So sorry to hear that Suzanne Somers has died. She was 76 and battling cancer since her 40s.
Suzanne leaves her longtime husband, Alan Hamel, and her step children and grandchildren, plus her son, Bruce Somers Jr. and three granddaughters.
Suzanne was one of Hollywood’s nicest people. But she was also smart. She burst onto the scene in the 70s in the hit sitcom, “Three’s Company.” She quickly broke out as the key star and wanted to be paid as much as John Ritter, the male lead. When ABC refused, she left. It was very rare and unprecedented. She sued, the case went to arbitration, and she got just $30,000. She was right in every way. Unfortunately, not much has changed for actresses since then.
Somers starred in other series including a hit family show called “Step by Step” with Patrick Duffy of “Dallas,” also on ABC. But she and Hamel had a good business sense. She jumped on the working out craze with the much mocked but best selling “Thighmaster.” She also wrote many diet books in which she advocated cutting all sugar. She was ahead of her time.
I used to see Suzanne and Alan at least once a year at Clive Davis’s annual Grammy party. Every once in a while they came to New York to various events and she — both of them — were not like the usual Hollywood rabble. They loved to be “normal.” And we loved them for it.
Go back and look at “Three’s Company.” It was screwball comedy, and Suzanne was the engine behind. You have to pretty smart to make being dumb look so good.
PS Before “Three’s Company,” Suzanne got her big break in George Lucas’s “American Graffiti,” playing the elusive girl in the car who Richard Dreyfus becomes obsessed with.
