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Biography
Is the third of 4 children born to Frank and Marion Mahoney.
Herfather worked loading beer onto boxcars, and her mother was a
homemaker. She grew up living in constant fear of being hurt or
even killed at the hands of her verbally and physically abusive
alcoholic father. She was diagnosed with dyslexia when she was
young, and she was apoor student. Suzanne, however, excelled in the
arts and was activein her school's theatre program. She won a music
scholarship to college, but became pregnant after 6 months. She
married the baby's father, Bruce Somers, and her only child, Bruce
Jr., was born in November 1965. She was unhappy in her marriage and
began an affair with herformer drama teacher. Her husband found out
about the affair, and the marriage ended after just 2 years, in
1967. Then a single mom, Suzanne turned to modeling in San
Francisco to support herself and her son. She also distanced
herself from her family because her older brother and sister by
then were also alcoholics. In 1968, Suzanne won a job as a prize
model on a game show hosted by her future husband, Alan Hamel, who
was married at the time. The two began dating, and Suzanne became
pregnant while Hamel was still married. They decided that Suzanne
should have an abortion, from which she suffered severe bleeding
for several days. In 1971, son Bruce was severely injured when he
was hit by a car, and the therapist counseling him only charged the
struggling Suzanne $1 per week. Suzanne herself also underwent
therapy to overcome the problems of her dysfunctional childhood. In
the early 1970s, she landed minor roles in film and TV, and finally
won a role on the series Three's Company, where she modeled her
character after Dick Clark's wife. She married Hamel in 1977. She
was fired from Three's Company after she asked for a raise at the
beginning of the fifth season. She then headed to Las Vegas, where
she performed extensively in the mid 1980s. In 1986, she began
writing her autobiography, Keeping Secrets, which was later made
into a TV movie. In 1991, Suzanne landed the role of Carol Foster,
opposite Patrick Duffy, on the TV series Step by Step. Since the
end of SBS, she has begunco-hosting the series Candid Camera.
Biography courtesy of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com).
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Suzanne Somers
