Actress Suzanne Somers, famed for her appearances in sitcoms including “Three’s Company” and “Step by Step,” passed away on Sunday, according to her publicist of many years. Age-wise, she was 76. After a long battle with cancer, Suzanne Somers died at home in the wee hours of October 15th, her husband R. Couri Hay confirmed in a statement.
“She survived an aggressive form of breast cancer for over 23 years. Suzanne was surrounded by her loving husband Alan, her son Bruce, and her immediate family. Her family was gathered to celebrate her 77th birthday on October 16th. Instead, they will celebrate her extraordinary life, and want to thank her millions of fans and followers who loved her dearly.”
According to Hay, the funeral will be conducted next month, and a private family burial will take place this week. Somers, who was born Suzanne Marie Mahoney on October 16, 1946, in San Bruno, California, began her acting career with modest roles and little parts in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
Her early credits include the Steve McQueen action classic Bullitt (1968) and Clint Eastwood’s Magnum Force (1973). As “Blonde in T-Bird,” she made a brief but unforgettable appearance in George Lucas’s “American Graffiti” the same year, quietly mouthing the words “I love you” to Richard Dreyfuss before speeding away.
“The Rockford Files,” “One Day at a Time,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “The Love Boat” and “Starsky & Hutch” were just a few of the popular series in which Somers appeared throughout the 1970s. The role of ditzy Chrissy Snow on the ABC comedy “Three’s Company“ starring Joyce DeWitt and the late John Ritter was, however, her first big break in the industry.
The show was adapted from the British sitcom “Man About the House,” and followed the comedic exploits of three unmarried housemates played by Suzanne Somers (Chrissy), John Ritter (Jack Tripper), and Rosemarie DeWitt (Janet Wood). The popular sitcom “Three’s Company” aired for eight seasons (from 1977 to 1984) and inspired other spinoffs.
It also established Somers as a cultural phenomenon and a sex icon. Somers notably sought a raise before the fifth season, from $30,000 to $150,000 an episode, to match the rumored salary of male co-star John Ritter at the time. Somers feigned health problems to get out of appearing in two episodes of the show when producers said no.
Despite her widespread acclaim, her screen time was dramatically decreased for the rest of the season, and she was ultimately let go after the 1981 finale. In retaliation, Somers filed a lawsuit against the show’s creators, demanding $2 million in damages.
When Somers’ demands on “Three’s Company” were widely panned in the press, she struggled for years to find acting work outside the occasional TV movie. She also appeared in the critically panned yet short-lived syndication sitcom She’s the Sheriff from 1987 to 1989.
Somers has been doing her 1980s-era solo concerts on the Las Vegas strip as recently as 2015. In 1990, Somers also became the commercial face of the Thighmaster, a kind of home training apparatus designed to be squeezed between the thighs to strengthen the legs and hips.
The product was successful, selling millions of copies, and gaining Somers entry into the Direct Marketing Response Alliance Hall of Fame, despite the fact that the infomercials depicting Somers in heels and a leotard were widely mocked. Somers eventually started selling her own brands of personal items, such as skin care, cosmetics, hair care, and wellness products, under her own company name.
Check Out Some More of Our Most Recent Additions to Content Here:
- Rudolph Isley Death: A Tribute to a Musical Legend!
- Ryan Carson Death: New York Mourns the Loss of Activist Ryan Carson!
Somers, ten years after being let go from “Three’s Company,” landed a major part on ABC’s “Step by Step” with “Dallas” star Patrick Duffy. The comedy followed a similar formula to “The Brady Bunch,” with Somers and Duffy playing Frank and Carol, a married couple with three children each. Somers stayed with the program for its full seven-season run that concluded in 1998.
The sitcom originally aired on ABC’s TGIF block before moving to another network for its final season. After “Step by Step” finished, Somers continued to work in television, occasionally appearing on discussion shows.
In 2005, she attempted a Broadway debut with her one-woman show “The Blonde in the Thunderbird,” which featured a collection of stories about her life and Hollywood career and was a reference to her cameo in “American Graffiti” more than 30 years earlier. However, the show closed after only a week of performances due to poor ticket sales and negative reviews.
Together with her pro partner Tony Dovolani, she appeared on season 20 of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2015 and finished in ninth place. Throughout her life, Somers fought repeated bouts with breast cancer. In 2000, she was diagnosed with breast cancer during a regular mammography, and since then she has sought out alternative treatments while also undergoing a lumpectomy and radiation therapy.
In 2023, the actress revealed that she had battled breast cancer several times, saying on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “every now and then it pops up again, and I continue to bat it down.” This is not new territory for me. “I know how to put on my battle gear and I’m a fighter,” she continued at the time, adding that her husband had “been by my side every step of the way.”
Somers authored a wide variety of works, including autobiographies, books about health and wellbeing, cuisines, and even a poetry collection. Among her works, 2017’s “Two’s Company: A Fifty-Year Romance with Lessons Learned in Love, Life, and Business” is the most recent.
Somers has two marriages. After barely three years of marriage, she and Bruce Somers divorced in 1968. Together, they had one child, Bruce Jr. In 1969, while she was a prize model on Alan Hamel’s short-lived game program “Anniversary Game,” she met her future husband. They tied the knot in 1977 and stayed together till she passed away.
If you like this article and want to learn more about your favorite Hollywood stars, you can do so at Newswatchlist.com.
Leave a Reply