Actress Suzanne Pleshette died of respiratory failure at her Los Angeles home on 19 January 2008. Born 31 January 1937 in New York City, she had undergone chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006. Pleshette was best known for playing Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show from 1972 to 1978. She was nominated for four Emmys and two Golden Globes.
Her career began with a guest appearance on television in 1957, but before her fame, she was better known for her work on Broadway. In February 1961, she replaced Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, opposite 14-year-old Patty Duke.
Her genre appearances include: Spirited Away (2001), The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (1998), Oh, God! Book II (1980), The Shaggy D.A. (1976), two episodes of The Invaders (1967 and 1968), The Power (1968), Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968), one episode of The Wild Wild West (1965), and The Birds (1963).
Pleshette was married to actor Troy Donahue for eight months in 1964. After the divorce, she married businessman Tom Gallagher in 1968 (they were together until his death in 2000). In 2001, she married actor Tom Poston, who had co-starred in another Bob Newhart series (Poston died in 2007).