Suzanne Somers, ‘Three’s Company’ and ‘Step by Step’ star, dead at 76

Suzanne Somers, who became a household name after starring on the hugely popular TV sitcom “Three’s Company,” died Sunday morning at her Palm Springs home. She was 76.

Somers died of cancer just one day shy of her 77th birthday, the actor’s spokesperson R. Couri Hay said.

“Suzanne Somers passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours of Oct. 15. She survived an aggressive form of breast cancer for over 23 years,” Hay said in a statement provided to the Times that was shared on behalf of the actor’s family.

“Suzanne was surrounded by her loving husband Alan [Hamel] , her son Bruce, and her immediate family,” the statement read. “Her family was gathered to celebrate her 77th birthday on Oct. 16. Instead, they will celebrate her extraordinary life, and want to thank her millions of fans and followers who loved her dearly.”

Somers played Chrissy Snow — the effervescent blond secretary — on “Three’s Company,” alongside John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt from 1977 to 1981. She was dropped during the show’s fifth season after a widely publicized salary dispute, in which she reportedly asked for a raise from $30,000 an episode to $150,000, which would equal the pay of her male co-star Ritter.

The actor, who was born in San Bruno, Calif., in 1946, would then go on to star in the ABC sitcom “Step by Step” alongside Patrick Duffy. The show ran from 1991 to 1997.

Somers headlined a Las Vegas show in the 1980s at the Las Vegas Hilton. According to the actor, she performed “2 two-hour shows, 7 nights a week.”. She reprised her role as Vegas entertainer in 2015 with the cabaret show “Suzanne Sizzles.”

In the 1990s her career became less about acting and more involved with selling her signature products, including exercise apparatus — most famously, the ThighMaster —jewelry, sugarless chocolates and diet books.

In 2001, Somers revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the previous year. In an interview with The Times, she said she had surgery and radiation therapy, but declined to follow medical advice that she also have chemotherapy, electing instead to undergo homeopathic treatments.

Somers announced earlier this year that her breast cancer had returned.

“I had breast cancer two decades ago, and every now and then it pops up again, and I continue to bat it down,” she said in a statement. “I have used the best alternative and conventional treatments to combat it. This is not new territory for me. I know how to put on my battle gear and I’m a fighter.”

Following her initial cancer diagnosis, Somers transformed a modest licensing business — first launched in the late 1980s with the ThighMaster — into a global merchandising machine. She wrote more than a dozen books, on nutrition, on blending families, on aging and on surviving alcoholism. “The Sexy Years,” her first book on bioidentical hormones, published in 2004, sold a million copies in the first three months. Her 2007 book, “Ageless,” debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for six weeks.

Somers’ embrace of, reliance on and public advocacy for alternative medicines and treatments, which most notably manifested in her cancer treatment, was criticized by medical groups, including the American Cancer Society.

The “She’s the Sheriff” actor got her start in show business in the late 1960s. Her first credited role was in the 1968 Steve McQueen film “Bullitt.” She later gained more fame for her very small, but notable appearance in George Lucas’ 1973 movie “American Graffiti.”

She appeared in several TV series throughout the 1970s, such as “The Rockford Files,” “Starsky and Hutch” and “The Six Million Dollar Man,” before she landed her breakout role in “Three’s Company.”