Suzanne Pleshette dead

Washington (ANI): American actress Suzanne Pleshette, who was best known for her role in The Bob Newhart Show and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, died at the age of 70 of respiratory failure at her Los Angeles home on January 19, 2008. The raspy-voiced beauty had been battling lung cancer and had undergone chemotherapy in 2006.

Suzanne shot to fame with her distinct, husky voice and dark good looks and she was fast in piling up credits both on TV and the silver screen, E! Online reported. However, it was her role as Emily Hartley, Newhart's sarcastic, witty schoolteacher wife on CBS' The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78) that brought Pleshette her greatest fame and earned her two Emmy nominations.

Pleshette returned to her role as Emily for the hilarious surprise ending of the funny man's follow-up sitcom, Newhart, in 1990. "If I'm in Timbuktu, I'll fly home to do that," Pleshette told Newhart upon hearing his idea for the it-was-all-a-bad-dream ending.

In the finale, Newhart wakes up to find himself in his old sitcom prattling on about a dream he had running a cosy Vermont inn. Critics heralded the twist as one of the smartest finales of all time.