Suzanne Pleshette was born Jan. 31, 1937, in Brooklyn Heights, to Eugene and Gloria Pleshette. Her father managed the Paramount and Brooklyn Paramount theaters, and her mother was a former dancer. She claimed to have possessed her trademark husky voice as early as the age of four; callers would mistake her for her father when she answered the phone. She aimed toward a career in the arts early on, attending the New York High School of Performing Arts, then Syracuse University and Finch College, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She took acting lessons at Stanford Meisner's Acting School.