• Why Stars Are Proud to be an American

  Entertainment Tonight: Topstories - Found Jul. 3, 2009 ... we buy American automobiles, clothing, and whatever, because we need to get the economy on track." Suzanne Somers declares: "To live free is...

• Suzanne Somers on surviving cancer, gay men and drag queens and, of ...

  Examiner.com - Found Jun. 18, 2009 Suzanne Somers doesn?t tell secrets. Anymore.

• Suzanne Somers' Rx: Heal thyself

  Canada.com - Found May. 11, 2009 Suzanne Somers wonders when the madness will end and people will start to take better control of their health.

• Suzanne Somers to Welcome MSC Cruises Ship to the U.S.

  Cruise Critic - Found May. 28, 2009 What do glamorous Italian actress Sophia Loren and sitcom-star-turned-fitness-guru Suzanne Somers have in common?

• Suzanne Somers knows sex ...

  Examiner.com - Found May. 16, 2009 Suzanne Somers wants to tell you all about sex. ... and she wants to share her insights with you.

• Suzanne Somers To Welcome MSC Poesia To U.S.

  Wave 3 - Found May. 27, 2009 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 27 /PRNewswire/ -- MSC Cruises announced today that television star, best-selling author and entrepreneur Suzanne Somers

• Suzanne Somers To Welcome MSC Poesia To U.S.

  Nashville Business Journal - Found May. 27, 2009 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 27 /PRNewswire/ -- MSC Cruises announced today that television star, best-selling author and entrepreneur Suzanne Somers

• Billy Mays: quintessentially American (The Christian Science ...

  Yahoo! News - Found Jul. 2, 2009 He was neither an inventor-salesman like Ron Popeil nor a celebrity endorser like Suzanne Somers; Billy Mays's Final 'Pitch' - New York Times Pitchman Billy Mays shot last commercial in NJ - Philadelphia Inquirer Early results say Billy Mays likely suffered heart attack - Philadelphia Daily News How did Billy Mays die? Autopsy report released - In Entertainment Explore All

  In Entertainment

• Hermien Lee dies at 92; no-nonsense nutritionist to the stars

  Los Angeles Times - Found Jul. 1, 2009 ... her no-nonsense approach to eating right to a variety of stars including Ann-Margret, Joan Lunden, Suzanne Somers and Robert Wagner, has died.

• Billy Mays: quintessentially American

  Christian Science Monitor - Found Jun. 30, 2009 He was neither an inventor-salesman like Ron Popeil nor a celebrity endorser like Suzanne Somers;

Suzanne Somers
Suzanne Somers, May 2006
Born	Suzanne Marie Mahoney October 16, 1946 (1946-10-16) (age 62) San Bruno, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, Author, Businesswoman
Years active	1963–present
Spouse(s)	Alan Hamel (1977–present) Bruce Somers (1965–1968)
Official website

Suzanne Somers (born October 16, 1946) is an American actress, author and businesswoman, best known for her roles on Three's Company and Step by Step. Somers later became the author of a series of best-selling self-help books, including Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones (2006), a book about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.¹ She has also released two autobiographies, four diet books, and a book of poetry entitled "Touch Me" (1980). She currently features items of her design on the Home Shopping Network.

Background

Early life

Somers was born Suzanne Marie Mahoney in San Bruno, California, the third of four children in an Irish Catholic family.²³⁴ Her mother, Marion Elizabeth (née Turner), was a medical secretary, and her father, Francis Mahoney, was a laborer and gardener.⁵

In September 1964, she was accepted at San Francisco College for Women (commonly referred to as "Lone Mountain College") on a music scholarship, a Catholic school that is now a campus of the University of San Francisco. She left during her Sophomore year, after becoming pregnant. She gave birth to her son Bruce Jr. on November 8, 1965, after marrying the boy's father, Bruce Somers. She left her husband three years later and began modeling. In 1971, her son was severely injured when he was hit by a car.

In 1968, Suzanne won a job as a prize model on the short-lived game show, The Anniversary Game hosted by her future husband, Alan Hamel. She has been married to Hamel since 1977. Hamel was her business manager during the failed negotiations which led to her leaving Three's Company.

Early acting roles

She 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 T-Bird" in American Graffiti, and an episode of the American version of the sitcom Lotsa Luck as the femme fatale in the early 1970s) before landing the role of the ditzy blonde "Chrissy Snow" on the ABC sitcom Three's Company in 1977.

Three's Company

At the beginning of the fifth season, Suzanne demanded a raise from $30,000 to $150,000 an episode and 10% ownership of the show's profit. Those close to the situation suggested that Suzanne's rebellion was due to husband/manager Hamel's influence over her. When ABC denied her request, Somers boycotted the second and fourth shows of the season, due to several excuses such as a broken rib (which was false). She finished the remaining season on her contract, but her role was decreased to 60 seconds per episode. After her contract expired, she sued ABC for $2 million, claiming that her credibility in show business had been damaged. It went to an arbitrator who decided that Suzanne was owed only $30,000 for a missed episode she had not been paid. Other rulings favored the producers. Somers has said she was fired because she asked to be paid as much as the men on the show.⁶

Before the feud with Three's Company producers and ABC had even ended, rival network CBS knew that Somers was ultimately going to be available. They eventually signed her to a contract and a development deal for her own sitcom, which was going to be called The Suzanne Somers Show, in which she played an "over-the-top" airline stewardess. Once she was indeed available (after her firing from Three's Company), CBS gave Somers – and the public – a timeframe in which to expect the show to hit the air, but due to a change in administration at CBS's entertainment division in early 1982, the brass ended up passing on the project. Also, Suzanne claimed in her book After the Fall (1998), that the producers of Three's Company kept sending "cease & desist" forms to CBS stating that Suzanne could not use any of her Chrissy Snow characterization, and that chilled the creative process.

Spokeswomen for the Thighmaster

During the 1980s, Somers became a Las Vegas entertainer. She was the spokeswoman for the Thighmaster, a piece of exercise equipment that is squeezed between one's thighs. Thighmaster was one of the first products responsible for launching the infomercial concept. During this period of her career, she also performed for U.S. servicemen overseas.⁷⁸

Playboy pictorials

Somers appeared in two Playboy cover feature nude pictorials: in 1980 and 1984. The 1980 pictures were taken years before, when Suzanne was a struggling model and actress and did a test photoshoot for the magazine.^{citation needed}

She's the Sheriff

At the height of her exposure as official spokesperson for Thighmaster infomercials, Somers made her first return to a series, although not on network television. In 1987, she 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 southern town. The show ran for two seasons.

Step by Step

In 1990, Somers returned to network TV, 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. For Lorimar, this was asking Somers back, since they alone had produced She's the Sheriff.

In September 1991, Somers bounced back to series TV by starring in the successful sitcom Step By Step (with Patrick Duffy), which ran for seven seasons. Playing off her rejuvenated career, Somers also launched a daytime talk show in 1994, albeit briefly, aptly titled Suzanne Somers. During Step By Step's final season, on CBS, she began co-hosting Candid Camera with Peter Funt.

Candid cohost

From 1997–99, Somers cohosted the revised Candid Camera show, when CBS chose to bring it back with Peter Funt (the series was in the network's top 10 for five years in the mid 1960s). Somers stayed for two years before PAX TV renewed the series without her.

Bout with breast cancer

Somers announced in spring 2001 that she had breast cancer and she was treated with conventional surgery and radiation therapy.^{citation needed} Somers is also a supporter of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Her book, Ageless,⁹ includes interviews with 16 leading practitioners of bioidentical hormone therapy, but gives extra discussion to the so-called 'Wiley Protocol'.

July 12, 2005: Somers is given an award for "Patriotic Civilian Service" for past USO tour performances for overseas U.S. troops. The ceremony came after a special performance of The Blonde in the Thunderbird, done specially for U.S. military service personnel and their family members.

The Blonde in the Thunderbird

In summer 2005, Somers made her Broadway 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 negative publicity and disappointing ticket sales caused a late July closing. Somers blamed the harsh reviews (the New York Times: "...a swan dive into narcissism"; New York Post: "smug and remorseless") and told the Post: "These men [New York critics] are curmudgeons, and maybe I went too close to the bone for them. I was lying there naked, and they decided to kick me and step on me, just like these visions you see in Iraq."¹⁰

Wildfire at her Malibu home

On January 9, 2007, the Associated Press reported that a wildfire in Southern California had destroyed Somers' Malibu home, and all she had left was the clothes on her back.¹¹ Appearing on television, Somers told reporters they planned to rebuild.¹² In March 2007, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Somers explained that she found her wedding band from her husband of 29 years while sifting through ashes of her home.

Television work

The handprints of Suzanne Somers in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

• The Anniversary Game (1969–1970)
• Mantrap (1971–1973)
• Lotsa Luck (~1973)
• Sky Heist (1975)
• It Happened at Lakewood Manor (1977)
• Three's Company (cast member from 1977-1981)
• Happily Ever After (1978)
• Zuma Beach (1978)
• Hollywood Wives (1985) (miniseries)
• Goodbye Charlie (1985)
• She's the Sheriff (1987–1989)
• Rich Men, Single Women (1990)
• Step by Step (1991–1998)
• Keeping Secrets (1991)
• Exclusive (1992) (also co-executive producer)
• The Suzanne Somers Show (1994–1995)
• Seduced by Evil (1994)
• Devil's Food (1996)
• Love-Struck (1997)
• No Laughing Matter (1998)
• Candid Camera (co-host from 1998-2000)
• The Darklings (1999)

Filmography

• Bullitt (1968)
• Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1969)
• American Graffiti (1973)
• Magnum Force (1973)
• Ants (1977)
• Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977)
• Yesterday's Hero (1979)
• Nothing Personal (1980)
• Totally Minnie (1987)
• Serial Mom (1994)
• Rusty: A Dog's Tale (1998) (voice)
• Say It Isn't So (2001) (Cameo)

Books

• Somers, Suzanne (2008). Breakthrough. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 1400053277. 
• Somers, Suzanne (2006). Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 0-307-23724-9. 
• Somers, Suzanne (2004). The Sexy Years: Discover the Hormone Connection - The Secret to Fabulous Sex, Great Health, and Vitality, for Women and Men. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 0-609-60721-9. 
• Somers, Suzanne (1992). Wednesday's Children: Adult Survivors of Abuse Speak Out. Putnam Adult. ISBN 0399137432. 
• Somers, Suzanne (1980). Touch Me: The Poems of Suzanne Somers. Workman Pub Co. ISBN 0-89480-141-4. 
• Somers, Suzanne (1998). After the Fall. Crown Publishers, Inc.. ISBN 0-609-60312-4. 

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Suzanne Somers

• Official Site
• Suzanne Somers at the Internet Movie Database
• Suzanne Somers at TV.com
• Self-Help Expert Gets Back Her Own