Mike Lookinland

Not to be confused with American soccer player Mike Lookingland.

Mike Lookinland
Lookinland at the Big Apple Convention in Manhattan, October 1, 2010.
Born	Michael Paul Lookinland (1960-12-19) December 19, 1960 Mount Pleasant, Utah, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1969–2000
Spouse(s)	Kelly Wermuth (1987-present; 2 children)

Michael Paul "Mike" Lookinland^[1] (born December 19, 1960) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the youngest brother Bobby Brady on The Brady Bunch from 1969 until 1974.

Early life

Mike Lookinland's father was a Vice Principal at San Pedro High School, located in San Pedro, California, part of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), in the late 1970s. Lookinland was born in 1960 in Mount Pleasant, Utah, a small town located eighty miles south of Salt Lake City. He has a younger brother named Todd, who starred in "Blue Bird" with Elizabeth Taylor and an older sister Terese. Lookinland grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is a self-professed conservationist and "camping nut". He attended the private Chadwick School on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southern California, and graduated in 1978.

Career

Lookinland was a TV commercial actor before he was cast in The Brady Bunch, having done around thirty commercials. He has naturally sandy-colored wavy hair. Because his hair color did not match Peter's or Greg's natural dark brown color, he had to have his hair dyed dark brown and straightened to match. Occasionally, the lights on set though were so hot that his dye job would sometimes run down his face. During the last two seasons of The Brady Bunch, his natural hair color was finally allowed to show. Bobby (Mike) was always the type of kid who was sweet, funny, energetic, and sometimes dramatic during his role on the Brady Bunch. Lookinland's character was the first of the Brady kids to carry a scene without any of the other children. In the scene, Bobby tells his father, Mike (Robert Reed), he has put his mother's photograph away for fear of offending the new Mrs. Brady (Florence Henderson). Mike assures Bobby that no one wants him to forget his mother, and places the photo back on the boy's dresser.

Lookinland's brother, Todd, appeared in a Brady Bunch episode that served as the pilot for a spin-off series called Kelly's Kids^[2] about a husband and wife who adopt three boys, one white, one black, and one Asian. The pilot was not bought, however. In another episode during the show's final season, Bobby kisses a girl named Milicent (Melissa Sue Anderson) and he sees “sky rockets.” She then informs him that she may have the mumps and he "shouldn't have done that." Bobby and his family nervously await her telephone call with the doctor's results. Years later, the two reunited on an episode of Little House on the Prairie, on which Anderson played Mary Ingalls, and Lookinland guest starred. Melissa Sue Anderson was also raised in the LDS (Mormon) church.

Lookinland also provided the voice of Oblio in the animated film The Point!. Shortly after the final season of The Brady Bunch wrapped filming, he appeared alongside Jennifer Jones and Paul Newman in the 1974 disaster film blockbuster The Towering Inferno and on the 1970s TV show The Secrets of Isis.

Lookinland reprised his role as Bobby Brady in the 1988 Christmas special A Very Brady Christmas, and again in the 1990 sequel series The Bradys, in which Bobby Brady was involved in a racing car accident, which made him a wheelchair user throughout the series.

Interestingly, the first two names of the Brady father character played by Robert Reed was "Michael Paul", the same as Lookinland's actual names.

Personal life

Since 1987, Lookinland has been married to Kelly Wermuth, who worked as a script supervisor on Touched by an Angel. They have two sons: Scott (born 1990) and Joe (born 1993). He was portrayed by his son Scott in the TV movie Growing Up Brady.^{[citation needed]} Years after leaving 'The Brady Bunch, Lookinland cut off the end of his index finger with a table saw. The end was deemed too small to be sewn back on, but it has never affected his career.^{[citation needed]}

Lookinland is a fan of the rock band the Grateful Dead, and has stated that he attended over 100 of their live concerts.^[3][4]

Lookinland spent several years as a television camera operator. He currently operates a business which makes decorative concrete.^[5]

References

External links

• Mike Lookinland at the Internet Movie Database
• Mike Lookinland's Arrest at rotten.com
• Mike Lookinland at thesmokinggun.com