated an outsider's persona. She described herself as a "loner and an outsider" and told the Austin American-Statesman, "For me, there is not strength in numbers."[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) In interviews she said she had experienced a traumatic sexual incident with John Huston that she said forever damaged her.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) She was estranged from her mother and had a series of romantic relationships, including one with [Hervé Villechaize](https://www.edgepedia.org/herve-villechaize), the actor known for playing Tattoo on *Fantasy Island*.[2](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html) She was a close friend of the Warhol superstar [Candy Darling](https://www.edgepedia.org/candy-darling), whom she met at Metropolitan Hospital in the 1970s.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/) In a 2026 retrospective, the Spanish newspaper *El País* described her as a character actress, a painter, a queer muse, and "one of the best drunks in the history of cinema," noting that in her hands "the grotesque became beautiful."[3](https://elpais.com/smoda/placeres/2026-10-08/susan-tyrrell-una-de-las-mejores-borrachas-de-la-historia-del-cine.html)
## References
1. [Susan Tyrrell – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/bio/)
2. [Susan Tyrrell, who gave searing portrait of alcoholism in 'Fat City,' dies at 67, The Washington Post (June 19, 2012)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2012/06/19/gJQAweNloV_story.html)
3. [Susan Tyrrell, una de las mejores borrachas de la historia del cine, El País S Moda](https://elpais.com/smoda/placeres/2026-10-08/susan-tyrrell-una-de-las-mejores-borrachas-de-la-historia-del-cine.html)
4. [Susan Tyrrell – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0879073/awards/)
5. [Out of the Incubator, Into the Playhouse: Susan Tyrrell Doesn't Skirt an Issue, Los Angeles Times (August 30, 1986)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-30-ca-14390-story.html)
6. [Susan Tyrrell – Filmografía, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/actores/actor-5671/filmografia/)
7. [TYRRELL, SUSAN, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Radio-Programming/TV-Stars-The-Complete-Directory-to-Prime-Time-1964-Present-B--221117.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Film people and crafts › Film actors and performers › Character actors, B-movie and genre-circuit performers › American performers, mid era › Surnames K to Z*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license