| Biography 
Is the third of  4  children  born  to  Frank  and  Marion  Mahoney.
  Herfather  worked  loading  beer  onto boxcars, and her mother was a
  homemaker. She grew up living in constant  fear  of  being  hurt  or
  even  killed  at  the  hands  of her verbally and physically abusive
  alcoholic father. She was  diagnosed  with  dyslexia  when  she  was
  young,  and she was apoor student. Suzanne, however, excelled in the
  arts and was activein her school's theatre program. She won a  music
  scholarship  to  college,  but  became  pregnant after 6 months. She
  married the baby's father, Bruce Somers, and her only  child,  Bruce
  Jr.,  was born in November 1965. She was unhappy in her marriage and
  began an affair with herformer drama teacher. Her husband found  out
  about  the  affair,  and  the  marriage ended after just 2 years, in
  1967.  Then  a  single  mom,  Suzanne  turned  to  modeling  in  San
  Francisco  to  support  herself  and  her  son.  She  also distanced
  herself from her family because her  older  brother  and  sister  by
  then  were  also  alcoholics.  In 1968, Suzanne won a job as a prize
  model on a game show hosted by her future husband, Alan  Hamel,  who
  was  married  at  the time. The two began dating, and Suzanne became
  pregnant while Hamel was still married. They  decided  that  Suzanne
  should  have  an  abortion,  from which she suffered severe bleeding
  for several days. In 1971, son Bruce was severely  injured  when  he
  was  hit by a car, and the therapist counseling him only charged the
  struggling Suzanne $1  per  week.  Suzanne  herself  also  underwent
  therapy  to overcome the problems of her dysfunctional childhood. In
  the early 1970s, she landed minor roles in film and TV, and  finally
  won  a  role  on  the  series Three's Company, where she modeled her
  character after Dick Clark's wife. She married Hamel  in  1977.  She
  was  fired  from  Three's Company after she asked for a raise at the
  beginning of the fifth season. She then headed to Las  Vegas,  where
  she  performed  extensively  in  the  mid  1980s. In 1986, she began
  writing her autobiography, Keeping Secrets,  which  was  later  made
  into  a  TV movie. In 1991, Suzanne landed the role of Carol Foster,
  opposite Patrick Duffy, on the TV series Step  by  Step.  Since  the
  end of SBS, she has begunco-hosting the series Candid Camera.
 Biography courtesy of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com).
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