Susan Olsen
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| Susan Marie Olsen | |
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 Susan Olsen depicting Cindy Brady |
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| Born | Susan Marie Olsen August 14, 1961 Santa Monica, California, USA |
| Spouse(s) | Mitch Markwell (1995-2004) (divorced) Steve Ventimiglia (1988-1990) (divorced) |
Susan Marie Olsen (born August 14, 1961) is a former American child television actress and current animal rights activist. The naturally blonde-headed Olsen is best known for her role as Mike & Carol Brady's (played by Robert Reed and Florence Henderson) youngest daughter, Cindy Brady, on the 1970s television sitcom The Brady Bunch for the full run of the show, from 1969 - 1974. Her book, Love to Love You Bradys was published by ECW Press in September, 2009.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Santa Monica, California, the youngest of four children, with two older brothers Larry and Christopher (fourteen years older) and a sister Diane. Her brother Christopher was also a child actor, perhaps best known for his role in The Man Who Knew Too Much.
[edit] The Brady Bunch
After landing a number of supporting roles, most notably, Ironside, Gunsmoke, and Julia, at age seven she was cast as Cindy on The Brady Bunch. She was the youngest actress ever to appear in the series.
As an adult Olsen has expressed that portraying Cindy made peer relations difficult for her as a child. Olsen has said that the episode she dislikes the most is the "tattletale" episode in which Cindy snitches on her brothers and sisters. Because of the episode, she was shunned by her real-life peers who did not understand the difference between actors and their characters.
Olsen has appeared in all "Brady Bunch" reunion movies, with the exception of A Very Brady Christmas in 1988, because she was on her honeymoon with her first husband. In that movie, Cindy Brady was played by Jennifer Runyon.
On Sunday, April 22, 2007, Olsen and her fellow cast members were honored with the TV Pop Culture Awards on the TV Land Awards. It was noted that this is the first award that the Brady Bunch has ever won.
On The Brady Bunch, it was also noted that despite of the unhappiness, that her series' star Robert Reed was suffering both on- and off- the set, Olsen developed a wonderful on- and off-screen relationship with him, along with Florence Henderson, who played her TV mother. During hiatus, she along with Reed's other castmates would often go out on vacations. One in particular, was a trip to Kings Island Amusement Park, in Warren, Ohio, during the fifth and final season. At the end of that season, she was very aware about Reed's misbehaviour off- the set, by not speaking in dialogue for what would be - the series finale on The Brady Bunch. Knowing that, he did not appear in the finale, but remained close to Olsen, until his tragic death on May 12, 1992. She, alongside her Brady Bunch castmates attended Reed's funeral, with the exception of her best friend and Robert's real-life daughter, Karen (whom she guest-starred on one episode of The Brady Bunch) and her TV father's real-life mother, Helen Reitz.
[edit] After The Brady Bunch
As an adult, Olsen moved into the graphic design business and in 1998 briefly marketed a brand of shoes for Converse that could be drawn on and washed. She also worked as a talk show host at a Los Angeles radio station KLSX from 1995 - 1996 with Ken Ober.
She appeared on Cartoon Network's talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast in its twenty-sixth episode "Switcheroo" with Cassandra Peterson as "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark". Olsen has also been an advocate for migraine sufferers since 1998. She described her headaches on Larry King Live.
An urban legend claimed that Olsen had become an adult film star. On a late 1990s television interview, Olsen herself stated on-camera that her "porn" connection was that she created the musical soundtrack for the video Crocodile Blondee as a favor for a friend who worked in the technical side of the business. She also went on to state that perhaps the legend got started because the girl on the box cover to that tape looked a bit like what people might expect a grown-up Olsen to look like.
In the fall of 2008, Olsen appeared on Fox Reality's Gimme My Reality Show, in which celebrities compete to win their own reality show.
On June 6, 2009, Olsen thanked retired game show host and current animal rights activist Bob Barker when The Bradys accepted an honor at the GSN Game Show Awards. Like Barker, she too is an animal rights activist, when she began her charity, Precious Paws.
Olsen's coffee table book Love to Love You Bradys, with co-author Ted Nichelson, celebrates the The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. In addition to many color photos and artwork, the book features over 100 interviews including the Brady Bunch, Sid Krofft, Marty Krofft, Sherwood Schwartz, Bruce Vilanch, Rip Taylor, and Paul Shaffer.
[edit] Personal life
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Olsen now resides in Los Angeles with her son Michael (born 1996) who was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in 2004. They have a dog Trevor and a cat Tabitha.
She stays in touch periodically with all the cast members, and in 2007 headlined a mother-daughter cruise to Greece for Princess Cruises with her TV mum, Florence Henderson.
