Biography

Suzanne Somers

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Overview

Born
October 16, 1946 · San Bruno, California, USA
Died
October 15, 2023 · Palm Springs California, USA (breast cancer with metastasis to brain)
Birth name
Suzanne Marie Mahoney
Nickname
- The Queen of the Jiggles
Height
5′ 5½″ (1.66 m)

Mini bio

Suzanne Somers was the third of four children born to Frank and Marion Mahoney. Her father worked loading beer onto boxcars, and her mother was a medical secretary. She grew up living in constant fear of being hurt or even killed at the hands of her verbally and physically abusive, alcoholic father. She was diagnosed with dyslexia when she was young, and was a poor student. She excelled, however, in the arts and was active in her school's theater program. She won a music scholarship to college, but became pregnant after six months. She married the baby's father, Bruce Somers, and her only child, Bruce Somers, was born in November 1965. She was unhappy in her marriage and began an affair with her former drama teacher. Her husband found out about it and the marriage ended after just two years, in 1967. A single mom, she turned to modeling in San Francisco to support herself and her son. She also distanced herself from her family because her older brother and sister by then were also alcoholics.

In 1968, she won a job as a prize model on a game show hosted by her future husband, Alan Hamel, who was married at the time. The two began dating, and she became pregnant while Hamel was still married. They came to the conclusion that Suzanne should have an abortion, from which she suffered severe complications for several days.

In 1971, her son Bruce was severely injured when he was hit by a car, and the therapist counseling him only charged the financially struggling Somers $1 per week. She underwent therapy herself to overcome the problems of her dysfunctional childhood. In the early 1970s, she landed minor roles in film and TV, and finally won a role on the series Three's Company (1976). She married Hamel in 1977. She was fired from the series after she asked for a raise at the beginning of the fifth season.

She then headed to Las Vegas, where she performed extensively in the mid-1980s. In 1986, she began writing her autobiography, "Keeping Secrets", which was later made into a TV movie. In 1991, she landed the role of "Carol Foster", opposite Patrick Duffy, on the TV series Step by Step (1991). After the end of that show, she began co-hosting Candid Camera (1992).
- IMDb mini biography by: A. Nonymous

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademarks

Her shapely legs.

Trivia

When she was age 16, she hit her father over the head with a tennis racket to stop his abuse during a drunken rage. He suffered a concussion, and did not speak to Suzanne for two years.
She was also the brunette walking along the beach of the opening credits of the first three seasons of Three's Company (1976). She was wearing a wig.
At the beginning of the fifth season of Three's Company (1976), she asked for a raise from $30,000 an episode to $150,000 an episode (equivalent to $450,000 in 2014) and 10% ownership of the sitcom. Those requests were not met, and then boycotted the second and fourth shows of the season, claiming false excuses such as a broken rib. ABC forced her to finish out the remaining season on her contract, but decreased her character's role to one minute a week in taping. She was escorted by a security guard to a sound stage behind the set, where she filmed her few scenes, because she was no longer allowed on the set with John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt. Somers was then fired after her contract expired, and she sued ABC for $2 million, claiming her credibility in the business had been damaged. The suit was settled for about $30,000.
She and Joyce DeWitt did not speak for 30 years after leaving the sitcom in 1981. In February 2012, they finally reunited after Suzanne invited Joyce to be a guest on her web series "Suzanne Somers: Breaking Through".
While performing in Las Vegas, she had to paint one shoe red and the other black in order to learn the choreography of the dance numbers. She could not tell her right from her left because of her dyslexia. In 1990, founded the Suzanne Somers Institute for the Effects of Addictions on Families, in Palm Springs, California. In 1991, she won the Humanitarian Award from the National Council on Alcoholism.

Quotes

My goal in life is to become the person my dog thinks I am.
I do good in the world - at least I try to. I speak on behalf of women, and I know I have made the lives of women happier as a result of teaching them what I have learned relative to true health, rather than disease care.
[posing nude on Instagram] We were walking on the hillside road on our property and I think it was like June. It was hot and dry. I said, 'Oh my god, the foliage here is the same color as my hair.' Because, by that time, all the weeds and bushes had turned yellow. So I got down and said, 'Take a picture of me. The weeds will look like my hair' I took my top down because I was with my husband, and he took that great picture.
[would she pose for Playboy again] That would be really cool. I would like to have Annie Leibovitz shoot me nude for Playboy for my 75th birthday.
[on being fired from the Three's Company TV series] What was it unfair what happened to me at ABC? Yep. It was unfair, but life isn't fair and you have to get over things and move forward.