Susan Richardson
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Susan Richardson (born March 11, 1952 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania) is an American actress, best known for her role as Susan Bradford on the television series Eight is Enough, which she played from 1977 to 1981.
Richardson first started acting in plays in high school. She graduated from Coatesville Area Senior High School in 1970, and moved to Hollywood in 1971. In the six years between moving to the West Coast and being cast on Eight is Enough, she played bit roles in the films American Graffiti and A Star is Born, and guest-starred on the television series Happy Days and The Streets of San Francisco. Shortly before her 25th birthday, Richardson was picked to play the fourth-oldest child in the Bradford family on Eight is Enough.
On March 15, 1978, Richardson married Michael Virden, and shortly thereafter became pregnant, which was also written into the show. She gave birth to their daughter, Sarah, on February 27, 1980. After her pregnancy, a rumor was spread that Richardson would lose her job if she did not shed her pregnancy weight; she had gained 90 pounds and found it very hard to slim down by normal means, so she started using cocaine as a weight loss aid, and became addicted. (She later kicked the habit.) After Eight is Enough was canceled, she started a band called Harmony, and battled potential addiction to morphine following a debilitating tailbone injury (see [1]).
In 1987, Richardson came forward with a story about filmmakers kidnapping her and trying to kill her in North Korea. She blamed Hollywood for not believing her story, and for her career's subsequent demise. She also claimed that the filmmakers also stole the money she was investing in a feature of her own, and eventually the FBI seized her money and returned it to her with interest. Richardson has since sold the rights to her story to a production company, but no project has been announced so far.
Richardson also suffered a nervous breakdown in 1999, but has since recovered and now works as a caregiver in a nursing home in Wagontown, Pennsylvania, adjacent to her hometown of Coatesville.
In her Eight is Enough heyday, Richardson appeared in two installments of Battle of the Network Stars (May 1979 and December 1980), as well as numerous appearances on The $20,000 Pyramid, Password Plus, and Match Game, in addition to a one-hour All-Star episode of Family Feud in 1978 and a 3-episode celebrity tournament on the daytime version in May 1979.
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richardson, Susan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 11, 1952 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Coatesville, Pennsylvania |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
