Susan Stephen was born in 1931 in London. Her film debut was in 1952 in “His Excellency”. She starred with Diana Dors in “Value for Money” in 1955, “The Barretts of Wimpole Street” with Jennifer Jones and “Carry on Nurse” with Shirley Eaton in 1959. She was at one time married to the film director Nicholas Roeg. She died in 2000.
Her “Independent” obituary:
A WIDE-EYED beauty with a demure yet lively personality, Susan Stephen was a star of British cinema in the Fifties, appearing as leading lady to such stars as Alan Ladd and Dirk Bogarde. Though her career diminished towards the end of the decade, she provided a welcome dash of sparkle and vivacity to the films in which she appeared.
Born in London in 1931, she was the daughter of the civil engineer Major Frederick Stephen, MC, who built railroads in South America and bridges across the Blue Nile – he was given the Order of the Nile by King Farouk. Susan’s mother died when she was very young, and she was raised by her father (plus nannies and housekeepers). She spent much of her childhood in Egypt, where her father was working, and on their estate in Scotland, but returned to England to study at Moira House in Eastbourne.
She then trained at Rada in London, and when appearing in a graduate class show was discovered by Cecil Madden, then controller of BBC television. He cast her in a television adaptation of Little Women in 1950 (the Laurie was David Jacobs) and other television shows, which led to her being signed in 1951 to make a movie in Italy, Fanciulle di lusso (Luxury Girls), the story of four girls from different countries at a finishing school – Marina Vlady was the French girl. Also in the cast was the handsome actor Lawrence Ward, who became Stephen’s first husband. Later, he was successful (as Michael Ward) in a second career as a photographer for the Sunday Times.
Her first British film was His Excellency (1951), an adaptation of a West End hit starring Eric Portman as a former union leader who is appointed governor of a British island colony. Stephen played Portman’s daughter, and though the film was not very successful, she attracted favourable comment.
After supporting roles in the melodrama Stolen Face (1952) with two Hollywood stars, Paul Henried and Lizabeth Scott, and two more stage adaptations, Treasure Hunt (1952) and Father’s Doing Fine (1952), Stephen was given the part of a parachute-packer who provides romance for a paratrooper (Alan Ladd) in The Red Beret (1953). The film was produced by Irving Allen and Albert Broccoli, and Stephen used to laugh in later years about the advertising they devised which put the drawing of a voluptuous body underneath her face on the posters.
The following year Stephen had one of her best roles, as a young girl who marries a jobless university graduate (Dirk Bogarde) to the dismay of her parents (Cecil Parker and Eileen Herlie) in For Better, For Worse. It was a charming domestic comedy with accomplished performances from its fine cast (which also included Athene Seyler, Dennis Price and Thora Hird). Stephen and Bogarde became firm friends, and in later years she would be a frequent guest at his home in the South of France.
In As Long As They’re Happy (1955), a satire on the teenage hysteria for the “crying” singer Johnnie Ray, Stephen was one of Jack Buchanan’s three daughters who were all mad about an American crooner, and in Value For Money (1955) she was a North Country lass whose rag millionaire boy- friend (John Gregson) goes off for a fling in London after they quarrel.
Stephen’s last good starring role was in Pacific Destiny (1956), based on Sir Arthur Grimble’s book A Pattern of Islands, which recounted his early experiences of serving in the South Seas. Stephen played Grimble’s wife, who starts a baby clinic for the natives. One of her co-stars, Michael Hordern, later suggested that the book’s more specific title might have given the excellent film the popularity it deserved.
Shot in Samoa, it was later cited by Stephen as her favourite film, possibly because during its making she fell in love with the assistant cameraman, Nicholas Roeg, who later became a film director. In 1957 she and Roeg were married. Stephen and Roeg had four sons during their 20- year marriage, and though they divorced in 1977 because, said Roeg, of professional pressures and the long periods spent apart, they remained close friends and would usually spend Christmas together with their children.
After Pacific Destiny Stephen had good roles as the flirtatious Belle in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957) and as an enterprising nurse who makes audacious use of a daffodil in Carry On Nurse (1959), but they were supporting parts, and her leading roles were in B movies such as The Court Martial of Major Keller and Return of the Stranger (both 1961) produced by the low- budget specialists the Danziger Brothers. Stephen told the historian Jim Simpson, “That was about as low as you could go, so I decided to retire from films.”
Though she had a town house, she loved country life and spent most of her time in Sussex, where she raised her children, kept four dogs and indulged a passion for riding – she was a fine horsewoman. When I mentioned to Nicholas Roeg that Michael Hordern once confessed that during the shooting of Pacific Destiny, he had developed a hopeless passion for Stephen, Roeg commented, “Everybody fell in love with Susan. She was hugely popular within the profession and charmed everybody who came into contact with her.”
Susan Stephen, actress: born London 16 July 1931; married first Lawrence Ward (marriage dissolved), second 1957 Nicholas Roeg (fours sons; marriage dissolved 1977); died 24 May 2000.
Tom Vallance The Independent 29 May 2000
Gary Brumburgh’s entry:
Born 1931 in London, 50s film actress Susan Stephen made her film debut with His Excellency (1952). Her demure, slightly elfin loveliness seemed to coincide with the duteous daughters and/or faithful wives she played. Although mainly confined to “B” level films, Susan’s more noticeable co-star roles occurred with Cocktails in the Kitchen(1954) and Value for Money (1955). Her movie career took a back seat in 1957 following her marriage to director Nicolas Roeg in 1957, which gently phased itself out within a few years. The couple later divorced in 1977 and he subsequently married Hollywood actressTheresa Russell. Susan died in England in 2000.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
Susan Stephen (born Susan Rennie Stephen, 1931–2000) was a British actress best known for a busy run of 1950s “B”‑level films and early television roles, rather than for a long‑running star image. Her career is compact and modest by today’s standards, but she was a recognizable English‑girl presence in British cinema during the decade, particularly in comedies, crime dramas, and light adventure films.
Early years and TV work
Stephen was born in London and began acting as a teenager, first on stage and then in early British TV. She gained notice in 1950 as Amy March in the BBC series Little Women, a role that helped establish her as a bright, polished young performer with a “pert and perky” blonde image. That early TV exposure quickly led to film offers, and she transitioned from the small screen into a steady sequence of mid‑budget British films starting in the early 1950s.
Film career in the 1950s
Stephen’s screen work was concentrated mainly between 1952 and 1957, with over 20 films to her credit, the majority of them modestly scaled but commercially grounded pictures. She made her film debut in the Ealing comedy His Excellency (1952), where she played the daughter of governor Eric Portman, immediately underscoring the kind of polite, upper‑middle‑class English‑girl roles she would often play.
She went on to appear in a mix of genres:
-
Crime and thrillers such as Stolen Face (1952), The Red Beret (1953, known in the U.S. as Paratrooper), Dangerous Cargo (1954), and The House Across the Lake (1954), where she often played the romantic interest or the “girl next door” adjacent to more obviously heroic male leads.
-
Romantic comedies and light social films such as Treasure Hunt (1952), Father’s Doing Fine (1952), For Better, for Worse (1954, with Dirk Bogarde), and Value for Money (1955, with John Gregson), which capitalized on her charm and conversational style.
-
Period and more “prestigious” pictures, including the Jennifer‑Jones‑led The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957), in which she played a smaller but still visible role.
Overall, she was largely confined to what was then called “B‑level” or second‑feature material, often made by the Rank Organisation and other British studios that specialized in efficient, popular genre films. Within that framework, she was a steady, reliable presence, typically cast as the well‑bred young woman who added warmth, wit, or romantic tension rather than radical drama.
Transition and later work
Stephen’s film career began to wind down after she married her second husband, the director Nicolas Roeg, in 1957. Marriage and family life gradually took precedence, and her screen appearances became less frequent. Nevertheless, she still took on notable roles in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the hit British comedy Carry On Nurse (1959), where she played Nurse Georgie Axwell, one of the more grounded, “proper” nurses in the otherwise raucous ensemble.
She also appeared in the crime thriller Return of a Stranger (1961) and the courtroom drama The Court Martial of Major Keller (1961), and continued occasional TV guest work on series like The Adventures of Robin Hood and Stryker of the Yard, though never as a regular series lead. By the mid‑1960s, her professional acting had gently faded, and she stepped largely out of the public eye, living a more private life until her death in 2000.
Overall profile
Susan Stephen’s career is best understood as that of a competent, attractive British actress whose timing and looks suited the factory‑style genre production of 1950s British cinema. She was never a major star, but she was a recognizable face in a decade when smaller, well‑made studio films relied heavily on performers like her to anchor romantic and comic subplots. Her legacy is that of a quietly professional presence in British mid‑century “B” pictures and early television, rather than a household name, but she remains a familiar figure to fans of 1950s British film and the early Carry On series.