Movie, television, and stage actress Suzane Pleshette has died:
Suzanne Pleshette, the dark-haired, smoky-voiced actress who played Bob Newhart’s confident and sexy wife, Emily Hartley, for six years on the popular 1970s sitcom “The Bob Newhart Show,” has died. She was 70.
The widow of comic actor Tom Poston, Pleshette died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, Robert Finkelstein, an entertainment lawyer and family friend, told the Associated Press. Pleshette underwent chemotherapy in 2006 for lung cancer.
A stage-trained New York actress who made her movie debut in the 1958 Jerry Lewis comedy “The Geisha Boy,” Pleshette appeared in such films as “The Birds,” “Nevada Smith,” “Youngblood Hawke,” “A Rage to Live” and “Fate Is the Hunter.”
She also appeared with Troy Donahue, to whom she was married for eight months in 1964, in the 1962 romantic drama “Rome Adventure” and the 1964 western “A Distant Trumpet.”
On Broadway in 1961, Pleshette replaced Anne Bancroft in the role of Annie Sullivan in “The Miracle Worker,” opposite Patty Duke as Helen Keller.
And on television in 1991, she earned an Emmy Award nomination for the title role in the TV movie “Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean.”
She’s probably best remembered for playing Bob Newhart’s wife, Emily, on The Bob NewHart Show.
She was one of the last cohort of Warner Brothers contract players in the last gasp of the studio system, a cohort that included George Hamilton, Robert Conrad, and Troy Donahue. I think that she was probably the most talented of that class but Warners never really knew what to do with her.
Suzanne Pleshette was a “Wonderful” actress and human being. Johnny Carson loved having her on his show because he loved, her wit, intelligence, husky voice, and and her comical spirit. May she rest in peace.
Suzanne was a gift from God. What a wonderful actress and person. She has made me laugh for several years. Thank goodness for reruns! Her role as Karen Walker’s mother in Will and Grace was one of her finest moments