Sue Ane Langdon

Roustabout, 1964

Frankie And Johnny, 1966

Born: March 8, 1936, Paterson, New Jersey.
Husband: Jack Emrek
Mailing address:
c/o Bob Hanusek
24115 Long Valley Road
Calabasas CA 91302

In most of her films, Sue Ane played "the funny girl". It's probably because-- well, because she's funny! I had the opportunity to talk to Sue Ane on the phone a couple of times about this page, and she disarmed me right away with her sense of humor, and down-to-earth attitude. It comes across in her films, too!

When Sue Ane was two, her widowed mother was left to support herself and Sue Ane. She became a voice instructor, and directed student theatre and music productions at the several colleges where she taught. Sue Ane made her debut at the age of five in one of these shows. Growing up mainly in the states of Texas, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Oregon nurtured Sue Ane's love of the West. After studying four years in New York, and working on and off Broadway, she headed for Hollywood. Her first big break was as a regular on the TV series, Bachelor Father, with John Forsythe, where she worked from 1959 to 1961. She made her film debut in The Great Impostor (1960), with Tony Curtis. In 1962, she appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine, announcing her new role as Alice on The Honeymooners, with Jackie Gleason, which lasted for a year. She made many TV guest appearances throughout the sixties, including shots on The Andy Griffith Show, McHale's Navy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bonanza, The Wild, Wild West, and Gunsmoke.

In both of her appearances in Elvis films, Sue Ane played a "second girl" part, rather than leading lady. In Roustabout, she was Madame Mijanou, the carnival's fortune-teller, who flirts with Elvis, but steers him back to Joan Freeman. In Frankie And Johnny, she's Mitzi, the girl who tells on him ("makin' love to that Nellie Bly"). In between these two films, she made a comedy-western with Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda, The Rounders, and later appeared with Henry Fonda again in The Cheyenne Social Club, another comedy-western, with James Stewart. Besides the Elvis films, I remember her most from the TV series, Arnie, in the early '70's (for which she won a Golden Globe Award). More recently, Sue Ane has appeared in the Wierd Al Yankovic film, UHF, in 1989, and in the two Zapped! movies (1982 & 1990).

Today, Sue Ane lives on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley, which is outfitted in Western-style antique Monterey furniture, of which she and her late husband Jack Emrek were both avid collectors.