Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (1937-2008)

Subject: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 09:37 PM

Well, darn. . .


Suzanne Pleshette, wife on 'Bob Newhart Show," dies at 70

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- Suzanne Pleshette, the beautiful, husky-voiced film and theater star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show," has died, said her attorney Robert Finkelstein. She was 70.

Pleshette, who underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006, died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, said Finkelstein, who is also a family friend.

"The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette provided the voice of reason.

Four years after the show ended in 1978, Newhart went on to the equally successful "Newhart" series in which he was the proprietor of a New England inn populated by more eccentrics. When that show ended in 1990, Pleshette reprised her role -- from the first show -- in one of the most clever final episodes in TV history.

It had Newhart waking up in the bedroom of his "The Bob Newhart Show" home with Pleshette at his side. He went on to tell her of the crazy dream he'd just had of running an inn filled with eccentrics.

"If I'm in Timbuktu, I'll fly home to do that," Pleshette said of her reaction when Newhart told her how he was thinking of ending the show.

Born Jan. 31, 1937, in New York City, Pleshette began her career as a stage actress after attending the city's High School of the Performing Arts and studying at its Neighborhood Playhouse. She was often picked for roles because of her beauty and her throaty voice.

"When I was 4," she told an interviewer in 1994, "I was answering the phone, and (the callers) thought I was my father. So I often got quirky roles because I was never the conventional ingenue."

She met her future husband, Tom Poston, in 1959, but didn't marry him until more than 40 years later.

Although the two had a brief fling, they went on to marry others. By 2000 both were widowed and they got back together, marrying the following year.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 10:57 PM

Dang! Another Canadian star is gone.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 11:03 PM

Hmmm...nope, wait, she was born in New York. I've got her confused with some other Hollywood actress of the 60's who came from Canada...darned if I can remember who it was now.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 03:24 AM

Darn it. Tom Poston has passed on, too, hasn't he? Both of them were on different Newhart shows.

We just saw footage of them all on PBS during a "Pioneers of Television" show. It was really good.

She was such a neat actress. It's sad to hear of her passing.

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: Slag
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 05:32 AM

They're together again, we trust, and entertaining a whole other crowd. Man, I loved Suzanne, my kind of woman and Tom Poston was a truly funny man. He could really squeeze the humor out of the most mundane situation. H played perfectly with Newhart. More re-runs please! I hope neither of them had any radical ideas or opinions. I'd hate for Ron O to trash their memories.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: GUEST,misty eyes
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 06:21 AM

She should have had more top parts, a beauty and an underrated actress, Susan I admired from afar, may she rest in peace.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: gnu
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 07:16 AM

Yup. RIP both.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 08:03 AM

We always loved her.......completely underrated. And the tale of she and Tom Poston, another real favorite of ours going back to the Steve Allen days, was so beautiful and magic...................Karen will be as sad as I am to hear the news although we knew her cancer was terminal.

Ya' know, she did some schlock stuff at times, but she even did that well! And Newhart? A real classic.

Very sad..........

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: GUEST,grngooseputter62
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 09:30 AM

Rest in peace Susan.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 12:57 PM

Bless...Rest in Peace Suzanne.
bob

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 05:18 PM

She was cast as the school marm in Hitchcock's The Birds. When she and Marnie Nixon had a few scenes together I always felt like Nixon was the lightweight, and that Pleshette could chew her up and spit her out. She played a gentle sort in that film, but there was depth in that character.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: GUEST,bflat
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 02:02 AM

She was wonderful. Great comic timing but an extraordinary beauty in the vein of Ava Gardner and Liz Taylor. I am sad. Wasn't it extradordinary that she was to have married her true love after some forty years? I don't usually gush over celebrities but she was unique and endearing.

Ellen

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 09:28 PM

I understand that like Goldie Hawn she was one of the most intelligent and sharpest businesswoman in Hollywood.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suzanne Pleshette (January 2008)
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 11:50 PM

Don't worry Slag, these were good people.

I really loved both of them as actors. Newhart's show were always my favorites and they both were superb in their respective roles. They will be missed.