Suzanne Somers Transformed from Sitcom Sex Symbol to Fitness Icon and Best-Selling Author

She played a dumb blonde on TV — a malapropism-spouting ditz with an IQ almost as skimpy as her nighties — but in real life Suzanne Somers was nobody’s fool.

In fact, the actress, who died on at age 76 on Oct. 15 after a decades-long battle with breast cancer, may well have been the smartest thing about Three’s Company, the racy ’70s ABC sitcom that made her and her castmates (Joyce DeWitt, 74, and the late John Ritter, who died in 2003 at 54 of an aortic dissection) stars for a good chunk of that decade.

On camera, her character — Chrissy Snow, a law office receptionist with a heart of gold and a brain of mush — was the butt of many a sexist, misogynistic put-down. But off camera, Somers turned out to be a pioneering feminist who risked her career by fighting for pay equity at a time in Hollywood when pay equity was the biggest sexist joke of them all.

Somers’ first noticeable role was a brief but eye-catching part in 1973’s American Graffiti — she was the unnamed beauty in a white Thunderbird who nearly gave Richard Dreyfuss’ character whiplash — followed by equally brief bits on classic ’70s shows like Starsky & Hutch, The Rockford Files and One Day at a Time. She was 30 when, in 1977, she landed her big break on Three’s Company, the role that would catapult her to international fame as a sex symbol. She was paid all of $30,000 an episode, or about 20 percent of the $150,000 Ritter was making.

(Left to right) Suzanne Somers (middle) with Joyce DeWitt (left) and John Ritter in "Three's Company."

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

The difference might have been explainable early in the series’ run — after all, the sitcom’s plot, such as it was, revolved around Ritter’s character, Jack Tripper, a girl-crazy straight guy who pretends to be gay so he can share an apartment with a pair of attractive single girls.

But four years into its run, after the show became a hit, and with Somers’ character developing a fan base of her own, she demanded a bigger piece of the profits. She wanted to be paid what Ritter was getting, or at least a sum comparable to the salaries of other male stars in the 1970s.

When ABC countered by offering to bump her paycheck by a mere $5,000 per episode, Somers retaliated by missing two tapings. ABC unceremoniously fired her and brought in actress Jenilee Harrison as a replacement (as Cindy Snow, Chrissy’s equally ditzy cousin).