While her two older sisters, Kelly and Karen, took to the stage at St. Vincent’s Academy, Susie Sharpe Hohenstein was busy excelling at track and field, playing tennis and beating up anyone who disrespected her family. Now she’s the actress with an agent and several film credits on her resume. A chance appeal from WSAV’s Kim Gusby last February, and an adventurous spirit, opened the door to a whole new career for this “Accidental Actress.”
Susie Hohenstein doesn’t fit the profile of a movie starlet. Her early years don’t resemble an episode of “Glee,” with Susie winning the starring role in her high school musical. But at 49, this high-soprano, who has more positive energy than two starlets, followed her own path through an open door to an exciting new future.
Born Nov. 20, 1962, in Fulton County, Susie was the third sister in a family that included her younger brother, Joe. The family moved to Savannah when Susie was 5. Her father, Joe, was an architect with the Corps of Engineers.
“We are a lot alike; we even look alike,” Susie says. “My mother said I even have my dad’s hands. He was an artist and photographer. He loved golf, and we played together in tournaments. I was his ‘extra boy,’ because I did all the tomboy things, all the athletic things, and enjoyed doing that with him.”
Her mother, Mary, worked for Southern Bell Telephone Co. until the girls came along and then was a stay-at-home mom.
“I look like her, too,” Susie says. “I have her curly hair. My father wanted to name me Katrina, but mom said no. I don’t look like a Katrina, though I would act like one ... like Hurricane Katrina.”
The family settled at 41st and Waters and joined Blessed Sacrament Parish, where all the children went to school.
“I was a tomboy, and got in trouble a lot ... I laughed and talked a lot. I was a clown,” Susie recalls. “I had a lot of energy. In those days, what they call ADD ... they didn’t call it that then. We were tough — street-smart kids.”
Her younger brother, Joe, was hit by a drunk driver when he was 8. After being in a cast for six months, he had to learn how to walk again.
“It took a while, and people made fun of him,” Susie says. “I’d say, don’t you ever make fun of him, and I’d beat them up. They behaved themselves after that.”
Music was mandatory at Blessed Sacrament, and Susie started singing in the children’s choir, which was directed by Patty Schreck.
“I loved her to death. She had to keep me close by and watch me. I had so much fun.”
She excelled at track and field at Blessed Sacrament. She played soccer, basketball and even played football with the guys.
“We had skirts on back then, and one day I tripped and my skirt flew up, so one of my teachers took the football away and said I couldn’t play football anymore,” she says. After graduating in 1977, she went on to St. Vincent’s Academy. “I loved that school. I love it to this day.
“That’s where I found myself ... who I wanted to be, who my friends were, and who really counted in my life. I was older ... there were a lot more things to choose from. The Sisters of Mercy helped me in a lot of ways. I found that I could do anything.”
While her sisters were on stage and did plays, Susie followed her own drummer. She excelled at track and field and softball. She was the photographer for the yearbook staff and focused her creativity in writing, photography and pottery.
“My English teacher asked me why I wasn’t in particular theater production, and I told her I was in the middle of track season. I could only concentrate on one thing.”
After graduating from St. Vincent’s in 1981, Susie went to then-Armstrong State College to pursue a career as a dental hygienist.
“For three years I was a professional student. I majored in fraternity and sorority (Sigma Kappa),” she says.
She ended up on academic probation, but persuaded Armstrong’s President, Dr. Burnett, to give her another chance. Though she buckled down the next two years, she stopped short of graduation to work full-time. She worked at the Briar Patch and helped an Oglethorpe Mall photo studio take pictures of children with the Easter Bunny. Over the years, she worked in the boy’s department at Belk’s, for an orthodontist, a CPA firm and PepsiCo. She was working for Life of Virginia Insurance Company when she met her husband, John B. Hohenstein III. They were married at St. Francis Cabrini in 1990. John has worked in his family’s shipping business for over 30 years, and took over after his father passed away in 1981. Their son, John B. Hohenstein, IV, is a graduate of Belmont Abbey in Charlotte, NC. He is currently in the hospitality industry and working on his Master’s degree from Northeastern University out of Boston, Mass.
Now a wife and new mother, Susie stayed at home to raise her son.
“I felt it was very important for him and me to start off at home,” she says. “We made a lot of sacrifices, but it all worked out.” When Johnny was in grammar school, she went back to work for Grey Line Tours. “They wanted me to be a tour guide, but I said, no. I used to sing the song, ‘Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder,’ to the customers while they were waiting for the tour. Pam Sauers and I would get on board, and we’d have them stomping. It was a lot of fun.”
Feeling the need for a career with benefits, her husband gave her a lead on a job at the Savannah Bank on Wilmington Island.
“They hired me on the spot. I could talk to a fencepost or a brass monkey and order him to talk back to me, so I was the drive-thru teller. It was like a sitcom. One day, Patty Schreck came through. She said, ‘Susie Sharpe, is that you?’ I said, yes, Ma’am, that’s me. I told her I’d love to come and sing with her, and she said, ‘You come on!’ That was 2006, and it’s been a blessing ever since.”
Susie worked at the bank for three years until some health problems ended that career.
“I had to take care of me. It was a long rehab,” Susie says. “I didn’t go back to work, but stayed home to take care of my husband and the business. I was a big gopher ... go for this, take care of the house and the dogs. February 2012 was the lowest point in my life,” she explains.
The year before Susie had lost her mother, helped a family member through cancer and almost lost one of her sisters.
“That year was really awful for me.”
Then one morning while watching WSAV’s Coastal Sunrise, she heard Kim Gusby calling for volunteers to play zombies in the movie “Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies.”
“I’m a huge sci-fi-zombie-apocalyptic fan,” she says. She was cast as a zombie and was in four different scenes. She became great friends with her makeup artist, Reononda Anderson, and they continued after the movie as Facebook friends. After the movie, on Feb. 25, Reononda called and asked Susie to work craft services in Atlanta on another movie.
“I didn’t know what craft services were. Reononda said it was providing nuts and snacks, and keeping the cast and crew fed and happy ... and what it paid. I was in Atlanta on Feb. 26.”
Susie did craft services, but Reononda pitched Susie to the casting director for a part in the movie, Prosper, and she got it.
“I got my foot in the door and got SAG credits,” Susie says. “The filming went from Feb. 26 through March 16. I was doing craft services and catering, and then this role came along. I did it, and did it well ... and I got the acting bug. It just fell into my lap. I was liberated. I was miles away from home and I missed my husband, but I felt free.”
With a new lease on life and a new direction, Susie’s working on developing her acting skills. She’s working with acting coach Jeanmarie Collins and has participated in acting workshops with Richard Futch, the casting director for “Army Wives,” and Cindy Hogan in Savannah. She worked with Savannah’s Southern Film Production’s Chip Lane to produce her audition video, featuring a high comedic monologue and a second dramatic monologue of a mother dying of cancer talking to her 6-year-old son. That video, her head shots and resume caught the eye of talent agent Barbara Garvey at East Coast Talent out of Rome, Ga., who now represents her.
Susie’s had to update her resume and headshots after losing 50 pounds by following her own healthy eating plan, “boot camp” at the Aquatic Center and the encouragement and support of friends.
“You have to keep your appearance up,” Susie says. “I’m going from being so many pounds to being a smaller, feature actress.”
Her last gig was a featured actress in the movie “Desires of the Heart,” which filmed in Savannah last year.
“James Kicklighter, the director, is wonderful,” Susie says. “He said I need my own sitcom, and he was serious. I absolutely adore him.”
So what’s next for this accidental actress?
While her business card reads “actress/marketer/craft services,” she has transitioned to “talent.” When asked what she sees herself doing, Susie answers: “Saturday Night Live! You never know. LA, New York, Chicago. It could be anywhere.”
In the meantime, she’s enjoying this new adventure with the support of her husband and No. 1 fan.
“When I was in Atlanta, I fell in love with everyone on the set,” Susie says. “I told my husband, John, I was moving to Atlanta. He said, send me a postcard! He thinks it’s fantastic, and when he quits his job, he’s going to be my manager. He puts up with a lot with me.”
If this accidental actress has anything to say about it, he’ll have a new career sooner than later.