When people hear the name SUZANNE PLESHETTE,
they may automatically think of Emily Hartley,
the character she played for six years on THE BOB NEWHART SHOW.
But that's not the big secret.
What most people probably don't know is that Pleshette's substantial career as an actress began in the late '50s, not only in television but on Broadway and in film as well. She actually made her theatre debut at the age of 10 in TRUCKLINE CAFE, a student production at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. "I got good notices," she says, "but when the production ended, there I was, a 10-year-old retired actress."
After graduating from High School of Performing Arts in New York City, Pleshette attended Syracuse University for a few months, then transferred to Finch College to finish out the year.
She spent the next two years at Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre, which prepared her for her role as "fourth girl" and understudy for Ina Balin in Broadway's COMPULSION; toward the end of the run of the play, she took over Balin's role as Ruth Goldenberg. Someone who had seen her in the play told Jerry Lewis about her, and Lewis signed her for The Geisha Boy, Pleshette's 1958 film debut.
After completing the film, she returned to Broadway, where she earned good reviews for supporting roles. Just a few of the adjectives: "charming . . . gentle . . . excellent . . . appealing . . . lovely . . . desirable and sprightly . . . pert . . . exceptionally good . . . humorous and romantically appealing . . . attractive . . . stunning."
Between roles on Broadway, Pleshette polished her acting craft with numerous TV roles, appearing on HAVE GUN—WILL TRAVEL, ROUTE 66, ADVENTURES IN PARADISE, THE TAB HUNTER SHOW(!), ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, and NAKED CITY. Her television debut was in 1957 in HARBOURMASTER. "It was a ZIV production," she says. "They did 10 takes on my hand reaching for a fish and one take on my five-page scene. They insured me, hoping I'd get killed, 'cause they didn't want to start the show. If you can survive a ZIV production, you can survive anything."
In 1959 she replaced Anne Bancroft on Broadway in TWO FOR THE SEESAW and again replaced Bancroft in 1961, this time in The Miracle Worker, for which Pleshette received excellent notices. Riding high on THE MIRACLE WORKER reviews, Pleshette received the first of four Emmy nominations when she appeared in a guest role on TV's DR. KILDARE.
She also began work on Rome Adventure (starring Troy Donahue), her first film since 1958. A writer for MOVIELINE magazine once said: "It's safer to watch trash classics like ROME ADVENTURE than it is to make 'em—you could wind up marrying your co-star!" Which is exactly what Pleshette did. She wed Troy Donahue in 1964, after having appeared in one other film with him (A DISTANT TRUMPET), then divorced him nine months later. Grounds: mental cruelty. She told the court her troubles with Donahue began 17 days after their marriage. She waived alimony and said there was no community property. She says, "Troy was a sweet, good man. We just were never destined to be married. We just didn't have the same values. But I'm not bitter. He taught me to laugh."
Though Pleshette lost the Emmy to Julie Harris, she won the role of the schoolteacher in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Throughout the '60s, Pleshette continued starring on TV, most notably in THE FUGITIVE, THE WILD WILD WEST, THE INVADERS, and THE F.B.I., and in films such as YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE, THE UGLY DACHSHUND, NEVADA SMITH, and THE ADVENTURES OF BULLWHIP GRIFFIN. Though Pleshette rarely appeared in blockbuster films, she was almost always the star who shone the brightest.
In 1968, Pleshette married Thomas Joseph Gallagher III, a wealthy Los Angeles businessman and powerboat enthusiast. "Tom and I are a team," she once said. "Each of us has our strengths and weaknesses. When one of us is incomplete, the other has the missing piece—so we function well as a unit. We wanted to be married, to make a life together—and we work at it." Gallagher died at the beginning of the year 2000 after suffering for some time. She married Tom Poston on May 11, 2001.
During most of the '70s, Pleshette starred as Emily Hartley on THE BOB NEWHART SHOW (for which she was twice nominated for an Emmy). But that didn't stop her from appearing in TV specials, making TV movies, and even appearing in a feature film (THE SHAGGY D.A.).
During this period, she also made a number of guest appearances on HOLLYWOOD SQUARES. "I have a ball on the HOLLYWOOD SQUARES, winging it, saying whatever the moment seems to dictate,"she says. "I don't remember anything two minutes later, but I don't think any of my mots will go down in the annals of comedy." Except maybe this one:
PETER MARSHALL: "U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT said that Governor Reagan has recently been deluged with a tremendous amount of requests to do one particular thing. What is it?"
PLESHETTE: "Retire."
Television work also included appearances on THE TONIGHT SHOW, where she occasionally guest-hosted in Johnny Carson's absence: "I was so nervous I was sure that I would be the first host ever who had to go to the bathroom in the middle of an interview. I thought I might tape a Baggie to my leg!"
Her credits up to this point may have been enough for most performers to achieve in that span of time, but Pleshette wanted still new challenges. With her friend Harriet Stuart (wife of Mel Stuart, who directed Pleshette in IF IT'S TUESDAY, THIS MUST BE BELGIUM), she designed bed linens, called "Bedside Manor," and marketed them through J.P. Stevens!
Pleshette kept working through the '80s. She made numerous TV movies, and she also completed one of her last feature films, 1980's OH GOD! BOOK II. She returned to television in three new sitcoms, but none of them were hits. She also returned to Broadway for SPECIAL OCCASIONS. The play had 26 previews and closed after only one performance, but Pleshette received good reviews, as usual.
Never one to give up, Pleshette continued performing, and it paid off. For television she starred in the title role of 1990's Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean and was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Though still another sitcom, THE BOYS ARE BACK, lasted only a season, we've come to expect that she'll always bounce back with a new triumph.
Which is about to happen. She will play a risqué grandmother on a new sitcom, GOOD MORNING MIAMI, this fall on NBC, following WILL & GRACE, on which she recently guest starred as Karen's mother. The sitcom was created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, the guys who came up with WILL & GRACE.
Oh, and this year she will star in the feature SPIRITED AWAY for Disney films.
An edited version of this article ran in
the '96 Meeker Museum Newsletter, #3.
Feature Films • TV Movies • TV Series
TV Guest Star • Theatre • Video • Miscellaneous
