Tweet
I loved Match Game!!!
BC-CT--Obit-Somers, 2nd Ld-Writethru,0312
Actress-comedian Brett Somers, game show panelist, dies at 83
Eds: ADDS details throughout. Version also moved on national
lines.
WESTPORT, Conn. (AP) - Actress and comedian Brett Somers, who
amused game show fans with her quips on the "Match Game" in the
1970s, has died, her son said. She was 83.
Somers died Saturday at her home in Westport of stomach and
colon cancer, Adam Klugman said Monday.
Hosted by Gene Rayburn, "Match Game" was the top game show
during much of the 1970s. Contestants would try to match answers to
nonsense questions with a panel of celebrities; much of the humor
came from the racy quips and putdowns.
Shows from the 1973-79 run, featuring regulars like Somers,
Richard Dawson and Charles Nelson Reilly, are still seen on cable
TV's GSN (formerly Game Show Network.)
Somers married actor Jack Klugman, the future star of the
television shows "Quincy" and "The Odd Couple," in 1953. The
two separated in 1974, but never divorced.
They made many television appearances as a couple. Somers
appeared on several episodes of "The Odd Couple," playing the
ex-wife of Klugman's character.
In the summer of 2003, she appeared in a one-woman cabaret show,
"An Evening with Brett Somers," which she wrote and co-produced.
She continued to perform after being diagnosed with cancer.
She was born Audrey Johnston in New Brunswick, Canada, and grew
up in Portland, Maine. She ran away from home at age 17 and headed
for New York City, where she settled in Greenwich Village. She
changed her first name to Brett after the lead female character in
the Ernest Hemingway novel "The Sun Also Rises." Somers was her
mother's maiden name.
Her son said she was caustic, irreverent and a self-declared
bohemian.
"She maintained her independence till the end, and her
irreverence," Adam Klugman said. "She died very much at peace."
In addition to Adam Klugman, Somers is survived by another son,
David, and a daughter, Leslie.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
AP-NY-09-17-07 1404EDT
BC-CT--Obit-Somers, 2nd Ld-Writethru,0312
Actress-comedian Brett Somers, game show panelist, dies at 83
Eds: ADDS details throughout. Version also moved on national
lines.
WESTPORT, Conn. (AP) - Actress and comedian Brett Somers, who
amused game show fans with her quips on the "Match Game" in the
1970s, has died, her son said. She was 83.
Somers died Saturday at her home in Westport of stomach and
colon cancer, Adam Klugman said Monday.
Hosted by Gene Rayburn, "Match Game" was the top game show
during much of the 1970s. Contestants would try to match answers to
nonsense questions with a panel of celebrities; much of the humor
came from the racy quips and putdowns.
Shows from the 1973-79 run, featuring regulars like Somers,
Richard Dawson and Charles Nelson Reilly, are still seen on cable
TV's GSN (formerly Game Show Network.)
Somers married actor Jack Klugman, the future star of the
television shows "Quincy" and "The Odd Couple," in 1953. The
two separated in 1974, but never divorced.
They made many television appearances as a couple. Somers
appeared on several episodes of "The Odd Couple," playing the
ex-wife of Klugman's character.
In the summer of 2003, she appeared in a one-woman cabaret show,
"An Evening with Brett Somers," which she wrote and co-produced.
She continued to perform after being diagnosed with cancer.
She was born Audrey Johnston in New Brunswick, Canada, and grew
up in Portland, Maine. She ran away from home at age 17 and headed
for New York City, where she settled in Greenwich Village. She
changed her first name to Brett after the lead female character in
the Ernest Hemingway novel "The Sun Also Rises." Somers was her
mother's maiden name.
Her son said she was caustic, irreverent and a self-declared
bohemian.
"She maintained her independence till the end, and her
irreverence," Adam Klugman said. "She died very much at peace."
In addition to Adam Klugman, Somers is survived by another son,
David, and a daughter, Leslie.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
AP-NY-09-17-07 1404EDT
-Tallahassee 
My stuff on facebook 
Comment