What was Suzanne Somers' Net Worth and Salary?
Suzanne Somers was an American actress, author, and singer who had a net worth of $100 million at the time of her death. Unfortunately, Suzanne died on October 15, 2023, one day before her 77th birthday. She had been suffering from breast cancer on and off for over twenty years.
Suzanne Somers became a household name in the late 1970s thanks to her starring role as "Chrissy Snow" on the sitcom "Three's Company." Her role on the show was iconic, earning her a Golden Globe nomination and solidifying her place as a standout television actress of her time. At the show's peak, 20 million viewers tuned in each week. We go into this in much more detail later in the article below, but ahead of the fifth season, the show's producers bumped her salary to $30,000 per episode. Suzanne famously put her foot down and demanded to be paid the same amount as her male co-star, John Ritter, who was earning $150,000 per episode. Suzanne also demanded a 10% cut of the show's profits. Incredibly, the producers denied her requests and wrote the character off the show. As she would later admit, the dispute temporarily killed her acting career.
Fortunately, Suzanne's career evolved from sitcom star to author, entrepreneur, and businesswoman. Suzanne became renowned for her self-help books, many of which center around alternative medicine. And most importantly, her ThighMaster product went on to generate more than $100 million in revenue.
Suzanne never stopped acting and, in the 1990s, gained a new fan base thanks to her starring role on the family sitcom "Step by Step" which ran from 1991 to 1998. She appeared in all 160 of the show's episodes over seven seasons.
Early Life
Suzanne Marie Mahoney was born on October 16th, 1946, in San Bruno, California. Raised in an Irish-Catholic family alongside three siblings, Suzanne struggled as a young child. Her father was a heavy alcoholic, and he verbally abused Suzanne throughout her youth. In her teen years, Suzanne became a cheerleader at her high school and married at 19. That year, she also had her first child. The marriage ended three years later.
(Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Career
Suzanne Somers first started to earn fame in 1969 when she appeared as a prize model on a show called Anniversary Game. The show was hosted by Canadian TV personality Alan Hamel. At some point, they began dating, and in 1977 they married. They remained married until Suzanne's death in 2023.
One of her first major acting roles was in George Lucas' breakout film American Graffiti. Throughout the next period, Suzanne Somers landed roles in shows like The Rockford Files, The Six Million Dollar Man, and One Day At A Time. She also has a minor uncredited role in the film Magnum Force.
In 1977, Suzanne Somers booked a leading role in Three's Company. She portrayed a stereotypical dumb blonde and soon became a sex symbol due to her performances in the show. Three's Company did incredibly well in terms of ratings. In 1980, Somers began to demand a much higher wage and was subsequently fired.
After Three's Company, Suzanne Somers found it challenging to appear in sitcoms due to her controversial exit from the series. However, she eventually found her way back into the sitcom world with She's the Sheriff in 1987. The show ran for two seasons. After appearing in a range of made-for-TV movies, Somers landed another notable sitcom role in Step By Step. The sitcom started in 1991 and ran for seven seasons, adding considerably to Somers' star power.
In addition, Suzanne Somers has hosted various talk shows over the years. She also appeared in Broadway productions and appeared in Dancing with the Stars in 2015, placing ninth. A major pop culture figure, Suzanne Somers, has been referenced heavily in shows such as South Park and Beavis and Butthead.
Three's Company Salary Dispute
In 1977, Suzanne landed her role in Three's Company, earning an initial salary of $5,000 per episode for the show's first four seasons. By the fifth season, her salary was boosted to $30,000 per episode. In today's money, this would be equivalent to about $95,000 per episode. By this point, she was a global phenomenon and easily the most famous person on the show. To reflect her newfound fame, Suzanne stunned producers and network executives by asking for a salary increase to $150,000 per episode, the same amount that her co-star John Ritter was earning. In today's money, that would amount to about $500,000 per episode. But that's not all – she also lobbied for 10% of the show's profits. Producers declined, despite the fact that Suzanne was arguably the main reason 20 million viewers tuned into the show each week, and her character was written off the show. She sued the network for $2 million in damages after stating that her reputation had been damaged, but she was awarded just $30,000.
Thinking back on the circumstances, Suzanne would later recall in an interview:
"I started realizing that this is a business. I'm seeing that the men are being paid four, five, ten times more, and they're on shows that aren't as successful as mine. When you're a struggling actor or actress, you hang in there in the hopes that you'll be one of the few that scores."
And on the fallout of her failed negotiation:
"My career was dead because the public got mad at me for being greedy. And I was portrayed as greedy. And really, what I was asking for I still think I deserved it."
Thankfully for Suzanne, her career was entirely resurrected thanks at first to the Thighmaster and "Step By Step."
Playboy
Suzanne Somers was featured in Playboy twice. Both times have shown the actress nude, although she initially appeared in the magazine as a struggling single mother who couldn't pay her bills. She reportedly posed the first time in order to pay a medical bill after he son was in a car accident.
Although she initially refused to pose nude, she eventually agreed. She later denied ever participating in the shoot, which prompted Playboy to publish the pictures in 1980, proving her wrong. Somers was quite angry and sued Playboy, eventually receiving a settlement of $50,000. One of her biggest concerns was that her 14-year-old son would see the pictures and that it would affect his mental state.
Four years later, Somers agreed to pose a second time – despite her anger at the initial nude pictorial. She felt that this time, she could at least control the quality of the pictures. She also believed it would revive her career, having left Three's Company just prior. The second nude pictorial was published in 1984, and her 18-year-old son later admitted to viewing the nude pictures – despite Somers' insistence that he would not want to see his own mother in Playboy.
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Personal Life
When she was 19, Suzanne married Bruce Somers. From that point on she went by Suzanne Somers. In November of 1965, they welcomed a son, Bruce Jr. Suzanne and Bruce Sr. divorced in 1968.
In 1977, she married Alan Hamel. They remained together until her death in 2023.
Cancer Diagnosis
Suzanne was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000. Although doctors recommended chemotherapy, she decided to pursue alternative medicine instead. She initially treated herself with a mistletoe extract called Iscador. She combined this with a surgical procedure to remove a cancerous lump and followed up with radiation therapy.
Doctors have criticized Somers for advocating for a non-traditional approach to cancer treatment. In addition to her unorthodox views on cancer treatment, Suzanne Somers is opposed to water fluoridation and strongly supports bioidentical hormone replacement therapy to deal with various women's issues. Many of these views have been laid out in Somers' self-help books.
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Income From Thighmaster
Starting in the early 1990s, Suzanne began appearing in infomercials for the Thighmaster. Though she did not own the product, she was believed to be very highly compensated after she single-handedly made it a sensation. The product became immensely successful, raking in over $100 million in sales over the years. Suzanne was inducted into the Direct Marketing Response Infomercial Hall of Fame in 2014.
Real Estate
Suzanne owned several impressive homes in Southern California during her lifetime. At one point in 2008, Suzanne and her husband Alan listed a large mansion that sits on 73 acres in Palm Springs for $35 million. They owned this property since the late 1970s. In 2018, the price was more than halved to $14.5 million and then slashed again in 2019 to just $9.5 million. When the price was reduced in 2020, so was the acreage. By this point, the property had been reduced to 20 acres. In May 2021, they accepted $8.5 million. They also previously owned 480 acres in northern Palm Springs, which, in 2018, they donated to the Coachella Valley Conservation Commission. Here is a video tour of their former Palm Springs mansion:
In 1999 they spent $2.3 million for an oceanfront property in Malibu. In 2001, they bought the lot next door for $2.35 million. With the second purchase, they had an unreal 190 feet of ocean frontage. A fire in 2007 destroyed the homes. Suzanne and Alan opted not to rebuild and instead sold the two empty lots in 2016 for $12.03 million. Eventually, a 5,000-square-foot elaborate mansion was built on the lots. In late 2021, the new mansion was listed for $40 million. As of this writing, it has not yet sold, and the asking price has been reduced to just under $30 million. Here is a video of the new mansion on Suzanne's former lots:
