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Suzanne Somers Bio
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Suzanne Somers
Suzanne Marie Mahoney (later changed to Somers) was born October 16, 1946 in San Bruno, California. Somers was born to Frank Mahoney and Marion Mahoney. Her father was a manual laborer, while her mother was a homemaker. She was one of four children, and along with her mother and siblings, suffered through a childhood riddled with fear, violence and turmoil. Her father was a violent alcoholic who was often verbally and physically abusive. In addition to this constant threat, Somers was diagnosed with dyslexia at a very young age. This negatively impacted her academics, and she struggled through most of her formalized schooling.
However, Somers always excelled in drama, and participated heavily in her school’s theater program. Winning a scholarship for music, Somers attended college for six months before becoming pregnant. Bruce Somers was the father, and the two decided to marry. Their son, Bruce, Jr. was born in 1965.
While Somers tried to break into stardom, her marriage was failing underneath her. The couple, thrown together by an unplanned pregnancy, became increasingly unhappy. Somers began an affair with her drama teacher, and when discovered, the marriage dissolved. It was now 1967.
Somers worked very small roles in the early 60s including one-episode appearances in Ben Casey and Lassie. She also appeared without credit in Bullitt (1968) starring Steve McQueen, and Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting (1969).
Left without a husband or a father to her son, Somers began modeling in San Francisco in order to pay the bills. She also suffered emotionally from seeing her older brother and sister slip into the alcoholic patterns of their father, causing Somers to distance herself even more from her family.
In 1968, Somers became a prize model on Alan Hamel’s game show. Hamel was married at the time, but they began dating anyway. Somers became pregnant, and the two agreed the most logical course of action was for her to have an abortion. She went through with the procedure but suffered severe bleeding. For several days her health was unstable, but she eventually recovered. In 1971 Suzanne endured another scare when her son was hit by a car and seriously injured. Struggling at the time financially, her son’s therapist only charged her $1 per week. Somers similarly went through counseling to deal with her traumatic childhood.
In 1973, she appeared very briefly in the classic American Graffiti as “blonde in T-Bird.” She worked minor roles in television series through much of the 70s including The Rockford Files, The Love Boat starring Tom Bosley and Teri Hatcher and the cop series Starsky and Hutch, played by David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser. By 1977 she ended up marrying Hamel, and the two are still together.
Also in 1977, all her bit parts paid off. Somers landed one of the leads in the new television series Three’s Company. She acted alongside John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt and Don Knotts. The show was wildly successful, making stars out of all the leads. However, it wasn’t long before turmoil on the set disrupted the pleasure of a hit series. Somers was being paid $30,000 per episode, and by the 1980-81 season, felt she was being unfairly compensated. She asked for a raise to $150,000 per episode as well as 10% ownership of the show. Outright denied, Somers cited illness and refused to act in the second and fourth show of the season. ABC eventually made her finish out the season, but her role was all but cut out of the show (down to one minute of taping per week). After the tumultuous season and her contract’s expiration, Somers was fired.
Throughout the rest of the 1980s, Somers retreated to Las Vegas where she performed with great success. She was even named Las Vegas’ Female Entertainer of the Year (1986). During this time she became the spokeswoman for the Thighmaster as well as beginning her autobiography Keeping Secrets, which would later be made into a made for television film.
Somers eventually bounced back from her Three’s Company scandal to star in another successful television series. In 1991, she became Carol Foster to Patrick Duffy’s Frank Lambert in Step by Step. The show ran from 1991 to 1998 and rocketed Somers back into the limelight. At the end of her sitcom, she became the co-host of Candid Camera from 1998-2000.
Recently, Somers starred in the film The Darklings (1999), and her last project was Say It Isn’t So (2001), where she appeared without credit. Her attempt at Broadway with the one woman show The Blonde in the Thunderbird (2005) was panned and canceled after poor reviews and worse ticket sales.
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Suzanne Somers - Appeared in Three's Company with John Ritter |
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Suzanne Somers - Appeared in Love Boat with Teri Hatcher |
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Suzanne Somers - Appeared in Love Boat with Tom Bosley |
Suzanne Somers - Starred in 'Step by Step' with Patrick Duffy .
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