Susan Tyrrell

There are some people it’s genuinely shocking to find haven’t worked together or at least haven’t worked together more often. One of these pairings is Susan Tyrrell and John Waters. She worked as often with the Chipmunks. If her career wasn’t exactly glamorous, it was certainly intriguing, and she’s just the sort of person you’d think would have gravitated toward him and done all kinds of things with him. Of course, it’s also true that he doesn’t make as many movies as you might think. But he did make four movies between the one time they worked together and the time she died, and of course there’s the question of why it took that long.

Tyrrell was born in 1945. Her mother was “a socialite and member of the diplomatic corps,” according to Wikipedia, and her father was an agent for William Morris. She did rely on a little light nepotism to get started, but her father died soon after her debut in Time Out for Ginger, with Art Carney. She spent a fair amount of time on the stage, appearing in Cactus Flower and then the Repertory Company of Lincoln Center. Apparently she did King Lear, but I couldn’t tell you what role she played because as established records for that kind of thing are terrible.

Delightfully, her first TV appearance was on The Patty Duke Show. Or possibly Mr. Novak. It depends on who you trust. Sadly, the Richard Donner-directed Mr. Novak episode wherein, I believe, Tyrrell played a girl acquitted of murdering her parents is not available anywhere I can find it. She also appeared on NBC Experiment in Television on an episode called “The Hamster of Happiness” that I can find nothing else out about. Most of her TV fare is more standard; like who didn’t appear on Starsky and Hutch in those days?

Her movie career is a little wilder. I’ve been informed I absolutely have to mention her performance in Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker, which I must confess to not having seen. I have, however, seen Forbidden Zone. Cry-Baby, of course, which is where I know her from. I hate that, all things considered, but what do you do? She wasn’t quite a scream queen, as that’s far too simplified a term for the acting she did in horror and horror-adjacent films, but it’s a little more believable when she appears in things like What’s Up, Hideous Sun Demon than The Christmas Star.

Her personal life? Wilder still. She was in Andy Warhol’s circle, including having a relationship with Candy Darling, with whom she shared an apartment. She was in a relationship with Hervé Villechaize for two years. She had what she called a “traumatic sexual incident” with John Huston. She was married twice, though neither of my regular sources records to whom, and had a tubal ligation to prevent nepo babies of her own. All that and an Oscar nomination for Fat City. What a fantastic woman.