Suzanne Pleshette

Suzanne Pleshette actually had a very legitimate singing voice. Big surprise considering the rasp of her speaking voice, which sounds like she's been drinking whiskey and smoking hashish since she was four-years-old. Arthur Laurents talks about her auditioning for the role of Louise in the original Broadway production of Gypsy. He said she had no problem being sexy, but was at a loss with the tomboy aspect of Louise's first act persona. I find this hard to believe since there is nothing more butch than Suzanne Pleshette in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

Suzanne bounced back from being snubbed from the original production of Gypsy. She replaced Anne Bancroft on Broadway in The Miracle Worker, which obviously took major acting chops. And before making The Birds, Suzanne played a nightclub singer in the Tony Curtis vehicle 40 Pounds Of Trouble, singing "If You."