BEFORE THEY WERE SCREAM QUEENS: SUSAN DENBERG

I have a difficult time calling someone's life "tragic" when the reasons for their personal downfall are brought about by their own conscious choices. Unfortunate, yes, but not tragic.

Such is the case of the model and actress, Susan Denberg. In the article about her posted earlier this week from Marvel's UK magazine, HAMMER HORROR, author Alan Barnes wrote what is probably the most in depth look at the beautiful Austrian that I've come across. The caption preceding the article states that Miss Denberg had been "long considered one of the most mysterious, and tragic, of all the Hammer starlets". Reading the piece certainly affirms that the one-time Playboy Playmate placed herself in positions that were unhealthy and which most probably lead to her abandoning her career and ultimately being rescued from the decadence of Hollywood by her father when she was still just in her 20's.

Susan Denberg (born August 2, 1944 in Bad Polzin, Germany, now Połczyn-Zdrój, Poland) left home barely in her 20's and hit London as an au pair girl, but soon looked to show business where she joined the famous dance company, Bluebell Girls. The story goes that she was spotted by an agent while she was in Vegas with the Bluebell's and "the rest is history", as they say.

Unfortunately, her jobs in front of the movie cameras were few and far between. In the meantime, she partied with many top actors of the day, including Stuart Whitman, Jim Brown, Sammy Davis, Jr., Richard Pryor and apparently many others.

Susan Denberg with actor Stuart Whitman.

“What was important to me,” she said, “was that I was being noticed by people that mattered. My philosophy was: Be nice to the stars, let your name be linked with theirs, and sooner or later you’ll make it. Why not use sex to get on? Others do it and I haven’t heard an actor or a producer complain.” This was not a career tactic lost on many good-looking girls who wanted movie roles.

Her biggest break of all ended up not being in front of a movie camera, but in front of famous glamour photographer Peter Gowland's Rolliflex for a shoot as Playmate of the Month for the August 1966 issue of PLAYBOY. She also appeared in the April 1967 issue (this time in a short, pixie haircut popular in the day) as a Playmate of the Year finalist, running against the slender Tish Howard and the voluptuous Lisa Baker. Miss Baker ended up taking the prize package and that left Denberg wondering what was next.

Susan Denberg in a provocative pose.

After a disastrous (and possibly career-breaking) impromptu striptease she performed at a party given by Frank Sinatra (the Chairman of the Board was not at all pleased), she ended up back in London where she landed a role in Hammer Studios' production of FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN, opposite Peter Cushing, where she made a bit of a splash, mainly because of her association with PLAYBOY. Her acting in the film was competent enough for a Hammer Glamour star, but her voice was dubbed because of her strong accent. Dubbing was provided by the voice actress and coach, Nikki Van der Zyl, who also dubbed, among many others, including the characters Kissy Suzuki in James Bond's YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, Vesper Lind in CASINO ROYALE, and Sarah Framsen in SCARS OF DRACULA.

In the meantime, she kept on with her heavy partying, still trying to hitch her wagon to someone's star, but nothing seemed to come of it except drinking, taking drugs and being passed around from one man to another.

In the September 1968 issue of THE NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE, she confessed, “[I became] hooked on LSD and marijuana. It calmed me down, and I made such wonderful love. I needed LSD every day, almost every hour. I took all sorts of drugs when I was in Hollywood… I used to do wild, nude dances at parties held by big-time Hollywood stars.”

After a bad acid trip, her father came and took her back to her hometown in Austria where she was purportedly strung out enough to warrant a trip to a neurologist where she endured electro-shock therapy and then for a stay at a mental asylum.

Rumors were then claiming that she had died, but so far, there is no evidence for it and she seems to be living a life away from the limelight under her birth name.

In 1969, she wrote a column for the UK's News of the World about her experiences. Her words of wisdom were: "If this story warns other young girls  who are offered a bite at the red apple of stardom, only to find a Garden of Eden swarming with vipers, I shall have achieved something".

Following is a gallery celebrating the fabulous face and form of Susan Denberg as we remember her from her days before she was "created" by Peter Cushing's Dr. Frankenstein.

WARNING!

MATURE CONTENT AHEAD! 

Susan Denberg's photoshoots from PLAYBOY.

August 1966 - Playmate of the Month

April 1967 - Playmate of the Year Playoff