In Memoriam: Suzanne Pleshette, 1937-2008
Jan. 20th, 2008 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thatcrazycajunSuzanne Pleshette, the actress best known for her six years as Emily Hartley, wife of Bob Newhart's psychiatrist character Dr. Bob Hartley on his eponymous 1970s CBS situation-comedy series, has died just ten days short of what would have been her 71st birthday, at her Los Angeles home of respiratory failure arising from a years-long struggle with lung cancer. (Thanks to sdelmonte for the tip.)
Not many remember these days, but long before Bob came along, she was Rod Taylor's co-star in Alfred Hitchcock's classic suspense film, The Birds. She also appeared in a comedy film, If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, and as the late, largely unlamented Leona Helmsley in a made-for-TV biopic. She performed on Broadway and was the original choice to play Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV series, before the producers settled on Julie Newmar. (Courtesy of IMDB's page on her.) She was nominated several times for Emmys and Golden Globes, and that she never won is to both organizations' eternal shame.
She was quoted as saying in 1955, ""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." Ironically, she outlasted that long-running Eye Network series by at least three decades...but missed her goal by just over a year.
She was a fondly remembered part of my TV-soaked childhood, and I will miss her greatly.
sdelmonte for the tip.)Not many remember these days, but long before Bob came along, she was Rod Taylor's co-star in Alfred Hitchcock's classic suspense film, The Birds. She also appeared in a comedy film, If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, and as the late, largely unlamented Leona Helmsley in a made-for-TV biopic. She performed on Broadway and was the original choice to play Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV series, before the producers settled on Julie Newmar. (Courtesy of IMDB's page on her.) She was nominated several times for Emmys and Golden Globes, and that she never won is to both organizations' eternal shame.
She was quoted as saying in 1955, ""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." Ironically, she outlasted that long-running Eye Network series by at least three decades...but missed her goal by just over a year.
She was a fondly remembered part of my TV-soaked childhood, and I will miss her greatly.
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-20 07:22 pm (UTC)2008's already rackin' up the obits...
no subject
Date: 2008-01-20 09:54 pm (UTC)FWIW, the guy was looking forward to a descent into Alzheimer's, so he was spared that.
Regardless, a moment of silence is in order. Followed by a rousing chorus of "Daydream Believer," the song he'll be most remembered for penning.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-20 11:54 pm (UTC)By all accounts she was a class act in every sense of the word. There aren't enough of those kind of women left in the world. Bless her memory and thanks for the lovely post about her.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-22 12:21 am (UTC)