Tracey Gold (born Tracey Claire Fisher on May 16, 1969 in New York City) is an American actress, best known for playing Carol Seaver on the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains.

Early life

Her sister is the actress Missy Gold, who appeared on Benson. Missy would be famous first, but Tracey's fame would later eclipse that of her sister, who is only 11 months younger than she. Her adopted stage name "Gold" comes from her stepfather Harry Gold (né Goldstein), who married her mother when Tracey was a preschooler, and later became a very powerful Hollywood agent, and the agent of his stepdaughters. Her sister Missy also shares the birth name Fisher.

Acting career

Gold has been an actress since the age of four, first appearing in a Pepsi print ad. She appeared in two canceled series, Shirley with Shirley Jones in 1979, and Goodnight Beantown, starring Bill Bixby in 1983. Gold was originally cast as the youngest daughter in the original pilot series of the show Gimme A Break! starring Nell Carter, but was replaced by actress Lara Jill Miller when the show went to series.
In 1985, she auditioned for the part of Carol Seaver on Growing Pains, but was not initially cast. A few months later, she was summoned to audition for the part again when the original pilot actress was to be replaced. (nearly the reverse of what had happened to her a few years earlier on Gimme A Break!) She got the role, and it made her famous, running from 1985 until 1992. Gold became a famous teen star. In 1988, Gold also starred as Angela Strull in the teen film Dance 'Til Dawn.
After the end of the long-running series, Gold continued to work as an actress, and was the most successful by far of any of her former co-stars. From the mid-nineties, until well into the first decade of the new millennium, Gold starred in a long string of television movies of the week, many which often air as re-runs on the Lifetime network, or are produced by the network itself.

Battle with anorexia

Gold is also famous for her highly publicized battle with anorexia nervosa, which almost killed her. From about the age seven, she says that she thought about dieting, having learned the word and the concept on the many television sets she worked on as a very busy child actress. She became preoccupied with the television movie The Best Little Girl in World, starring actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, about an anorexic. In her autobiography, she says that in an attempt to control her development into a woman, she began restricting what she ate. When she was 11, she was diagnosed with the early stages of anorexia nervosa by her family pediatrician after a weight loss that accompanied a growth spurt. After some counseling, she eventually returned to a more normal weight for most of her teenage years. In 1988, when she was 19, she gained some weight over the Growing Pains series hiatus. That season, she was the brunt of "fat" jokes from her television brothers for many episodes in a row. Beginning in October 1988, she dieted from 133 pounds to about 110 pounds on a 500 calorie a day diet, but still occasionally was the brunt of "fat" jokes by her television brothers. In her autobiography, she says that between 1989 and 1991, she became increasingly obsessed with food and her weight, and continued to slowly and steadily lose weight. In 1990 she began group therapy in an eating disorder program, but only learned more ways to lose weight. That season, her problem with weight loss was touched upon slightly on her television series, when Gold is seen looking at her body in a carnival mirror, and describes to another character the distorted image in her head. In 1991, she started starving herself more than ever and vomiting, and lost a massive amount of weight, to the point that she was admitted to a hospital in early 1992. Her lowest weight is estimated to have been near 80 pounds. She was suspended from the show for her skeletal appearance. She last appeared in the 1991 Christmas episode, and did not return until the last two shows of the series in the late spring of 1992, although she was not nearly recovered at this point. After a several year struggle, Gold eventually recovered, and starred in the 1994 TV movie For the Love of Nancy with Jill Clayburgh. The film explored a young woman's battle with anorexia and its effects on her family. Although she was warned of the possibility that she had done damage to her reproductive organs by the years of anorexia, Gold was later able to bear three children. As she entered her thirties, she continually maintained a normal weight for a woman of her age, and often held speaking engagements warning young women about the dangers of eating disorders, all the while continuing work as an actress.

Personal life and post-Growing Pains

Gold met her husband Roby Marshall through Growing Pains costar Joanna Kerns, who portrayed Marshall's mother in the TV miniseries adaptation of the true crime book Blind Faith by Joe McGinniss. Roby had served as a consultant on the miniseries, which dramatized the 1984 case in which his father, Toms River, New Jersey businessman Robert O. Marshall, was charged with (and later convicted of) the contract killing of his wife (and Roby's mother) Maria.[1]
Gold and Marshall married in 1994, and have three sons: Sage (b. February 1997), Bailey (b. March 1999) and Aiden Michael (b. May 2004). Gold announced in October 2007 that she and her husband were expecting their fourth child, due in May 2008.[2]
In 2003, Gold wrote the book Room to Grow: An Appetite for Life with Julie McCarron.

DUI arrest

Gold was arrested for driving under the influence after a car accident on September 3, 2004. Her husband and two of her three children were injured, one with a broken clavicle and a head laceration, but her newborn infant was not hurt. She posted $50,000 bail the following day. Gold originally pleaded not guilty to the charges, but later changed her plea to guilty and was sentenced to one month in a work release program, 240 hours of community service, and three years' probation.
Gold made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, explaining her side of the story and what happened on what she proclaims was "the worst night of her life."

Present day
Gold was a contestant on the program Celebrity Mole 2: Yucatan in 2004, and starred in the movie Safe Harbor in 2006. She is currently hosting the TVGUIDE Channel mini-show Trapped in TV Guide.

Trivia

• As a child, Gold would only order tuna melt sandwiches at a restaurant, no matter how fancy.
• Gold's first idea of diet as a very young child consisted of skipping dinner, and eating a Kit Kat bar instead.
• Gold's childhood pediatrician was Dr. Gettleman, the same doctor used for the children of Lucille Ball. He was the first doctor to diagnose her anorexia.
• During her many years struggling with eating disorders, Gold ordered the same takeout dinner every night for years: Angel hair pasta with marinara sauce from California Pizza Kitchen.
• During her battle with anorexia, Gold admits she drank excessive amounts of Diet Coke, and continued to love it even years later.
• Although Gold played the younger sister of Mike Seaver, played by actor Kirk Cameron, she is actually a year older than the former teen idol. Gold and Cameron have known each other since childhood, having worked together previously in commercials, and in the movie The Best of Times.
• When she was nine, Gold played one of the daughters in the Albert Finney and Diane Keaton film Shoot the Moon. Also in the cast was fellow future famous child actress Tina Yothers.
• Gold's second child Bailey nearly drowned as a toddler in a pool.
• Gold has appeared as an anorexia "expert" on the television show Extra, and has counseled the famed anorexic twins from England.
• The Synth/pop band Freezepop has a song entitled "Tracey Gold" with few references to her on Growing Pains.
• Gold's high school prom date was co-star Kirk Cameron, although she says there was nothing romantic about the night.
• Two of Carol Seaver's on-sceren love interests placed Gold along side two future A-list stars when they appeared as guest actors on Growing Pains: Brad Pitt and Matthew Perry. Interestingly, Perry's character of boyfriend Sandy is killed-off in a drunk driving incident as part of a very special episode of the series. Many years later, Gold herself would be involved in a drunk driving incident.
• Gold's brother-in-law Christopher V. Marshall is the Alumni Director at Lehigh University, and is the person credited with getting Gold over her fear of driving following her DWI arrest in 2004.
• Gold's DWI accident in September 2004 was only days apart from the twentieth anniversary of the murder of her late mother-in-law Maria Marshall. (Gold's father-in-law Robert O. Marshall is in prison for planning the murder).
• In a documentary filmed about Gold and her acting siblings in 1984, both Tracey and Missy Gold accurately predicted their futures. Missy predicted she would be in medicine, and is now a psychologist. Tracey said she would be an actress and have lots of children, which is the case.
• In the mid-eighties, Gold's younger acting sister Brandy Gold appeared in the miniseries Fatal Vision, based on a book by Joe McGinnis. A few years later, another McGinnis book Blind Faith, about the 1984 Maria Marshall murder in Toms River, New Jersey, was made into a mini-series. It starred Joanna Kerns who introduced the Marshall's son Roby to her Growing Pains co-star Tracey Gold. The two are married to this day.