Tuesday Weld

Tuesday Weld (born Susan Ker Weld; August 27, 1943) is a retired American actress. She began acting as a child and progressed to mature roles in the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960. Over the following decade, she established a career playing dramatic roles in films.

This article is about the actress. For the band, see The Real Tuesday Weld.

Tuesday Weld
Weld, c. 1960
Born
Susan Ker Weld

(1943-08-27) August 27, 1943
New York City, New York, U.S.
OccupationActress, model
Years active1955–2001
Spouse(s)
Children2

Her work, often portraying reckless, sexually acting-out women, was acknowledged with nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Play It as It Lays (1972), an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), an Emmy Award for The Winter of Our Discontent (1983), and a BAFTA for Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Since the late 1980s, her acting appearances have been infrequent.

Background and family

Weld was born Susan Ker Weld in New York City. Her father, Lathrop Motley Weld, of the Weld family of Massachusetts, died in 1947 at the age of 49, shortly before his daughter's fourth birthday. Her mother, Yosene Balfour Ker, daughter of the artist and Life illustrator William Balfour Ker, was Lathrop Weld's fourth and last wife.[1][2] Canadian-born William Balfour Ker had Scottish ancestry.[3] His mother, Lily Florence Bell Ker, was first cousin of the inventor Alexander Graham Bell,[4] and his father, William Ker, was a Scottish businessman and banker.[5]

Susan Ker Weld had two siblings, Sarah King Weld (born 1935) and David Balfour Weld (born 1937).[6] She legally changed her name to Tuesday Weld on October 9, 1959.[7][8]

Career

Modeling

Left in financial difficulty by her husband's death, Weld's mother put Susan to work as a model to support the family. As the young actress told Life in 1971:

My father's family came from Tuxedo Park, and they offered to take us kids and pay for our education, on the condition that Mama never see us again. Mama was an orphan who had come here from London but so far as my father's family was concerned, she was strictly from the gutter. I have to give Mama credit—she refused to give us up… So I became the supporter of the family, and I had to take my father's place in many, many ways. I was expected to make up for everything that had ever gone wrong in Mama's life. She became obsessed with me, pouring out her pent-up love—her alleged love—on me, and it's been heavy on my shoulders ever since. Mama still thinks I owe everything to her.[6]

Her name became Tuesday, an extension of her childhood nickname, "Tu-Tu", so named by her young cousin, Mary Ker, who could not pronounce "Susan". She officially adopted her name in October 1959.[9]

Acting

Using Weld's résumé from modeling, her mother secured her an agent. Weld made her acting debut on television at the age of 12, and her feature film debut that year in a bit role in the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock crime drama The Wrong Man.[10]

The pressures of her career resulted in a nervous breakdown at age nine, alcoholism by age 12, and a suicide attempt about the same time.[6]

In 1956 Weld played the lead in Rock, Rock, Rock, which featured record promoter Alan Freed and singers Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon, and Johnny Burnette. In the film Connie Francis performed the vocals for Weld's singing parts.

On TV she appeared in an episode of Goodyear Playhouse, "Backwoods Cinderella". She understudied on Broadway in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

Weld was cast in a supporting role in the Paul Newman–Joanne Woodward comedy Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1958), made by 20th Century Fox. At Columbia, Weld was in The Five Pennies (1959), playing the daughter of Danny Kaye, who called Weld "15 going on 27."[11] She guest-starred a number of times on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1958–59). She appeared in 77 Sunset Strip with Efrem Zimbalist Jr., in the 1959 episode, "Secret Island."

20th Century Fox

Weld's performance in Flag Boys impressed executives at Fox, who signed her to a long-term contract.[12]

They put her in the CBS television series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, being paid $35,000 for one year.[13] Weld played Thalia Menninger, the love interest of Dobie Gillis (played by Dwayne Hickman), whose rivals for Thalia's affection included Milton Armitage (played by Warren Beatty). Although Weld was a cast member for only one season, the show created considerable national publicity for her,[14] and she was named a co-winner of a "Most Promising Newcomer" award at the Golden Globe Awards.[15][12]

At Columbia, she had a leading role in a teen film, Because They're Young (1960), starring Dick Clark. She was second billed in Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) made by Albert Zugsmith at Allied Artists. She made a second film for Zugsmith, The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, made in 1959 but not released for two years.

She guest starred on The Red Skelton Hour in "Appleby: The Big Producer" (1959) and on 77 Sunset Strip (1959) and The Millionaire (1960).

At Fox, she played Joy, a free-spirited university student in High Time, starring Bing Crosby and Fabian Forte. She sang a love song to Fabian in the season opener of NBC's The Dinah Shore Chevy Show on October 9, 1960. Four weeks later, on November 13, Weld returned to the network as a guest star in NBC's The Tab Hunter Show. She guested in "The Mormons" for Zane Grey Theatre (1960).[16]

For Fox, Weld had a supporting role in the sequel Return to Peyton Place (1961), in the part played by Hope Lange in the original. Her portrayal of an incest victim was well received, but the film was less successful than its predecessor.[6] She supported Elvis Presley in Wild in the Country (1962), along with Lange. Weld had an off-screen romance with Presley.[17]

Fox also used her as a guest star on Follow the Sun ("The Highest Wall") and Adventures in Paradise ("The Velvet Trap"). On November 12, 1961, she played a singer, Cherie, in the seventh episode of ABC's television series Bus Stop, produced by Fox, with Marilyn Maxwell and Gary Lockwood. It was an adaptation of the play by William Inge, with Weld in the role originated on screen by Marilyn Monroe.

Weld supported Terry-Thomas in the Frank Tashlin comedy Bachelor Flat (1962), for Fox. Following the film's release, she appeared on What's My Line as the celebrity mystery guest.[18]

Weld's mother was scandalized by her teen daughter's love affairs with older men, such as actor John Ireland, but Weld resisted, saying, "'If you don't leave me alone, I'll quit being an actress—which means there ain't gonna be no more money for you, Mama'. Finally, when I was sixteen, I left home. I just went out the door and bought my own house".

She was Stanley Kubrick's first choice to play the role of Lolita in his 1962 film of the same name, but she turned the offer down, saying: "I didn't have to play it. I was Lolita".[19]

Weld took three months off to go to Greenwich Village in New York and "study myself". Then she starred along with Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen in Soldier in the Rain, written by Blake Edwards from a novel by William Goldman.[20]

Tuesday Weld in 1964. She is seen here alongside David Janssen in the TV series The Fugitive.

She won excellent reviews for a February 7, 1962, episode in the Naked City, "A Case Study of Two Savages", adapted from the real-life case of backwood killers Charles Starkweather (played by Rip Torn) and Weld, cast as his young bride, Ora Mae Youngham, on a homicidal spree ending in New York City.[21] She guest starred on Route 66 in "Love Is a Skinny Kid" (1962), Ben Casey in "When You See an Evil Man" (1962), The Dick Powell Theatre in "A Time to Die" (1962), and "Run Till It's Dark" with Fabian (1962).

In 1963 Weld guest-starred as Denise Dunlear in The Eleventh Hour, in the episode "Something Crazy's Going on the Back Room" alongside Angela Lansbury. She was in "The Legend of Lylah Clare" for The DuPont Show of the Week (1963), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.

In 1964 she appeared in the title role of the episode "Keep an Eye on Emily" on Craig Stevens's CBS drama, Mr. Broadway. In the same year, she appeared as a troubled blind woman in "Dark Corner", an episode of The Fugitive.

A year earlier, Weld had appeared with Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen in the comedy Soldier in the Rain, where her performance was well received, but the film was only a minor success. That same year, she and former co-star Dwayne Hickman appeared in Jack Palance's circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth on ABC, in separate episodes.

Weld supported Bob Hope in the comedy I'll Take Sweden (1965).

Stardom

Weld appeared in 1965 in the successful Norman Jewison film The Cincinnati Kid, opposite Steve McQueen. There was some controversy when she refused to meet the local governor at a fund-raiser for hurricane victims, jumping out of a car in view of 70,000 people.[22] The film was a big hit.

Weld got a star role in Lord Love a Duck (1966), with Roddy McDowall, Ruth Gordon, and Harvey Korman. Weld received excellent reviews, but the film was a box office disappointment.

She followed it playing Abigail in a TV adaptation of The Crucible (1967), opposite George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst. After guest starring on Cimarron Strip (1967), Weld had the starring role in Pretty Poison (1968), co-starring Anthony Perkins. The film became a cult success.

Around this time, Weld became famous for turning down roles in films that succeeded at the box office, such as Bonnie and Clyde, Rosemary's Baby, True Grit, Cactus Flower, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.[19] In a 1971 interview with the New York Times, Weld explained that she had chosen to reject these roles precisely because she believed they would be commercial successes: "Do you think I want a success? I refused 'Bonnie and Clyde' because I was nursing at the time, but also because deep down I knew it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of 'Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue' or whatever it was called. It reeked of success".[19]

The films Weld did make included I Walk the Line (1970), opposite Gregory Peck; A Safe Place (1971), co-starring Jack Nicholson and Orson Welles and directed by Henry Jaglom, and Play It as It Lays (1972), again with Perkins, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.[23]

Peak years of success

Weld began to work again in television, starring in Reflections of Murder (1974) and F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood (1975) in which she played Zelda Fitzgerald.

Weld attracted attention as the favored, out-of-control Katherine in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) – packing into her short screen time an orgy, a divorce, a lot of alcohol, and two abortions – and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress;[19] later she appeared in Who'll Stop the Rain (1978) opposite Nick Nolte; and the comedy Serial (1980).

She said she preferred television. "What I dig about TV is the pace", she said. "Two weeks for even a heavy part – great. Too much thinking about a role is a disaster for me. I mean, let's do it, let's get it done."[24]

She played the lead in the TV films A Question of Guilt (1978), in which she plays a woman accused of murdering her children, Mother and Daughter: The Loving War (1980), a remake of Madame X (1981), and a new version of The Rainmaker (1982).

In feature films, Weld had a good supporting role in Michael Mann's acclaimed 1981 film Thief, opposite James Caan. She played Al Pacino's wife in Author! Author! (1982) and co-starred with Donald Sutherland in the TV film The Winter of Our Discontent (1983). This performance earned her an Emmy nomination.

In 1984, she appeared in Sergio Leone's gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America, playing a jeweler's secretary, who is in on a plan to steal a shipment of diamonds. During the robbery, her character goads Robert De Niro's character, David "Noodles" Aaronson, into "raping" her with her complicity.

On TV, Weld was in Scorned and Swindled (1984), Circle of Violence (1986) and Something in Common (1986). She had a supporting role in Heartbreak Hotel (1988).

Later career

Weld was reunited with Anthony Perkins in an episode of Mistress of Suspense (1990).

In 1993 she played a police officer's neurotic wife in Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall. She had small supporting roles in Feeling Minnesota (1996), Investigating Sex (2001), and Chelsea Walls (2001).

Personal life

Weld has been married three times. She was married to screenwriter Claude Harz from 1965 until their divorce in 1971. They had a daughter, Natasha, in 1966. Weld was awarded custody of Natasha in the divorce and $100 a month in child support payments.[25] Weld told Guy Flatley of The New York Times in 1971:

Mama hated my husband—she's a jealous lover, you know. She's hated all the men I've ever been involved with. But I really felt that what I had been doing up to that time with my life was probably wrong, that maybe what I should be was a housewife. Our marriage lasted 5 years. It was just another one of my mistakes.[26]

She married British actor, musician, and comedian Dudley Moore in 1975. In 1976 they had a son, Patrick, now an actor, director and editor. The couple divorced in 1980, with Weld receiving a $200,000 settlement plus $3,000 monthly alimony for the next 4 years and an additional $2,500 a month in child support.[27]

In 1985, she married Israeli concert violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman, becoming stepmother to his daughters Arianna and Natalia. The couple divorced in 1998. In court papers, Zukerman quoted Weld as saying, "Why do I need to go to another concert when I’ve heard the piece before?" and "I can’t stand the backstage scene. I don’t want to hear another note."[28]

Between marriages, Weld dated Al Pacino,[29] David Steinberg,[26] Mikhail Baryshnikov[30] (whose previous girlfriend, Jessica Lange, had been Weld's best friend[31]), Omar Sharif,[32] Richard Gere[33] and Ryan O'Neal.[34]

Weld sold her beach house in Montauk, New York, in the late 2000s and moved to Carbondale, Colorado. In 2018, she left Colorado and bought a $1.8 million home in the Hollywood Hills.[35]

Offhand references to Weld sometimes appear in fiction and music. Some works, though, have been more directly inspired by her:

  • An episode of The Flintstones, "The Monster from the Tar Pits", had a running gag in which a news announcer referred to her as "That popular new starlet, Wednesday Tuesday! Or is it, 'Tuesday Wednesday'?" Upon seeing her land at Bedrock Airport, Fred shouted, "Hey, Wednesday Tuesday, what are ya doin' Saturday?!"
  • After a dream involving the actress, Stephen Coates named his lounge swing band The Real Tuesday Weld.
  • The cover of Matthew Sweet's third album, Girlfriend, features a photo of Weld from the late 1950s.[36] Originally called Nothing Lasts, the album was retitled after objections to the title from Weld. Sweet's greatest hits compilation, Time Capsule, features photos of Weld on the front and back covers.
  • Weld was honored with an eponymous song on Walter Egan's fourth CBS album, The Last Stroll.[37]
  • Weld was the inspiration for the song "Groovy Tuesday" by the pop duo Swan Dive.[38]
  • Donald Fagen mentions Tuesday Weld's name in the lyrics of the song "New Frontier" on his 1982 album The Nightfly.
  • In episode 12 of American Horror Story's second season, subtitled "Asylum", protagonist Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) mentions her name and expresses her wish to Kit Walker (Evan Peters) to have Weld play her in a film about Winter's life.
  • Charles Bukowski mentioned her in the poem "The best way to get famous is to run away".
  • She is mentioned in Season 2 Episide 24 of Two and a half Men

Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1956 Rock, Rock, Rock Dori Graham
1958 Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! Comfort Goodpasture
1959 The Five Pennies Dorothy Nichols, age 12 to 14
1959-63 The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis Thalia Menninger Series regular (season 1)
Guest star (season 3 & 4)
1960 Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre Beth Lawson in "The Mormons"
Because They're Young Anne Gregor
Sex Kittens Go to College Jody
High Time Joy Elder
The Private Lives of Adam and Eve Vangie Harper
1961 Return to Peyton Place Selena Cross
Wild in the Country Noreen Braxton
Bus Stop Cherie S01EP07 1961 11 12
1962 Bachelor Flat Libby Bushmill aka Libby Smith
Naked City Ora Mae Youngham S03EP18 – 1962 02 07 "A Case Study of Two Savages"
1963 Soldier in the Rain Bobby Jo Pepperdine
1964 The Fugitive Mattie Braydon S02EP08 Dark Corner
1965 I'll Take Sweden JoJo Holcomb
The Cincinnati Kid Christian Rudd
1966 Lord Love a Duck Barbara Ann Greene
1968 Pretty Poison Sue Ann Stepanek
1970 I Walk the Line Alma McCain
1971 A Safe Place Susan/Noah
1972 Play It as It Lays Maria Wyeth Lang Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1974 Reflections of Murder Vicky
1976 F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood Zelda Fitzgerald (TV)
1977 Looking for Mr. Goodbar Katherine Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1978 Who'll Stop the Rain Marge Converse
1978 A Question of Guilt Doris Winters Movie for TV
1980 Serial Kate Linville Holroyd
1981 Madame X Holly Richardson (TV)
Thief Jessie
1982 Author! Author! Gloria Travalian
The Rainmaker Lizzie (TV)
CableACE Award for Actress in a Theatrical or Non-Musical Program
1983 The Winter of our Discontent Margie Young-Hunt (TV)
Nominated—Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie
1984 Once Upon a Time in America Carol Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1986 Circle of Violence Georgia Benfield
1988 Heartbreak Hotel Marie Wolfe
1993 Falling Down Amanda Pendergast
1996 Feeling Minnesota Nora Clayton
2001 Investigating Sex Sasha Faldo
Chelsea Walls Greta

References
  1. "Profile of Lathrop M. Weld". The New York Times. June 7, 1947.
  2. "Yosene Ker a Bride; Wed to Lathrop M. Weld in Municipal Marriage Chapel". The New York Times. January 28, 1934.
  3. Hayne, Carolyn (April 2004). "William Balfour Ker". Ask Art. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  4. "Alexander Graham Bell Autograph – Bell poignantly seeks help for children, 1922". History in Ink. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  5. Lynx, David; Wilbur, Yvonne (November 30, 2009). "Moxee Company, The (Yakima County)". HistoryLink.
  6. "Tuesday Weld: 'I Didn't Have to Play Lolita – I Was Lolita'". Moviecrazed. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  7. "Name made legal, 1959". Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection, 1950–1961. University of Southern California Libraries. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  8. "Tuesday Weld Given Legal Name on Friday". Los Angeles Times. October 10, 1959. p. 3.
  9. "Tuesday weld given legal name on friday". Los Angeles Times. October 10, 1959. ProQuest 167548377.
  10. Vickers, Graham (2008). Chasing Lolita: How Popular Culture Corrupted Nabokov's Little Girl All Over Again. Chicago Review Press. p. 111. ISBN 9781556529689.
  11. Hopper, Hedda (December 7, 1958). "A New 'Child Woman' Comes to Fore—Named Tuesday Weld". Los Angeles Times. p. F3.
  12. F. C. (July 26, 1959). "Tuesday weld new girl in hollywood". The Washington Post and Times Herald. ProQuest 149287044.
  13. "Only 15, but expects to collect $35,000 in TV". Los Angeles Times. February 28, 1959. ProQuest 167411679.
  14. Denver, Bob (1993). Gilligan, Maynard & Me. Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press. pp. 9–45. ISBN 978-0806514130.
  15. "The Five Pennies". Golden Globe Award. Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  16. Alpert, Don (March 13, 1960). "Tuesday Weld, at 16 Would Spend Her Life Like Money". Los Angeles Times. p. I3.
  17. Keogh, Pamela Clarke (2008). Elvis Presley: The Man, the Life, the Legend. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 153. ISBN 978-0743486132. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  18. What's My Line?, What's My Line? – Tuesday Weld; Dana Andrews [panel]; Johnny Carson [panel] (Jan 14, 1962), retrieved December 5, 2018
  19. Jordan, Louis (September 20, 2011). "The Real Tuesday Weld". Slant Magazine.
  20. Scott, John L. (July 14, 1963). "HOLLYWOOD CALENDAR: Tuesday Weld Serves Notice on Film Capital". Los Angeles Times. p. d8.
  21. A Case Study of Two Savages, TV Guide. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  22. "A blue monday for tuesday weld". Los Angeles Times. October 27, 1965. ProQuest 155276508.
  23. Haber, J. (October 22, 1972). "The evolution of a hollywood brat". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest 157045364.
  24. Burke, Tom. (April 30, 1978). "Forever Tuesday". Chicago Tribune. p. i42.
  25. "Tuesday Weld Gets Divorce". The New York Times. February 19, 1971.
  26. Flatley, Guy (November 7, 1971). "Most of All, Tuesday Remembers Mama". The New York Times. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
  27. Best of the Gossip Columns (September 29, 1981) – via Google Books
  28. Mitchell, Deborah; Landman, Beth (March 29, 1999). "Zukerman Unbound in Court". New York.
  29. Lawrence Grobel (2006). Al Pacino. Simon and Schuster. p. 59. ISBN 1416955569.
  30. "Walter Scott's Personality Parade". The Boston Globe. February 20, 1983.
  31. McCall, Cheryl (June 15, 1981). "After Raising Cain in 'Postman,' Jessica Lange Rears Baryshnikov's Babe—Lovingly". People.
  32. The sad life of Omar Sharif – Hollywood's Sultan of seduction
  33. Liz Smith (January 3, 1980). "Rampant rumors off 1980–Chap. One". New York Daily News.
  34. Tatum O'Neal (2004). A Paper Life. HarperCollins. p. 39. ISBN 0060751029.
  35. David, Mark (April 3, 2018). "Tuesday Weld Picks Up Hollywood Hills Home". Variety.
  36. Kelly, Christina (October 26, 2011). "Matthew Sweet Looks Back on 20 Years of 'Girlfriend'". Spin. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  37. Egan, Walter (1980). The Last Stroll. Columbia Records.
  38. Swan Dive: Swan Dive (CD). Compass Records. 2000. Archived from the original on February 6, 2015.
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