Goldengirl, Baywatch
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Even if you don’t have plans to become an actress, it can still happen if you have the right look. One person who knows this very well is Susan Anton, the tall former pageant winner that would go on to find fame through her acting and singing careers. Anton starred in many memorable productions throughout her career, and though she doesn’t act on screen as frequently these days in her late 60s, Anton still looks amazing and has been able to talk about her illustrious career.
Anton was born on October 12, 1950 in Oak Glen, California, and was raised in nearby Yucaipa. It was there that she finished high school, and stayed in San Bernardino County to attend college, and started her time as a pageant queen. Anton’s beauty was unquestionable, and she was selected to appear in advertisements, kicking off her career. Soon enough, acting would follow for Anton.
Anton called being a pageant queen a pivotal part of her career. “When I was growing up, I didn’t have a real plan,” Anton said. “I had no idea. I thought I was really going to go to college and just get married and probably be a nursery school teacher. I didn’t have aspirations to be in show business. I had fantasies about it. I loved watching the musical on television and I thought it was all so glamorous and all so exciting. I loved the idea of it, but there’s no background in my family, no connection to it on any level.”
“When I was in high school, the idea of really being able to be an entertainer was just a fantasy,” Anton continued. “It was a dream that I thought couldn’t possibly happen…I was majoring in child psychology when on a dare from my high school boyfriend - he dared me to enter a local beauty pageant. Then, when I saw there was going to be a talent portion, I said, ‘Well, I’ve always wanted to sing so maybe I’ll get up there and do it. It might be the only chance I’ll get to do that.’ I won.”
Anton made her acting debut in 1973 when she appeared in the TV movie “The Great American Beauty Contest”, fittingly enough. She then returned to acting three years later by appearing in episodes of the shows “Serpico” and “Police Story”. Anton then rounded out the decade with guest spots in “Switch” and had the titular role with the short-lived series “Stop Susan Williams”, as well as her first films with “Wizards” and “Goldengirl”.
To start of the 1980s, Anton released a song with Fred Knoblock called “Killin’ Time”, which ended up being a hit. The single reached the top 10 of the US Country Charts on Billboard, and was in the top 30 of the Hot 100. Anton has even released an album since then, with “One Night” debuting in 2001.
Anton popped up in a lot of productions during the 1980s, many of which were television movies such as “The Boy Who Loved Trolls” and “Hardesty House”. Feature films during this time included “Spring Fever”, “Cannonball Run II” and “Making Mr. Right”. Other guest appearances on TV included “Mr. Belvedere” and “Murder She Wrote”. Throughout the 1990s, more guest roles would be added for Anton, including “The Ben Stiller Show”, “The Larry Sanders Show” and a recurring spot on “Baywatch”.
So far in the new millennium, Anton hasn’t popped up as much. She’s had two films so far, which includes one short film and her most recent appearance came in 2008’s “Playing with Fire”. Her recent television roles include “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and 2016’s “Sharknado: The 4th Awakens”.
Anton has spent a lot of her time in Las Vegas, where she has been performing for years. She now lives in Sin City and does solo shows. This includes doing cabaret jazz performances. Anton says it’s “one of the true gems I think we have now in Las Vegas,” adding that “It’s such a gift to entertainers, where it’s not about filling Cirque du Soleil-sized venues. For me personally it’s a throwback to what I originally loved about Las Vegas.”
“When I was a young entertainer in the first shows that I saw, they were like in the Copa Room with Sammy Davis Jr. and Mel Torme,” Anton continued. “They were intimate rooms, and the talent was right here next to the audience, very intimate and exciting.”
Talking about her history with Las Vegas, Anton says that “I was 15 years old and I was on a Greyhound bus with a bunch of other teenagers, and we were on a big summer discovery thing that my godmother sent me on. It was called Touring Teens, and it was just kind of like summer camp on a bus where you traveled around the United States, and saw all these great landmarks. I’ll never forget driving through Las Vegas. This goes way back, but going down the Strip and seeing all those lights for the first time was the most incredible thing I had ever seen.”
Anton knows that she’s more of a small scale entertainer, and that’s just fine. You might be able to catch her performing on a cruise ship to audiences who are certainly entertained. “You know, they’re one of the few real showrooms left for an artist that’s kind of in the category that I find myself in,” Anton said of performing on cruises. “I’m not J-Lo out there selling 8 billion albums. So, I’m not in a big concert hall. A lot of Las Vegas showrooms are either lavish production shows or extravagant productions with Celine Dion…So, these rooms are hard to find. Cruise ships have fabulous showrooms.”
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