Tuesday Weld

Tuesday Weld

Susan Ker Weld was born on Friday, August 27th 1943 in New York City. When her father, Lathrop Motley Weld, died three years later at the age of 49, the cute little girl, whose name by then had somehow been transmogrified into 'Tuesday', took over the role of the family breadwinner: Tuesday became a successful child model, posing for advertisements and mail order catalogs. Her work and the burden of responsibility estranged her from her mother Aileen and her two elder siblings and catapulted the preteen girl into adulthood. Nine years old, she suffered a nervous breakdown, at ten she started heavy drinking. One year later, Tuesday began to have love affairs, and at the age of twelve she tried to commit suicide.

In 1956 Tuesday Weld debuted in the low-budget exploitation movie 'Rock, Rock, Rock' and decided to become an actress. After numerous TV appearances in New York she went to Hollywood in 1958 and was cast for 'Rally Round the Flag, Boys', something of a breakthrough for her. As Noreen, Tuesday appeared with Elvis in 'Wild In The Country'.

Over the next years, Tuesday became Hollywood's queen of teen, playing chiefly precocious sex kittens. Her wild private life added to the entertainment of her fans. The critics acknowledged her talent, the directors approved of her professionalism, and in the late sixties Tuesday even managed to grow out of her child woman image and find more demanding roles - she had been sweet little sixteen for about sixteen years. However, Tuesday Weld didn't achieve first-magnitude stardom. Maybe she was just unlucky with her selection of jobs (she turned down 'Lolita', 'Bonnie and Clyde', 'True Grit', 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice' &&&), maybe her independence-loving mind made her instinctively shrink back from the restraints of superstardom. So Tuesday Weld kept on performing well in films which had either not much flair or not much success. From the mid-seventies on, she focused more and more on made-for-TV movies. Ironically, the best (Once Upon a Time in America) and the most successful film (Falling Down) that featured Tuesday Weld came only after her career was already petering out.