Goodnight Emily: Suzanne Pleshette Dies

Damn!

Suzanne Pleshette has died at the all-too-young age of 70. Best known for her role as Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show in the seventies, Suzanne Pleshette was one of the most gorgeous women in the movies or on television. Some women make a career out of just that, but she also happened to be a great actress, with impeccable comic timing and one of the most memorable voices in show business.

Here's her wikipedia page.

She was not only a lead in what is unarguably one of the greatest comedies in television history, but later she returned to the role of Emily Hartley in one of television's most funny and unforgettable moments. From the AP obituary:

Suzanne Pleshette, the beautiful, husky-voiced film and theater star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show," has died, said her attorney Robert Finkelstein.

"The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette provided the voice of reason.

Four years after the show ended in 1978, Newhart went on to the equally successful "Newhart" series in which he was the proprietor of a New England inn populated by more eccentrics. When that show ended in 1990, Pleshette reprised her role - from the first show - in one of the most clever final episodes in TV history.

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.

"If I'm in Timbuktu, I'll fly home to do that," Pleshette said of her reaction when Newhart told her how he was thinking of ending the show.

She even married Newhart mainstay Tom Poston later in their lives, and he preceded her in death last April 30. I'll bet that was an interesting couple to know.

The first four seasons of The Bob Newhart Show are available on DVD here, on Amazon.com.