Friday, July 04, 2008

Tracey Gold

Tracey Gold (born Tracey Claire Fisher) is a former child star best known for her role as Carol Seaver on the hit 1980s sitcom, Growing Pains. Gold was born on May 16, 1969 in New York City and began acting at age four. Her first entertainment job was for a Pepsi print advertisement.

Gold had a fairly prolific acting career in her youth, appearing with small non--recurring roles in many different shows, including hit shows such as Eight Is Enough, Fantasy Island, and Trapper John, M.D. In 1979, she obtained a recurring role on the one season of the TV show, Shirley, with Shirley Jones. In 1983 she had another recurring role in the sitcom Goodnight, Beantown, with Bill Bixby. Unfortunately for Gold, both of those shows were cancelled after a single season apiece. In 1981, Gold thought that she finally got her big break when she was cast as the youngest daughter in the hit sitcom Gimme A Break!, until she was replaced by actress Lara Jill Miller shortly before that show went into production.

Gold's minor roles throughout her childhood and early teen years did, however, lead to her career-defining role as Carol Seaver on Growing Pains. Growing Pains was a very successful sitcom and Gold was popular among the show's teenage fan base for her cute and wholesome girl next door looks. [This, of course, is a sharp contrast from her young co-star, fellow washed-up celebrity Jeremy Miller, who was, according to the IMDB message boards, very popular with the show's gay fan base.] Gold was integral in many of the show's storylines, several of which dealt her attraction to boys and her excellent performance in high school.

Despite being a successful child actress and co-starring on a hit TV show, Gold suffered through a highly publicized battle with anorexia nervosa. Gold claimed that she became practically obsessed with her weight and began restricting what she ate. At the age of 11, she was diagnosed as being in the early stages of anorexia nervosa after simultaneously losing weight while going through a growth spurt. Gold went into counseling over this issue and eventually returned to a normal weight.
In 1988, Gold put on some weight during Growing Pains' hiatus. Despite knowing about Gold's previous weight issues, the show's writers wrote storylines where Gold was to be subject to many fat jokes during successive episodes. Gold once again began obsessing about her weight, dropping from 133 lbs to 110 lbs while on a 500 calorie per day diet. Over the next couple years, Gold continued to drop weight, eventually getting down to a weight around 80 lbs. During the final season on Growing Pains, the show's producers suspended Gold from the show because of her gaunt appearance. She appeared in the Christmas 1991 episode but didn't appear in any more episodes until late spring, 1992.

After Growing Pains went off the air in 1992, Gold finally started to get her life in order and eventually got well enough to return to a healthy weight. In 1994 she acted in the TV movie, For the Love of Nancy, a movie about a young woman battling anorexia.

Gold still occasionally acts, although not nearing as frequently as she used to do back in her youth. On the personal side, Gold got married in 1994 and has four children. On September 3, 2004, Gold put her own life and the lives of everyone in her family in danger when she was driving her family in an SUV while intoxicated. Gold lost control of the SUV, rolling it down a California freeway embankment. The accident nearly killed her 7-year-old son, Sage, who suffered a broken clavicle and a head laceration. Gold was arrested and charged with a DUI.

Although Gold was a successful child actor and courageously won her battle with anorexia nervosa, the fact the she put the lives of everyone in her family in jeopardy by driving drunk makes Tracey Gold one washed up celebrity!

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

I sorta feel sorry for her rather than wanting to bash her.

Anonymous said...

I would always pretend I was a body snatcher and would posses carol's body. I would then sneak into kirk's room and get double teamed by kirk and boner while alan thicke watched humming the theme to diff'rent strokes.... god those were the days. I would finish all three of them off whipping their nutt saks with a broken off car antenna until they came.

Anonymous said...

She looks hotter now than she did in the 80's. Everybody looked like shit in the 80's :-(

Anonymous said...

I didn't realize until now that you haven't done an entry on Kirk Cameron. From teen heartthrob to born-again Christian: you can't get any more washed up than that!

Anonymous said...

If you ever make one on Jirk Cameron, don't forget to write about how he got Julie Mccullough fired because she was in Playboy. She still hates him for it. She has a blog on her MySpace about it.

Anonymous said...

This is just a dumb waste of time now. There's not anyone more interesting and more washed up than Tracey Gold left to pick on?

Anonymous said...

I agree...Tracey Gold might be "washed up", but still appears in Lifetime movies from time to time.


As for washed up celebs, I nominate anyone whoring themselves for reality tv (Carnie Wilson, Scott Baio, Erin Moran, Maureen McCormick, Bobby Brown), the chick who played Topanga on Boy Meets World and Susan Olsen from the Brady Bunch who recently showed up drunk to a radio interview.

Anonymous said...

Several Points: (1) Tracy Gold is definitely washed up (2) Besides her mug shot, she looks better now than she did back on GP.

I think that there are other celebs who are much more washed up than Tracy. For example, how about the guy that played Sly Winkle on "California Dreaming". Or how about Danny (the Indian) on Hey Dude. Didn't he disappear or become an alcoholic??

Anonymous said...

Dustin Diamond's doing a tell-all book about his SBTB castmates. Supposedly about how they drank, sex, etc.

Anonymous said...

Christ!! I forgot all about Danny the indian on Hey Dude...I've always wondered what happened to him. I've also wondered what has become of Mr. Ernst or his dorky son..hmm

Anonymous said...

what a wuss kirk cameron want be christan he can he loves the lord he dotn like the payboy so he had every right get Julie Mccullough fried

Anonymous said...

Julie Mccullough IS AN PAYBOY AND KRIK CAMERSON HAD EVERYRIGHT TO GOT HER FRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Anonymous said...

i love growing pains i watched it all times

Anonymous said...

How do you know Tracey's a bitch? I've heard that she is one of the nicest people, ever.

I don't think she is a "washed up" celebrity. she is really talented. So, she put her FAMILY before her career, that doesn't make her "washed up" it makes her admirable.

And I know you all are thinking "yeah she really put her family first when she endangered them driving drunk!"

Well, you don't know the full story. Tracey was not drunk. She had a glass of wine throughout the night nothing heavier. And they had just gotten their car back from the auto shop and the had messed it up there, so when she drove it she lost control because of faulty maintence, not drunkeness.

Tracey is a great person, leave her alone.

Anonymous said...

i love growing pains i watch everyday and when its on ..

Anonymous said...

Wow, even in her drugged out mug shot, she looks a million times better without the eighties hair!

Anonymous said...

"She looks hotter now than she did in the 80's. Everybody looked like shit in the 80's :-("

How right you are! Why did everyone go for this?!! Even as a kid in the eighties, I thought everything looked awful! I refused to tease or feather my hair.

It was like all the women dressed and wore their hair like low rent latina whores. Even the housing was cluttered and ugly. As much as I liked the Huxtable townhouse, damn that was a lot of busy wall paper on top of a whole lot of busy wall paper. I'm getting a migraine just thing about it.

The decade that produced the best music somehow produced the worst hair. Flat irons really are the best invention of the new millenium.

Unknown said...

I just noticed that she looks like Chris Burke in her mugshot.

Anonymous said...

@BOTR

Kirk Cameron CHOSE to leave the star life to do what he wanted. It's like the kid who played Charlie in the 1970's Willie Wonka film. He just didn't care for it anymore the way it mattered to his parents. Quit bashing people for their religious beliefs and do your homework first.

Anonymous said...

Have seen some entries, this blog is pathethic.

Tracey Gold is more deserving of a post here than Kirk Cameron?. REALLY?.

Anonymous said...

Tracey has a sister she was on the sitcom Benson her name is Missy Gold she has to be as washed up as her sister Tracey.

charles benitez said...

anonymous ass-holes. if you anonymous where in her shose (tracey gold) you too be feeling the same way you making her feel. many other strangers had the same happen to them, I don't hear you ass-holes bashing about them. if was your mother accident will you call her a bitch. cause not. but it got too be tracey gold only because the world knows her name. she a human being, and still has her family. and like everyone else needs a job. cb

BOTR said...

At the beginning of the year, she'll be on Celebrity Wife Swap where she trades husbands/kids with Carnie Wilson (another has-been that definitely deserves an entry here, but not before...well, you know the rest if you read the comments here often).

Anonymous said...

Oh boy, the Seaver parent's need to have a stern talking to their daughter! ;-) She's not bad in her mug shot considering what had just happened to her. I'd bodysearch her.

Ellen said...

Tracey Gold is pretty washed up. She hasnt been in anything for years and the most she does is relive the glory days of GP. I used to love that show but the entire cast of that movie (with the exception of the parents) totally appalls me. Jeremy Miller looks terrible, all bloated and nasty and fat, Tracey Gold is just sort of meh and the biggest offender is that homphobic bigot Kirk Cameron. I hate religion and the only thing i hate more than religion is religious bigots imposing their will on everyone else saying that gay bashing falls under religious freedom.

Seriously, Kirk Cameron needs to be on the washed up celeb site. I cant believe i used to have the biggest crush in the world on him. Ts...kids :)

jervaise brooke hamster said...

I want to bugger Tracey Gold (as the bird was in 1987 when the bird was 18, not as the bird is now obviously).

Anonymous said...

I'am so sick of everyone bashing Tracey Gold and calling her washed up she is not. First off she has always been a B list celebrity simply because she is a television actress and second ever since growing pains ended she has not had any trouble finding work. To date she has stared in dozens of made for Tv movies,guest starred on numerous shows and is the host of trapped in Tv guide. As for her drunk driving I'am not trying to excuse what she did but the important thing is nobody was killed and she learner her lesson from it. Unlike many of these other celebrities out there who continue to go out and make the same mistakes. And she's not ugly she has that natural beauty look and she has talent I personally think she's underrated. So for all you Tracey Gold bashers out there all I have to say is leave her alone she's a human being just like the rest of us.

Unknown said...

Too bad that people say negative things about others. If we all find our way in the end somehow, that's what truly matters.

Good as Gold said...

Tracey is a truly nice person who has been through some tough things in life and come out relatively okay. She recently defended the LGBT community against co-star Kirk Cameron's hateful remarks and is doing a show helping people with eating disorders.

Most importantly: She's not a drug-addled, slutty psycho like so many of today's stars, for which she deserves a lot of credit.

Terry Mcee said...

Tracey signed my vomit bag a few years ago, after signing it she proceeded to vomit into it (I guess she is still sick?). Anyway, I will place this piece of Hollywood history on Ebay soon! So be on the lookout for it!

Unknown said...

Yes she made her mistakes. But she deserved another chance.

Unknown said...

Why is Tracy Gold so awful looking. You can't even recognize her from her younger years! What did she do to herself?

Anonymous said...

You replied four years after original post. Who's the real moron? Lol!