October 16, 1946 – October 15, 2023
We have all heard every adage about blondes. Blondes have more fun. Gentlemen prefer blondes. She’s having a blonde moment…
Whatever stereotype you choose to accept or deny, one thing can’t be argued: Blondes get noticed.
So, when a bubbly blonde from California gets her first role in a motion picture (1973’s American Graffiti) and is billed as “Blonde in Thunderbird”…well, you better believe a career arc has been born.
Suzanne Somers (née Mahoney) didn’t have the best home life growing up. Her father was an alcoholic and was abusive. She was dyslexic and struggled in school. She dropped out of college after becoming pregnant. But she found a positive outlet in performing. She modeled in her native San Francisco. She appeared in some local TV game shows. She wrote poetry. After being noticed in the NBC Commissary in Los Angeles, she was asked to appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson to promote a book of poetry she had just written. Watching that night was ABC President, Fred Silverman, who remembered Somers a few years later when trying to find the third lead in a new sitcom called Three’s Company.
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Celebrity Graveland 