Actor Suzanne Somers died at 76 this week from breast cancer. As reported by Fox Business, when Somers was starring in the number one television show, Three's Company, she was being paid one-fifth of what John Ritter was earning. When she asked for a raise and a share of the show's profits, she was fired.
Somers starred as beloved blonde secretary Chrissy Snow on the sitcom, and worked alongside Joyce DeWitt and John Ritter on the Emmy-winning series. Heading into the fifth season and amid meteoric success, the actress demanded a salary increase from $30,000 per episode to $150,000, which matched Ritter's compensation, in addition to a percentage of profits.
ABC refused to give in to her demands, and the network slowly began nudging Somers out of the show until she was finally fired when her contract ended after the fifth season.
She didn't let television executives set her back for too long, however, and went on to a profitable Las Vegas residency before putting her entire focus toward building a fitness brand centered around one of the world's most coveted pieces of exercise equipment: the ThighMaster. Somers admitted she made almost $300 million from the device alone.
