14:38Classic TV · 1977The Facts of Life Cast Then and Now
Episode: The Facts of Life (1979): Cast Then & Now 2026 — Who's Still Alive After 47 Years?
From Hollywood Legends Era · 19 min ·
About The Facts of Life Cast Then and Now
The Facts of Life cast then and now is a story about girls who grew up on television and the women who guided them. The NBC sitcom, a spin-off of Diff'rent Strokes, premiered on August 24, 1979, and ran for nine seasons and 201 episodes, ending on May 7, 1988.
Charlotte Rae starred as Edna Garrett, housemother at Eastland, a girls' boarding school in Peekskill, New York. After a shaky first season, the show was rebuilt around four girls and became a long-running hit.
Here is what became of fourteen people from the show. Eleven are still with us, and three have passed away.
Who Was Let Go After the First Season?
For season two, the producers trimmed the large first-season cast, and four original actresses were written out.
Molly Ringwald as Molly Parker
Molly Ringwald was performing long before Eastland. At ten she played Kate in the West Coast production of Annie.
She has said the producers first planned to keep her, then wanted someone closer to Lisa Whelchel's age. They offered her a semi-regular role, which she called hard and humiliating. When her mother asked if she really wanted to continue, she said no.
She soon starred in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink. In May 1986, at 18, she was on the cover of Time. She is 58.
Felice Schachter as Nancy Olson
Felice Schachter played Nancy, one of the original Eastland girls, and returned now and then after the cast was cut. She later graduated from Brown University, earned a master's degree in education focused on special needs, and works as a behavioral therapist in New York.
Julie Piekarski as Sue Ann Weaver
Julie Piekarski, from St. Louis, was a Mouseketeer on The New Mickey Mouse Club in 1977, alongside Lisa Whelchel. After her main role ended, Sue Ann still turned up in seasons two and three.
In 2008, she, Schachter, Ringwald and Julie Anne Haddock shared a TV Land Award nomination for favorite characters who "went missing." She is 63.
Where Are the Eastland Girls Now?
Nancy McKeon as Jo Polniaczek
Nancy McKeon modeled baby clothes for the Sears catalog at age two. A casting director noticed her in a Hallmark commercial where she cried on cue, and in the fall of 1980 she joined the show as Jo, a tough tomboy from the Bronx. She was 14.
Later she starred on The Division and directed two of its episodes. In 2003 she married film technician Marc Andrus, and they have two children. Her brother, Philip McKeon, who played Tommy on Alice, died in 2019 at 55. She is 60.
Kim Fields as Tootie Ramsey
Kim Fields has said she nearly walked out of her audition because she felt out of place among the other girls. Her mother took her aside and told her not to let anything or anyone intimidate her, including her own mind.
She won the part of Tootie. She was so small that the producers put her on roller skates during the first season. She later starred as Regine Hunter on Living Single, where her real mother, Chip Fields, played her character's mother. She is 57 and has two sons.
Mindy Cohn as Natalie Green
Mindy Cohn never auditioned. When Charlotte Rae and the producers visited her school, Westlake, to research the show, she was asked to show them around, and they were charmed. Rae pushed for a part for her, and Cohn has said she reminded Rae of a childhood friend named Natalie.
She voiced Velma in Scooby-Doo from 2002 to 2015 and joined Palm Royale in 2024. She is 60.
Geri Jewell as Geri Tyler
Geri Jewell was born three months premature and has cerebral palsy. In 1980 she performed stand-up at the Media Access Awards with Norman Lear and Charlotte Rae in the audience. By her account, Lear called her funny but ahead of her time, and she told him to wait a couple of months. Within a few months, she was cast.
As Blair's cousin Geri, she became the first disabled actor with a recurring role on a TV series, appearing in twelve episodes until 1984. Around then, her manager was arrested for embezzlement, leaving her broke. She later played Jewel on HBO's Deadwood and wrote the 2011 memoir I'm Walking as Straight as I Can, in which she came out as a lesbian. She is 70.
Lisa Whelchel as Blair Warner
Lisa Whelchel was a Mouseketeer before she became wealthy Blair, whom she played for all nine seasons. In season two, she turned down a storyline in which Blair would be the first of the girls to lose her virginity, for religious reasons. The idea was later given to Natalie.
She later wrote books on homeschooling. In 2004, she and Charlotte Rae sang the theme song together at the TV Land Awards. In 2012, she tied for runner-up on Survivor: Philippines and was voted Player of the Season. She is 63.
How the Show Grew: New Faces in the Later Seasons
George Clooney as George Burnett
George Clooney, nephew of singer Rosemary Clooney, tried out for the Cincinnati Reds in 1977 and sold women's shoes before acting took off.
From 1985 to 1987, he played George, the handyman, in 17 episodes. He later became a star on ER, won an Oscar for Syriana in 2006, and shared the Best Picture Oscar for producing Argo in 2013. He is 65.
Mackenzie Astin as Andy Moffett
Mackenzie Astin is the son of Patty Duke and John Astin. In 1985 he guest-starred on his mother's sitcom Hail to the Chief, then joined the show as Andy, a troubled boy later adopted by Beverly Ann. He stayed four seasons.
He starred in Iron Will (1994) and has kept working steadily, with roles on Scandal and The Magicians. He is 53.
Cloris Leachman as Beverly Ann Stickle
Cloris Leachman, from Des Moines, Iowa, competed in Miss America in 1946 and studied under Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio. She won an Academy Award for The Last Picture Show, played Frau Blücher in Young Frankenstein, and won nine Emmy Awards in all.
In 1986, at 60, she joined the show as Edna's sister, Beverly Ann, for its final two seasons. At 82 she competed on Dancing with the Stars. She died at her home in Encinitas, California, on January 27, 2021. She was 94.
Remembering the Teachers of Eastland
John Lawlor as Steven Bradley
John Lawlor was born in Troy, New York, in 1941 and served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. He appeared opposite Cloris Leachman on Phyllis as Supervisor Leonard Marsh, then played Eastland's headmaster for 13 episodes before the role was cut.
His last major role came in the 2017 Netflix series Godless. He died on February 13, 2025, at a veterans' hospice in Albuquerque, with his daughter Riel beside him. He was 83.
Jenny O'Hara as Emily Mahoney
Jenny O'Hara played teacher Emily Mahoney in four episodes of the first season.
She kept working for decades, including as Janet Heffernan on The King of Queens. She married actor Nicholas Ullett in 1986.
Charlotte Rae as Edna Garrett
Charlotte Rae was born in Milwaukee in 1926. At Northwestern University she met Cloris Leachman, the friend who would one day replace her. She earned two Tony nominations before being cast as housekeeper Edna Garrett on Diff'rent Strokes in 1978.
Away from the cameras, life was hard. Her son Andy was autistic and had epilepsy. She joined Alcoholics Anonymous in the early 1970s, and her husband, composer John Strauss, came out as bisexual in the mid-1970s. They divorced in 1976. She told the full story in her 2015 memoir, The Facts of My Life.
She left the show in 1986, wanting more time for theater and travel. She survived pancreatic cancer in 2009 and died at her home in Los Angeles on August 5, 2018, at 92.
Why The Facts of Life Still Feels Like Home
A girl cut at 12 became a movie star, a handyman became one of Hollywood's biggest names, and a young comedian opened a door for disabled performers.
Which Eastland girl did you relate to most, Blair, Jo, Natalie or Tootie, and who watched the show with you?
Sources and Further Reading
Topics in This Story
Your turn...
Which character did you love most — and who did you watch the show with?
Tell us the story — fellow fans would love to hear it.
We check every fact — but if you spot a mistake, we'd love to know.Report a correction →
