Suzanne Somers

Suzanne Marie Somers (née Mahoney; October 16, 1946 – October 15, 2023) was an American actress, author, singer, businesswoman, and health spokesperson. She appeared in the television role of Chrissy Snow on Three's Company and as Carol Foster Lambert on Step by Step.

Somers later became the author of a series of self-help books, including Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones (2006), about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. She released two autobiographies, four diet books, and a book of poetry.

Somers was at times criticized for her views on some medical subjects and her advocacy of the Wiley Protocol, which has been labelled as "scientifically unproven and dangerous". Her promotion of alternative cancer treatments received criticism from the American Cancer Society.

Early life

Born Suzanne Marie Mahoney in San Bruno, California, Somers was the third of four children in a working class Irish-American Catholic family. Her mother, Marion Elizabeth (née Turner), was a medical secretary, and her father, Francis Mahoney, was a laborer and gardener. When Suzanne was six years old her father became an alcoholic. Somers' father would call her names and embarrass her.

Somers attended Capuchino High School She also said she was a cheerleader at Mercy High School in Burlingame, California, and was accepted at San Francisco College for Women, a college run by the Catholic Society of the Sacred Heart order.

Career

Early acting roles

Somers 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 white Thunderbird" in American Graffiti, and an episode of the American version of the sitcom Lotsa Luck (as the femme fatale) in the early 1970s. She also appeared in The Rockford Files in 1974 and had an uncredited role as a topless "pool girl" in Magnum Force in 1973. She also had a guest-starring role on The Six Million Dollar Man, in the 1977 episode "Cheshire Project,” she played a passenger on the first episode of The Love Boat as well as a guest appearance in a 1976 episode of One Day at a Time. She later landed her most famous role of the ditzy blonde "Chrissy Snow" on the ABC sitcom Three's Company in 1977. Also that year, she was a celebrity panelist on Match Game, and appeared with husband Alan Hamel on Tattletales.

Playboy pictorials

Somers appeared in two Playboy cover-feature nude pictorials, in 1980 and 1984. Her 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. She was accepted as a Playmate candidate in 1971, but declined to pose nude before the actual shoot.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show, she denied ever posing nude (except for a High Society topless photo), which prompted Playboy to publish photos from the 1970 Malinowski shoot a decade later, in 1980. Somers' original motivation for posing nude was to be able to pay medical bills related to injuries her son Bruce Jr. suffered in a car accident. By the time the photos were published, her son was 14 and Somers feared seeing his mother posing nude would be difficult for him. Somers sued Playboy and settled for $50,000—which was donated to charity, at least $10,000 of it going to the Easter Seals. 

The second nude pictorial by Richard Fegley appeared in December 1984 in an attempt by Somers to regain her diminished popularity after the Three's Company debacle in 1981. Despite her anger and the earlier lawsuit, Playboy approached her earlier that year to pose nude a second time. Initially she was angered again, but eventually agreed after discussing it with her family. She 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. Despite Somers' earlier belief that her son would not want to see his mother nude, her then 18-year-old son did view the second pictorial.

Personal life

Somers married Bruce Somers in 1965, when she was 19, and they had a son, Bruce Jr., in November 1965. That marriage ended in 1968. 

Somers became a prize model on Anniversary Game (1969–70), where she met host Alan Hamel. They married in 1977.

Somers has three granddaughters, Camelia, Violet and Daisy Hamel-Buffa.

On January 9, 2007, the Associated Press reported that a wildfire in Southern California had destroyed Somers' Malibu home.

Television work

• Anniversary Game (1969–70)
• Mantrap (1971–73)
• Lotsa Luck (1974)
• The Rockford Files – The Big Ripoff (aired October 25, 1974)
• Sky Heist (1975)
• The Six Million Dollar Man 1977
• Starsky & Hutch (1975–79, 3 appearances)
• Match Game (1977/PM) (1977)
• The Love Boat (1977)
• Tattletales (1977)
• Three's Company (1977–81)
• Happily Ever After (1978)
• Zuma Beach (1978)
• Hollywood Wives (1985) (miniseries)
• Goodbye Charlie (1985)
• She's the Sheriff (1987–89)
• Rich Men, Single Women (1990)
• Step by Step (1991–98)
• Keeping Secrets (1991)
• Exclusive (1992) (also co-executive producer)
• The Suzanne Somers Show (1994–95)
• Full House (1994)
• Seduced by Evil (1994)
• 8-Track Flashback (1995–98)
• Devil's Food (1996)
• Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade (1996) (Host)
• Love-Struck (1997)
• Candid Camera (co-host from 1997 to 2000)
• No Laughing Matter (1998)
• The Darklings (1999)
• Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (2009) (guest appearance)
• ShopNBC
• The Suzanne Show (2012) (Host)
• The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2013) (guest appearance)
• Dancing with the Stars (2015) (contestant)
• Home & Family (2017)

Filmography

• Bullitt (1968) as Woman (uncredited)
• Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1969) as Sidewalk Extra (uncredited)
• Fools (1970) as Woman at Baptism (uncredited)
• American Graffiti (1973) as Blonde in T-Bird
• Magnum Force (1973) as Pool Girl (uncredited)
• Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977) as Party Girl
• It Happened at Lakewood Manor (1977, TV Movie) as Gloria
• Zuma Beach (1978, TV Movie) as Bonnie Katt
• Yesterday's Hero (1979) as Cloudy
• Nothing Personal (1980) as Abigail Adams
• Totally Minnie (1988, TV Movie) as Director
• Serial Mom (1994) as Herself
• The Nutty Professor (1996) as Thighmaster Lady on TV (uncredited)
• Rusty: A Dog's Tale (1998) as Malley the Dog (narrator)
• Say It Isn't So (2001) as Gilbert's Mom / Herself (cameo, uncredited)

Published works

• Touch Me: The Poems of Suzanne Somers. Workman Pub Co. 1980. ISBN 0-89480-141-4.
• Keeping Secrets. Warner Books. 1987. ISBN 978-0-446-51395-1.
• Wednesday's Children: Adult Survivors of Abuse Speak Out. Putnam Adult. 1992. ISBN 0-399-13743-2.
• After the Fall: How I Picked Myself Up, Dusted Myself Off, and Started All Over Again. Crown. 1998. ISBN 0-609-60312-4.
• Suzanne Somers' Get Skinny on Fabulous Food. Crown. 1999. ISBN 978-0-609-60162-4.
• Suzanne Somers' 365 Ways to Change Your Life. Crown. 1999. ISBN 978-0-609-60161-7.
• Suzanne Somers' Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away. Crown. 2001. ISBN 978-0-609-60722-0.
• Suzanne Somers' Eat Great, Lose Weight (Miniature Editions ed.). Running Press. 2001. ISBN 978-0-7624-1160-3.
• Somersize Desserts. Clarkson Potter. 2001. ISBN 978-0-609-60977-4.
• Suzanne Somers' Fast and Easy: Lose Weight the Somersize Way with Quick, Delicious Meals for the Entire Family!. Crown. 2004. ISBN 978-1-4000-4643-0.
• The Sexy Years: Discover the Hormone Connection – The Secret to Fabulous Sex, Great Health, and Vitality, for Women and Men. Crown. 2004. ISBN 0-609-60721-9.
• Somersize Chocolate. Crown. 2004. ISBN 978-1-4000-5329-2.
• Suzanne Somers' Slim and Sexy Forever: The Hormone Solution for Permanent Weight Loss and Optimal Living. Crown. 2005. ISBN 978-1-4000-5325-4.
• Somersize Cocktails: 30 Sexy Libations from Cool Classics to Unique Concoctions to Stir Up Any Occasion. Crown. 2005. ISBN 978-1-4000-5330-8.
• Somersize Appetizers: 30 Scintillating Starters to Tantalize Your Tastebuds at Every Occasion. Crown. 2005. ISBN 978-1-4000-5331-5.
• Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones. Crown. 2006. ISBN 0-307-23724-9.
• Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness. Crown. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4000-5327-8.
• Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer – And How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place. Crown. 2009. ISBN 978-0-307-58746-6.
• Stay Young & Sexy with Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement: The Science Explained. Smart Publications. 2009. ISBN 978-1-890572-22-8.
• Sexy Forever: How to Fight Fat after Forty. Crown. 2010. ISBN 978-0-307-58851-7.
• The Sexy Forever Recipe Bible. Crown. 2011. ISBN 978-0-307-95670-5.
• Bombshell: Explosive Medical Secrets That Will Redefine Aging. Harmony Books. 2012. ISBN 978-0307-58854-8.
• I'm Too Young for This!: The Natural Hormone Solution to Enjoy Perimenopause. Harmony Books. 2013. ISBN 978-0-385-34769-3.
• TOX-SICK: From Toxic to Not Sick. Harmony Books. 2015. ISBN 978-0-385-34772-3.
• Two's Company: A Fifty-Year Romance with Lessons Learned In Love, Life & Business. Harmony Books. 2017. ISBN 978-0-451-49826-7.