| Susan Hawk | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 17, 1961 Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States |
Susan "Sue" Hawk (born August 17, 1961 in Waukesha, Wisconsin) was a contestant on Survivor: Borneo (season one) and Survivor: All-Stars (season eight). She is one of only seven people in the history of the show to resign from the game voluntarily, resigning on day seventeen of her second season.
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During the original Survivor season she was a fan favorite and even celebrities, such as Rosie O'Donnell, were rooting for the working-class, midwestern truck driver, who presented herself as outgoing, open, and opinionated. Hawk seemed to get far in the game by using her secret alliance with Richard Hatch, Kelly Wiglesworth, and Rudy Boesch during a time when other cast members did not yet use alliances, and several even considered allied voting to be "cheating". Hawk liked being viewed as a stupid redneck during the game, and kept her intelligence hidden in order to throw off her opponents.
As the fourth-place finisher, she launched into her "rats and snakes" speech about the top two, Richard and Kelly. In her speech, she said there are only two things on the entire island: rats and snakes. Richard was a snake and Kelly a rat, and Hawk told the Jury members that they should obey the laws of nature by letting the snake eat the rat. She also told Kelly that if she ever saw her in a desert, dying of thirst, she would not stop to give her a sip of water and that she'd like to see the vultures get her. This resulted in angering Colleen Haskell and Gervase Peterson, who voted for Kelly. Nevertheless, Hatch still won 4-3.
The "rats and snakes" moment is arguably the most remembered moment in Survivor history, as the season one finale was the highest rated episode of Survivor to date and it was the first (but not the last) time in Survivor that anyone ever expressed such bitterness and anger. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list.[1]
Hawk returned to Survivor in 2004, for the special Survivor: All-Stars competition.
She did reasonably well in the All Stars season until an awkward incident prompted her to leave. During an immunity challenge, a naked Richard Hatch rubbed up against her, and during the entire subsequent episode Hawk seemed to become more and more angered, embarrassed, and upset over the incident. At the next reward challenge, Survivor host Jeff Probst made a passing reference to the incident, which prompted Hawk to respond with a very angry speech, accusing Probst of making light of something that Hawk viewed as harassment. Due to the nature of the show, Hawk's competitors were unsure how much of her emotion was real and how much was part of the game. Despite the fact that Hatch had been eliminated on the prior episode, Hawk claimed that "her mind left the game 24 hours ago" and decided to remove herself from the stress of the game in order to be with her husband again.
On May 22, 2007, the infotainment television show Access Hollywood broadcast a "Where Are They Now?" segment on Hawk. According to the report, she and her husband now live on a 60-acre (240,000 m2) ranch near Clever, Missouri.