When the ABC drama series Family premiered in 1976, it followed the lives of the upper-middle-class Lawrence family, parents Kate and Doug (Sada Thompson, James Broderick), Nancy (Elayne Heilveil in the first season, then Meredith Baxter), Willie (Gary Frank), and “Buddy” (Kristy McNichol).
It wasn’t until the fourth season of the critically acclaimed show that the Lawrences adopted Annie Cooper, the orphaned daughter of family friends who died in a car accident.
Played by 11-year-old actress Quinn Cummings, Annie was precocious and complicated, stubborn and emotional. The young character was brought on to the show as McNichol’s character, Buddy, matured into her teen years.
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Cummings was already an Oscar-nominated actress when she joined the cast of Family due to her role as little Lucy McFadden in The Goodbye Girl. At the time, she was “happy” to be an actress, telling The New York Times her first audition was at age seven for a floor wax commercial.
Cummings appeared in 36 episodes of Family before the four-time Emmy-winning series ended its five-season run in 1980. She went on to guest roles in CHiPs, Remington Steele, and The Love Boat in the mid-1980s, and after two TV appearances in the 1990s—Blossom and Evening Shade—she quit acting in 1992. Cummings was 25 years old when she left Hollywood behind.
ABC Photo Archives / Getty Images
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Cummings later explained that showbusiness was like a roller coaster.
“The entertainment industry is like a bad boyfriend who knows the minute you love it more than it loves you and starts to treat you badly,” she shared. “Then you say, ‘I’m moving on with my life.’ Then you book a job, and say, ‘Oh, the entertainment industry is really sweet!’”
More than three decades after she left the Hollywood spotlight, Cummings, now 58, is known as the author of several books, including Notes From The Underwire, Pet Sounds, and The Year of Learning Dangerously, according to her official website. She also hosted a podcast titled Quinn Cummings Gives Bad Advice.
As for how she came out on the other side of acting, Cummings once told The Huffington Post she “lucked out.”
“I had parents who didn’t confuse me for an ATM and a certain psychic stability which allowed me to come through my childhood with only the usual amount of scars,” she said. “Then again, there was no Internet when I was a kid, no cell-phone cameras, no Twitter, no Facebook.”
“Being a former child actor is a permanent state,” the Family alum added. “Unless I save the rain forest, my obit is going to be titled, ‘Quinn Cummings, former child star, dies of something avoidable.’ Which is all my way of saying, if your kid likes acting and singing, there’s something called local theater.”
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