At the time, nobody knew what it was. It had no name. When everything else is out of your control, you can control your eating. You end up cutting a lot of things off. Nothing reaches you. I was very happy then - that was the oddity.

She adopted her mother's maiden name as her professional name. They have one daughter Sarah Hirshan (born 1978). Although the show ran until 1995 Dey was replaced in 1993 by Annie Potts.

A. Her more prominent parts came as elder daughter Laurie Partridge on the 1970s sitcom The Partridge Family and as Grace Van Owen a California assistant district attorney and judge on the dramatic series L.