Suzanne Pleshette - No Newhart!

And here’s a pretty obscure looking post Newhart movie that I haven’t watched yet but plan to.

She LOVED doing "Newhart." It was her proudest highlight of her career. When she was buried, her coffin was brought out to the gravesite to the tune of a song called "Emily."

Bitch stole my thunder.

Played Karen Walker’s grifter mother on a Will & Grace.

I LOVED Suzanne Pleshette...She was one of my crushes back when I was a baby dyke.

I just watched the Birds again, too, second time in about two months. One of my all time favorite movies.

I don't have strong feelings about Suzanne Pleshette except she had a lovely presence.

She loved the ladies. Oh, and Tom Poston after he was impotent.

Wasn’t she also with Poston when she was very young and she had another husband and an affair with David Jansen and (lord send me a time machine) Gardner McKay. I mean she could have been as gay as a goose for all I know but her relationship history didn’t scream gay to me.

R2 That’s nice to hear. I’ve only seen a few episodes and thought she and the red haired lady were the best and without them it would be totally unwatchable for me.

I'm not old enough for the original run of TBNS but it was in reruns in the 80s so I did see it sometimes. However, the Suzanne Pleshette I remember most is the 1980s version. She was in a bunch of TV movies that I saw but don't remember. She would always play a middle class fancy woman who fell into hardship because her husband left her/died/got sick. Another man would come along and she'd sort of play herself. A tough, sex broad type. She was also on The Tonight Show a lot at that time talking about her husband and the places they traveled to and IMO she was also at her most beautiful in her 40s. I know most people remember either Newhart era Pleshette or Troy Donahue era Pleshette but I find those meh compared to 80s Pleshette but then we always tend to do that I suppose.

As for her level of fame? Carson probably helped. She was also very well connected in Hollywood, was very much on the scene and was well liked by everyone. That probably helped cement her legacy over actresses that went home to Sherman Oaks to raise kids. Her looks no doubt helped too. I see her popping up in my social media feeds from time to time as a 'vintage babe' and my millenial friends male and female like her look. And of course among gays she's a favorite because she was sort of a gay man in a woman's body, most of us would love to have a bitch, boozy brunch with her.

Oh and I'm watching 'The Birds' tonight with some friends too!

Here Comes Bob & Carol his wife Emily really likes him he has five people in his group.

She was only in one episode (the finale) of "Newhart." She was in all 142 episodes of "The Bob Newhart Show."

And we've discussed her here a lot -- and recently.

r8 "that red-haired lady" was Marcia Wallace, later famous for voicing Mrs. Krabappel on "The Simpsons."

She's also fantastic in some early sixties episodic TV - an episode of Dr. Kildare where she plays a young actress who finds out she has a terminal illness. You can't take your eyes off her.

OP the longer threads crash on me too if I use my phone. It makes following the theatre threads and the tennis threads (ya i know, shut up) very annoying. Try using your laptop and you should be able to get the recent 'The Birds' thread. I'm on my phone right now and it's crashing out if I try to scroll through it so I know what you mean.

She never had much of a movie career--drek like Palm Springs Weekend, but she did become a tv movie queen.

Her father managed the Paramount Theater in NYC and knew lots of performers. She was good at shmoozing and socializing and stayed connected in Hollywood.

R8, most of those were beards for her. There's a reason she didn't do well early on. She just wasn't believable as a heterosexual.

R7

Don’t know if it’s 100% true but I was told by someone in the business that Pleshette had affairs with Angie Dickinson and later Tina Sinatra.

OP what on earth makes you think she was so good in The Birds? If you ask me that movie is just a smorgasbord of bad acting.

Looks like a baby les there. Don’t buy a married David Janssen as a beard though and Angie Dickinson was a major cock hound.

....

She was in the single best scene of a television show, hands down.

I was at a holiday party last night and got talking to an eldergay who knew Suzanne. He said the marriage to Troy was not a studio arrangement or a bearding situation. He said Suzanne thought it was for real and had it announced in theNYT, her parents and other relatives flew in from New York. She had been moving her furniture and belongings into his home in the hills for weeks before the ceremonyetc... As a result he says she was humiliated and also very hurt and bitter afterwards. He remembers someone asking her about Troy at a party in Jackie Collins’ house in the late 80s and she got very emotional before pulling herself together and throwing some great shade on him. I asked him if Suzanne was aware that everyone thought it was a bearding situation and I also asked him if everyone in Hollywood thought Troy was gay. He said Troy was a major pussyhound and druggie. He said it was possible he was the type of guy who would get high and screw anything but he wasn’t aware of any gay affairs. He said that later Suzanne knew very well that people had all sorts of crazy rumors going about the marriage. Some queen with a gossip column Skippy somebody?? spread all sorts of crazy rumors like Troy fucking the poolboy at the Beverly Hills hotel on the wedding night.

I did mention to him that I was surprised on her passing to find out that Suzanne was Jewish. I asked him if she was closeted about that. He said a giant no. He said in real life she was the bastard child of Jackie Mason and Jackie Susann! She said her speech was littered with Yiddish and she was always mentioning her Jewishness. He told me that when she married Troy there were articles all over the fan magazines about their “mixed marriage” but that when she was on Newhart she cultivated a certain image that she carried over to the Carson show appearances. She was definitely putting on an act for middle America in his opinion and losing her Jewishness was intentional. He said she used to travel around malls in the Midwest selling sheets ?? and was never going to be her true self and alienate the fraus in Ohio. He felt that she did regret that later. He said the woman on Carson was “Suzanne lite”.

He said she was achingly funny in real life and he said she was what every gay man hoped the real Joan Rivers would be. He said Joan was a kind, lovely woman but in real life very formal, old fashioned and stuffy with delusions of grandeur. Suzanne was as funny and hip and open minded in real life as Joan was on stage. He said she (Suzanne) was also tough as nails and it took some effort to get past the tough/funny facade. He last saw her a few weeks before she died. He said she was still going out to dinner every night. She called him and said “I have six weeks left so if you want to have lunch with me you better hurry” He and his partner took her to La Scala and they spent 3 hours with her. He said she was physically very weak and had a wheelchair. When they were leaving she got in the wheelchair and he was pushing the chair. They had only gone a few steps when some BH housewife type came towards them. He said Suzanne leaped out of the chair in case this bitch would see her in it and spread it all over town. He really admired her balls but he also wished she could have allowed herself to be a bit more vulnerable.

Anyway, I just thought I’d jot down those tidbits while the night is still fresh in my mind. If I remember anything else I’ll come back and add.

Nice post, R22.

Interesting post R22.

There is an interview on YouTube where Suzanne says that Troy called her a few months after their marriage and told her he was in big tax trouble with the IRS and that she should divorce him before the end of the year, otherwise she'd be on the hook for the money as well.

She seemed to appreciate him for that and only said good things about him.

She also replaced Anne Baxter in The Miracle Worker onstage. She said that she thought Patty Duke was a very interesting child actress.....but as an adult - not so much.

R22 Great post.

Suzanne has always been one of my favorite actresses but I turned down the opportunity to meet her because I was really afraid she'd be a disappointment, never meet your idols and all that. In 2002 she was in town to promote 'Good Morning Miami' and I was offered the opportunity to be her handler for the day.

Anyway, she seemed very complex person and I wasn't sure who the real Suzanne was. My aunt would sneer 'and she's Jewish you know' when she was on Carson talking about her goyish husband. She was on one night with Don Rickles who was doing all kinds of schtick about Jews and I thought my aunt was going to throw a vase at the TV when Suzanne sat there fake laughing, looking very uncomfortable and not joining in. She portrayed herself as a veddy fancy, cooly elegant WASP married to a rich guy (in reality she was supporting him, he was the 'manager'). Then I heard all the anecdotes of her being bawdy, a big partier, down to earth, a climber in on the joke and I thought the real woman is either very complex and interesting or a disappointing phony. I saw an interview with Peter Bonerz where he told the same account of her final months. She was on the town in full hair and makeup and putting on a hell of a show so nobody would see that she was on her last legs. Like Joan Rivers' I found that both inspiring and sad at the same time. We all know Joan's baggage and why she ended up with $60 million in the bank playing to half filled rooms in Indian casinos. I've always wondered what Suzanne's early life was like and why she ended up putting up a front and never sharing her real self. Your post sheds some light on that R22. Thanks.

R24 She did slide in that he wasn't a very good actor though!

She had that great smoky deep voice that was fabulous. Loved her. Miss her. Never heard Anything about her sexuality except for being straight (and who cares anyway?)

Yes she did......R26 - but I love to hear her stories.....

Talking about WB and Troy.....at about 15 minutes....

She was also in "40 Pounds of Trouble," a 1962 comedy starring Tony Curtis. Much of the movie was filmed at Disneyland.

I've never seen Newhart either, but she is great in The Queen of Mean: The Leona Helmsley Story.

Jeez. In r62 clip Suzanne is casually riding on a roller coaster with a little girl riding unrestrained on her lap!

Tony claimed they had an affair during the filming of the second movie they did together. Supposedly, when she had him over to dinner he put the brakes on and turned down her advances so it was never consummated but Suzanne told him if anyone asked he was to say he had her! He claimed she was one of the few women he truly loved. Now whether Tony can be believed or not I don't know. Suzanne had just married her second husband a few months before so I'm not sure I believe that she was having Tony Curtis around for a romantic dinner.

I remember that from his last book, American Prince. At first I thought it was total BS and I thought he waited until she was gone to print that as it didn't appear in his first book. BUT in this interview - near the end- she says her first year of marriage was very difficult so.... It's possible.

[Quote] who cares anyway

This is a gay forum.

She was what was affectionately known as a great broad.

R25, As a fan you've probably already watched the interview R24 posted. She says in Part 1 that as a small child her parents would leave her in a hotel room and the house detective (I'm not sure what that is, a security guy?) would come in and play with her. Her parents would be downstairs partying in the hotel. She also says her father managed a theatre, worked unsociable hours, and she says she was a lonely child. So her childhood was unusual and her parents didn't seem to make any effort to create routine or much of a stable family life for her. She was an only child. That upbringing would probably give a kid lots of issues.

I must admit I find it very hard to lose my 2019 perspective because when I heard her say she was left alone in a hotel room and male staff members were coming in to play with her - WOW. I really hope they were all nice guys and she was never harmed.

'a great broad'

Can any of you tell me why that phrase was insulting back in the day? Because I notice people often apologize for using it so I have to assume it once had negative connotations. In what way?

Vulgar, unfeminine, not ladylike etc.

R31, in the clip at R29 it appears that Suzanne and the girl are sitting together with a seat belt around them. In the early years of the Matterhorn Bobsleds, you could "piggy back" and have one seat belt around both of you. In letter years they changed the sleds, so now you can only sit by yourself. Also I think the faster part of the ride was simulated, with them just sitting in front of a screen and the background added in.

1. R36 Wow indeed. I’m no fan of the current day helicopter parenting/there’s a pedo around every corner but yeah I can’t believe anyone would think it was a good idea to leave a little girl alone in a room that a bunch of teen boys (werent hotel staff then mostly teen boys or have I watched too much TCM) had access to and knew the parents were out of sight. Recipe for disaster. Suzanne doesn’t seem like the type who would ever talk about it even if she had been abused (hopefully she wasn’t) She strikes me as the type who would never want to be seen as a victim.

2. Suzanne has always reminded me of a less crazy Elizabeth Ashley.

3. Tony’s book was as trashy as Eddie Fishers. Just ugh. On the other hand I can’t imagine Suzanne never had an affair in 30 years of marriage.

"A great broad" is also how now-all-grown-up-and-then-some Brenda Lee described the late, great Patsy Cline, back when young Brenda and adult Patsy would tour together (see Ken Burns' PBS documentary "Country Music.")

I never thought of that phrase as being an insult. Maybe it fell out of favor with the rise of feminism, or simply with the changing of the times, ?

{R34} Oh. I forgot. Lesbians post here too.

[quote] 'a great broad' Can any of you tell me why that phrase was insulting back in the day? Because I notice people often apologize for using it so I have to assume it once had negative connotations. In what way?

No, in the day it was great compliment, she wasn't some delicate flower, like one of the guys, today it's considered sexist.

[quote]the house detective (I'm not sure what that is, a security guy?)

Yes big hotels had a detective/security aka House Dick, on full time staff. They would take care of problem guests, keep the riff raff out and discouraged hookers hanging around.

I think it depends on where/how you were raised. If you were raised by parents/in a community that believed any hint of toughness in a woman was masculine and a negative then being a broad was a negative. Being 'one of the guys' was a negative and people made sure girls knew this was a terrible thing. If you were around people who thought women needed to be strong and stand up for themselves rather than be flowers who depended on male protection then it was a compliment and you heard it says as a positive.

Some men with virgin/whore complexes used it to signify that a woman was not one you had to respect or treat well. She was for a good time but not a lady you married.

I don't know why but I always confused her with Polly Bergen.

"Don’t know if it’s 100% true but I was told by someone in the business that Pleshette had affairs with Angie Dickinson and later Tina Sinatra."

TINA SINATRA, now that's a good topic I've never seen at the DL. She was "the son Frank never had."

"Broad" also described a woman who was sexually available, a person with loose morals. Today I just think of it as a word my grandparents would use, not necessarily meaning anything negative. Has it made a comeback?

"I don't know why but I always confused her with Polly Bergen."

Now there's a lesbian reference!

I had a boss who swore he slept with Suzanne in Vegas in 1982. He was a completely unremarkable guy working as a supervisor in a midwestern factory so I’m pretty sure that never happened but he swore it did. I always assumed he was drunk and some cocktail waitress with a deep voice said she was Ms Pleshette! The memory kept him happy so I let him have it.

Who was the actress that Suzanne replaced in the play "Golden Fleecing" before it reached Broadway in 1959?

r22 I always heard that her second husband, Tommy Gallagher, was flamboyantly gay. Is there any truth to that, or was he a pussyhound too?

R50 The only thing that he said about her second husband Tommy was that they both loved the finer things in life. Both of them had the best designer clothes, the best cars, the best vacations (he said they went to Cap Ferra every summer and rented yachts in the Caribbean), the best furnishings. This party was at the home of an interior decorator which is now Suzanne’s name came up in the first place. He also said that Tommy took care of Suzanne. He managed her money and her business, he protected her from the seedier side of showbiz and he said he was happy to stay in the background. I say will the guy did do an eye roll when he said Tommy was her manager but I didn’t get the impression that he had done her wrong in any way, just that actress with the manager husband is as eyeroll worthy as the pizza delivery boy in porn.

I didn’t know about any gay rumors or I would have asked.

The white/blonde looked great on her. I wonder why she contoured her nose.

That should be Suzanne Plefeces for those of us who aren't vulgar

R52, you must visit our Suzanne Pleshette did NOT get a nose job thread.

The cigarettes killed her, but they made her voice so sexy.

It was short-lived, but I enjoyed Nightingales.

A Rage to Live is on YouTube!

R54 I remember that thread! I rewatched some of her archive interview yesterday and laughed when she said she did not have a nosejob. She just blurted it out totally out of context. So ransom, was she reading DL?

R49 I'd love to know. I did a quick search through the NYT archive and came up with nothing except an article where Suzanne said not only did she replace her in Golden Fleecing she had previously stolen her boyfriend too. Poor girl, I hope she got a break eventually.

My mother went to school with Tommy Gallagher's first wife. Her name was Joyce. She was a stunning, statuesque showgirl who danced for the Follies revue in Vegas. My parents went up to see the show several times, the last time was just before my twin sister and I were born. I still have the show programme, a Follies match box and a picture of Joyce signed to my mother. The marriage to Tom was very shortlived but in those days he was not known as Tommy, he was Buck Gallagher. My mother used to get a real kick when Suzanne would be on the Tonight Show talking about Tommy. She'd say 'that's Buck Gallagher, small world'. My mother said he was a gambler and a boozer and she was always amazed that his marriage to Suzanne lasted.

Tommy:Suzanne::Gary:Lucille

Original nose? Or 2nd job?

Her highschool yearbook picture.

Aged 17...

[Quote] She and my Mother grew up together on the Upper West Side - a very Jewish neighborhood in the 50s - and were close friends as girls.

[Quote] Mom says she had that name always, and that smoky voice from a bout of laryngitis that lasted too long - because they were both smoking in the girls bathroom at school when they were 13!

[Quote] Mom also says like most Jewish girls Suzie got a nose job as a Sweet 16 gift. And it's impossible to find any photos of her on-line before she's 21, but I've seen Mom's casual summer photos from the early years and indeed, Suzie did have a more pronounced probiscus.

[Quote] —73rd and Columbus

Pleshette uttered one of the funniest lines ever in an interview once. It's been so long ago I can't remember what venue it was from, maybe Carson. They were talking about exercising and Pleshette said "the most exercise I get or want is walking from my Rolls Royce into my favorite restaurant".

She put down the fork at some point. Yowsa!

She looked great with long hair. I wonder why she seemed to favor short.

R66 She was in incredible shape throughout the 80s.

^^^ And then she died.

She looked quite mannish in her high school picture.

Love her — always a welcome presence. I remember her fine performance as the girlfriend of a young Donald Sutherland (!) on an interesting episode of “The Name of the Game” titled “The Suntan Mob”.

And she was endearing as a vulnerable murder witness on terrific early episode of “Columbo” titled “Dead Weight”. Apparently the shoot was not an easy one, and Pleshette got pulled into a power struggle between Peter Falk and the studio!

She looks a little like Allison Janney.

R49, the actress Suzanne Pleshette replaced in “Golden Fleecing” before its Broadway opening was The Wasp Woman herself, Susan Cabot.

“Golden Fleecing” was later filmed by Hollywood as “The Honeymoon Machine” and the roles originated onstage by Pleshette and DL icon Constance Ford were played by Brigid Bazlen and Paula Prentiss.

For the record, Pleshette replaced Anne Bancroft in MIRACLE WORKER, not Anne Baxter. Pleshette was said to be terrific in the role. Wonder if she did much stage work after that.

Her dad ran the famous Paramount Theater in Times Square. They would run a movie and a live stage show and this is where Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis headlined their act and Sinatra became famous with his bobbysoxers. Now it's the Hard Rock Cafe.

In addition to that guest spot, R71, she also played a guest star reporter in a final-season episode that might've been a test run to replace Tony Franciosa (they tried three or four people out, but only one woman). Watching her go up against Mercedes McCambridge was well worth the watch.

She was sexy and soft butch in THE BIRDS

I don't think she was butch in The Birds. She wasn't from the sophisticated city. She was just a simple country girl who wanted to sit on Rod Taylor's face, but aren't well all?

I'd have killed for Susy's voice.

Feel the heat.

After the Miracle Worker she came back to Broadway just once in 82 and did a flop play with Richard Milligan that opened and closed the same night. Here’s some pictures from it

Actually R78 - her character Annie Hayward in THE BIRDS had met Mitch in San Francisco and moved to Bodega Bay to be with him.....but Mitch's mother would have none of it.....

Annie Hayworth was from 'back East' originally.

R76, I’ve seen “The Capital Affair”, the episode of “The Name of the Game” episode that featured Suzanne Pleshette squaring off against Mercedes McCambridge. It also features Larry Hagman, if memory serves. Interesting that you bring up Tony Franciosa, because Pleshette mentions him and his squabbles with the studio in the clip I linked at R71.

In a book called The Studio about 20th Century-Fox, there is a meeting about some dumb movie and the producer says:

"Just get me Tony Franciosa or Hugh O'Brien or one of those other half-baked guys who can't get a movie to save their lives...."

I saw Suzanne in traffic once on Santa Monica Blvd at the first set of lights after Dan Tana's. She was driving a Rolls Royce and I was a passenger in my friend's car, we both had our windows rolled down and we spoke briefly - she had her arm resting on her rolled down window and I complemented her ring (a massive, blingy cocktail ring on her ring finger). We both griped about the traffic and she told me it was worse for her because she refused to make left turns!

Looking back I assume she knew that I knew who she was because she initiated the conversation and I was probably gazing at her like a big gay fanboy. Her eyes were a mesmerizing bright green in person, she had freckles across her nose and cheeks and very fair skin. She also looked much younger in person than she would have been at the time (late 40s) and either her car had a great air freshener or she had a great perfume! Really nice, down to earth lady.

OP, I needed the money, honey!

R86 Thanks for sharing. A Rolls, eh. Nice.