Bent On Stardom

susanne benton--her dues-paying days a thing of the past--is busy putting together an enviable set of screen credits

During the past year, Susanne got a steady diet of work, including "That Cold Day in the Park," "Catch-22," an independent flick called "The Survival Game" and the Noel Black--directed "Run Shadow Run," in which she plays the ex-girlfriend of a suicidal film director.

A Toronto native whose parents separated when she was three, Susanne grew up on the road with her father, a pianist; later, she worked as a skip tracer in L. A. (and found her mother by accident). All along, Susanne says, she was training herself to act in films--a profession that enables her to "get involved in people's lives" and to feel that her own life has been "redeemed."