Clip of Susan Dey in Beyond Betrayal

In the 1994 TV thriller Beyond Betrayal, Susan Dey is stalked by her obsessed ex-husband, Richard Dean Anderson. The scene in this clip depicts Susan Dey's character coming home to her boyfriend's houseboat only to discover that it has been ransacked by the evil Bradley (Richard Dean Anderson). She is even more shocked to find out what is behind a closed door!

Susan Dey: Ex-Partridge

Here's a newspaper clipping from the summer of 1992 in which former Partridge Family co-stars Susan Dey and Danny Bonaduce weigh in on the possibility of a reunion. The simple answer: she says no and he says yes!

The next newspaper clipping comes from the summer of 1994 and features Susan Dey and another Partridge Family co-star, David Cassidy. David Cassidy had put out his autobiography and apparently Susan Dey didn't much care for some of things he said about her in the book. When asked how this would affect their relationship, Susan Dey responded "there is no relationship".

A little bit of press for Susan Dey in 1977

1977 was a big year for Susan Dey. She headlined her first feature film that year (First Love), starred in popular TV movie (Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night) and also returned to series television with her situation comedy Loves Me, Loves Me Not. So it's only fitting that Susan Dey get some press coverage that year...and here are two examples (you'll have to click the images to see them big enough to read them):

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Susan Dey: the "lost" performances

Let's take a look at some of Susan Dey's "lost" roles. Of course, they aren't really lost...I'm just using that term to describe the fact that I haven't seen them! Some of you probably have seen these or have these TV episodes in your private collections (I know that some of these episodes, like The Rookies and Petrocelli, are currently being sold and traded on the collector's circuit). Meanwhile, for the rest of us who haven't seen them, here's some info on a few of Susan Dey's early television guest appearances that are somewhat lesser known.

Born Free "A Matter of Survival" (originally broadcast September 23, 1974)

The Rookies "Angel" (originally broadcast February 3, 1975)

Good Heavens "A Night with Brockton" (originally broadcast May 22, 1976)

Susan Dey stars in "Gift of Life"

The Gift of Life, Susan Dey's 1982 TV movie about surrogate motherhood, has already been the subject of two minor posts...here and here. Well, here is another minor post about the made-for-television project. This time it's a pair of newspaper clippings and after reading these, you should know a great deal more about the The Gift of Life!

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Clip of Susan Dey in Love, Lies & Lullabies

Here's a clip of Susan Dey in her 1993 TV movie Love, Lies & Lullabies (also known as Sad Inheritance). In the movie, Susan Dey portrays a cocaine addicted woman who unexpectedly becomes pregnant. In this scene, she has a chat with her boss and reassures him that she will be able to keep her job and perform well (even though, unbeknownst to him, she has already decided to not fully quit doing drugs while pregnant!).

Susan Dey stages comeback in 1980

Here's a nice newspaper article about Susan Dey from 1980. As you may know, Susan Dey did not work between late 1978, following the making of Little Women and early 1980, when she co-starred with John Ritter in the TV movie The Comeback Kid. She did not work during this period because she was busy becoming a mother. That is the primary focus of this article, the combination of motherhood and an acting career.


This clipping is presented in it's original form, maintaining the same shape it had when it originally appeared in the Montreal Gazette. There are two images below and both can be clicked on if you want to see either piece full size.

Susan Dey on Family Law

In 1999, Susan Dey guest starred on an episode of Family Law called 'Holt vs Holt'. Unlike her legal show L.A. Law, where she played a attorney, on Family Law Susan Dey portrayed a victim. Her case involved her termination from a lingerie company after she had a mastectomy due to cancer.

This guest appearance by Susan Dey is in some ways quite different from much of her other work. In the bulk of the projects Susan Dey participated in throughout her 34 year career she is meant to be blatantly attractive. On this episode of Family Law, Susan Dey get a chance to play a woman who is sick. This changes the focus from her physical beauty (which many people can't seem to get past) to her acting ability, allowing her to illustrate the hardships of cancer.

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Here are a few images of Susan Dey on Family Law:

Third clip of Susan Dey on Matt Helm

In this clip from the Matt Helm episode 'Die Once, Die Twice', Ellen Tanner (Susan Dey) has a jailhouse chat with Claire Kronski (Laraine Stephens).

Love & War era newspaper clippings

Here's a handful of press clipping from Susan Dey's time on the sitcom Love & War. This comedy series was supposed to keep Susan Dey in a regular television role following her departure from L.A. Law, but she left after just one season after having disagreements with creator/producer Diane English. Afterwards, Susan Dey focused her attention on TV movies, a format with which she had had much success with in the past.

Another clip of Susan Dey on Matt Helm

In the first clip from Matt Helm, we saw the incident that gets Susan Dey's character into trouble. In this scene, we see her tell her side of the story.

Clip of Susan Dey in Skyjacked

Here's a clip of Susan Dey in her first movie role, in the 1972 airplane hijacking film Skyjacked. In this scene, she gets up to use the restroom and bumps into a male friend on her way in. When she does enter the bathroom, she discovers that a terrorist has scrawled a message on the mirror. The airplane staff initially suspects her of some wrongdoing but shortly thereafter Elly Brewster (Susan Dey) has a chat with Captain O'Hara (Charlton Heston) to get things straightened out.

Various Susan Dey newspaper articles from 1977

Here's a trio of newspaper clippings about Susan Dey, all published in 1977. She received a lot of publicity because she starred in her first feature film (First Love) that year.

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Grace Van Owen era newspaper clippings

Here's a handful of newspaper clippings from Susan Dey's time on L.A. Law. where she portrayed the legendary attorney Grace Van Owen.

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Susan Dey in a floppy hat

Here's a great pic of Susan Dey in a floppy hat. Judging by the hat and jacket, this picture is most likely from her first feature film Skyjacked.

Clip of Susan Dey in The Trouble with Dick

In 1987, following up on her 1986 independent film Echo Park, Susan Dey decided to appear in another oddball, low-budget movie, The Trouble with Dick. In this clip, Susan Dey has lunch with the star of the movie, Tom Villard. He chats about his work as a science fiction author and eventually she lets him know about an empty room in the house she lives in. Tom Villard does most of the talking in this clip but nevertheless Susan Dey looks quite stunning the whole time!

Clip of Susan Dey on Matt Helm

In her first TV appearance of 1976, Susan Dey was the featured guest star in an episode the short-lived detective series Matt Helm. This clip is from the very beginning of the episode (called 'Die Once, Die Twice') and shows how Susan Dey's character Ellen Tanner gets into quite a mess after getting into a fight with her husband Griff.

Clip of Susan Dey on Circle of Fear

Here's a nice clip of Susan Dey on the horror anthology series Circle of Fear (Ghost Story was the original title of the show) in 1973. This was Susan Dey's first TV appearance outside of The Partridge Family (though she had a small role in the 1972 feature film Skyjacked) and one of only two instances where she appeared in a horror-related project (the other being the TV movie Disappearance in 2002). Edit: Also (as a Susan Dey fan on Facebook kindly pointed out), Susan Dey's 1995 TV movie Deadly Love, about vampires and murder, should also rightfully be considered a horror-related project. My mistake for not including it!

In the Circle of Fear episode called 'Doorway to Death', Susan Dey plays big sister to two younger kids, played by Leif Garrett and Dawn Lyn. Luckily, Susan Dey already had a bunch of experience acting with children since she had been doing it on The Partridge Family since 1970!

Susan Dey in First Love promo pics

Junge Liebe is the German title of First Love

In 1977, Ssuan Dey appeared in her second feature film, First Love (in 1972 she had a small role in the movie Skyjacked). You can find a bunch of promotional pictures from First Love here...and here are a few more black & white publicity stills for you to take a look at.

Susan Dey in bed

Susan Dey with William Katt and Robert Loggia in First Love

Susan Dey and William Katt in First Love

Susan Dey and John Heard in First Love

Clip of Susan Dey in First Love

Here's a clip from the 1977 film First Love. This scene depicts the initial meeting between Caroline (Susan Dey) and Elgin (William Katt).

Clip of Susan Dey on The Quest

Here's a clip of Susan Dey along with Tim Matheson and Kurt Russell in the debut episode of the TV western The Quest. In this scene, after Charlotte Ross (Susan Dey) has been "rescued" from Native Americans, brothers Quentin and Morgan Beaudine (Matheson & Russell) give her a dress and a hairbrush.

Clip of Susan Dey on Barnaby Jones

Here's a clip of Susan Dey on the TV show Barnaby Jones in 1977. The other actors in the scene are Buddy Ebsen, Mark Shera and Lee Meriwether.

Some pics of Susan Dey in The Gift of Life

Here's a trio of pics of Susan Dey in her 1982 TV movie The Gift of Life. The movie was an early look at what would become a favorite TV movie topic: surrogate motherhood. The project was directed by Jerry London who had previously directed Susan Dey in half a dozen Partridge Family episodes. The Gift of Life received an Emmy nomination, but not for anything having to do with the acting, directing or the script. The Emmy nod went to a song that was written for the movie.

Susan Dey and Paul Le Mat

As a bonus (in case you haven't seen it), here is a promo pic of Susan Dey and her Gift of Life co-star Paul Le Mat:

Susan Dey in a 1977 review of First Love

Molly Haskell wrote this piece about Susan Dey's movie First Love for New York Magazine (August 14, 1977).

Susan Dey in two candid early photos

A very young Susan Dey poses for the camera. It looks like she's in someone's living room!

Susan Dey in a blue shirt!

A lot of you have probably already seen all or some of these publicity photos of Susan Dey, but I thought I would include them here anyway (especially for those who may not have seen them!). I believe the pics are circa late 1980s, during her tenure on L.A. Law.

Susan Dey with an intense gaze

Here is another image from the same photo session, this pic being used for a feature on Susan Dey in an issue of Woman's Day magazine. Click on the image to make it bigger.