Susan Berman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Susan Berman
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| Born | Susan Jane Berman May 18, 1945 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | December 23, 2000 (aged 55) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Home of Peace Cemetery |
| Occupation | Journalist, author |
| Language | English |
| Education | University of California, Los Angeles (B.A.) University of California, Berkeley (M.A.) |
| Genre | Fiction, nonfiction |
| Subject | American Mafia, Las Vegas |
| Notable works | Easy Street |
| Spouse | Christopher ("Mister") Margulies (divorced) |
| Relatives | Davie Berman (father) |
Susan Jane Berman (born May 18, 1945 – died December 23, 2000) was an American journalist and author. She wrote books and articles for magazines. Her most famous book, Easy Street, was about her life as the daughter of a person involved in organized crime.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Susan Berman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1945. She was the only child of Betty Ewald and David "Davie" Berman.
Susan grew up in Las Vegas and later in Hollywood, California. At the Chadwick School, her friends included Jann Wenner and Liza Minnelli. She went to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967. There, she met Robert Durst. In 1969, she earned a Master of Arts degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.
Writing Career
Susan Berman wrote novels and two memoirs, which are true stories about her own life. She also wrote a college guidebook in 1971 called The Underground Guide to the College of Your Choice.
Her first memoir, Easy Street, shared details about her life as the daughter of a person involved in organized crime. A famous talent agency, the William Morris Agency, tried to get Hollywood producers interested in making her book into a movie. The movie rights were sold for a large sum of money, but the film was never made.
Susan also worked as a journalist in San Francisco. She wrote for newspapers like the San Francisco Examiner and magazines such as New York and Cosmopolitan. She also wrote for TV shows, including the Westinghouse Evening Show on KPIX-TV and the People show on CBS.
In 1996, she co-wrote a documentary for A&E called Lady Las Vegas. She also wrote a book with the same name. She was even nominated for an award from the Writers Guild of America for her work on the documentary.
Before she died, Susan was working on a TV project for Showtime called Sin City. It was planned to be a show similar to the popular series The Sopranos.
Personal Life
Susan Berman lived in West Hollywood for several years. Later, she moved to Benedict Canyon, a neighborhood in Los Angeles.
She was married once to Christopher "Mister" Margulies in June 1984. After her marriage, she also helped raise the two children of a boyfriend.
Books Written by Susan Berman
Nonfiction Books
- The Underground Guide to the College of Your Choice (1971)
- Easy Street: The True Story of a Mob Family (1981)
- Lady Las Vegas: The Inside Story Behind America's Neon Oasis (1996)
Fiction Books
- Driver, Give a Soldier a Lift (1976)
- Fly Away Home (1996)
- Spiderweb (1997)
In Popular Culture
Susan Berman's life and story have been featured in movies and TV shows.
- In the 2010 film All Good Things, the character Deborah Lehrman, played by Lily Rabe, was inspired by Susan Berman.
- Her story was also covered in a CBS News documentary series called 48 Hours. The episode was titled "Murder 90210" and aired on January 30, 2016.
- The TV show Law & Order: Criminal Intent also had an episode called "Maledictus" that was based on her case.
