Susan Gordon, Child Actress of the 1950s and ’60s
Gordon, who began acting at age eight, appeared in numerous television series,including a memorable episode of The Twilight Zone.
Susan Gordon, an actress whose extensive resume as a child included roles in the 1959 movie The Five Pennies and a memorable episode of the television series The Twilight Zone, died December 11, 2011, in Teaneck, N.J. She was 62.
According to news reports, the cause was cancer.
Born Jul 27, 1949, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Gordon made her acting debut at age eight in the 1958 science-fiction film Attack of the Puppet People, which was directed by her father, Bert I. Gordon. She won the role when the original actress became ill. She went on to make two other films directed by her father, Tormented and Picture Mommy Dead.
The Five Pennies, a biopic starring Danny Kaye as bandleader Red Nichols, was released in 1959. The same year brought a live television production of Miracle on 34th Street in which she played the part originated by Natalie Wood in the 1947 film version.
Other television credits included episodes of such series as Gunsmoke, Route 66, 77 Sunset Strip, Ben Casey, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Donna Reed Show and My Three Sons.
In a memorable 1962 episode of Twilight Zone titled “The Fugitive,” Gordon’s character, who wears a leg brace, befriends the grandfatherly ruler of a planet who is hiding out on Earth.
As a college student, Gordon spent three semesters at sea on the World Campus Afloat, during which she developed a strong affinity for Japanese culture. She moved to Tokyo, where she worked as a copywriter for the Dentsu Advertising Agency.
In 2002, she made her Off Off Broadway debut starring in A Magic Place in a New Time.
Gordon is survived by her husband, Avi Aviner, six children and five grandchildren.