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Suzanne Somers has died at the age of 76, two days shy of her 77th birthday.
The Three’s Company star passed away following a relapse of breast cancer.
Here, we’ll be taking a look back at her life and storied career, from her start as Chrissy Snow on Three’s Company to playing the matriarch on Step by Step.
Also known for her work as a fitness guru, Suzanne also helped popularize the ThighMaster when she served as a spokeswoman for the fitness machine.
In addition to acting, the blonde beauty was a model, author, mother and wife.
In memoriam: How Suzanne Somers went from Three’s Company star to ThighMaster fitness guru: A look back at her career following her death at 76
You better work: The beloved sitcom starlet made $300 million as a ThighMaster spokeswoman
Three’s Company was Suzanne’s breakthrough role in 1977, with the California born stunner playing Chrissy the secretary, a stereotypical dumb blonde who shared an apartment with John Ritter’s culinary student character Jack Tripper and Joyce DeWitts’ Janet Wood, a florist.
However, Suzanne would ultimately be fired from the show in 1980 after requesting a pay increase that was comparable to John’s salary of $150,000 an episode.
After the network refused her request — offering a meager $5,000 dollars more.
The fitness maven’s husband, Alan Hamel, recounted to The Hollywood Reporter at the time that ‘The night before we went in to renegotiate, I got a call from a friend who had connections high up at ABC and he said, ‘They’re going to hang a nun in the marketplace and the nun is Suzanne.’
After Suzanne was fired from the show that made her a star, she worked gigs in Las Vegas, even posing in Playboy for the paycheck.
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However, she found her moneymaker in 1990 — the ThighMaster.
The American Graffiti star went on to represent the workout tool in informercials, in addition to selling them herself.
She told CNBC that she stopped counting how many ThighMasters she sold after the ’10 million’ milestone, later revealing on the Hollywood Raw podcast with Dax Holt and Adam Glyn that she had pulled in ‘$300 million,’ in ThighMaster sales over the years.
When asked by CNBC why she felt her sales technique was so successful, Suzanne humbly replied, ‘I sell to my age group, that’s what I know.’
Business babe: Instead of letting herself fall to the wayside after being fired from Three’s Company, Suzanne built her own empire on a throne of ThighMasters; seen in 2018
Golden girl: The enterprising actress revealed on the Hollywood Raw podcast with Dax Holt and Adam Glyn that she had raked in $300 million in ThighMaster sales since she started hawking them back in 1990; seen in 2019
Rest in peace: The sitcom starlet would also go on to be cast as the matriarch in Step by Step in 1991 following her firing from Three’s Company in 1980; seen in 2020
Staying strong: The actress and business mogul battled recurring bouts of breast cancer ever since her first diagnosis in 2000; seen in 2017
She added that she respected the fans who purchased products from her, noting ‘Always tell the truth…The public is smart, and they can smell BS.’
Acting-wise, Suzanne found career success in 1991 when she was cast as Carole Foster-Lambert, the matriarch of the blended family on the hit sitcom Step by Step.
She battled bouts of skin and breast cancer over the years, prior to her death on October 14.
Noticing that her fans were concerned about her back in August, Suzanne posted about her ordeal with her latest cancer relapse, writing ‘This is not new territory for me. I know how to put on my battle gear and I’m a fighter.’
