Tracey Gold

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Tracey Gold
Born	Tracey Claire Fisher May 16, 1969 (1969-05-16) (age 39) New York City

Tracey Gold (born Tracey Claire Fisher on May 16, 1969 in New York City) is an American actress, best known for playing Carol Seaver on the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Acting career 3 Battle with anorexia 4 Personal life and post-Growing Pains 4.1 DUI arrest 4.2 Present day 5 Filmography 5.1 Films 5.2 TV series 6 Trivia 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Early life

Her sister is the actress Missy Gold, who appeared on Benson. Missy would be famous first, but Tracey's fame would later eclipse that of her sister, who is only 14 months younger than she. Her adopted stage name "Gold" comes from her stepfather Harry Gold, who married her mother when Tracey was a preschooler, and later became a very powerful Hollywood agent, and the agent of his stepdaughters. Her sister Missy also shares the birth name Fisher.

[edit] Acting career

Gold has been an actress since the age of four, first appearing in a Pepsi print ad. She appeared in two canceled series, Shirley with Shirley Jones in 1979, and Goodnight Beantown, starring Bill Bixby in 1983. Gold was originally cast as the youngest daughter in the original pilot series of the show Gimme A Break! starring Nell Carter, but was replaced by actress Lara Jill Miller when the show went to series.

In 1985, she auditioned for the part of Carol Seaver on Growing Pains, but was not initially cast. A few months later, she was summoned to audition for the part again when the original pilot actress was to be replaced. (nearly the reverse of what had happened to her a few years earlier on Gimme A Break!) She got the role, and it made her famous, running from 1985 until 1992. Gold became a famous teen star. In 1988, Gold also starred as Angela Strull in the teen film Dance 'Til Dawn.

After the end of the long-running series, Gold continued to work as an actress, and was the most successful by far of any of her former co-stars. From the mid-nineties, until well into the first decade of the new millennium, Gold starred in a long string of television movies of the week, many which often air as re-runs on the Lifetime network, or are produced by the network itself.

[edit] Battle with anorexia

Gold is also famous for her highly publicized battle with anorexia nervosa, which almost killed her. From about the age seven, she says that she thought about dieting, having learned the word and the concept on the many television sets she worked on as a very busy child actress. She became preoccupied with the television movie The Best Little Girl In The World, starring actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, about an anorexic teenager. In her autobiography, she says that in an attempt to control her development into a woman, she began restricting what she ate. When she was 11, she was diagnosed with the early stages of anorexia nervosa by her family pediatrician after a weight loss that accompanied a growth spurt. After some counseling, she eventually returned to a more normal weight for most of her teenage years. In 1988, when she was 19, she gained some weight over the Growing Pains series hiatus. That season, the show's scripts called for her to be the brunt of "fat" jokes from her television brothers for many episodes in a row. Beginning in October 1988, she dieted from 133 pounds to about 110 pounds on a medically-supervised 500 calorie a day diet, but still occasionally the scripts included "fat" jokes at her expense by her television brothers. In her autobiography, she says that between 1989 and 1991, she became increasingly obsessed with food and her weight, and continued to slowly and steadily lose weight. In 1990 she began group therapy in an eating disorder program, but only learned more ways to lose weight. That season, her problem with weight loss was touched upon slightly on her television series, when Gold is seen looking at her body in a carnival mirror, and describes to another character the distorted image in her head. In 1991, she started starving herself more than ever and vomiting, and lost a massive amount of weight, to the point that she was admitted to a hospital in early 1992. Her lowest weight is estimated to have been near 80 pounds. She was suspended from the show for her skeletal appearance. Photos of her emaciated body were plastered all over tabloid magazines, and she was one of the first celebrities ever to be formally "outed" for anorexia. She last appeared in the 1991 Christmas episode, where her problem is very obvious in some scenes, and did not return until the last two shows of the series in the late spring of 1992, although she was not nearly recovered at this point. After a several year struggle, Gold eventually recovered, and starred in the 1994 TV movie For the Love of Nancy with Jill Clayburgh. The film explored a young woman's battle with anorexia and its effects on her family. Although she was warned of the possibility that she had done damage to her reproductive organs by the years of anorexia, Gold was later able to bear four children. As she entered her thirties, she maintained a normal weight for a woman of her age, and often held speaking engagements warning young women about the dangers of eating disorders, all the while continuing work as an actress.

[edit] Personal life and post-Growing Pains

Gold met her husband Roby Marshall through Growing Pains costar Joanna Kerns, who portrayed Marshall's mother in the TV miniseries adaptation of the true crime book Blind Faith by Joe McGinniss. Roby had served as a consultant on the miniseries, which dramatized the 1984 case in which his father, Toms River, New Jersey businessman Robert O. Marshall, was charged with (and later convicted of) the contract killing of his wife (and Roby's mother) Maria.^[1]

Gold and Marshall married on October 8, 1994, and have four sons: Sage Gold (b. February 16, 1997), Bailey Vincent (b. March 4, 1999), Aiden Michael (b. May 9, 2004), and Dylan Christopher (b. April 1, 2008).^[2]

In 2003, Gold wrote the book Room to Grow: An Appetite for Life with Julie McCarron.

[edit] DUI arrest

Gold was arrested for driving under the influence after a car accident on September 3, 2004. Her husband and two of her three children were injured, one with a broken clavicle and a head laceration, but her newborn infant was not hurt. She posted $50,000 bail the following day. Gold originally pleaded not guilty to the charges, but later changed her plea to guilty and was sentenced to one month in a work release program, 240 hours of community service, and three years' probation.

Gold made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, explaining her side of the story and what happened on what she proclaims was "the worst night of her life."

[edit] Present day

Gold was a contestant on the program Celebrity Mole 2: Yucatan in 2004, and starred in the movie Safe Harbor in 2006. She is currently hosting the TVGUIDE Channel mini-show Trapped in TV Guide. In addition, she is the host of TLC show The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom, which debuted on March 3, 2008.^[3]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1976	Captains and the Kings	Rosemary Armagh	TV miniseries
1977	Roots	Young Missy Reynolds	TV miniseries
1978	A Rainy Day	Stephanie as a Child
	The Dark Secret of Harvest Home	Missy Penrose	TV miniseries
	Night Cries	Donna Blankenstrip	TV movie
	Little Mo	Cindy Brinker	TV movie
1979	The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel	Laurie Mae Moon	TV mvoie
	Jennifer: A Woman's Story	Emma Prince	TV movie
	The Child Stealer	Pam Rodman	TV movie
1980	Marilyn: The Untold Story	Young Norma Jean	TV movie
1981	A Few Days in Weasel Creek	Buddy	TV movie
1982	Shoot the Moon	Marianne Dunlap
	Beyond Witch Mountain	Tia	TV movie
1983	Another Woman's Child	Lisa	TV movie
	Thursday's Child	Alix	TV movie
	Who Will Love My Children?	Pauline Fray	TV movie
1985	A Reason to Live	Ellen Maynes	TV movie
	Lots of Luck	Cindy Maris	TV movie
1986	The Blinkins	Shady	TV movie / Voice
	The Best of Times	Jaki's friend	Uncredited
1988	Dance 'Til Dawn	Angela Strull	TV movie
1993	Labor of Love: The Arlette Schweitzer Story	Christa Uchytil	TV movie
1994	For the Love of Nancy	Nancy Walsh	TV movie
1995	Stolen Innocence	Stacy	TV movie
	Sleep, Baby, Sleep	Sylvie Pierson	TV movie
	Lady Killer	Sharon	TV movie
	Beauty's Revenge	Beth	TV movie
1996	A Kidnapping in the Family	Sarah Landers Taylor	TV movie
	Face of Evil	Darcy Palmer/Barbara Richards	TV movie
	The Perfect Daughter	Alexandra Michaelson	TV movie
	To Face Her Past	Lori Molina	TV movie
1998	Dirty Little Secret	Sarah Wheetley	TV movie
	The Girl Next Door	Anne 'Annie' Nolan	TV movie
1999	Wanted	Sue Bentley
	A Crime of Passion	Alyssa Pierce	TV movie
2000	Stolen from the Heart	Leslie Wagner	TV movie / as Tracy Gold
	The Growing Pains Movie	Carol Seaver	TV movie
2001	She's No Angel	Liddy Carlyle	TV movie
	What's the Worst That Could Happen?	Woman at Auction	Uncredited
2002	Wildfire 7: The Inferno	Nell Swanson	TV movie
2004	Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers	Carol Seaver	TV movie
2005	Captive Hearts	Elizabeth Sorenson	TV movie
2006	Safe Harbor	Carly Segan	TV movie
2007	Final Approach	Linda Howren	TV movie
2008	Solar Flare	Dr. Clark	TV movie

[edit] TV series

Year(s)	Title	Role	Seasons	Notes
1979–80	Shirley	Michelle Miller	1
1983–84	Goodnight, Beantown	Susan Barnes	1
1985–92	Growing Pains	Carol Seaver	1–7	Co-Starred in every season
2008–present	The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom	Host	1-Present

[edit] Trivia

This section does not cite any references or sources. (April 2007) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

• As a child, Gold would only order tuna melt sandwiches at a restaurant, no matter how fancy.
• Gold's first idea of diet as a very young child consisted of skipping dinner, and eating a Kit Kat bar instead.
• Gold's childhood pediatrician was Dr. Gettleman, the same doctor used for the children of Lucille Ball. He was the first doctor to diagnose her anorexia.
• During her many years struggling with eating disorders, Gold ordered the same takeout dinner every night for years: Angel hair pasta with marinara sauce from California Pizza Kitchen.
• During her battle with anorexia, Gold admits she drank excessive amounts of Diet Coke, and continued to love it even years later.
• Although Gold played the younger sister of Mike Seaver, played by actor Kirk Cameron, she is actually a year older than the former teen idol. Gold and Cameron have known each other since childhood, having worked together previously in commercials, and in the movie The Best of Times.
• When she was nine, Gold played one of the daughters in the Albert Finney and Diane Keaton film Shoot the Moon. Also in the cast was fellow future famous child actress Tina Yothers.
• Gold's second child Bailey nearly drowned as a toddler in a pool.
• Gold has appeared as an anorexia "expert" on the television show Extra, and has counseled the famed anorexic twins from England.
• The Synth/pop band Freezepop has a song entitled "Tracey Gold" with few references to her on Growing Pains.
• Gold's high school prom date was co-star Kirk Cameron, although she says there was nothing romantic about the night.
• Two of Carol Seaver's on-screen love interests placed Gold alongside two future A-list stars when they appeared as guest actors on Growing Pains: Brad Pitt and Matthew Perry. Interestingly, Perry's character of boyfriend Sandy is killed-off in a drunk driving incident as part of a very special episode of the series. Many years later, Gold herself would be involved in a drunk driving incident.
• Gold's brother-in-law Christopher V. Marshall is the Alumni Director at Lehigh University, and is the person credited with getting Gold over her fear of driving following her DUI arrest in 2004.
• Gold's DUI accident in September 2004 was only days apart from the twentieth anniversary of the murder of her late mother-in-law Maria Marshall. (Gold's father-in-law Robert O. Marshall is in prison for planning the murder).
• In a documentary filmed about Gold and her acting siblings in 1984, both Tracey and Missy Gold accurately predicted their futures. Missy predicted she would be in medicine, and is now a psychologist. Tracey said she would be an actress and have lots of children, which is the case.
• In the mid-eighties, Gold's younger acting sister Brandy Gold appeared in the miniseries Fatal Vision, based on a book by Joe McGinnis. A few years later, another McGinnis book Blind Faith, about the 1984 Maria Marshall murder in Toms River, New Jersey, was made into a mini-series. It starred Joanna Kerns who introduced the Marshall's son Roby to her Growing Pains co-star Tracey Gold. The two are married to this day.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Tracey Gold at the Internet Movie Database
• Tracey Gold at TV.com