For a generation of TV viewers, Susan Dey will forever be remembered as Laurie Partridge on the iconic 1970s sitcom The Partridge Family. As the wise-beyond-her-years teen who played keyboards in the singing family band, Dey became a fan favorite charmed by her girl-next-door beauty, wit, and warmth.
As she turns 70 this year, we check in on what the former teen icon is up to now and look back on her intriguing trajectory from hugely popular sitcom ingénue to reluctant celebrity longing for privacy.
Background Info
Born to parents Ruth Pyle Dey and Robert Smith Dey in Perkins, Illinois, Susan Hallock Dey made her debut into the world on December 10th, 1952.
Sadly, her mother Ruth, who was a nurse, passed away in 1961 when she was only eight. One of four kids, Susan and one of her sisters started modeling at an early age after poking around in their stepmother’s Seventeen Magazines.
Acting Career
Dey’s first time on the big screen was in the 1972 action thriller film Skyjacked, starring Charlton Heston and Yvette Mimieux.
She played Elly Brewster in the movie that took a highjacked plane’s passengers and crew on a disastrous trip, which based on the novel by David Harper.
The Partridge Family
But her first time on the small screen (and any screen) was a role that would define her career. Susan won the lottery when she was picked to play Laurie Partridge on the hit musical comedy series The Partridge Family.
For all 96 episodes across all four seasons, Dey portrayed one of the five Partridge kids whose specialized talents included vocals, percussion, the piano, and the Hammond organ.
Alongside stars like David Cassidy and Danny Bonaduce, with Shirley Jones playing the matron of the family, Dey was thrust into stardom as a teenager.
The show always ended with a musical number after the adventures of the single mom and her kids were done for the episode.
The David Cassidy Files
Romance between co-stars is not something new or unheard of. But in the case of Susan Dey and her onscreen brother David Cassidy, it eventually caused tension between the two that ended in them not speaking.
Dey had a crush on Cassidy with a burning fire that was only seen as sisterly love from his side. After the show wrapped, the pair had a failed one night together that put the two on limited-to-nonexistent speaking terms.
Cassidy didn’t help things when he went into great intimate detail about the whole thing in his autobiography.
The only time after the show the pair was seen onscreen together was as presenters at the 1990 MTV Awards.
Sadly, it was the last, as David Cassidy passed away in 2017 and the two never reconciled.
What did she do after The Partridge Family?
After her role as Laurie Partridge on “The Partridge Family,” Susan Dey took on a variety of small roles across television movies and series before landing her iconic role on “L.A. Law.” During this period, she appeared in popular shows such as “Hawaii Five-O,” “S.W.A.T.,” and “The Rookies.”
Dey also had notable roles in TV movies like “Cage Without a Key” and “Love Leads the Way: A True Story,” and she lent her voice to the animated series “Fred Flintstone and Friends.”
Her career path included appearances in Western adventure series like “The Quest,” as well as dramas like “Petrocelli” and “The Streets of San Francisco.”
Although she would have consistent work she would fail to reclaim the stardom and acclaim of her breakout sitcom role.
She didn’t gain widespread acclaim again until taking on the part of Grace Van Owen on L.A. Law starting in 1986.
LA Law
Before there was Law & Order there was L.A. Law. In 1986 Susan snagged a part in the popular legal drama playing Deputy District Attorney Grace Van Owen.
For 126 out of 172 episodes Dey and the cast took on cases about topics that still push buttons these days.
Throughout eight seasons the show racked up an amazing 147 award nominations, winning 45 total over the years.
Dey was nominated for multiple Emmy and Golden Globe awards for her work as Van Owen, and won herself a Golden Globe in 1988 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series in a Drama.
Later Roles
In the 90s and early 2000s, Dey was in TV movies Lies and Lullable and Blue River, and she came back for the 2002 TV movie L.A. Law: The Movie to reprise her role as Grace Van Owen.
She also appeared in feature films Avenged and Rain in 1998 and 2003.
What is Susan Dey doing now?
Susan Dey is still retired from acting and has been living a low-profile life since 2004.
One thing Susan is not doing is attending The Partridge Family reunions. She hasn’t participated in any over the years, and Dey was the only cast member that didn’t attend the huge 50th Anniversary special that took place in 2020.
But Susan did however attend the L.A. Law virtual reunion. The virtual reunion of the cast of “L.A. Law” took place in 2020 as part of the “Stars in the House” series, which was a benefit for The Actors Fund.
The reunion was hosted by Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley. Key cast members who also attended the reunion included Corbin Bernsen,Michele Greene, Harry Hamlin, Jimmy Smits, and Blair Underwood. The reunion was an opportunity for the cast to reminisce about their time on the show, discuss potential reboots, and share their thoughts on various issues they tackled in the series. The event was well-received and provided a nostalgic experience for fans of the legal drama television series.
When her Partridge sister Suzanne Crough passed away in 2015 at the age of 52, Dey publicly declared her condolences about her death.
But when it came to the passing of her onscreen brother David Cassidy in 2017, Dey had nothing to say, and has never spoken about it.
Personal Life
Susan was married for the first time in 1976 to Leonard “Lenny” Hirshan, a talent agent for stars like Clint Eastwood.
Though the couple divorced in 1981, the pair had a daughter, Sara Dey-Hirshan, who was born in November of 1978. Lenny passed away in 2014 at the age of 86 from skin cancer.
Susan has been married to her second husband, three-time Emmy-nominated television and film producer Bernard Sofronski, since the February of 1988, and the couple will soon celebrate their 35-year anniversary.
Though it seems like Dey isn’t going to come back to acting, we’ll always have her hit shows The Partridge Family if you need a pick-me-up and L.A. Law if you want a little drama in your life.
