Susan Dey was instantly recognizable as Laurie Partridge in the hit ’70s TV show The Partridge Family, thanks to her glossy brunette locks, stunning blue eyes, and model good looks.
Yet Susan, who was just 17 when she landed the role, chose a life away from the spotlight and has since refused to reunite with the cast for the sake of her privacy.
A rocky road
The brunette beauty’s journey from teen idol to acclaimed actress was nothing short of rocky, after she developed an eating disorder during the show’s run, which plagued her for years to come.
“I’m not in the clear yet – I’m still trying to overcome my anorexia,” she told The Enquirer in 1993, as per 9Honey. “It’s something that has been plaguing my life. Beating a severe eating disorder is something you cannot do alone.”
She also attributed child stardom to being “like an adult but you are not an adult”, in a candid interview with The Washington Post in 1989.
Susan ended her run on the show in 1974, and went on to spread her wings in Hollywood with a role in 1978’s Little Women miniseries as Jo March, alongside The Brady Bunch star Eve Plumb.
One of her better-known roles was in LA Law from 1986 to 1992, as the county deputy district attorney Grace Van Owen.
© NBCUniversal via Getty ImagesShe appeared in a whopping 126 episodes and garnered several Emmy nominations for the role, even picking up a Golden Globe Best Actress win in 1989.
Despite her acclaimed career, Susan chose to leave Hollywood altogether in 2004, with an appearance in two episodes of Third Watch marking her final acting credit.
She may have left the spotlight behind, but the 72-year-old shared that she still missed performing from time to time.
© WireImage“I miss acting as much as I miss my mom, as much as I miss my little girl, as much as I miss my first home,” she told WSKG Public Media.
“I do miss acting, but I’m really happy with what’s going on in my life right now. It’s full. It’s so full.”
No going back
© Getty ImagesSusan experienced the darker side of fame when the tabloid media revealed that she was a frequent attendee of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, which she said was a major breach of her privacy.
“I usually don’t talk about it because I feel it’s my business and nobody else’s,” she shared with Parade.
“After I had been sober for a year, I was given a cake at [an AA] meeting. The tabloids ran a big story about it. I was furious that they had planted an informant in my AA group.”
© Disney General Entertainment ConShe also came to blows with her former Partridge Family co-star, David Cassidy, who played her brother Keith on the show.
The singer claimed in his 1994 memoir C’mon, Get Happy that the pair had shared a brief fling during their time on set, sparking ire from Susan.
”I found it to be a tremendous, terrible violation. And tacky. Real tacky,” she told TV Guide. ”My first reaction was, ‘That poor, desperate soul,’ because I was asked to write a book like that years ago, and I said, ‘No, that’s not what I want to do.”’ She added that the book didn’t affect their relationship, as “there is no relationship”.
© Getty ImagesDespite it all, Susan is now living happily with her second husband, producer Bernard Sofronski, whom she wed in 1988.
She also has one daughter, whom she welcomed with her first husband, Lenny Hirshan.
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