Susan Dey is a retired American actress famously known for her role as Laurie Partridge on the 1970s popular TV show, The Partridge Family.
The show aired from 1970 to 1974 and launched the career of several actors, including pop idol David Cassidy who played Keith Partridge on the ABC sitcom.
In the sitcom, Dey and Cassidy play siblings who form a band with their mother, Shirley Jones, and three other siblings and travel across the country in a groovy bus. The series was a blockbuster and won the hearts of millions of viewers.
During the show, Cassidy became a teen idol, and his female fans started drooling over him, including his costar, Susan, who had a massive crush on the musician. However, the I Think I Love You singer always considered Dey a friend and sister and even used to share details about his personal life, including his love life with Dey.
Unaware of her strong feelings for him, David used to share his romantic interactions with other women with Susan, whom he always considered his best friend. But those discussions used to hurt her feelings, and one day, their costar Shirley Jones who played their mum on the show, warned Dey that David didn’t have feelings for her.
However, when she wouldn’t pay heed to her advice, Shirley told David about Dey’s love for her and he was shocked. Despite never feeling attracted to her, David decided to give it a chance, and the two started dating. But their romance was brief as David couldn’t reciprocate her feelings and felt guilty.
The two remained friends for a few years, but after Cassidy shared their romantic interactions in his book, “C’mon, Get Happy… Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus,” Susan took an offense and said it was a “tremendous, terrible violation” of trust and friendship.
As for her professional life, after the success of TPF, Dey went on to star in several hit movies and TV shows, including, L. A. Law, First Love, Echo Park, Skyjacked, Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night, Love & War, The Comeback Kid, Terror on the Beach, Beyond Betrayal and Angel in Green.
Her hard work and outstanding performances earned Dey six Golden Globes and three Emmy Award nominations. She also won a Golden Globe for her role as Grace Van Owen in L. A. Law.
Dey was born in Westchester County, New York, in 1952 – she is 70 years old today. Her father was an editor at Standard-Star in New Rochelle, New York, and her mother was a nurse.
The actress married twice – her first marriage was with Lenny Hirshan; the pair tied the knot in 1976 and welcomed one daughter together in 1978. Their marriage ended with divorce in 1981.
In 1988 Dey married for the second time with TV producer Bernard Sofronski in an intimate ceremony attended by close friends and family members.
”Bernie has helped me understand that love involves give and take. I never understood love until I met him. I seem to have more energy and I’m allowing myself to become more and more me every day. It makes life so much easier when you’re with someone you can trust,” the Love & War actress told Woman’s Own magazine in 1988.
In the early 2000s, Susan stepped away from acting, and today she lives a private life with her husband, Bernard, in Upstate New York.
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