Susanna Foster, Singer-Actress, Star of Rains' 'PHANTOM', Passes Away at 84
by Eddie Varley
- Jan 20, 2009
Susanna Foster, who starred opposite Claude Rains as 'Christine' in the 1943 version of 'Phantom of the Opera,' has passed away. She was 84. Foster died Saturday at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, N.J., publicist Dale Olson said. Foster made only a dozen movies but she was extremely popular in the early 1940s. A child prodigy, she got a contract with MGM at age 12 on the strength of her singing, then moved to Paramount, where at the age of 14 she made her movie debut in 1939's 'The Great Victor Herbert.'
She moved to Universal, where she was 19 when she played the leading lady in 'Phantom' but she abruptly quit the film business in 1945 and a few years later married baritone Wilbur Evans. They divorced in 1956.
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