Suzanne Grossman

Actress, writer and translator -- via the L.A. Times . . .


"Suzanne Grossmann

Actress, writer and translator

Suzanne Grossmann, 72, an actress, writer and translator, died Thursday at her home in Los Angeles, said family friend Patricia MacKay. Grossmann had chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, a progressive disease that affects breathing.

Grossmann's works were performed at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Old Globe in San Diego and several other theaters in the United States, Canada and England.

Working with actor-director Paxton Whitehead, Grossman translated and adapted "La Main Passe" by French playwright Georges Feydeau, which opened as "The Chemmy Circle" at the Shaw Festival in Canada in 1968 and at the Mark Taper in 1969. They also translated and adapted another Feydeau play, "Le Dindon," into "There's One In Every Marriage," which reached Broadway in 1972.

Her stage adaptations included "Number Our Days" for the Mark Taper in 1982.

As an actress, Grossmann made her Broadway debut in 1966 in "The Lion in Winter." Other credits included "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "The Show Off" in 1968 and "Private Lives" in 1969. She also had a role in the 1967 television production of "The Diary of Anne Frank."

Grossmann also wrote more than 100 episodes of the television soap opera "Ryan's Hope" and several works for Canadian television.

Born Dec. 21, 1937, in Basel, Switzerland, she was reared in Brazil, the United States and Canada. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts at McGill University in Montreal and was in the National Theatre School of Canada's first graduating class in 1963."