Susie Cusack: the youngest of the five acting Cusacks

Susie Cusack is an American actress and the youngest of Dick and Nancy Cusack’s five children, all of whom became actors. Her sister Joan and brother John are the famous ones. Her sister Ann has worked steadily for three decades. Susie made six credited appearances between 1992 and 2003, including two films for Robert Altman.

She is the only one of the five without a Wikipedia entry, which is probably why you are here. This page assembles what the film databases and the family record actually contain.

Susie Cusack: quick facts

Her filmography

Six credits across eleven years. Here they are in order.

High Fidelity is worth flagging for what it is. Her brother John starred in it and co-wrote the screenplay, and her sister Joan had a substantial role. Susie appears as a party guest. Three siblings, one film, three very different sizes of part.

Her last credited work was in 2003. Nothing has appeared since.

The two Altman films

The most interesting thing in her filmography is who directed the first and last of her significant roles.

Short Cuts (1993) is Robert Altman’s adaptation of Raymond Carver, a sprawling ensemble film that won the Golden Lion at Venice and drew comparisons to Nashville. Susie plays Nancy, and the part matters to the picture. Her character is at the centre of the violent act that closes one of the film’s intersecting storylines, opposite Chris Penn.

Ten years later she appeared in The Company (2003), Altman’s film about the Joffrey Ballet, credited simply as Susie. It was among the last films he completed before his death in 2006.

Two Altman pictures a decade apart, at either end of a short career, is an unusual shape. It also places her alongside Lili Taylor, another Piven Theatre alumna who worked with Altman in the same period.

The Cusack family

This is the context that makes the filmography make sense.

Her parents

Dick Cusack was born Richard John Cusack in New York City in 1925. He served with the US Army in the Philippines in the Second World War, then attended the College of the Holy Cross, where he played basketball alongside Bob Cousy. He worked in advertising before turning to acting, playwriting and documentary filmmaking, and he owned a production company.

He is also the reason his children had somewhere to train. The Evanston Arts Council honoured him for preserving a school building and converting it into the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, which houses the Piven Theatre Workshop. He finished the final draft of a play two weeks before his death in June 2003, and it was produced posthumously.

Nancy Cusack, born Ann Paula Carolan in 1929, was a mathematics teacher and a political activist. She married Dick in 1960 and died in 2022.

The household’s politics were serious. The family were friends of Philip Berrigan, the Catholic priest and anti-war campaigner. That detail explains a good deal about the household her brother John grew up in.

The Piven Theatre Workshop

All five Cusack children trained at the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, founded by family friends Byrne and Joyce Piven. The family’s names appear across dozens of Young People’s Company credits, in ensemble roles and crew as well as leads.

Its alumni list is remarkable for a suburban children’s theatre programme: Jeremy Piven, Aidan Quinn, Lili Taylor, Kate Walsh, the playwright Sarah Ruhl, and four Cusacks.

Susie was profiled alongside Ann and Joan in the Chicago Tribune in 1992, in a piece about the three sisters that quoted Byrne Piven on their differences as performers. That remains one of the few pieces of press attention she has had in her own right.

Two different Cusack acting families

If you search her name, Google will also show you Sorcha Cusack, Niamh Cusack and Dymphna Cusack. None of them is related.

There are two separate acting dynasties with this surname:

• The Chicago Cusacks. Dick and Nancy Cusack’s children: Ann, Bill, Joan, John and Susie. Irish-American, raised in Evanston, trained at the Piven.
• The Irish Cusacks. The children of Cyril Cusack (1910–1993) and Maureen Kiely: Sinéad, Sorcha, Niamh, Pádraig, and half-sister Catherine. Dublin-based, with Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC careers. Sinéad married Jeremy Irons.

They share a surname and a profession and nothing else. Search results mix them constantly.

What isn’t settled

1. Her birth year. IMDb says 1971. Prime Video’s page header gives 30 November 1970, then states 1971 in the body of the same page. Nobody has reconciled it.
2. Whether she still acts. Her last credit is from 2003. No announcement, interview or explanation exists.
3. Her training details. The Piven Theatre is documented for the family collectively. Two of her sisters also attended Berklee College of Music; whether she did is not recorded.
4. Anything about her private life. No marriage, children or residence appears in any source, and she has given no interviews.
5. A net worth. No figure exists, and for an actress with six credits and two decades of silence, none could be meaningful.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Susie Cusack?

An American actress and the youngest of the five acting Cusack siblings, including Joan and John.

What has Susie Cusack been in?

Hero, Short Cuts, Not Again!, Chicken Soup for the Soul, High Fidelity and The Company.

Is she related to John Cusack?

Yes. He is her older brother. Ann, Bill and Joan are her other siblings.

Was she in High Fidelity with her brother?

Yes, as a party guest. John starred and co-wrote it, and Joan also appeared.

Is Susie Cusack still acting?

Her last credit is from 2003. Nothing has been announced since.

Is she related to Sinéad or Niamh Cusack?

No. Those are the Irish Cusacks, children of Cyril Cusack, and a completely separate family.

When was Susie Cusack born?

Sources conflict between 1970 and 1971. Both appear on the same database page.

Conclusion

Five children, one suburban theatre workshop, and five acting careers of wildly different sizes. Joan has two Oscar nominations. John has more than eighty films. Ann has worked constantly since 1992.

Susie made six appearances, two of them for one of the great American directors, and then stopped. That is not a footnote to anyone else’s career. It is a short one of her own, and there is no reason to assume anything went wrong.

Jackson Padilla

JacksonPadilla is a writer at Around Celebrities, covering celebrity families, relationships, biographies, and the stories behind the stars. With a focus on clear and engaging storytelling, Kole helps readers discover the people and connections beyond the spotlight.