Valerie Bertinelli

Valerie Bertinelli
Bertinelli receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in August 2012
Born	Valerie Anne Bertinelli (1960-04-23) April 23, 1960 Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, spokesperson
Years active	1974–present
Spouse(s)	Eddie Van Halen (1981–2007) (divorced); Tom Vitale (2011–present)

Valerie Anne Bertinelli (born April 23, 1960) is an American actress, best known for her roles as Barbara Cooper Royer on the television series One Day at a Time (1975–1984), Gloria on the television series Touched by an Angel (2001–2003) and Melanie Moretti on the sitcom Hot in Cleveland (2010–present).

Early years

Bertinelli was born in Wilmington, Delaware to Irish/Italian-American parents Nancy (née Carvin) and Luke Bertinelli (a General Motors executive). She had an elder brother, Mark, who died at 17 months from an accidental poisoning before Valerie was born. Along with her other three brothers, one older and two younger, the family lived in Claymont, Delaware, and Clarkston, Michigan. They later moved to Oklahoma City before moving to the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, California, where Bertinelli studied acting at the Tami Lynn School of Artists. She attended Granada Hills High School until 1978 but did not graduate. As of January 2008, she was pursuing the last few credits needed for her high school diploma. She was raised Roman Catholic.

Career

One Day at a Time

Valerie Bertinelli in One Day at a Time in 1975

Following her appearance in an episode of Apple's Way, Bertinelli was approached by producer Norman Lear to audition for the role of cooperative daughter Barbara Cooper in a new sitcom called One Day at a Time. The show debuted in late 1975. For the show's first season, Bertinelli was 15 and her character was written as a tomboy. The following year, in the show's first full season, Bertinelli's character was revised to be more appealing to a traditional male demographic.^{[citation needed]} Bertinelli appeared in 207 out of the 209 episodes before the show left the airwaves on May 28, 1984. At one point, she and Bonnie Franklin, who played her mother Ann Romano, were involved in plans for a spin-off series, but it was never produced.

Two decades later, in 2005, during the One Day at a Time Reunion Special, Bertinelli was reunited with fellow cast members Franklin, Mackenzie Phillips, and Pat Harrington, Jr. to watch memorable clips from the original show's nine seasons. They talked about actors who had left the show as well as Phillips' drug problem, which had wreaked havoc on the set and caused Phillips to be fired from the show.

Post-One Day at a Time

After One Day at a Time, Bertinelli continued to act. In addition to starring in several made for TV movies and miniseries, she starred in two sitcoms in the 1990s: as private eye Sydney, with Matthew Perry and Craig Bierko, and Café Americain from the creators of Frasier. In 2001, she joined the cast of Touched by an Angel, opposite Roma Downey and Della Reese, for the show's last two seasons.

Bertinelli in 2008

Valerie Bertinelli, who struggled with weight issues over the years, lost a total of 50 lb (23 kg) as of March 2009, and became a spokesperson for the Jenny Craig weight-loss program. She appeared in several Jenny Craig commercials along with Kirstie Alley and other celebrity Jenny Craig participants.

Although Bertinelli is compensated for her Jenny Craig appearances, she considers herself a health and weight-loss activist rather than a hired weight-loss spokesperson. In 2008, she released the autobiography, Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time, which culminates in a description of her Jenny Craig experience (the book's title contains a wordplay on One Day at a Time). In 2009, she wrote a follow-up book Finding It: And Satisfying My Hunger for Life without Opening the Fridge.

On March 4, 2010, Bertinelli appeared as guest co-host on ABC's The View in the absence of Whoopi Goldberg. As of 2011 she stars in the TV Land series Hot in Cleveland, a situation comedy which debuted in June 2010, along with Betty White, Wendie Malick, and Jane Leeves. The show's second season aired in January 2011, and in February 2011 it was renewed for a third season.

On August 22, 2012, Bertinelli received the 2,476th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Personal life

Eddie Van Halen and Bertinelli

Bertinelli married Eddie Van Halen on April 11, 1981. They have a son Wolfgang (born March 16, 1991) together. On December 5, 2005, she filed for divorce, which was finalized two years later on December 20, 2007. She said in her book "Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time" that two main reasons led to her divorce from Eddie. First, that her husband became addicted to cocaine. Second, was Eddie's continued smoking, despite losing one-third of his tongue and undergoing treatment for tongue cancer. Bertinelli has been in a relationship with financial planner Tom Vitale since 2004. On May 20, 2010, they announced their engagement, and they were married on January 1, 2011, in Malibu, California. She wore a dress made especially for her by the designer David Meister.

On April 19, 2010, Bertinelli ran in the Boston Marathon to benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She completed the marathon with a time of 5:14:37.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974	Apple's Way	Peggy	Episode: "The Flag"
1975–84	One Day at a Time	Barbara Cooper Royer	Won: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (1981, 1982) Nominated: Young Artist Award – Best Young Comedienne (1981), TV Land Award – Favorite Singing Siblings (2005)
1978	The CBS Festival of Lively Arts for Young People	Mamie Dickens	Episode: "The Secret of Charles Dickens"
	The Hardy Boys	Wendy Chase/Gwynn	Episode: "Campus Terror"
1979	Young Love, First Love	Robin Gibson	TV movie
	C.H.O.M.P.S	Casey Norton
1980	The Promise of Love	Kathy Wakeman	TV movie
1981	The Princess and the Cabbie	Joanna James	TV movie
1981–82	Fridays	Herself/host	2 episodes
1982	I Was a Mail Order Bride	Katarine "Kate" Tosconi	TV movie
1984	The Seduction of Gina	Gina Breslin	TV movie
	Shattered Vows	Mary Gilligan	TV movie
1985	Silent Witness	Anna Dunne	TV movie
1986	Ordinary Heroes	Maria
	Faerie Tale Theatre: Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp	Princess Sabrina	TV movie
	Rockabye	Susannah Bartok	TV movie
1987	Number One with a Bullet	Teresa Barzak
	I'll Take Manhattan	Maxime "Maxi" Amberville (Cipriani)
1988	Pancho Barnes	Pancho Barnes	TV movie
1989	Taken Away	Stephanie Monroe	TV movie
1990	Sydney	Sydney Kells	13 episodes
1991	In a Child's Name	Angela Cimarelli	TV movie
1992	What She Doesn't Know	Molly Kilcoin	aka Shades of Gray
1993	Murder of Innocence	Laurie Wade	TV movie
1993–94	Café Americain	Holly Aldridge	18 episodes
1995	The Haunting of Helen Walker	Helen Walker	TV movie
1996	A Case for Life	Kelly Porter	TV movie
	Two Mothers for Zachary	Jody Ann Shaffell	TV movie
1997	Night Sins	SBI Agent Megan O'Malley	TV movie
1997– 2003	Touched by an Angel	Gloria	59 episodes
2000	Personally Yours	Susannah Stanton	aka Wilderness Love
2003	Crazy Love	Wife	TV movie
	Finding John Christmas	Kathleen McAllister	TV movie
2004	Saved!	Cameo (as herself)
2007	Claire	Claire Bannion	TV movie
2008	True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet	Aunt Trudy
	Boston Legal	Carol Hober	Episode: "Mad Cows"
	The Doctors	Herself	February 6, 2009 episode
2010	More Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet	Aunt Trudy	In talk
2010– present	Hot in Cleveland	Melanie Moretti	Nominated for Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

Commercials

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1972	J.C. Penney	Herself	at age 12
2007–	Jenny Craig

Production companies

• Tuxedo Limited
• Bertinelli, Inc.

External links

• Valerie Bertinelli at the Internet Movie Database
• Valerie Bertinelli at AllRovi