Actor Suzanne Somers has died. She was 76. The actor passed away “peacefully at home” in the early hours of October 15, 2023, according to a statement from Somers’ publicist R. Couri Hay, on behalf of the family.
It wasn’t immediately clear how Somers died, but Hay said the actress “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,” the statement continued. “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.”
Somers was born on October 16, 1946, in California. She rose to fame as Chrissy Snow in the 1970s sitcom “Three’s Company,” starred in “She’s the Sheriff” and later portrayed Carol Foster Lambert in the ’90s family comedy “Step by Step.”
Somers began her acting career in the later 1960s and early 1970s when she took on small, uncredited roles, in Bullitt, Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting and Fools. Her first credited role was as a “blonde in T-bird” in 1973’s American Graffiti.
She landed a recurring role in Starsky and Hutch, where she played three different characters. After a few more years of one-off parts in TV shows like Lotsa Luck!, The Rockford Files and One Day at a Time, Somers landed her breakthrough role as Chrissy Snow in “Three’s Company,” for which she received a Golden Globes nomination.
“Three’s Company” featured Somers as quintessential “dumb blonde” Chrissy Snow, roommate of the smarter and more level-headed Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt) in an inexpensive Santa Monica apartment. John Ritter, the most familiar of the three stars, was top-billed as Jack Tripper, a culinary school student who jumps at the cheap housing, but he is forced to pose as a gay man to placate the girls’ landlord, who is opposed to opposite-sex tenants.
“Three’s Company” was a hit, running for eight seasons between 1977 and 1984 and spawning several spinoff series. It also made Somers a sex symbol and household name. Before the show’s fifth season, Somers famously demanded a raise from $30,000 an episode to $150,000, equal to what male co-star John Ritter reportedly was making then. When producers refused, Somers claimed health issues and declined to appear in two show episodes. Despite her popularity, her role was drastically reduced for the remainder of the season and she was fired when the season ended in 1981. Somers sued the show’s producers for $2 million in response but received only a small fraction of what she asked.
To further help make ends meet, in 1990, Somers became the commercial spokesperson for the Thighmaster, a piece of personal exercise equipment meant to be squeezed between one’s thighs to develop leg and hip strength.
Read More About Suzanne Somers | And More About “Three’s Company“
