Maureen McCormick

Maureen McCormick
Best Buddies Ride charity event, Hyannis, Massachusetts, May, 2009
Born	Maureen Denise McCormick August 5, 1956 (1956-08-05) (age 53) Encino, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1964–present
Spouse(s)	Michael Cummings (1985–present)

Maureen Denise McCormick (born August 5, 1956) is an American actress, celebrity and recording artist. She is most widely known as a child actor who played Marcia Brady in the television series The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974.

Early life and career

McCormick was born in Encino, California, the daughter of Irene (née Beckman) and William McCormick, a teacher.^[1] At the age of six she won the Baby Miss San Fernando Valley beauty pageant.^[2] McCormick first appeared on national US television in 1964 on Barbie doll and Chatty Cathy commercials. She lent her voice to a redesigned Chatty Cathy doll in 1970. Through the later 1960s McCormick appeared in two episodes of Bewitched and played guest roles on I Dream of Jeannie, Honey West, The Farmer's Daughter and My Three Sons.

Marcia Brady

McCormick played the eldest daughter Marcia, a popular girl with a perky personality, in The Brady Bunch, an American television sitcom about a blended family which aired from late 1969 to early 1974 on ABC. After its cancellation these Brady Bunch episodes were rebroadcast in syndication for decades as children's programming, gathering a long lasting, cross-generational popularity which led to spinoffs and movies.

Later career

After The Brady Bunch McCormick made guest appearances on many television series such as Happy Days, Donny & Marie, Love Boat, Streets of San Francisco and Fantasy Island, along with supporting roles in a few B-movies such as 1979's Vacation in Hell, Skatetown, U.S.A. and 1987's Return to Horror High. However, perhaps owing to the ongoing broadcast of Brady Bunch reruns in syndication, she may have become typecast. McCormick later claimed she failed to a get a part as a prostitute or heroin dealer for the movie Midnight Express because of this.^[3] McCormick was the first actress to play Rebecca Crane on the soap opera Passions but she was not put on contract.

In 2007 McCormick was a cast member on the fifth season of VH1's reality show Celebrity Fit Club, hoping to lose 30 pounds she had gained since her mother died of cancer and needing to move her disabled brother into an assisted living facility. McCormick lost 34 pounds and, in June of that year, was the individual winner of the series. In 2008 she became a spokesperson for Children International.^[4] Later that year, she became a cast member on the CMT reality show Gone Country. This led to a spin-off reality series called Outsider's Inn in which she opened a bed and breakfast inn at Newport, Tennessee. On March 15, 2009 McCormick appeared on Comedy Central's roast of Larry the Cable Guy.

She also appeared in an episode of Scrubs as JD's dream wife; however, she is married to him as Marsha Brady.

Personal life

McCormick and fellow Brady Bunch cast member Barry Williams had a sporadic romance, their first romantic kiss happening in the summer of 1972 while filming the Hawaiian episodes.

In her autobiography, McCormick wrote that her grandmother died from syphilis in a mental institution, having gotten the disease from her husband who had caught it in Europe at the time of World War I (he committed suicide a week after his wife's death). Moreover McCormick's mother had contracted syphilis in utero and McCormick dealt with a life-long but unfounded fear she would also get the disease.^[5] Hence, she later said her favorite scenes in The Brady Bunch were those which called for her to cry, since this allowed her to show feelings drawn from those fears.

McCormick met Michael Jackson socially in 1973.

Following the cancellation of The Brady Bunch McCormick went through years of addiction to cocaine and Quaaludes which harmed her career. McCormick later claimed she had sometimes traded sex for cocaine. She flubbed an audition with Steven Spielberg for a part in Raiders of the Lost Ark, showing up high on cocaine and sleepless for three days. Having lost her reputation for reliability in Hollywood, a producer threatened that she would never work as an actress again. She had two unwanted pregnancies, both of which ended in abortion. She also dealt with bouts of depression and bulimia.^[2][6]

On March 16, 1985 she married Michael Cummings, who had never seen or heard of The Brady Bunch. They fell in love upon meeting in a church.^[7] McCormick and Cummings have one child, a girl born May 19, 1989. The family lives in a Southern California suburb northwest of Los Angeles.

After her marriage McCormick went through a series of interventions, stints in rehab and experimental therapies. She says treatment with the controversial psychiatrist Eugene Landy, who had also treated Brian Wilson, set her back. Although she began to get sober after marrying her husband, McCormick still suffered from depression and paranoia. McCormick once threatened to jump from a balcony in front of her husband.^[7] She and her husband were at first wary of medication, but McCormick has been treated with antidepressant medication such as Prozac since the 1990s. McCormick also said she was helped by her friendships with former Brady Bunch cast members.^[2][3]

In April 2007 on the TV series Dr. Phil McCormick talked about a family dispute, accusing her brother of both elder abuse and alienating their father from his other children to gain control of his finances.^[8]

Autobiography

On October 14, 2008, with wide and sometimes controversial publicity, she released the autobiography Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice which went on sale at the number four position on The New York Times Best Seller List, staying on the list for three weeks.^[9] While promoting the book she was a guest on many news and talk shows such as Access Hollywood, The Howard Stern Show, Good Day L.A. and Paula's Party. The Today Show reportedly aired an interview with McCormick about the book rather than switch to a story about the banking crises.^[10] McCormick said a movie would likely be made about her autobiography.^[11]

Other TV, film and stage work

• In 1976, she played a teenage prostitute on the TV series The Streets of San Francisco.
• On February 5, 1989, she reprised her role as Marcia Brady in a dream sequence episode of the short-lived sitcom Day by Day. The episode brought together the Brady family in a dream to slacker son Ross who neglects schoolwork to watch a Brady Bunch marathon. McCormick scored big laughs in the satiric segment playing a visibly pregnant Marcia.
• In 1993, she played herself on an episode of Herman's Head.^[12]
• In 1994, McCormick played the role of Rizzo in the Broadway production of Grease.
• In 1997, she played the title role in Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story.
• In 2000, she played Rebecca Hotchkiss on Passions for ten episodes; after her stint ended, she was replaced by Andrea Evans.
• In 2001, she played Mrs. Strawther on Son of the Beach.
• In 2003, she appeared in Scrubs in a dream sequence where protagonist J.D. imagines Marcia Brady as his ideal bride (he shushes her when she points out that her name is actually Maureen McCormick).
• In 2007, she played a shy, clumsy woman who was the eventual object of Jason Alexander's desires in the Brad Paisley country music video, "Online".
• In 2009, she participated in the Comedy Central Roast of Larry the Cable Guy, which aired on March 14.

Recording career

McCormick recorded four albums with the Brady Bunch cast and toured with them. In 1972 she released her first solo single with the songs "Truckin' Back to You" and "Teeny Weeny Bit (Too Long)." A year later McCormick recorded an album with Brady co-star Christopher Knight. The pop LP, called Chris Knight and Maureen McCormick, carried both duets and solo tracks by the two young television stars. McCormick's second solo single was "Little Bird" backed with "Just a Singin' Alone" and had mild chart success in the western US. McCormick performed "Little Bird" on American Bandstand and the show's host Dick Clark encouraged her to follow a singing career. McCormick released another single in 1973, "Love's in the Roses" backed with "Harmonize."

More than twenty years later McCormick released her first solo album, a country CD called When You Get a Little Lonely (1995). Although not a commercial success it gathered mostly positive reviews. In 1997 she played country singer Barbara Mandrell in the television biography Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story and in 2008 competed for a record contract on the CMT reality show Gone Country.

Biographical portrayals

• Kaley Cuoco portrayed McCormick in Growing Up Brady. McCormick's character Marcia Brady has been portrayed by Christine Taylor in The Brady Bunch Movie and A Very Brady Sequel.

Awards and Nominations

References

External links

• Maureen McCormick at the Internet Movie Database
• Maureen McCormick's Blog on Fancast
• The Official Maureen McCormick Fan Club Home Page
• McCormick, Maureen. Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice. William Morrow, October 14, 2008. ISBN 978-0061490149
• Book review of Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice