Tracy Nelson (actress)

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Tracy Nelson
TracyNelson1981.jpg
Nelson in 1981
Born Tracy Kristine Nelson
(1963-10-25) October 25, 1963 (age 49)
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation Actress
Years active 1968–present

Tracy Kristine Nelson (born October 25, 1963, Santa Monica, California) is an American actress, writer, and cancer advocate.

Contents

Early life [edit]

Tracy Nelson is a 6th generation performer through her paternal Grandmother Harriet Nelson, whose family was in vaudeville and the circus (Wallas Hagenbach Circus.) Her parents were Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ricky Nelson and actress/artist Kristin Nelson (née Harmon). She has three younger siblings: Matthew Nelson, Gunnar Nelson of the 1990s rock group Nelson, and Sam Nelson.[1] Her paternal grandparents are Ozzie and Harriet Hilliard Nelson whose long running television show "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" is represented in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington. Nelson's maternal grandparents are Tom Harmon, a Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Michigan, and actress Elyse Knox. She is also the niece of actors David Nelson, and her mother's siblings Mark Harmon, and Kelly Harmon.

Career [edit]

Nelson started her career early, her first "role" was as herself at age 3 months on her grandparent's television show. At age 5 she played one of Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball's daughters in Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) Nelson is a professional dancer, having studied ballet for 17 years with Tania Lachine and toured throughout California in a dance company while still in grammar school. Nelson studied theater with Kim Stanley and Nina Foch and briefly in England, performing in The Edinburgh Fringe Festival after graduation from high school. In 1982, she played "valley girl" Jennifer DeNuccio on the cult television series Square Pegs, and in 1986 she landed the role of the anorexic daughter in Paul Mazursky's #1 box office hit "Down and Out in Beverly Hills."

Nelson is perhaps best known as "Sister Stephanie" from the popular television series "The Father Dowling Mysteries." She was also a series regular on Aaron Spelling's "Glitter", "A League of Their Own", and the Australian television series "The Man From Snowy River". Throughout the 80's and 90's Nelson made guest appearances on television series including Family Ties, St. Elsewhere, Murphy Brown,"The Nanny", "7th Heaven", Melrose Place, Will and Grace, and Seinfeld. She was in the touring company and on Broadway as "Rizzo" in Grease in 1995. Nelson has appeared in several lesser theatrical releases and her IMBD profile lists 21 Movies For Television, including The Perfect Nanny in 2000, The Perfect Husband, Kate's Secret, The Fight for Jesse, "The Rival" in 2006, among others. Tracy Nelson has written a book about her personal experience and a movie script about her family "The Nelsons."

Personal life [edit]

Tracy went to The Buckley School and graduated in 1981 from the Westlake School for Girls (now Harvard-Westlake School) in Los Angeles. She attended Bard College in upstate New York, studying Dance and European History.

Nelson has survived 3 kinds of cancer. She was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma,stage 2 a month after her 1987 marriage to actor William R. Moses, and one year after her father was killed in a plane crash on New Year's Eve in deKalb,Texas. Nelson went into remission after surgery, chemotherapy(ABVD) and radiation at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. She and Moses divorced in 1997 and share a daughter, Remington Elizabeth Moses, born in 1992. Nelson had a son, Elijah Nelson Clark, with Chris Clark in 2001. Having suffered trauma from radiation, Nelson was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2005 and breast cancer in 2010. She is currently fully recovered from a bilateral mastectomy and complete reconstruction. Tracy Nelson is active in cancer advocacy and was the spokesperson for The Lymphoma Research Foundation of America. She received the "Lifesaver Award" from that organization and the "Jill Ireland Award" from the Amie Karen Cancer Fund for Children.

Filmography [edit]

Television [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ www.nndb.com

External links [edit]

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