Why ‘Brady Bunch’ Star Susan Olsen Quit Acting After Playing Cindy

Susan Olsen played the adorable, lisp-talking, youngest daughter Cindy Brady on The Brady Bunch. Despite achieving an intense level of fame and fortune, Olsen eventually decided to leave it all behind and opted for a more regular life. Olsen was cast as Cindy at eight years old and followed in her real-life siblings’ footsteps to pursue an acting career. While kids and grown-ups alike loved The Brady Bunch, children often can’t understand the difference between acting and real life. When Olsen portrayed the often annoying, tattletale Cindy, her real peers shunned her, thinking it was all true.

Olsen recently appeared at The Hollywood Museum to support its tribute to Motion Picture Mothers, a nonprofit formed in 1939 for women whose children became actors. She opened up about the good and bad parts of acting and why she didn’t really continue in Hollywood for long after The Brady Bunch ended.