Brett Somers

Brett Somers, born Audrey Dawn Johnston on July 11, 1924, near Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada, was a Canadian-American actress, singer, and game-show personality who became widely recognized as a panelist on the CBS game show Match Game and for her recurring television role as Blanche Madison on ABC's The Odd Couple. She died on September 15, 2007, in Westport, Connecticut, at age 83, of stomach and colon cancer.

Johnston grew up near Portland, Maine, and relocated to New York City at age 18 to pursue an acting career, settling in Greenwich Village. She adopted the stage name Brett Somers, taking her first name from the female lead in Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and her surname from her mother's maiden name. She married businessman Robert H. Klein in 1948; the couple had one child, Leslie Klein, who died of lung cancer in 2003, before their marriage ended in divorce. In 1953 she married actor Jack Klugman, with whom she had two sons, David and Adam. California court records indicate the couple divorced in August 1977, though it was long and mistakenly reported that they remained legally married until her death. Somers became a U.S. citizen late in life.

A member of the Actors Studio from 1952, Somers built her early career in theater and television. Her Broadway debut came in 1958 in the comedy Maybe Tuesday, which closed after five performances. She also appeared in stage productions of Happy Ending, The Seven Year Itch, and The Country Girl, the last opposite Klugman. Her early television work included appearances on dramatic programs such as The Philco Television Playhouse, Kraft Television Theatre, Playhouse 90, The Naked City, and Robert Montgomery Presents. She accumulated film credits as well, among them A Rage to Live and Bus Riley's Back in Town.

Somers went on to make numerous appearances in episodic primetime television, including The Defenders, Have Gun Will Travel, Ben Casey, The Fugitive, Love American Style, Barney Miller, CHiPs, and The Love Boat. In 1973 she played Rhoda Morgenstern's Aunt Rose in a season four episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and portrayed Perry Mason's receptionist Gertie on The New Perry Mason, a short-lived revival starring Monte Markham. She played the recurring role of Blanche, the former wife of Oscar Madison, on The Odd Couple in the early 1970s, with Klugman in the lead role. In 1978 she appeared as Siress Belloby on the science-fiction series Battlestar Galactica.

Her most prominent television association was with Match Game, the CBS game show that ran for nine years across its network and syndicated incarnations. Somers was not originally considered for the celebrity panel; it was her husband Jack Klugman, appearing during the program's first week in 1973, who persuaded producers to include her. After sitting in the lower-left panel position for her debut episodes, she settled into the center seat of the upper tier for the remainder of her tenure, most often alongside Charles Nelson Reilly, who joined the panel around the same time and occupied the top-right seat. Somers was recognizable on screen for her large eyeglasses and various wigs, and she frequently served as a foil to fellow panelists including Reilly, Betty White, Fannie Flagg, and Scoey Mitchell. Her Match Game appearances inspired radio personality Robin Quivers to impersonate her in game-show parodies on The Howard Stern Show, a portrayal that was also featured in the film Private Parts.

In her later years Somers appeared alongside Reilly and Betty White in a Match Game reunion segment on the CBS program The Early Show in 2002, and she and Reilly appeared together on Hollywood Squares during that show's Game Show Week the same year. She performed in a cabaret show, An Evening with Brett Somers, in 2003 and 2004, and in 2004 appeared on the PBS concert special Magic Moments – The Best of '50s Pop. In 2006 she was a featured interviewee in The Real Match Game Story: Behind The Blank on GSN and hosted the Match Game DVD. Diagnosed with cancer in 2004 following her public denial of earlier rumors about her health, she died at her Westport, Connecticut home on September 15, 2007. GSN marked her passing with a daylong tribute showcasing her Match Game appearances.