Suzanne Pleshette Dies at 70

Actress Suzanne Pleshette, who starred as Annie Sullivan in the Broadway production of The Miracle Worker and later gained fame for her work on TV’s The Bob Newhart Show, died in California on January 19 of respiratory failure, according to published reports. She was 70.

A New York City native, Pleshette spent her early career on Broadway, in such plays as Compulsion, The Cold Wind and the Warm, and The Golden Fleecing, before replacing Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker. She returned to Broadway in 1982 in Bernard Slade’s Special Occasions, which closed on opening night.

She starred in such films as The Geisha Boy, Rome Adventure, A Rage to Live, and, most notably, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. However, Pleshette found her greatest success in television, earning the first of her four Emmy Award nominations in 1962 for guest starring on Dr. Kildare.
From 1972-1977, she played Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show, for which she earned two Emmy nominations. She also memorably guest starred on the final episode of Newhart in 1990.

Her other television work included her Emmy-nominated work as Leona Helmsley in the TV movie The Queen of Mean and playing Lois Whitley, the mother of Megan Mullally’s character, on Will & Grace.

Her third husband, actor Tom Poston, died last April. She had previously been married for over 30 years to oilman Tom Gallagher and briefly wed to actor Troy Donahue.