Susan Bernard
American actress (1948-2019)
Susan Lynn Bernard (February 11, 1948 – June 21, 2019) was an American author, actress, model and businesswoman from Los Angeles, California. She was the daughter of photographer Bruno Bernard.
Career
Susan Bernard was the author of six books, including Marilyn: Intimate Exposures, Bernard of Hollywood's Ultimate Pin-Up Book and Joyous Motherhood.
She was the president of Bernard of Hollywood/Renaissance Road Incorporated.
Bernard starred in the Russ Meyer film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! in 1965, and in two seasons of General Hospital in the late 1960s.
She appeared in Playboy in December 1966, and was believed to be the first Jewish Playmate of the month, though in recent years Cindy Fuller, Miss May 1959, has claimed that she was the first Jewish Playmate.
In an interview in the August 1998 issue of Femme Fatales, Bernard revealed, "I was the first under-18 Jewish virgin who was in the centerfold placed in front of a Christmas tree," and that she'd never been nude in front of anyone other than her mother prior to posing for Mario Casilli, who had been one of her father's apprentices.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Susan Bernard” is american actress (1948-2019). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Susan, Bernard and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american actress (1948-2019)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q433616. VIAF identifies the subject as 232974038. The Library of Congress control number is n78071892. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 2019, 1965 and 1966.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Susan Bernard”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Susan Bernard primary sources, Susan Bernard archive and Susan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Susan Bernard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.