Karen McCook Bio
Karen McCook was a British actress and model. She was born Susan Shaw on October 11, 1947, in London, United Kingdom. She has also been worked professionally as Suzy Shaw and Sue Shaw.
Karen McCook stepped into the Penthouse spotlight in February 1972 as a featured model at 24. Appearing as actress and model, Karen brought an established professional identity to a feature built around her 33-24-33 figure, blue eyes and blond hair.
Karen McCook belongs to that fascinating early-1970s Penthouse world where glamour, fashion, film, and pop culture constantly overlapped. Her February 1972 Penthouse appearance came under the Karen McCook name, but the woman behind it was British model and actress Susan Shaw. Penthouse gave her a six-page feature and the cover, presenting her with the cool confidence and slightly rebellious polish that defined the magazine’s early years.
By then, Shaw was already an established glamour model rather than an unknown discovery. She appeared widely across British and European men’s magazines, calendars, paperback covers, advertising, and record sleeves, becoming especially recognizable through multiple Hallmark Top of the Pops album covers. Her modeling career was prolific enough that the same face could turn up in very different corners of 1970s popular culture—from magazine stands to record shops to automotive promotions.
Film work added another dimension. Under the Susan Shaw name, she appeared in The Yes Girls and Sitting Target, and also had an uncredited appearance in With These Hands. Most notably, she worked as Susan George’s body double on Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, placing her behind one of the most discussed British films of the period. That combination of glamour modeling and screen work gave her Penthouse feature a more cinematic context than a straightforward centerfold appearance.
What makes Karen McCook especially interesting today is the way one professional identity opens onto another. Penthouse readers met Karen; film databases remember Susan Shaw; magazine collectors often know Suzy. Together, those names trace a woman who moved easily through the visual culture of the early 1970s. Her February 1972 Penthouse cover was only one chapter, but an important one: a stylish snapshot of a model whose image traveled remarkably far beyond the magazine page.
