2023-10-16 00:41:34
Suzanne Somers
Sitcom star loses battle with cancer
The US actress celebrated TV successes in the 70s, 80s and 90s with series such as “Jack of Hearts with Two Ladies” and “A Strong Family”. Now she has died of cancer at the age of 76.
Published16. October 2023, 02:41
Suzanne Somers has died of cancer at the age of 76. (archive image)
IMAGO/USA TODAY Network
She previously suffered from breast cancer for many years. (archive image)
IMAGO/YAY Images
Somers was known, among other things, from the series “Jack of Hearts with Two Queens”. (archive image)
imago images/Everett Collection
American actress Suzanne Somers is dead. Somers died on Sunday morning at the age of 76 in Palm Springs (state of California), as her family announced through their spokesman R. Couri Hay. Her husband Alan Hamel, her son Bruce and other relatives were with her. Somers became internationally known with the sitcom “Jack of Hearts with Two Ladies” and later played a leading role in the series “A Strong Family” alongside Patrick Duffy.
“Her family was gathered to celebrate her 77th birthday on October 16,” the statement said. “Instead, they will celebrate their extraordinary lives and want to thank their millions of fans and followers who loved them dearly.” Somers suffered from breast cancer for many years. In July, she wrote on Instagram that the cancer had returned. She now wanted to put on her combat gear once more and go to war once morest cancer, she said in a television program at the time. “This is a familiar battlefield for me and I’m very tough.”
First cancer diagnosis in 2000
Somers was first diagnosed with cancer in 2000 and later also had skin cancer. She faced some criticism from the American Cancer Society, for example, because she spoke out once morest the use of chemotherapy in books and on talk shows. Instead, she maintained a chemical-free and organic lifestyle to combat the illnesses, she said.
Somers appeared in many television series and films in the 1970s, including Detective Rockford, Call All You Need, Calahan and The Six Million Dollar Man, but her best-known role was in Jack of Hearts with Two Ladies”, which was broadcast on ABC from 1977 to 1984. She also played mother Carol in the series “A Strong Family,” which aired until 1998.
Sitcom star of the 90s
“Jack of Hearts with Two Queens” was also broadcast on German private television in the 1990s. In the series regarding an unusual shared apartment, she starred as a quirky blonde alongside John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt. Creating her character was “an intellectual challenge,” she said in a TV interview in 2020. She asked herself how she might make the character appear “sympathetic and lovable” because “stupid blondes are annoying.” It ultimately “gave her a moral code,” said Somers, who grew up in difficult circumstances in California. She imagined that her character embodied the childhood “that I would have liked to have”. When she later demanded to be paid the same salary as Ritter, she was written out of the series.
Shortly before her death, she seemed to be in a good mood surrounded by her family. Somers even gave an interview to People Magazine regarding her birthday plans. In the article, her husband reported that she had just returned from the Midwest, where she had undergone six weeks of intensive physical therapy. “Even following five decades together, I still marvel at Suzanne’s amazing determination and commitment,” said Hamel. Somers said she wanted “tons of cake.” “I really love cake,” she said. Now she died one day before her birthday.
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