Barry Manilow paid tribute to his good friend Suzanne Somers on Sunday (Oct. 15) after the 76-year-old Three’s Company star’s death was announced earlier in the day. “Suzanne and I were friends for decades. She was the sister I never had and my close confidant forever. We shared triumphs and heartaches,” wrote Manilow in a tweet alongside a photo of the two in younger days.
“Her fame in so many fields overshadowed her real talent as one of our greatest comedic actors, a loving mother, an amazing homemaker, and one of the world’s best cooks,” he added. “I will miss her dearly and hope that she is now out of pain and at peace.”
Somers died over the weekend after a more than 20 year battle with breast cancer. “Suzanne Somers passed away peacefully at home in the early morning hours of October 15th,” read a statement from her publicist and longtime friend R. Couri Hay. “Suzanne was surrounded by her loving husband Alan, her son Bruce, and her immediate family.” Somer’s death came just one day before her 77th birthday.
The actress was best known for her role as the bubbly neighbor Chrissy Snow on ABC’s Three’s Company (1977-1981), which she followed by releasing more than two dozen wellness books, headlining a show in Las Vegas, hosting a talk show (The Suzanne Show) and becoming a fitness entrepreneur via her ubiquitous commercials for the ThighMaster exercise device. Somers revealed earlier this year that she was diagnosed with a recurrence of breast cancer after she’d previously been diagnosed with the disease in the early 2000s.
Check out Manilow’s tribute to Somers below.
