Suzanne Somers.

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. The third of four children born to Frank and Marion Mahoney, she grew up in fear of her father, a beer truck loader who was verbally and physically abusive while drunk. Diagnosed with dyslexia, she struggled academically but found an outlet in theater. A music scholarship took her to the University of San Francisco, but six months later she became pregnant. She married Bruce Somers in 1965 and gave birth to her only child, Bruce Jr., in November 1965. The marriage fell apart in 1967 after an affair with her former drama teacher. As a single mother, she supported herself and her son through modeling in San Francisco.

In 1976, Somers was cast as Chrissy Snow on the ABC sitcom Three’s Company, after three other actresses had tried for the role. She quickly became the show’s breakout, but at the start of the fifth season in 1980, she demanded a raise from $30,000 to $150,000 per episode plus 10% ownership. ABC refused. She boycotted several tapings, and her role was cut to one minute per episode. After her contract expired, ABC fired her. She sued for $2 million and settled for about $30,000. In 1991, she returned to series TV as Carol Foster on Step by Step opposite Patrick Duffy, a role that lasted until 1998. During the 1980s, she co-hosted Candid Camera and performed extensively in Las Vegas, where she was named Female Entertainer of the Year in 1986. On January 24, 2003, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Somers married Bruce Somers in April 1965; they divorced in November 1968. While married, she had an affair with her former drama teacher. In 1968, she met Alan Hamel on a game show where she was a prize model. Hamel was married at the time. She became pregnant and had an abortion that caused severe complications. She and Hamel married in 1977 and remained together until her death. Her only son, Bruce Somers Jr., and two stepchildren, Stephen and Leslie Hamel, survive her. Estranged from her older siblings due to alcoholism, she reconciled with Three’s Company co-star Joyce DeWitt in 2012 after 30 years, appearing on her web series Breaking Through.

Chrissy Snow on Three’s Company defined Somers’ career; the show remains a touchstone of 1970s television. Her salary dispute in 1980 highlighted gender pay inequality in Hollywood and became a cautionary tale about negotiating power. As an entrepreneur, she popularized the Thighmaster exercise device and wrote more than a dozen books on health, aging, and alternative medicine, drawing both praise and controversy for her views on hormone therapy and cancer treatment. In 2003, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is remembered for her comedic timing, her resilience in the face of personal and professional setbacks, and her public battle with breast cancer, which she discussed openly from her 2001 diagnosis until her death in 2023.