Imitation of Life (1959)

Aspiring actress Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) meets Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore) a homeless black woman at Coney Island and soon they share a tiny apartment. Each woman has an intolerable daughter, though Annie's little girl Sarah Jane (Karen Dicker and, later, Susan Kohner), is by far the worse. Neurotic and obnoxious, Sarah Jane doesn't like being black; since she's light-skinned (her father was practically white), she spends the rest of the film passing as white, much to her mother's heartache and shame. Lora, meanwhile, virtually ignores her own daughter (Terry Burnham and then Sandra Dee) in a single-minded quest for stardom. Legendary movie director Douglas Sirk's last American film.





Lana Turner ... Lora Meredith

John Gavin ... Steve Archer

Sandra Dee ... Susie, age 16

Robert Alda ... Allen Loomis

Susan Kohner ... Sarah Jane, age 18

Dan O'Herlihy ... David Edwards

Juanita Moore ... Annie Johnson

Karin Dicker ... Sarah Jane, age 8

Terry Burnham ... Susie, age 6

John Vivyan ... Young man

Lee Goodman ... Photographer

Ann Robinson ... Showgirl



Troy Donahue ... Frankie

Sandra Gould ... Annette

David Tomack ... Mr. McKenney