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Tuesday Weld (born Susan Ker Weld; August 27, 1943) is an American retired actress. She began acting as a child and progressed to mature roles in the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960. Over the following decade, she established a career playing dramatic roles in films.
Weld often portrayed impulsive and reckless women and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Play It as It Lays (1972), an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), an Emmy Award for The Winter of Our Discontent (1983), and a BAFTA for Once Upon a Time in America (1984). After the 1980s her acting appearances became infrequent, and her last role was in 2001's Chelsea Walls.
Weld had a brother and sister. Her name became Tuesday, an extension of her childhood nickname, "Tu-Tu", so named by a young cousin who could not pronounce "Susan". She legally changed her name to Tuesday Weld on October 9, 1959.
My father's family came from Tuxedo Park, and they offered to take us kids and pay for our education, on the condition that Mama never see us again. Mama was an orphan who had come here from London but so far as my father's family was concerned, she was strictly from the gutter. I have to give Mama credit—she refused to give us up… So I became the supporter of the family, and I had to take my father's place in many, many ways. I was expected to make up for everything that had ever gone wrong in Mama's life. She became obsessed with me, pouring out her pent-up love—her alleged love—on me, and it's been heavy on my shoulders ever since. Mama still thinks I owe everything to her.
Weld's mother secured her an agent using her résumé from modeling. She made her acting debut on television at the age of 12, and her feature film debut that year in a bit role in the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock crime drama The Wrong Man.
In 1956, Weld played the lead in Rock, Rock, Rock, which featured record promoter Alan Freed and singers Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon, and Johnny Burnette. In the film Connie Francis performed the vocals for Weld's singing parts.
On TV, she appeared in an episode of Goodyear Playhouse, "Backwoods Cinderella". She understudied on Broadway theatre in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.
Weld was cast in a supporting role in the Paul Newman–Joanne Woodward comedy Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1958), made by 20th Century Fox. At Paramount Pictures, Weld was in The Five Pennies (1959), playing the daughter of Danny Kaye, who called Weld "15 going on 27". She guest-starred a number of times on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1958–59). She appeared in 77 Sunset Strip with Efrem Zimbalist Jr., in the 1959 episode, "Secret Island".
At Columbia, Weld had a leading role in the teen film Because They're Young (1960), starring Dick Clark. She was second billed in Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) made by Albert Zugsmith at Allied Artists. She made a second film for Zugsmith, The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, made in 1959 but not released for two years.
She guest starred on The Red Skelton Hour in "Appleby: The Big Producer" (1959) and on 77 Sunset Strip (1959) and The Millionaire (1960).
At Fox, she played Joy, a free-spirited university student in High Time, starring Bing Crosby and Fabian Forte. She sang a love song to Fabian in the season opener of NBC's The Dinah Shore Chevy Show on October 9, 1960. Four weeks later, on November 13, Weld returned to the network as a guest star in NBC's The Tab Hunter Show. She guested in "The Mormons" for Zane Grey Theatre (1960).
For Fox, Weld had a supporting role in the sequel Return to Peyton Place (1961), in the part played by Hope Lange in the original. Her portrayal of an incest victim was well received, but the film was less successful than its predecessor. She supported Elvis Presley in Wild in the Country (1962), along with Lange. Weld had an off-screen romance with Presley.
Fox also used her as a guest star on Follow the Sun ("The Highest Wall") and Adventures in Paradise ("The Velvet Trap"). On November 12, 1961, she played a singer, Cherie, in the seventh episode of ABC's television series Bus Stop, produced by Fox, with Marilyn Maxwell and Gary Lockwood. It was an adaptation of the play by William Inge, with Weld in the role originated on screen by Marilyn Monroe.
Weld supported Terry-Thomas in the Frank Tashlin comedy Bachelor Flat (1962), for Fox. Following the film's release, she appeared on What's My Line? as the celebrity mystery guest.
Weld's mother was scandalized by her teen daughter's love affairs with older men, such as actor John Ireland, but Weld resisted, saying, If you don't leave me alone, I'll quit being an actress—which means there ain't gonna be no more money for you, Mama'. Finally, when I was sixteen, I left home. I just went out the door and bought my own house".
She was Stanley Kubrick's first choice to play the role of Lolita in his 1962 film, but she turned the offer down, saying: "I didn't have to play it. I was Lolita".
Weld took three months off to go to Greenwich Village in New York and "study myself". Then she starred along with Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen in Soldier in the Rain, written by Blake Edwards from a novel by William Goldman, but the film was only a minor success.
She won excellent reviews for a February 7, 1962, episode in the Naked City, "A Case Study of Two Savages", adapted from the real-life case of backwood killers Charles Starkweather (played by Rip Torn) and Caril Ann Fugate, (depicted as the character Ora Mae Youngham, played by Weld), Starkweather's 14 year old girlfriend, on a homicidal spree ending in New York City. She guest starred on Route 66 in "Love Is a Skinny Kid" (1962), Ben Casey in "When You See an Evil Man" (1962), and The Dick Powell Theatre in "A Time to Die" (1962) and "Run Till It's Dark" with Fabian (1962).
In 1963, Weld guest starred as Denise Dunlear in The Eleventh Hour, in the episode "Something Crazy's Going on in the Back Room" alongside Angela Lansbury. She was in "The Legend of Lylah Clare" for The DuPont Show of the Week (1963), directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.
In 1964, she appeared in the title role of the episode "Keep an Eye on Emily" on Craig Stevens's CBS drama, Mr. Broadway. In the same year, she appeared as a troubled blind woman in "Dark Corner", an episode of The Fugitive.
She appeared with her former co-star Dwayne Hickman in Jack Palance circus drama The Greatest Show on Earth on ABC, in separate episodes.
Weld supported Bob Hope in the comedy I'll Take Sweden (1965).
Weld got a star role in Lord Love a Duck (1966), with Roddy McDowall, Ruth Gordon, and Harvey Korman. Weld received excellent reviews, but the film was a box office disappointment.
She followed it playing Abigail in a TV adaptation of The Crucible (1967), opposite George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst. After guest starring on Cimarron Strip (1967), Weld had the starring role in Pretty Poison (1968), co-starring Anthony Perkins. The film became a cult success, but she disliked the film and did not get on with director Noel Black.
Around this time, Weld became famous for turning down roles in films that succeeded at the box office, such as Bonnie and Clyde, Rosemary's Baby, True Grit, Cactus Flower, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. In a 1971 interview with The New York Times, Weld explained that she had chosen to reject these roles precisely because she believed they would be commercial successes: "Do you think I want a success? I refused 'Bonnie and Clyde' because I was nursing at the time, but also because deep down I knew it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of 'Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue' or whatever it was called. It reeked of success".
The films Weld did make included I Walk the Line (1970), opposite Gregory Peck; A Safe Place (1971), co-starring Jack Nicholson and Orson Welles and directed by Henry Jaglom, and Play It as It Lays (1972), again with Perkins, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Weld attracted attention as the favored, out-of-control Katherine in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)packing into her short screen time an orgy, a divorce, a lot of alcohol, and two abortionsand was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; later she appeared in Who'll Stop the Rain (1978) opposite Nick Nolte; and the ensemble satire Serial (1980).
She said she preferred television. "What I dig about TV is the pace", she said. "Two weeks for even a heavy part – great. Too much thinking about a role is a disaster for me. I mean, let's do it, let's get it done."
She played the lead in the TV films: A Question of Guilt (1978), in which she plays a woman accused of murdering her children; (1980), a remake of Madame X (1981); a new version of The Rainmaker (1982); and co-starred with Donald Sutherland in the TV film The Winter of Our Discontent (1983), for which she received an Emmy nomination.
In feature films, Weld had a supporting role in Michael Mann's 1981 film Thief, opposite James Caan. She played Al Pacino's wife in Author! Author! (1982), and had a supporting role in Heartbreak Hotel (1988).
In 1984, she appeared in Sergio Leone's gangster film Once Upon a Time in America, playing a jeweler's secretary who is in on a plan to steal a shipment of diamonds. During the robbery, her character goads Robert De Niro's character, David "Noodles" Aaronson, into "raping" her with her complicity. She later meets up with the gang from the robbery, and becomes the moll of James Woods' character Max Bercovicz. The performance earned Weld a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress of 1984.
On TV, Weld was in Scorned and Swindled (1984), Circle of Violence (1986) and Something in Common (1986).
In 1993, she played a police officer's neurosis wife in Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall. She had small supporting roles in Feeling Minnesota (1996), Investigating Sex (2001), and Chelsea Walls (2001).
Weld married British actor, musician and comedian Dudley Moore on September 20, 1975. On February 26, 1976, they had a son, Patrick. The couple divorced in 1980, with Weld receiving a $200,000 settlement plus $3,000 monthly alimony for the next 4 years and an additional $2,500 a month in child support. Best of the Gossip Columns (September 29, 1981) – via Google Books
On October 18, 1985, she married Israeli concert violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman, becoming stepmother to his daughters Arianna Zukerman and Natalia Zukerman. The couple divorced in 2001.Prentice, Michael (April 12, 2001). " Zukerman, Weld divorce with 'amicable' settlement". The Ottawa Citizen. p. D6. In court papers, Zukerman quoted Weld as saying, "Why do I need to go to another concert when I've heard the piece before?" and "I can't stand the backstage scene. I don't want to hear another note."
Between marriages, Weld dated Al Pacino, David Steinberg, Mikhail Baryshnikov (whose previous girlfriend, Jessica Lange, had been Weld's best friend), Omar Sharif, Richard Gere and Ryan O'Neal.
Weld sold her beach house in Montauk, New York in the late 2000s and moved to Carbondale, Colorado. In 2018, she left Colorado and bought a $1.8 million home in the Hollywood Hills.
| 1956 | Rock, Rock, Rock | Dori Graham | ||
| 1958 | Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! | Comfort Goodpasture | ||
| 1959 | The Five Pennies | Dorothy Nichols, age 12 to 14 | ||
| 1960 | Because They're Young | Anne Gregor | ||
| Sex Kittens Go to College | Jody | |||
| High Time | Joy Elder | |||
| The Private Lives of Adam and Eve | Vangie Harper | |||
| 1961 | Return to Peyton Place | Selena Cross | ||
| Wild in the Country | Noreen Braxton | |||
| 1962 | Bachelor Flat | Libby Bushmill/Libby Smith | ||
| 1963 | Soldier in the Rain | Bobby Jo Pepperdine | ||
| 1965 | I'll Take Sweden | JoJo Holcomb | ||
| The Cincinnati Kid | Christian Rudd | |||
| 1966 | Lord Love a Duck | Barbara Ann Greene | ||
| 1968 | Pretty Poison | Sue Ann Stepanek | ||
| 1970 | I Walk the Line | Alma McCain | ||
| 1971 | A Safe Place | Susan/Noah | ||
| 1972 | Play It as It Lays | Maria Wyeth Lang | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama | |
| 1977 | Looking for Mr. Goodbar | Katherine Dunn | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | |
| 1978 | Who'll Stop the Rain | Marge Converse | ||
| 1980 | Serial | Kate Linville Holroyd | ||
| 1981 | Thief | Jessie | ||
| 1982 | Author! Author! | Gloria Travalian | ||
| 1984 | Once Upon a Time in America | Carol | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role | |
| 1988 | Heartbreak Hotel | Marie Wolfe | ||
| 1993 | Falling Down | Amanda Prendergast | ||
| 1996 | Feeling Minnesota | Nora Clayton | ||
| 2001 | Investigating Sex | Sasha Faldo | ||
| Chelsea Walls | Greta | |||
| 1959 | The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet | Connie/Cathy | 3 episodes |
| The Red Skelton Hour | Starlet | Episode: "Appleby: The Big Producer" | |
| 77 Sunset Strip | Barrie Connell | Episode: "Secret Island" | |
| 1959–62 | The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis | Thalia Menninger | Series regular (season 1) Guest star (seasons 3–4) |
| 1960 | 77 Sunset Strip | Kitten Lang | Episode: "Condor's Lair" |
| The Millionaire | Beth Boland | Episode: "Millionaire Katherine Boland" | |
| The Tab Hunter Show | Ginny | Episode: "The Doll in the Bathtub" | |
| Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre | Beth Lawson | Episode: "The Mormons" | |
| 1961 | Follow the Sun | Barbara Beaumont | Episode: "The Highest Wall" |
| Bus Stop | Cherie | Episode: "Cherie" | |
| 1962 | Adventures in Paradise | Gloria Dannora | Episode: "The Velvet Trap" |
| Naked City | Ora Mae Youngham | Episode: "A Case Study of Two Savages" | |
| Route 66 | Miriam Moore | Episode: "Love Is a Skinny Kid" | |
| Ben Casey | Melanie Gardner | Episode: "When You See an Evil Man" | |
| 1964 | Mr. Broadway | Emily | Episode: "An Eye on Emily" |
| The Fugitive | Mattie Braydon | Episode: "Dark Corner" | |
| 1967 | The Crucible | Abigail Williams | Television film |
| 1968 | Cimarron Strip | Heller | Episode: "Heller" |
| 1974 | Reflections of Murder | Vicky | Television film |
| 1975 | F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood | Zelda Fitzgerald | Television film |
| 1978 | A Question of Guilt | Doris Winters | Television film |
| 1980 | Lillie Lloyd McCann | Television film | |
| 1981 | Madame X | Holly Richardson | Television film |
| 1982 | The Rainmaker | Lizzie | Television film CableACE Awards |
| 1983 | The Winter of our Discontent | Margie Young-Hunt | Television film Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie |
| 1984 | Scorned and Swindled | Sharon Clark | Television film |
| 1986 | Circle of Violence | Georgia Benfield | Television film |
| Something in Common | Shelly Grant | Television film | |
| 1990 | Chillers | Jessica | Episode: "Something You Have to Live With" |
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