Of Chevy Chase, MD and Los Angeles, CA; cherished daughter of the late Joseph Eis and the late Pauline Eis and loving wife of the late Billy Sysyn died in Los Angeles on January 6, 2012 from complications from Parkinson's disease. Her joy of life and her free spirit will be missed. No service is scheduled.

SuSu attended some of our reunions, but she was unable to make the 50th.

 SuSu, was at Carnegie-Mellon along with other B-CC classmates, Susie Middleman, Betsy Blachley and Jane Lake Birt.

In 1970 she played Nellie Gunston,Buffie Harrington, and Mildred Ward in the original series of Dark Shadows. The show was a very popular gothic soap opera on ABC TV, and ran from 1966 to 1971. The show featured werewolves, witches, vampires, time travel, and a parallel universe. SuSu appeared in a total of 15 episodes. She appeared in Broadway (in 1967 in Rosenkranz and Gildenstern are Dead), Off-Broadway, and the New York Shakespeare Festival productions, as well as London stage work. She also appeared in the Bon Jovi music video "Living in Sin."  She guest-starred in the primetime shows "Katie Loves a Mystery" and "Delvecchio", and had day player roles in the"Guiding Light" soap opera.

  Below are SuSu's senior yearbook photo and a photo of her when she appeared in Dark Shadows:
 

Washington Post:

Classmate Jane Lake Birt was a close friend of SuSu and has sent this remembrance  to help us remember her:

So broken hearted. SuSu and I were roommates at Carnegie Mellon. I have kept in distant touch with her ever since, except for these last few years when she went into a care facility not long after her beloved husband Billy died. Her parents were fabulous and always so welcoming to her friends, feeding us with mama's homemade cheesecake and sharing Friday evening meals with whoever SuSu brought through the door. Her mother had a stall at the Farmers Market in Bethesda, selling her pottery. Her father was a trade unionist activist in the printing business. She was indeed talented and did well at Carnegie drama school then won a place at Lamda in London. Then New York where she had a good run in TV daytime soaps and some theatre. Many of her cohort at Carnegie went onto fame in West Coast TV productions, Hill Street Blues and NYPD, produced by Steven Bochco. Rene Auberjonois was another successful classmate that had moved to LA. SuSu followed but failed to prosper. There followed a period when she was involved in Hari Khrisna. She married late to Billy Syn-Syn thus becoming SuSu Syn-Syn, but kept Elisabeth Eis as her stage name. Billy was the love of her life. Sadly they only had a short time together. At the 40th reunion to which she came with Billy she was already suffering from the side effects of an undisclosed illness. She was a searcher, an experimenter, a player as all thespians are and I only hope she found some well earned respite with her Billy. I will always remember her throaty laugh and high spirits.

Jane

One of SuSu's many admirers sent us this recollection:

Hi:

My name is James, I am 64, born in '57 in NJ and I ran home every afternoon to watch Dark Shadows. Later in life, in my forties I bought the entire Dark Shadows series on DVD (1,225 episodes) and 13 years later I'm in my 12th viewing of the entire series, as strange as that may seem.

I just happen to love Elizabeth Eis, SuSu as I've learned from reading the memorial to her you have published. Her characters on Dark Shadows, the person of Elizabeth Eis is one of my favorites of the entire series. I imagine who on the cast I would like to sit down to dinner with and SuSu is on the top of the list.

So, I just wanted to let you know that there are still fans who love Elizabeth Eis very much. Something of her beautiful nature shines through all of her characters and she did wonderful work on Dark Shadows.

Thank you for writing the beautiful memorial to her.

Sincerely, Keith James Thomson

James