Suzanne Pleshette Remembered

Suzanne Pleshette, the beautiful actress with the husky-voice has died at the age of 70 of respiratory failure after a long battle with lung cancer.

Most remember Suzanne for her very popular role as Emily Hartley, the wife of Bob Newhart’s character in the long running sitcom “The Bob Newhart Show.” In real life she was married to one of Bob’s famous co-stars, actor Tom Poston. However, Suzanne’s most noted film role has to be that of Annie Hayworth, the young woman pecked incessently by Alfred Hitchcock’s ravens in the highly acclaimed movie “The Birds.”

Pleshette started out as a stage actress after graduating from Sanford Meisner’s Acting School. She was able to get a few non-descript television roles in the early years of that industry but got her big break when Jerry Lewis signed her own to be his female counterpart in the hit comedy film “The Geisha Boy” (1958).

That Lewis film tweeked Hitchcock’s interest in the young actress and he signed her own to appear in several of his “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” television plays and then in 1963 all the world took notice when he featured her in “The Birds.” From that time on her career was set.

Television and movie offers continued after “The Birds” so that Suzanne was never without work if she wanted it. She appeared in roles on award winning television shows such as “Dr. Kildare,” “The Fugitive,” the sci-fi show “The Invaders,” “Gunsmoke,” “Columbo,” “Bonanza” and many more.

An eclectic actress, capable of playing any role from drama, sci-fi, comedy and variety, she was able to perform in big screen films as diverse as “Nevada Smith” to “Oh God: Book II.” She received an Emmy nomination for her eerie but entranced role as Leona Helmsley in the 1991 made-for-TV film “Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean.”

However, in 1972 she got her landmark role of Emily, the tough, funny, sarcastic and witty school teacher wife of Bob Newhart. The show ran for seven seasons and garnered her two Emmy nominations. She even returned to the role for one final scene that brought the house down and became the talk of Hollywood for years. It is the final scene in Newhart’s series finale episode of his other successful sitcom called “Newhart” (which ran for 9 seasons 1982-1990), in which he starred as a Bed and Breakfast owner in a small Vermont town. The audience hears the ruffling of covers and the camera pans in on Bob in his bed. Suddenly that dark raven head of hair becomes visible and up pops Suzanne as Emily Hartley. The audience then realizes that the entire 9 seasons of “Newhart” all took place in one night of dreaming for the Bob Newhart character of Dr. Robert Hartley. Most still consider that ending to be the most ingenious series finale episode ever filmed.