Suzanne Somers was born Suzanne Marie Mahoney on October 16, 1946 in San Bruno, California. She was active in her school's theatre program and won a music scholarship to college, but became pregnant after six months. She married the baby's father, but the marriage lasted only a few years. She turned to modeling to support herself and her son. In 1968, she won a job as a prize model on a game show hosted by her future husband, Alan Hamel.
As an actress, she is best known for her television roles as Chrissy Snow on Three's Company and as Carol Lambert on Step by Step. Her autobiography, Keeping Secrets, was published in 1987 and was later made into a television movie. She has written several books including Touch Me: The Poems of Suzanne Somers, Suzanne Somers' Get Skinny on Fabulous Food, Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones, I'm Too Young for This!: The Natural Hormone Solution to Enjoy Perimenopause, and Tox-Sick: How Toxins Accumulate to Make You Ill--And Doctors Who Show You How to Get Better. She created the Suzanne Somers Institute for the Effects of Addictions on the Family, for which she is founder and director.
030