Brett Somers, the husky-voiced television character actor who also found fame on the game show Match Game, died Saturday at her home in Westport, Conn., of stomach and colon cancer. She was 83.
During an acting career that spanned more than half a century, the Canada-born actor appeared in a host of television programs, including The Love Boat, Battlestar Galactica, Barney Miller, The Bob Crane Show, Mary Tyler Moore, The F.B.I., Love, American Style, The Fugitive, The Defenders, Have Gun, Will Travel, Ben Casey, and Naked City. In the mid-50s, she performed on Kraft Television Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, and Producers' Showcase.
One of her most prominent TV roles came as Blanche Somers Madison, the willful ex-wife of Oscar Madison on The Odd Couple. She played opposite Jack Klugman, her real-life husband. The two separated in 1974 but never divorced.
Born in New Brunswick, Canada, Somers grew up in Maine and came to New York in her late teens to launch an acting career. She got her start on live television and made her Broadway debut in Maybe Tuesday in 1958, an ill-fated comedy that ran from Jan. 29-Feb. 1. In 1953, she married Klugman, with whom she had two sons, Adam and David. She has a daughter, Leslie, from a previous marriage.