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musings, thoughts, and writings of Barbara W. Klaser


January 20, 2008

A sad goodbye to Suzanne Pleshette

I was sorry to read today of the death of Suzanne Pleshette. She used to be a favorite actress of mine.

I’m also a little disappointed by the obituaries, including the one by Associated Press which indicated that her primary claim to fame was her TV comedy series role as psychologist Bob Hartley’s wife. I suppose that’s true if all you’ve seen for the past thirty-five years is TV comedy reruns. A successful, long-running TV comedy is nothing to sneeze at. But that doesn’t excuse whoever wrote the obituaries. An entire generation of us grew up watching Suzanne Pleshette in movies and television. I may have only been a kid then, but I knew her name better than I knew Bob Newhart’s well before Ms. Pleshette played the part of Emily Hartley in The Bob Newhart Show. No offense to Bob Newhart, whom I admire as well, but the primary reason I began watching that series when it first aired was that I already knew Suzanne Pleshette’s name.

At least the obituaries mentioned her appearance in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds; but what about Fate is the Hunter with Glenn Ford, Nancy Kwan, and Rod Taylor? What about Youngblood Hawke with James Franciscus, and 40 Pounds of Trouble with Tony Curtis? Not to mention one of my favorites, Support Your Local Gunfighter with James Garner. What about all her other movie and TV roles? Are newspapers only writing obituaries these days for people under thirty, or only for TV viewers?

To all of you younger people out there, Suzanne Pleshette was a great actress and a beautiful lady, and she was famous through the sixties, before she ever made that TV series you know most about.

Another important credit, perhaps the most interesting one to some younger people who haven’t seen her early movies, is that Suzanne Pleshette was the voice of sisters Yubaba and Zeniba in the 2001 Academy Award winning Spirited Away, the English language version of Japanese anime classic, Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi. I plan to watch Spirited Away on DVD tonight, in her honor.

— Barbara @ 5:32 pm PST, 01/20/08

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10 Comments

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  1. 1.

    She was my favorite actress for years. I remember her before Newhart. She was an excellent actress.

    She will be missed.

    Cas

    Comment by cassie-b — January 20, 2008 @ 7:05 pm

  2. 2.

    Don’t forget the Carpetbaggers

    Comment by 2nobodienparticular — January 20, 2008 @ 7:58 pm

  3. 3.

    I agree, Suzanne has done so much, long before she was on TV. I too loved her and loved all the movies she did in the 60’s. Rome Adventure is one of my favorites. We wish to give our deepest condolences to her family and friends. Since growing up around the movie industry and knowing people in the business, actors are like anyone else, good at their trade. But Suzanne, like only a few others just seem to touch us more at their passing. When I heard, I cried. She will be so very missed by all of us.

    Comment by Lynne — January 20, 2008 @ 8:39 pm

  4. 4.

    Yes, I knew of her many roles in such a wide variety of shows and movies, but I did not know that she was the voices of the sisters in Spirited Away. What a gifted actress!

    Comment by Sarah — January 23, 2008 @ 10:54 am

  5. 5.

    I never knew her, even though I’ve seen the birds. I guess not living in your country might have added to my loss of not knowing her by the sounds of it. May she rest in peace.

    Monika

    Comment by Anonymous — January 23, 2008 @ 9:07 pm

  6. 6.

    I loved Suzanne Pleshette…even her name was romantic. Did you know she was once married to Troy Donahue?

    Comment by violetismycolor — January 24, 2008 @ 9:01 pm

  7. 7.

    Violetismycolor — I also thought even her name was romantic.

    Comment by Barbara — January 27, 2008 @ 1:24 pm

  8. 8.

    Oh how I loved her in “The Ugly Dachshund” and “The Birds” and so many others. She had such a lovely name… I loved saying it. “Suzanne Pleshette!”

    Comment by Jo — January 28, 2008 @ 9:57 am

  9. 9.

    Nice post, Barbara. Thanks for saying it better than anyone else.

    Comment by Reenie — January 29, 2008 @ 12:10 pm

  10. 10.

    Rest In Peace Suzanne!… You’ll be missed!

    Comment by John — April 8, 2008 @ 10:01 pm

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