page_title: Susan Peters
section_title: 1942–1944: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and critical success
hierarchical_section_title: Susan Peters / Life and career / 1942–1944: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and critical success
caption_attribution_description: English: Susan Peters and Van Johnson in Dr. Gillespie's Assistant (1942)
context_page_description: Susan Peters was an American film, stage, and television actress who appeared in over twenty films over the course of her decade-long career. Though she began her career in uncredited and ingénue roles, she would establish herself as a serious dramatic actress in the mid-1940s.
  Born in Spokane, Washington, Peters was raised by her widowed mother in Portland, Oregon and later, Los Angeles. Upon graduating from high school, she studied acting with Austrian theater director Max Reinhardt, and signed a contract with Warner Bros. Pictures. She appeared in numerous bit parts before earning a minor supporting role in Santa Fe Trail. She made her last film for Warner Bros. in 1942, the film noir The Big Shot opposite Humphrey Bogart and Richard Travis; after its release, Warner opted not to renew her contract.
  In 1942, Peters appeared in a supporting role in Tish, which resulted in her signing a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The same year, she had a featured role in the Mervyn LeRoy-directed drama Random Harvest, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and established her as a serious dramatic performer.
context_section_description: Several months after being dropped by Warner Bros., Peters was contacted by MGM to test for a supporting role in the film Tish (1942), a loose adaptation of a series of stories by Mary Roberts Rinehart. She won the role and also signed a contract with the studio. At the time, Peters was one of the most screen-tested actresses in Hollywood. While filming Tish, Peters met future husband, actor Richard Quine, with whom she also starred in her second film with MGM, Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant (1942), alongside Van Johnson. Quine and Peters later married on November 7, 1943 at Westwood Community Church in West Los Angeles. 
  After completing Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942) in which she appeared with Mickey Rooney in the very short final scene,  Mervyn LeRoy cast Peters in the drama Random Harvest (also 1942),  in which she portrayed a young woman who falls in love with her step-uncle. The film was one of the top 25 highest-earning films of the year, and Peters's performance garnered her critical acclaim, earning her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
  The success of Random Harvest led MGM to give Peters lead roles in other major pictures such as Assignment in Brittany (1943), in which she portrayed a French peasant girl. This was followed with a minor but top-billed credit in the comedy Young Ideas (1943) with Herbert Marshall and Mary Astor, directed by Jules Dassin. She was subsequently cast as the female lead in Song of Russia (1943) opposite Robert Taylor. The role earned her further excellent notices, with a review in The Hollywood Reporter noting her as "a dramatic actress of the first rank." The film however was controversial, as its portrayal of the Soviet Union was interpreted by some audiences and critics as being favorable and of a pro-Communist stance.
  In early 1944, Peters was one of ten actors who were elevated from "featured player" status to the studio's official "star" category; the others included Esther Williams, Laraine Day, Kathryn Grayson, Van Johnson, Margaret O'Brien, Ginny Simms, Robert Walker, Gene Kelly, and George Murphy. An official portrait taken of MGM's contracted players during this period prominently features Peters sharing the front row with the head of the studio himself, Louis B. Mayer, and alongside such actors as James Stewart, Mickey Rooney, Margaret Sullavan, Katharine Hepburn, Hedy Lamarr, and Greer Garson. In late 1944, Peters filmed Keep Your Powder Dry, a war drama co-starring Lana Turner and Laraine Day, in which she portrayed the humble wife of a soldier.
caption: Peters and Van Johnson in Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant (1942)
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