54 Facts About Suzanne Somers

Suzanne Marie Somers was an American actress, author, and businesswoman.

Suzanne Somers played the television roles of Chrissy Snow on Three's Company and Carol Foster Lambert on Step by Step.

Suzanne Somers was well known for advertising the ThighMaster, an exercise device.

Suzanne Somers 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.

Suzanne Somers's mother, Marion Elizabeth, was a medical secretary, and her father, Francis "Frank" Mahoney, loaded cases of beer onto boxcars, was a laborer and gardener.

Suzanne Somers's father was an alcoholic and was abusive, and Somers often worried that he would kill her.

Suzanne Somers first attended Mercy High School in Burlingame, California, but had trouble with her schoolwork because of dyslexia and her father's all-night rages, and she would often fall asleep in class.

At age 17, Suzanne Somers's father ripped off her prom dress and told her that she was "nothing," and she responded by hitting him in the head with a tennis racket.

In 1964, Suzanne 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.

Suzanne Somers then attended San Francisco College for Women, a college run by the Catholic Society of the Sacred Heart order, but withdrew in 1965 when she learned that she was pregnant.

Suzanne Somers married her child's father, Bruce Somers, days later at age 19.

Suzanne Somers was arrested for check fraud and her car was impounded.

Suzanne Somers began acting in small roles during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

From 1971 to 1973, Suzanne Somers was a panelist on the Alan Hamel-hosted Mantrap, a weekday daytime panel show, from BCTV in Vancouver for CTV Television Network stations in Canada, and syndicated in the USA.

Suzanne Somers had a guest-starring role on The Six Million Dollar Man in the 1977 episode "Cheshire Project".

Suzanne Somers played a passenger on the first episode of The Love Boat and made a guest appearance in a 1976 episode of One Day at a Time.

Suzanne Somers portrayed Christmas "Chrissy" Snow, who exemplified many blonde stereotypes and was employed as an office secretary.

At first, Suzanne Somers made $3,500 per week from the show.

DeWitt and Suzanne Somers were paid the same, less than Ritter, but DeWitt had a "favored nations" clause in her contract, which guaranteed she received equal terms to other cast members.

Suzanne Somers' request was influenced by her second husband and manager, Alan Hamel.

Suzanne Somers then refused to appear in the second and fourth episodes of the season, citing excuses such as a broken rib.

Suzanne Somers finished the remaining season on her contract; however, her role was reduced to just 60 seconds per episode, with her character appearing in only the episode's closing tag in which Chrissy calls the trio's apartment from her parents' home.

The lawsuit was settled by an arbitrator who decided Suzanne Somers was owed only $30,000, due to a single missed episode for which she had not been paid.

Suzanne Somers said she was fired for asking to be paid as much as popular male television stars.

Suzanne Somers appeared in two Playboy cover-feature nude pictorials, in 1980 and 1984.

Suzanne Somers's first set of nude photos was taken by Stan Malinowski in February 1970 when Somers was a struggling model and actress and did a test photoshoot for the magazine.

Suzanne Somers was accepted as a Playmate candidate in 1971, but declined to pose nude before the actual shoot.

Suzanne Somers sued Playboy and settled for $50,000, which was donated to charity, with at least $10,000 of it going to Easterseals.

The second nude pictorial by Richard Fegley appeared in December 1984 in an attempt by Suzanne Somers to regain her diminished popularity after the Three's Company debacle in 1981.

Suzanne Somers felt she would have a better chance to control the quality of the photos the second time, and having such control was an important condition that Somers attached to posing.

From 1987 to 1989, Suzanne Somers starred in the sitcom She's the Sheriff, which ran in first-run syndication.

Suzanne Somers portrayed a widow with two young children who decided to fill the shoes of her late husband, a sheriff of a Nevada town.

In 1990, Suzanne Somers returned to network television, appearing in numerous guest roles and made-for-TV movies.

In September 1991, Suzanne Somers returned to series television in the sitcom Step By Step, which became a success on ABC's youth-orientated TGIF lineup.

In 2014, Suzanne Somers was inducted into the Infomercial Hall of Fame.

In 1991 a two-hour biographical film of Suzanne Somers, starring the actress herself, entitled Keeping Secrets, based on her first autobiography of the same title, was broadcast on ABC.

In 1994, Somers launched a daytime talk show titled Suzanne Somers, which lasted one season.

From 1997 to 1999, Suzanne Somers co-hosted the revised Candid Camera show, when CBS revived it with Peter Funt.

Suzanne Somers compared her treatment by critics with the treatment of soldiers in the Iraq War, prompting even more criticism.

In 2012, Somers began an online video talk show, Suzanne Somers Breaking Through, at CafeMom.

Suzanne Somers welcomed various guests covering a wide range of topics relating to health and fitness.

On February 24,2015, Suzanne Somers was announced as one of the stars participating on the 20th season of Dancing with the Stars.

In May and June 2015, Somers starred in "Suzanne Sizzles" at the Westgate Las Vegas.

Suzanne Somers appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and was praised by Winfrey for her views, but negative press coverage followed.

Suzanne Somers underwent a lumpectomy and radiation but declined chemotherapy.

In November 2008, Suzanne Somers announced that she had been diagnosed with inoperable cancer by six doctors, but she learned a week later that she was misdiagnosed.

In January 2013, Suzanne Somers suggested that Adam Lanza may have been driven to commit the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting because of the level of toxins in his diet and his exposure to household cleaners.

Suzanne Somers married Bruce Suzanne Somers on April 14,1965, and they had a son in November 1965.

In 1968, after divorcing, Suzanne Somers moved into an apartment in Sausalito, and got work as a prize model on The Anniversary Game, a game show hosted by Alan Hamel.

Suzanne Somers described her political views as "very personal", and she identified as an independent voter.

Suzanne Somers had hyperplasia in her 20s and skin cancer in her 30s.

Suzanne Somers died at her home in Palm Springs, California, on October 15,2023, one day before her 77th birthday.

Suzanne Somers's death was attributed to breast cancer, which had returned earlier in the year.

Suzanne Somers's funeral was held three days later, with her interment at Desert Memorial Park.