Suzanne Somers facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Suzanne Somers
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Suzanne Somers in 2011
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| Born |
Suzanne Marie Mahoney
October 16, 1946 San Bruno, California, U.S.
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| Died | October 15, 2023 (aged 76) Palm Springs, California, U.S.
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| Years active | 1968–2023 |
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Notable work
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Three's Company Step by Step |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Camelia Somers (granddaughter) |
Suzanne Marie Somers (October 16, 1946 – October 15, 2023) was an American actress, author, singer, businesswoman, and health spokesperson. She was cast in the television role of Chrissy Snow on Three's Company from 1977 to 1981 and as Carol Foster Lambert on Step by Step from 1991 to 1998.
Somers later wrote several books, including two autobiographies, four diet books, and a book of poetry. Her book, Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones (2006), about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and the Wiley protocol, was heavily criticized. Her book, Knockout (2009), which promoted alternative cancer treatments, was criticized by the American Cancer Society.
Contents
Early life
Suzanne Marie Mahoney was born in San Bruno, California on October 16, 1946, as the third of four children in a working-class Irish-American Catholic family. Her mother, Marion Elizabeth (née Turner), was a medical secretary, and her father, Francis Mahoney, was a laborer and gardener.
Somers first attended Mercy High School in Burlingame, California, but had trouble with her schoolwork due to dyslexia and her father's all-night rages and she would often fall asleep in class. At school, she performed in the lead role of H.M.S. Pinafore. She was expelled at age 14.
When she was 17, Somers' father ripped off her prom dress and told her that she was "nothing"; she responded by hitting him in the head with a tennis racket.
In 1964, Somers graduated from Capuchino High School in San Bruno, California, where she won the "Best Doll Award" for her role in the senior musical, Guys and Dolls and helped organize her class's senior ball. She then attended Lone Mountain College, a college run by the Catholic Society of the Sacred Heart order, but dropped out in 1965 when she found out she was pregnant. She married her child's father, Bruce Somers, days later, at age 19. Her situation led to low self-esteem. She was arrested for cheque fraud and had her car impounded.
Career
After divorcing in 1968, to support herself, Somers worked as a prize model on "The Anniversary Game", a game show hosted by Alan Hamel. Although he was already married, they began dating. They married in 1977.
Somers began acting in small roles during the late 1960s and early 1970s, including on various talk shows promoting her book of poetry, and bit parts in movies, such as the "Blonde in the white Thunderbird" in American Graffiti, which led to appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She appeared in an episode of the American version of the sitcom Lotsa Luck, as the femme fatale, in the early 1970s. She also appeared in The Rockford Files in 1974 and had an uncredited role in Magnum Force in 1973. She also had a guest-starring role on The Six Million Dollar Man in the 1977 episode "Cheshire Project". She played a passenger on the first episode of The Love Boat as well as had a guest appearance in a 1976 episode of One Day at a Time. In 1977, she was a celebrity panelist on Match Game and appeared with husband Alan Hamel on Tattletales.
After actresses Suzanne Zenor and Susan Lanier did not impress producers during the first two pilot episodes of the ABC sitcom Three's Company, Somers was suggested by ABC president Fred Silverman, who had seen her in her initial appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Silverman hired her the day before the taping of the third and final pilot commenced. Somers portrayed Chrissy Snow, who exemplified many blonde stereotypes and was employed as an office secretary. At first, Somers made $3,500 per week from the show.
The series co-starred John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt in a comedy about two single women living with a single man who pretended to be gay in order to bypass the landlord's policy of prohibiting single men sharing an apartment with single women. The program was an instant success in the Nielsen ratings, eventually spawning a short-lived spin-off series, The Ropers starring Norman Fell and Audra Lindley.
When Three's Company began its fifth season in late 1980, Somers demanded a salary increase from $30,000 to $150,000 per episode, to match the compensation paid to Ritter, as well as 10% of the show's profits. Somers' ask was influenced by Hamel.
ABC was only willing to offer a $5,000 per episode raise. Somers then refused to appear in the second and fourth episodes of the season, citing excuses such as a broken rib. She finished the remaining season on her contract, however her role was decreased to just 60 seconds per episode, with her character only appearing in the episode's closing tag in which Chrissy calls the trio's apartment from her parents' home. After ABC fired her from the program and terminated her contract, Somers sued the network for $2 million, saying her credibility in show business had been damaged. The lawsuit was settled by an arbitrator who decided Somers was owed only $30,000, due to a single missed episode for which she had not been paid. Future rulings also favored the network and producers. Somers said she was fired for asking to be paid as much as popular male television stars.
In 1983, Suzanne Somers through her Hamel/Somers Productions signed a deal with Columbia Pictures Television.
Somers and her Three's Company co-star, John Ritter, reconciled their friendship after 20 years of not speaking to each other, shortly before Ritter's death in 2003.
In the 1980s, Somers lived in Las Vegas and was an entertainer, headlining at the former MGM Grand (now Horseshoe Las Vegas) for two years until the theater burned down and then at the Las Vegas Hilton (now Westgate Las Vegas) for another 2 1/2 years.
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In the early 1980s, Somers performed for U.S. servicemen overseas.
From 1987 to 1989, Somers starred in the sitcom She's the Sheriff, which ran in first-run syndication. Somers portrayed a widow with two young kids who decided to fill the shoes of her late husband, a sheriff of a Nevada town. The show ran for two seasons.
In 1990, Somers returned to network television, appearing in numerous guest roles and made-for-TV movies, mostly for ABC. Her roles in these, including the movie Rich Men, Single Women, attracted the attention of Lorimar Television and Miller-Boyett Productions, who were developing a new sitcom. Somers had starred in the film with Heather Locklear, who inadvertently directed the focus of both production companies to Somers due to Locklear's starring role on Going Places (from Lorimar and Miller/Boyett). For Lorimar, this was asking Somers back, since they alone had produced She's the Sheriff.
In September 1991, Somers returned to series television in the sitcom Step By Step (with Patrick Duffy), which became a success on ABC's youth-oriented TGIF lineup.
In the early 1990s, Somers was the spokeswoman in a series of infomercials for the Thighmaster, a piece of exercise equipment which is squeezed between one's thighs above the knees.
In 1991, a two-hour biopic of Somers starring the actress herself, entitled Keeping Secrets, based on her first autobiography of the same title, was broadcast on ABC. The movie chronicled Somers' troubled family life and upbringing, along with her subsequent rise to fame.
In 1994, Somers launched a daytime talk show titled Suzanne Somers, which lasted one season.
Step By Step continued on ABC until the end of its sixth season in 1997, when the series moved to CBS for what turned out to be its final season.
From 1997 to 1999, Somers co-hosted the revised Candid Camera show, when CBS revived it with Peter Funt. Somers stayed for two years before PAX TV renewed the series without her.
In the 2000s, Somers appeared on the Home Shopping Network for more than 25 hours per month, selling household items.
In the summer of 2005, Somers made her Broadway theatre debut in a one-woman show, The Blonde in the Thunderbird, a collection of stories about her life and career. The show was supposed to run until September, but was cancelled in less than a week after poor reviews and disappointing ticket sales. She blamed the harsh reviews: The New York Times referred to it as "...a drab and embarrassing display of emotional exhibitionism masquerading as entertainment". She compared her treatment by critics with the treatment of soldiers in the Iraq War, prompting even more criticism.
In 2012, Somers began an online talk show, Suzanne Somers Breaking Through, at CafeMom. Three of the episodes featured a reunion and reconciliation with former Three's Company co-star Joyce DeWitt; the two had not seen nor spoken to each other in 31 years. Somers and Dewitt briefly discussed John Ritter and how glad they were they both had spoken with him shortly before his sudden death.
In the fall of 2012, The Suzanne Show, hosted by Somers, aired for a 13-episode season on the Lifetime Network. Somers welcomed various guests covering a wide range of topics related to health and fitness.
On February 24, 2015, Somers was announced as one of the stars participating on the 20th season of Dancing with the Stars. Her partner was professional dancer Tony Dovolani. Somers and Dovolani were eliminated on the fifth week of competition and finished in 9th place.
In May and June 2015, Somers starred in "Suzanne Sizzles" at the Westgate Las Vegas.
Medical views
Somers supported bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Her book, Ageless, included interviews with 16 practitioners of bioidentical hormone therapy, but gives extra discussion to one specific approach that she advocated, the "Wiley protocol", for which she was criticized.
A group of seven doctors, all of whom utilize bioidentical hormone therapies to address health issues in women, issued a public letter to Somers and her publisher, Crown Publishing Group, in which they stated that the protocol is scientifically unproven and dangerous and cite Wiley's lack of medical and clinical qualifications. The use of bioidentical hormone therapies is a very controversial area of medicine; its efficacy has never been tested and numerous groups have expressed concern over its safety and the misleading claims made by practitioners. Somers appeared on the The Oprah Winfrey Show, where she was praised by Oprah Winfrey for her views, although bad press followed.
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In 2001, Somers was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy, and radiation, but declined to undergo chemotherapy. In November 2008, Somers announced she was diagnosed with inoperable cancer by six doctors, but she learned a week later that she was misdiagnosed. During this time, she interviewed doctors about cancer treatments and these interviews became the basis of her book, Knockout (2009), about alternative treatments to chemotherapy. In her book Knockout, Somers promoted alternative cancer treatments, for which she was criticized by the American Cancer Society.
In regards to the water fluoridation controversy, Somers called fluoride a "toxic waste by-product of the aluminum manufacturers."
In January 2013, Somers suggested that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was implemented by Adam Lanza due to the level of toxins in his diet and the household cleaners he was exposed to.
Personal life
Somers married Bruce Somers in 1965, and they had a son, Bruce Jr., in November 1965. After divorcing in 1968, to support herself, Somers worked as a prize model on "The Anniversary Game", a game show hosted by Alan Hamel. Although he was already married, they began dating. They married in 1977. Somers had three granddaughters, Camelia and Violet Somers and Daisy Hamel-Buffa.
In 1971, her son, then six years old, was hit by a car. The resulting trauma led her to seek therapy for both her and her son, where she discovered that she had very low self-esteem.
Somers and Hamel bought a house in Palm Springs, California in 1977; they sold it in 2021 for $8.5 million.
In January 2007, a wildfire in Southern California destroyed Somers' home in Malibu, California.
Health and death
Somers had hyperplasia in her 20s and skin cancer in her 30s.
In April 2000, Somers was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer and had a lumpectomy to remove the cancer followed by radiation therapy.
In 2001, Somers was photographed leaving a plastic surgery clinic; she later admitted to having had liposuction on her upper back and hips.
In 2020, Somers fractured her hip when she jumped out of a private tram to her house.
In July 2023, her cancer returned. Somers died at her home in Palm Springs, California, on October 15, 2023, the day before her 77th birthday.
Awards and recognition
- On May 2, 2014, Somers was inducted into the Infomercial Hall of Fame.
Television work
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- Anniversary Game (1969–70)
- Mantrap (1971–73)
- Lotsa Luck (1974)
- The Rockford Files – The Big Ripoff (aired October 25, 1974)
- Sky Heist (1975)
- The Six Million Dollar Man (1977)
- Starsky & Hutch (1975–79, 3 appearances)
- Match Game (1977/PM) (1977)
- The Love Boat (1977)
- Tattletales (1977)
- Three's Company (1977–81)
- Happily Ever After (1978)
- Zuma Beach (1978)
- Hollywood Wives (1985) (miniseries)
- Goodbye Charlie (1985)
- She's the Sheriff (1987–89)
- Rich Men, Single Women (1990)
- Step by Step (1991–98)
- Keeping Secrets (1991)
- Exclusive (1992) (also co-executive producer)
- The Suzanne Somers Show (1994–95)
- Full House (1994)
- Seduced by Evil (1994)
- 8-Track Flashback (1995–98)
- Devil's Food (1996)
- Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade (1996) (Host)
- Love-Struck (1997)
- Candid Camera (co-host from 1997 to 2000)
- No Laughing Matter (1998)
- The Darklings (1999)
- Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (2009) (guest appearance)
- ShopNBC
- The Suzanne Show (2012) (Host)
- The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2013) (guest appearance)
- Dancing with the Stars (2015) (contestant)
- Home & Family (2017)
Filmography
- Bullitt (1968) as Woman (uncredited)
- Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1969) as Sidewalk Extra (uncredited)
- Fools (1970) as Woman at Baptism (uncredited)
- American Graffiti (1973) as Blonde in T-Bird
- Magnum Force (1973) as Pool Girl (uncredited)
- Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977) as Party Girl
- It Happened at Lakewood Manor (1977, TV movie) as Gloria
- Zuma Beach (1978, TV movie) as Bonnie Katt
- Yesterday's Hero (1979) as Cloudy
- Nothing Personal (1980) as Abigail Adams
- Totally Minnie (1988, TV movie) as Director
- Serial Mom (1994) as Herself
- The Nutty Professor (1996) as Thighmaster Lady on TV (uncredited)
- Rusty: A Dog's Tale (1998) as Malley the Dog (narrator)
- Say It Isn't So (2001) as Gilbert's Mom / Herself (cameo, uncredited)
See also
In Spanish: Suzanne Somers para niños
- List of food faddists
