Actress Suzanne Somers, known for her role in the legendary series Apartment for Three, has died of cancer at the age of 76. According to a family spokesperson, the actress died peacefully at her home in Palm Springs, California, “with her husband Alan and son Bruce and surrounded by loved ones,” after suffering from aggressive breast cancer for more than 23 years. The interpreter died the day before her birthday. “I was diagnosed with cancer two decades ago and it has recurred several times. “I keep fighting, it’s not new territory for me, I’m a fighter,” she commented on Instagram on July 31.
The San Bruno, California-born actress began her career in supporting roles in the late 1960s. However, the film became famous for “Apartment for Three, Three’s Company” in the original version. In it, Somers played Chrissy Snow, one of two roommates (the other, Janet Wood, was played by Joyce DeWitt) who agrees to rent the third room to culinary student Jack Tripper, a role played by John Ritter, and which it must specify be gay to comply with building regulations.
Suzanne Somers at the Vanity Fair Oscars 2016 party. Danny Moloshok (Portal)
The show, one of the most popular of its time, aired between 1977 and 1984, although the cast was fired in 1980 in the midst of a fight for a raise. Somers requested an increase from the $30,000 he received per episode to $150,000. That is, the same salary that Ritter and other male stars earned on the network. The executives offered him $5,000. The actress did not participate in the recording of two episodes, after which ABC fired her. In subsequent seasons, she was replaced by various artists who did not match her popularity in any way.
Somers appeared in other series and television shows in the following years. However, she found success again as a businesswoman when she founded the healthy living company ThighMaster with her husband Alan Hamel, through which she became a guru in the field. She wrote twenty books, some of them bestsellers, and largely focused on women’s well-being and nutrition.
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