Suzanne Pleshette

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Suzanne Pleshette

Pleshette at the 43rd Emmy Awards, 25 August 1991, by Alan Light
Born January 31, 1937(1937-01-31)
New York City, New York, USA
Died January 19, 2008 (aged 70)
Los Angeles, California, USA
Years active 1957-2008
Spouse(s) Troy Donahue
(1964–1964) (divorced)
Tommy Gallagher
(1968–2000) (his death)
Tom Poston
(2001–2007) (his death)

Suzanne Pleshette (January 31, 1937 – January 19, 2008)[1][2][3] was an American actress, on stage, screen and television, known for her role of Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s, and for prior roles in several major films which included the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds and Rome Adventure, as well as in Broadway plays.[1] Petite, with jet-black hair and pale grey-blue eyes, plus the surprise of a deep-timbred voice, Pleshette didn't easily fit the mold of leading lady, but had a long and busy career in character/supporting roles.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Pleshette was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Jewish heritage.[4] Her mother, Geraldine (née Kaplan), was a dancer and artist who performed under the stage name Geraldine Rivers. Her father, Eugene Pleshette, was a stage manager, network executive and manager of the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn.[5][6] She graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts and then attended Syracuse University for one semester before transferring to Finch College.[7]

[edit] Acting career

Reviewers described her appearance and demeanor as sardonic and her voice as sultry.[8]

Pleshette began her career as a stage actress. She made her Broadway debut in Meyer Levin's 1957 play Compulsion, adapted from his novel inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case. Two years later she was featured in the comedy Golden Fleecing starring Tom Poston, who eventually would become her third husband. In February 1961, she replaced Anne Bancroft opposite 14-year-old Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker which debuted to rave reviews.[9]

Pleshette's early screen credits include The Geisha Boy, Rome Adventure, Fate Is the Hunter, and Youngblood Hawke, but she is best remembered for her role of schoolteacher Annie Hayworth opposite Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock's classic film The Birds. In later years she provided the voices of Yubaba and Zeniba in the English dub of Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki's Academy Award-winning film Spirited Away and the voice of Zira in the Disney sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.

Pleshette's early television appearances included Playhouse 90, Have Gun - Will Travel, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey, Wagon Train, and Dr. Kildare, for which she was nominated for her first Emmy Award. [10] She guest-starred more than once as different characters in each of these 1960s TV series: Route 66,[11] [12] The Fugitive,[13] The Invaders[14], The F.B.I., and The Name of the Game.[15]

Pleshette appeared on The Bob Newhart Show (1972-1978) for all six seasons, and was nominated twice for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She reprised her role of Emily Hartley in the memorable final episode of Newhart, in which viewers discovered the entire series had been dreamed by Bob Hartley when he awakens next to Pleshette in the bedroom set from The Bob Newhart Show.

Her 1984 situation comedy, Suzanne Pleshette is Maggie Briggs, was cancelled after seven episodes.[16] In 1989, she played the role of Christine Broderick in the NBC drama, Nightingales, which only lasted one season. In 1990, Pleshette portrayed Manhattan hotelier Leona Helmsley in the television movie The Queen of Mean, which garnered her Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations. In addition, she starred opposite Hal Linden in the 1994 sitcom The Boys Are Back.

She had a recurring role in Good Morning, Miami, as Mark Feuerstein's grandmother Claire Arnold and played the mother of Katey Sagal's character in the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter following John Ritter's death, and appeared as the estranged mother of Megan Mullally's character Karen Walker in three episodes of Will & Grace. The role would prove to be her last.

[edit] Tonight Show with Johnny Carson

A native New Yorker, Suzanne Pleshette had already experienced a full career on stage and screen by 1971 when TV producers saw her on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,[9] and they noticed a certain chemistry between Suzanne and another guest, Bob Newhart.[9] She was soon cast as wife to Newhart’s character, and the series ran for six seasons from 1972 to 1978 as part of CBS television's Saturday night lineup.[9] Pleshette's down-to-earth, but elegant manner, was caught during an anecdote that Carson was relating to her about working with a farm tractor in Nebraska. When he asked her, "Have you ever ridden on a tractor?" she replied smoothly, "Johnny, I've never even been in a Chevrolet."

[edit] Personal life

Pleshette's 1964 marriage to her Rome Adventure co-star Troy Donahue ended acrimoniously after eight months. Her second husband was Texas oilman Tommy Gallagher, to whom she was wed from 1968 until his death from lung cancer on January 21, 2000. She would have had one child, which she miscarried during that marriage. In 2001, she married Bob Newhart's former Newhart co-star Tom Poston.[17] They were married until his death from respiratory failure in Los Angeles on April 30, 2007.

She was the cousin of the actor John Pleshette.

[edit] Illness and death

On August 11, 2006, her agent Joel Dean announced that Pleshette was being treated for lung cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. On August 14, 2006, New York Newsday reported that Dean claimed the cancer was the size of "a grain of sand" when it was found during a routine X-ray, that the cancer was "caught very much in time," that she was receiving chemotherapy as an outpatient, and that Pleshette was "in good spirits." She was later hospitalized for a pulmonary infection and developed pneumonia, causing her to be hospitalized for an extended period. She arrived at a Bob Newhart Show cast reunion in September 2007 in a wheelchair, causing concern about her health, although she insisted that she was "cancer free" (she was seated in a regular chair during the actual telecast). During an interview in USA Today given at the time of the reunion, Pleshette stated that she had been released four days earlier from the hospital where, as part of her cancer treatment, a part of one of her lungs had been removed.[18]

Pleshette died early in the evening of January 19, 2008 of respiratory failure at her Los Angeles home at age 70. She received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television on January 31, 2008, which would have been her 71st birthday. On the January 22 edition of Entertainment Tonight, her former co-star and longtime friend Marcia Wallace announced she would be attending the ceremony on Pleshette's behalf.[19] On what would have been her 71st birthday, Pleshette received the walk's 2,355th star. Bob Newhart, Arte Johnson, and Marcia Wallace spoke at the star's unveiling, which had been planned before Pleshette's death. Tina Sinatra accepted the star on Pleshette's behalf. Others in attendance included Rip Taylor, Peter Falk, and Dick Van Dyke.[20]

[edit] Additional film and television credits

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Suzanne Pleshette - Character actress (Emily Hartley)" Hollywood Memoir, January 2008, states "died early in the evening of January 19, 2008 of respiratory failure", webpage: HMemoir-SPles.
  2. ^ Associated Press 2008-01-19
  3. ^ Suzanne Pleshette, 70; Actress Played Bob Newhart's TV Wife. The Washington Post (Monday, January 21, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  4. ^ Belanger, Camyl Sosa (2005). Eva Gabor an Amazing Woman: Unscrupulous. iUniverse, 120. ISBN0595341608. 
  5. ^ Katz, Ephraim (1994). The Film Encyclopedia. HarperCollins Publishers, 1085. ISBN. 
  6. ^ Suzanne Pleshette - Family and Companions. Yahoo.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  7. ^ Suzanne Pleshette, Actress, Dies at 70. The New York Times (January 21, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  8. ^ "Suzanne Pleshette, sultry-voiced comic partner of Newhart; at 70". Boston.com (January 21, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  9. ^ a b c d "Suzanne Pleshette, 70, 'Newhart' Actress, Dies" (bio), Anita Gates, The New York Times, 2008-01-21, webpage: NYTimes-21cnd-Pleshette.
  10. ^ Awards for Suzanne Pleshette. IMDb. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  11. ^ "Route 66-The Strengthening Angels (1960)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  12. ^ "Route 66-Blue Murder (1961)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  13. ^ Suzanne Pleshette Biography (1937-) (1964). Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
  14. ^ The Invaders & Roy Thinnes. andybrouwer.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  15. ^ Suzanne Pleshette. IMDb. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  16. ^ The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network Shows by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, Ballantine Books, pp. 762-63 ISBN 0-345-35610-1
  17. ^ Wedding Bells-Suzanne Pleshette Wedding Album. Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  18. ^ Keck, Will (2007-09-06). Suzanne Pleshette has her edge back. USA Today. Retrieved on 2008-01-20.
  19. ^ Thomas, Bob (2008-01-20). Suzanne Pleshette Dies in Los Angeles. Associated Press. Retrieved on 2008-01-20.
  20. ^ Suzanne Pleshette Gets Hollywood Star. AOL News (February 1, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-03-04.

[edit] External links