Suzanne Pleshette (January 31, 1937 – January 19, 2008) was an American actress and voice actress. After beginning her career in the theatre, she began appearing in films in the early 1960s, such as Rome Adventure (1962) and Alfred Hitchcocks The Birds (1963). She later appeared in various television productions, often in guest roles, and played Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show from 1972 until 1978, receiving several Emmy Award nominations for her work. She continued acting until 2004, four years before her death. Pleshette was born in Brooklyn Heights, New York City. Her parents were Jewish and the children of immigrants from Russia and Austria-Hungary. Her mother, Geraldine (née Kaplan), was a dancer and artist who performed under the stage name Geraldine Rivers. Her father, Eugene Pleshette, was a stage manager, network executive and manager of the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn. She graduated from Manhattans High School of Performing Arts and then attended Syracuse University for one semester before transferring to Finch College. A graduate of Manhattans prestigious acting school, The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, under the tutelage of legendary acting teacher Sanford Meisner. Reviewers described her appearance and demeanor as sardonic and her voice as sultry. She began her career as a stage actress. She made her Broadway debut in Meyer Levins 1957 play Compulsion, adapted from his novel inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case. The following year she performed in the debut of The Cold Wind and the Warm by S. N. Behrman at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, directed by Harold Clurman and produced by Robert Whitehead. In 1959 she was featured in the comedy Golden Fleecing starring Constance Ford and Tom Poston. (Poston would eventually become her third husband.) That same year, she was one of two finalists for the role of Louise/Gypsy in the original production of Gypsy. During the run of The Cold Wind and the Warm she spent mornings taking striptease lessons from Jerome Robbins for the role in Gypsy.[9] In his autobiography, the plays author Arthur Laurents states, It came down to between Suzanne Pleshette and Sandra Church. Suzanne was the better actress, but Sandra was the better singer. We went with Sandra. In February 1961, she succeeded Anne Bancroft as Anne Sullivan Macy opposite 14-year-old Patty Dukes Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker. Pleshettes first screen role was in the episode Night Rescue (December 5, 1957) of the CBS adventure/drama television series, Harbourmaster, starring Barry Sullivan and Paul Burke. Her other early screen credits include The Geisha Boy, Rome Adventure, Fate Is the Hunter, and Youngblood Hawke, but she was best known at that time for her role in Alfred Hitchcocks classic suspense film The Birds. She worked with Steve McQueen in the 1966 western drama film Nevada Smith, was nominated for a Laurel Award for her starring performance in the comedy If Its Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium opposite Ian McShane, and co-starred with James Garner in a pair of films, the drama Mister Buddwing and the western comedy Support Your Local Gunfighter. She provided the voices of Yubaba and Zeniba in the English dub of Japanese director Hayao Miyazakis Academy Award-winning film Spirited Away and the voice of Zira in Disneys The Lion King II: Simbas Pride and sang the song My Lullaby. Her early television appearances included Playhouse 90, Decoy, Have Gun – Will Travel, One Step Beyond, Riverboat, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Channing, Ben Casey, Naked City, Wagon Train, and Dr. Kildare, for which she was nominated for her first Emmy Award. She guest-starred more than once as different characters in each of these 1960s TV series: Route 66, The Fugitive, The Invaders, The F.B.I., Columbo (1971) and The Name of the Game. Pleshette was the co-star of the popular CBS sitcom The Bob Newhart Show (1972–1978) for all six seasons, and was nominated twice for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She reprised her role of Emily Hartley in the memorable final episode of a subsequent comedy series, Newhart, in which viewers discovered that the entire series had been her husband Bobs dream when he awakens next to Pleshette in the bedroom set from the earlier series. Her 1984 situation comedy, Suzanne Pleshette Is Maggie Briggs, was canceled after seven episodes. In 1989, she played the role of Christine Broderick in the NBC drama, Nightingales, which only lasted one season. In 1990, Pleshette portrayed Manhattan hotelier Leona Helmsley in the television movie Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean, which garnered her Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations. In addition, she starred opposite Hal Linden in the 1994 sitcom The Boys Are Back. She had a starring role in Good Morning, Miami, as Mark Feuersteins grandmother Claire Arnold in season one and played the mother of Katey Sagals character in the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter following John Ritters death, and appeared as the estranged mother of Megan Mullallys character Karen Walker in three episodes of Will & Grace. The role would prove to be her last. A native New Yorker, Suzanne Pleshette had already experienced a full career on stage and screen by 1971 when TV producers saw her on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and they noticed a certain chemistry between Suzanne and another guest, Bob Newhart. She was soon cast as the wife of Newhart’s character, and the series ran for six seasons from 1972 to 1978 as part of CBS televisions Saturday night lineup. Pleshettes down-to-earth but elegant manner was caught during an anecdote that Carson was relating to her about working with a farm tractor in Nebraska. When he asked her, Have you ever ridden on a tractor? she replied smoothly, Johnny, Ive never even been in a Chevrolet.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 06:09:26 +0000
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