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Suzanne Pleshette Biography |
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Suzanne Pleshette achieved television immortality in her role as Bob Newhart`s wife on the 1970s classic situation-comedy "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972). For her role as Emily Hartley, who was married to a psychologist played by Bob Newhart, Pleshette was nominated for the Emmy Award twice, in 1977 and 1978. She also was nominated for an Emmy in 1962 for a guest appearance on the TV series "Dr. Kildare" (1961) and in 1991 for playing the eponymous Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean (1990) (TV) in a 1990 TV movie. Her acting career lasted almost 50 years.
Suzanne Pleshette was born on January 31, 1937, in New York, New York, to Eugene Pleshette, a TV network executive who had managed the Paramount Theaters in Manhattan and in Brooklyn during the Big Band era, and the former Geraldine Kaplan, a dancer who performed under the pseudonym Geraldine Rivers. Blessed with a husky voice and good looks, Pleshette claims that she was not an acting natural, but just "found" herself attending New York City`s High School of the Performing Arts. After graduating high school, she attended Syracuse University for a semester before returning to New York City to go to Finch College, an elite finishing school for well-to-do young ladies. After a semester at Finch, Pleshette dropped out of college to take lessons from famed acting teacher Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. She made her Broadway debut in 1957 as part of the supporting cast for the play Compulsion (1959). Initially cast as "The Fourth Girl," she eventually took over the ingénue role during the play`s run. Blessed with beauty, a fine figure, and a husky voice that made her seem older than her years, she quickly achieved success on both the little and big screens. She made her TV debut at the age of 20 in "Harbourmaster" (1957) in 1957, then was chosen as the female lead opposite superstar Jerry Lewis in his 1958 comedy The Geisha Boy (1958). On Broadway, she replaced Anne Bancroft in the Broadway hit The Miracle Worker (1962). Once Pleshette started acting, her career never lagged until she was afflicted with cancer. Her most famous role in cinema was in Alfred Hitchcock`s late classic The Birds (1963), playing the brunette school teacher jilted by the hero of the film, Mitch Brenner (played by Rod Taylor). Contrasted with blonde ice queen Melanie Daniels (played by Tippi Hedren), Pleshette`s Annie Heyworth was as earthy, warm and frankly sexual as Hedren`s Melanie was cold and strangely asexual, something airy and of the sky like the birds that would peck Annie to death near the film`s climax. Frankly, it is hard to understand how Taylor`s Mitch would jilt Pleshette`s Annie, other than to work out Hitchcock`s dark vision of society and psychosexual relations between the sexes, in which amoral blondes triumph for aesthetic rather than moral reasons. Still, it is for Emily Hartley she will always be remembered, for both the original show and her part in another show that had the most clever sign-off episode in TV series history. Bob Newhart had enjoyed a second success during the 1980s with his TV sit-com "Newhart" (1982), and when he decided to end that series, he asked Suzanne Pleshette to come back. She did, reprising her tole of Emily in a final episode of Newhart, where Newhart woke up as Bob Hartley from "The Bob Newhart Show" in the bedroom of the Hartley`s Chicago apartment, Pleshette`s Emily at his side. Bob Hartley then Biography Credit: www.imdb.com/name/nm0687189/bio |
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Trivia |
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Quotes "I don`t sit around and wait for great parts. I`m an actress, and I love being one, and I`ll probably be doing it till I`m 72, standing around the back lot doing "Gunsmoke" (1955)". I`m an actress, and that`s why I`m still here. Anybody who has the illusion that you can have a career as long as I have and be a star is kidding themselves. From a 1999 interview On her "girl next door" image": "When Warren Beatty called a girl up, it was usually to try to get her into the sack. But he called me to find out what kind of bologna I used. I just don`t have what it takes, I guess. Raquel Welch has what it takes. She`s so sexy and gorgeous, even I want to jump on her!"Trivia Born in NYC Childhood friend of Faye Michael Nuell (aka Faye Mayo) and Kari Champion (Widow of Gower Champion). Cousin of John Pleshette. December 2000 - Announced her engagement to Tom Poston, age 79. Each had co-starred on a Bob Newhart show, but different versions - she was in the 1970s version, he was in the 1980s. However, Poston appeared in a recurring role on the `70s version as Bob Hartley`s old friend Cliff "The Peeper" Murdock. Pleshette also appeared on the `80s version finale that is one of the best finales of all time -- a segue between the two shows. Met her future husband, Tom Poston, when they appeared together in the 1959 Broadway comedy "The Golden Fleecing". However, they didn`t marry for more than 40 years. Spouse: Tom Poston (11 May 2001 - 30 April 2007) (his death) Tom Gallagher (16 March 1968 - 21 January 2000) (his death) Troy Donahue (4 January 1964 - 8 September 1964) (divorced)
Stepmother of Francesca Poston and Jason Poston. Underwent chemotherapy treatment at Los Angeles` Cedar-Sinai Medical Center for lung cancer [August 2006]. Was the producers` original choice for the role on Catwoman on the "Batman" (1966) TV show. When negotiations broke down, the part went to Julie Newmar, who made it her own. Will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, posthumously, on her birthday, January 31, 2008. | ||
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