Actress and comedienne Brett Somers was best known to audiences for her turn as a panelist on The Match Game, from 1973-1982. Born in Canada as Audrey Johnston, Somers got her start acting in theater productions, which led to minor Broadway roles and appearances in theater-based television shows like Playhouse 90. Married to fellow actor Jack Klugman in 1953 (the couple separated in 1974 but never divorced), Somers acted in several low-budget films throughout the years, in addition to her long-running Match Game gig and numerous guest-starring roles on weekly television shows. She died of stomach and colon cancer in 2007.
Brett Somers
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- Born Audrey Johnston, she took the name Brett from a character in Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises; Somers was her mother's maiden name.
- Made her big-screen debut in 1965 with roles in the dramas Bus Riley's Back in Town and A Rage to Live.
- Best known for her frequent appearances on the game show Match Game throughout the 1970s.
- Played the wife of her husband Jack Klugman's character, Oscar Madison, in 1970-73 episodes of the sitcom The Odd Couple; the pair separated in 1974, but never divorced.
- In 2003, wrote and starred in the one-woman cabaret show An Evening with Brett Somers, continuing to perform even after being diagnosed with cancer.