RIP Susan Anspach

Susan Anspach, the radiant and rebellious actress who personified the 1960s-into-the-’70s counterculture in films like “Five Easy Pieces” and “Blume in Love,” as well as in the stage musical “Hair,” died on Monday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 75. Susan Florence Anspach was born in Queens on November 23, 1942, and raised at first by a great-aunt. Because of neglect and physical abuse, Susan left home at 15 and, with a Roman Catholic organization’s help, moved in with a family in Harlem. She received a full scholarship to the Catholic University of America in Washington, where she studied music and drama, and made her professional debut in Thornton Wilder’s one-act play “Pullman Car Hiawatha” at a summer theater in Maryland. Ms. Anspach continued to work in both movies and television until her late 60s. One of her last films was “Wild About Harry” (2009). In addition to her son Caleb Goddard, whose father is Jack Nicholson, she is survived by a daughter, Catherine Goddard, whose father was Steve Curry, an original cast member of “Hair”; three grandchildren; and a brother, Robert Anspach. Anspach appeared as the widow in her only Euro-western 1989’s “Blood Red” starring Dennis Hopper and Giancarlo Giannnni