Suzanne Pleshette

SUZANNE PLESHETTE 1937 - 2008   Smoky-voiced, classy, and sometimes naughty...fan favorite Suzanne Pleshette passed away on January 17, 2008 after a 50-year career.  It is hard to take...because in that half-century she never really went away---making film or TV appearances nearly every year since she began in 1957!  Her 1963 appearance in Alfred Hitchcock’s cinema classic “The Birds” will ensure her fame forever.    She is the first major player to pass away from the classic ‘70s “The Bob Newhart Show,” where she played her signature role of “Emily Hartley.”    She was born in Brooklyn Heights in 1937.  Her father was the manager of New York’s Paramount Theatre; her mother was a former dancer.  She attended New York High School for the Performing Arts, continuing to study in New York with renowned acting teacher Sanford Meisner. In 1957 she made her Broadway debut as the Fourth Girl in “Compulsion”, and her TV debut in the forgotten one-season “Harbourmaster.”  Her movie debut came a year later in the much more high-profile “The Geisha Boy” with ‘50s superstar Jerry Lewis.   She concentrated on stage productions for several years—appearing in 3 more Broadway shows.  She worked with friend/future husband Tom Poston in 1959’s “Golden Fleecing.”  In 1961, she received wonderful reviews replacing Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan in “The Miracle Worker” working with Patty Duke. By 1961, she had built up her TV resume to include such early series as “Playhouse 90,” “Naked City,” “Route 66” and  “Have Gun, Will Travel”—the first of many Westerns in which she would appear.  She received her first of 4 Emmy nominations for a 1961 episode of “Dr. Kildare.”     Pleshette became a written-about young movie star in 1962 when she was cast opposite Troy Donahue and Angie Dickinson in the love-triangle romance “Rome Adventure.”   Movie magazines picked up on the chemistry between Troy and Suzanne.  In 1964, they teamed a second time in the western “A Distant Trumpet, ” married, and then divorced after 7 months of marriage.  (Suzanne was married to Tom Gallagher from 1968 until his death in 2000—and to Tom Poston from 2001- 2007).    Meanwhile in 1963, Suzanne had been picked to play sultry schoolmarm, Annie Hayworth, in Alfred Hitchcock’s nature-gone-nuts classic “The Birds.”  She had already worked for Hitchcock in a 1960 episode of his weekly television show.  With Pleshette, Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, and a cast of hundreds in the air,  “The Birds” was a “frightening” hit in 1963 and has become one of Hitchcock’s best-known films.  The prestige and success turned Pleshette into a sought-after actress.  The movie turned out to be Pleshette’s “second-most popular role.” For the next 15 years, she split her time between TV and movies.  She appeared in nearly two dozen films in the 60s & 70s in all sorts of genres: suspense-1964’s “Fate is the Hunter” with Glenn Ford; social commentary- 1965’s “A Rage to Live” in a steamy performance; Westerns-1966’s“Nevada Smith” with Steve McQueen; and light comedy- 1969’s “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.” She teamed with Dean Jones three times in Walt Disney features, “The Ugly Dachshund” (1966), “Blackbeard’s Ghost” (1968), and “The Shaggy D.A. (1976).   James Garner was another of her frequent co-stars with 1966’s “Mister Buddwing” and 1971’s “Support Your Local Gunfighter.”  She was reunited with Garner again in 2003 as his estranged wife in a story arc of TV’s “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teen-Age Daughter.”   By the early 70s, Pleshette had become one of Johnny Carson’s favorite guests on “The Tonight Show.” On August 5, 1971 both she and Bob Newhart were booked as guests.  The two clicked on-air and a year later Pleshette had found her role. The endearing partnership of Bob and Emily Hartley (Newhart & Pleshette) would help make “The Bob Newhart Show” one of the smartest and funniest sitcoms of the 70s. It premiered in 1972 and became a cornerstone of the potent CBS Saturday night lineup, which included heavyweights “All in the Family,” “Mary Tyler Moore” and “Carol Burnett.” The series ran for 6 seasons ending in 1978.  Pleshette received two Emmy nominations for her role. In what would become her most famous appearance as Emily Hartley, Pleshette popped up in 1990 in a surprise cameo in the finale of Newhart’s 2nd TV series, “Newhart.”   As Newhart wakes up under those familiar 1970s sheets of the Hartley’s bed, he arouses his bed-mate.  And indeed it is Emily (Suzanne)—we realize that Newhart’s whole 2nd series had been a dream of his character in his first series.  Looking at the two of them, it had seemed no time had passed.    The studio audience goes crazy, and is sworn to secrecy.  Surprisingly, the cat was not let out of the bag, and TV viewers were treated to the big surprise without prior knowledge.  It could be TV’s best series finale ever. Throughout the 80s and 90s Suzanne continued to work on television.   She triumphed in 1991 as Leona Helmsley in a TV movie about “The Queen of Mean” garnering another Emmy nomination.  However, her successes in TV-movies did not cross-over into another long-term TV role. But she certainly tried—1984’s “Maggie Briggs,” 1986’s “Bridges to Cross,” 1989’s “Nightingales,” 1994’s “The Boys Are Back,” and 2002’s “Good Morning, Miami.”  By 1998, her distinctive low, husky voice was being used in the animated “Lion King 2” for the character of  “Zira.”  Her last role was a 3-episode guest shot in “Will and Grace” as Karen Walker’s mother from 2002 – 2004.   Her long career from 1950s ingénue to beloved and saucy earth-mother of the 2000s has made Suzanne Pleshette one of our favorite celebrities.  Her allure, her wit, her face....and of course her voice.  Her low octaves alone have made her a classic.   No one could say “Bob....” like she could.