Susan Dey was an instant star 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. Almost 60 years later, Susan, 73, lives in Upstate New York and serves on a community and rural development organization.
Keep reading to find out exactly why she decided to retire from acting and her tense relationship with The Partridge Family cast.
Susan was cast as Laurie Partridge at 17 years old
Susan Dey's rocky road in the spotlight
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."
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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.
The actress ended her run on The Partridge Family 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 EvePlumb.
One of her better-known roles was in LA Law from 1986 to 1992, as the county deputy district attorney Grace Van Owen.
She 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.
"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."
Susan 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."
She cut ties with her former co-star David Cassidy
She also came to blows with her former Partridge Family co-star, David Cassidy, who played her brother Keith on the show and passed away in 2017 at 67.
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."
Despite it all, Susan is now living happily with her second husband, producer Bernard Sofronski, 86, whom she wed in 1988. The couple live in Upstate New York and spend their time working on behalf of their community.
Susan serves on the board of directors for the MARK Project, a community and rural development organization in the Catskills as well as on the board of the Rape Treatment Center at UCLA Medical Center.
She has one daughter, Sara Dey-Hirshan, whom she welcomed with her first husband, LennyHirshan in 1978. Like her mother, Sara is an actress known for the 2009 film Danger Island.
The Oscar-winning Hollywood legend was spotted enjoying lunch at one of her favorite Malibu haunts just days after delighting fans with a rare video appearance.
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