Instead of celebrating when she landed the TV role that would make her famous on “Three’s Company,” the late Suzanne Somers was sleepless with worry that she’d be stuck playing an “irritating” dumb blond.
“I’ll tell you, the day after she got that role, she was up all night,” her widower, Alan Hamel, told Page Six after the star died Sunday at 76 years old.
Somers landed the gig to play clueless Chrissy Snow “on a Friday, and on Monday the series was in production,” Hamel said of the sitcom, which debuted in 1977.
“We were up all night because she said, ‘I do not want to be a dumb blond, because they are irritating. I want my character to be lovable and iconic and loving.’ ”
Instead of celebrating when she landed the TV role that would make her famous on “Three’s Company,” the late Suzanne Somers was sleepless with worry that she’d be stuck playing an “irritating” dumb blond.
“I’ll tell you, the day after she got that role, she was up all night,” her widower, Alan Hamel, told Page Six after the star died Sunday at 76 years old.
Somers landed the gig to play clueless Chrissy Snow “on a Friday, and on Monday the series was in production,” Hamel said of the sitcom, which debuted in 1977.
“We were up all night because she said, ‘I do not want to be a dumb blond, because they are irritating. I want my character to be lovable and iconic and loving.’ ”
Yet, Somers was not the first actor cast as Chrissy, but at least the fourth.
Her predecessors included “Days of Our Lives” star Susanne Zenor, who played the co-lead in an unaired pilot when the character was called Samantha.
The star died “peacefully at home” following a years-long battle with cancer on Oct. 15, and Somers’ loved ones subsequently gathered to mark her 77th birthday two days after she passed.“Thank you for the outpouring of love and affection for Suzanne,” the family captioned a sweet video on Somers’ Instagram. “We love you!” Hamel, 87, said in the video as he covered his face with his hands.
