Kristy McNichol

**Christina Ann McNichol**, known professionally as **Kristy McNichol**, is an American former actress born on September 11, 1962, in Los Angeles, California. McNichol kick-started her acting career as a child artist and rose to fame for her role as Letitia "Buddy" Lawrence in the TV drama 'Family', earning her two Emmy Awards. She also had noteworthy roles in films like 'Little Darlings' and 'Only When I Laugh', and later in the TV sitcom 'Empty Nest', before retiring in 2001. McNichol's lineage is mixed, with a father of Scottish/Irish descent and a mother of Lebanese origin. Across her career, she made appearances on popular series such as Starsky & Hutch, The Bionic Woman, and Love, American Style, among others. She started her regular TV series role in Apple's Way (1974), as Patricia Apple and had many praiseworthy roles like Angel, Polly, and Barbara Weston in various dramas and sitcoms. McNichol partnered with her brother Jimmy in many commercials and had significant success in the music industry, notably with the album 'Kristy and Jimmy McNichol'. In 2001, she announced her retirement, revealing that she had been teaching acting at a private school in Los Angeles and had been involved in charity work. Interestingly, in 2012, McNichol publicly came out as a lesbian and confirmed that she has been living with her partner Martie Allen since the early 1990s.