In Loving Memory of Suzanne Somers (a.k.a.: Susane Somers)

Born October 16, 1946 - Passed Away October 15, 2023

This memorial website was created in the memory of Suzanne Somers , born in San Bruno, CA on October 16, 1946 and passed away on October 15, 2023 at 76 years of age.

Suzanne Marie Somers is an American actress, author, singer, businesswoman, and health spokesperson. She appeared in the television role of Chrissy Snow on Three's Company and as Carol Foster Lambert on Step by Step. She is also known as Susane Somers, and Suzanne Somers.

Somers was born Suzanne Marie Mahoney in San Bruno, California, the third of four children in an Irish Catholic family. Her mother, Marion Elizabeth (née Turner), was a medical secretary, and her father, Francis Mahoney, was a laborer and gardener. Her father was an alcoholic who could become violent on occasion, as Somers recounted, often forcing her to hide in her closet. She suffered from dyslexia and was a poor student. After being expelled from parochial school for having love notes in her locker, Suzanne went to Capuchino High School, where she appeared in several drama productions, including portraying Adelaide in the Frank Loesser musical Guys and Dolls. Due to his drinking problem, her father was too inebriated to attend Suzanne's high school graduation in June 1964. A made-for-TV-movie starring Somers (based on her first autobiography, Keeping Secrets) was made about her life and growing up with an alcoholic father.

In September 1964, she was accepted at San Francisco College for Women (commonly referred to as "Lone Mountain College") on a music scholarship, a Catholic school that is now a campus of the University of San Francisco. She left during her Sophomore year, after becoming pregnant. She gave birth to her son Bruce Jr. on November 8, 1965, after marrying the boy's father, Bruce Somers. She left her husband three years later and began modeling. In 1971, her son was severely injured when he was hit by a car.

In 1968, Suzanne won a job as a prize model on the short-lived game show, The Anniversary Game hosted by her future husband, Alan Hamel. She has been married to Hamel since 1977. Hamel was her business manager during the failed negotiations which led to her leaving Three's Company.

She began acting in small roles during the late 1960s and early 1970s (including on various talk shows promoting her book of poetry, and bit parts in movies such as the "Blonde in the T-Bird" in American Graffiti, and an episode of the American version of the sitcom Lotsa Luck as the femme fatale in the early 1970s) before landing the role of the ditzy blonde "Chrissy Snow" on the ABC sitcom Three's Company in 1977.

Somers later became the author of a series of self-help books, including Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones , about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. She has released two autobiographies, four diet books, and a book of poetry.

Somers has been criticized for her views on some medical subjects and her advocacy of the Wiley Protocol, which has been labelled as "scientifically unproven and dangerous". Her promotion of alternative cancer treatments has received criticism from the American Cancer Society.

Somers died at her home in Palm Springs, California, on October 15, 2023, one day before her 77th birthday. Her death was attributed to breast cancer, which had returned earlier in the year. Her funeral was held three days later, with her interment at Desert Memorial Park.