‘Brady Bunch’ Star Susan Olsen Pays Tribute to Danielle Spencer of ‘What’s Happening??’: ‘She Endured a Lot of Pain’
It’s a heartfelt message coming from one classic TV child star to another: Susan Olsen, who played Cindy Brady, the youngest of the six children on The Brady Bunch, paid tribute to Danielle Spencer on Aug. 12, a day after Spencer, who portrayed Dee Thomas on What’s Happening!!, died at age 60.
“Danielle will be very missed,” wrote Olsen, 63, in a message she posted on Facebook. “She was brilliant in so many ways. Having her, Fred [Berry], Ernest [Thomas] and Haywood [Nelson] do our Variety hour was one of the best times!”
Olsen referred to a 1977 episode of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, the variety show series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. The episode featured the Brady kids inviting the kids from What’s Happening to appear on the show, leading to Rerun, Raj, Dwayne and Dee performing a version of The Jackson 5’s “Dancing Machine.”
Susan also revealed that she and Danielle’s paths crossed again, in an unexpected way. After What’s Happening, Spencer pursued her lifelong dream of becoming a veterinarian.
“Then years later, I took a rescued kitten to urgent care and she was the doctor on call!” wrote Olsen. “She lent her gentle healing skills to several of my four-footed friends. Sadly, she endured a lot of pain herself due to the horrific car accident she was in that killed her stepdad. I remember the day it happened, my mother was glued to the TV watching rescue efforts. She explained that Daniel was in the wreckage. She was in a coma for weeks after.”
“RIP Beautiful Lady!” added Susan.
Spencer survived the coma, but the injuries she suffered during that crash would affect her throughout the rest of her life. According to her website, the injuries “ultimately impaired her ability to walk, confining her to a wheelchair.”
But she didn’t let that stop her: after undergoing “intensive physical therapy,” Spencer learned how to walk again.
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