Islamabad OCTOBER 16 (Online): Suzanne Somers has died at 76 following decades-long battle with cancer.<\/p>\n
Suzanne Somers, the effervescent blonde actor known for playing Chrissy Snow on the television show \u201cThree\u2019s Company\u201d and who became an entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author, has died. She was 76.<\/p>\n
Somers had breast cancer for over 23 years and died Sunday morning, her family said in a statement provided by her longtime publicist, R. Couri Hay. Her husband Alan Hamel, her son Bruce and other immediate family were with her in Palm Springs, California.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer family was gathered to celebrate her 77th birthday on October 16th,\u201d the statement read. \u201cInstead, they will celebrate her extraordinary life, and want to thank her millions of fans and followers who loved her dearly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In July, Somers shared on Instagram that her breast cancer had returned.
\n\u201cLike any cancer patient, when you get that dreaded, \u2018It\u2019s back\u2019 you get a pit in your stomach. Then I put on my battle gear and go to war,\u201d she told Entertainment Tonight at the time. \u201cThis is familiar battleground for me and I\u2019m very tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was first diagnosed in 2000, and had previously battled skin cancer. Somers faced some backlash for her reliance on what she\u2019s described as a chemical-free and organic lifestyle to combat the cancers. She argued against the use of chemotherapy, in books and on platforms like \u201cThe Oprah Winfrey Show,\u201d which drew criticism from the American Cancer Society.<\/p>\n
Somers was born in 1946 in San Bruno, California, to a gardener father and a medical secretary mother. Her childhood, she\u2019d later say, was tumultuous. Her father was an alcoholic, and abusive. She married young, at 19, to Bruce Somers, after becoming pregnant with her son Bruce. The couple divorced three years later and she began modeling for \u201cThe Anniversary Game\u201d to support herself. It was during this time that she met Hamel, who she married in 1977.<\/p>\n
She began acting in the late 1960s, earning her first credit in the Steve McQueen film \u201cBullitt.\u201d But the spotlight really hit when she was cast as the blonde driving the white Thunderbird in George Lucas\u2019s 1973 film \u201cAmerican Graffiti.\u201d Her only line was mouthing the words \u201cI love you\u201d to Richard Dreyfuss\u2019s character.<\/p>\n
At her audition, Lucas just asked her if she could drive. She later said that moment \u201cchanged her life forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Somers would later stage a one-woman Broadway show entitled \u201cThe Blonde in the Thunderbird,\u201d about her life, which drew largely scathing reviews.<\/p>\n
She appeared in many television shows in the 1970s, including \u201cThe Rockford Files,\u201d \u201cMagnum Force\u201d and \u201cThe Six Million Dollar Man,\u201d but her most famous part came with \u201cThree\u2019s Company,\u201d which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984 \u2014 though her participation ended in 1981.<\/p>\n
On \u201cThree\u2019s Company,\u201d she was the ditzy blonde opposite John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt in the roommate comedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cCreating her was actually intellectual,\u201d she told CBS News in 2020. \u201cHow do I make her likable and loveable … dumb blondes are annoying. I gave her a moral code. I imagined it was the childhood I would\u2019ve liked to have had.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1980, after four seasons, she asked for a raise from $30,000 an episode to $150,000 an episode, which would have been comparable to what Ritter was getting paid. Hamel, a former television producer, had encouraged the ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show\u2019s response was, \u2018Who do you think you are?\u2019\u201d Somers told People in 2020. \u201cThey said, \u2018John Ritter is the star.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She was promptly phased out and soon fired; Her character was replaced by two different roommates for the remaining years the show aired. It also led to a rift with her co-stars; They didn\u2019t speak for many years. Somers did reconcile with Ritter before his death, and then with DeWitt on her online talk show.<\/p>\n
But Somers took the break as an opportunity to pursue new avenues, including a Las Vegas act, hosting a talk show and becoming an entrepreneur. In the 1990s, she also became the spokesperson for the \u201cThighMaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decade also saw her return to network television in the 1990s, most famously on \u201cStep by Step,\u201d which aired on ABC\u2019s youth-targeted TGIF lineup. The network also aired a biopic of her life, starring her, called \u201cKeeping Secrets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Somers was also a prolific author, writing books on aging, menopause, beauty, wellness, sex and cancer.<\/p>\n
She was in good spirits and surrounded by family before her death, even giving an interview to People Magazine about her birthday plans to be with her \u201cnearest and dearest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamel, in the People story, said she\u2019d just returned from the Midwest where she had six weeks of intensive physical therapy.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven after our five decades together, I still marvel at Suzanne\u2019s amazing determination and commitment,\u201d Hamel said.<\/p>\n
She told the magazine that she had asked for \u201ccopious amounts of cake.\u201d
\n\u201cI really love cake,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad OCTOBER 16 (Online): Suzanne Somers has died at 76 following decades-long battle with cancer. Suzanne Somers, the effervescent blonde actor known for playing Chrissy Snow on the television show \u201cThree\u2019s Company\u201d and who became an entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author, has died. […]<\/p>\n
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