Remembering Suzanne Pleshette...

Our Emily is gone...

The beautiful Suzanne Pleshette, a movie star in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and forever known as Bob Newhart's television wife, died on Saturday. She was just 70 and had been battling lung cancer.

As a kid growing up in the 70s, "The Bob Newhart Show" was part of my Saturday nights as it aired between "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Carol Burnett Show" and as Emily Hartley, Pleshette's character was the voice of reason among all the wacky characters on the classic show - a hit for all six years of its run.

Let's face it, as lovely as the late Mary Fran was as Newhart's wife in his following series, it made for one of television's most classic scenes: When "Newhart" ended in 1990, Pleshette reprised her role from the first show. It had Newhart waking up in the bedroom of his "The Bob Newhart Show" home with Pleshette at his side. He went on to tell her of the crazy dream he'd just had of running an inn filled with eccentrics.

Newhart said to the AP: "Although we knew she was quite sick, she was one of those people that you thought would go on forever. If anyone could beat cancer, it was Suzy -- she was such an indomitable spirit. She was a pro's pro and I know she was looking forward to getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on her birthday Jan. 31."

Best known as a television star (she also played Karen Walker's mother on "Will & Grace" and Leona Helmsley in a TV movie), Suzanne starred on Broadway in "The Miracle Worker," the 1959 drama about Helen Keller, replacing Anne Bancroft in New York then taking it on the road. She also starred in "The Birds" with Tippi Hedren and attracted a teenage following with her youthful roles in such films as "Rome Adventure," "Fate Is the Hunter," "Youngblood Hawke" and "A Distant Trumpet."

She married actor Troy Donahue in 1964 but the union lasted less than a year. She was married to Texas oilman Tim Gallagher from 1968 until his death in 2000 then married actor Tom Poston to whom she was with until his death last year.

Suzanne's last public appearance came in September when she reunited with the cast of "The Bob Newhart Show" for a Museum of Television and Radio event in Beverly Hills.
She was once asked about the reason for her longevity in showbiz: "I'm an actress, and that's why I'm still here. Anybody who has the illusion that you can have a career as long as I have and be a star is kidding themselves."