You Won’t Believe What Film This ‘Waltons’ Actress Almost Starred In

During her six season run on The Waltons, Mary Beth McDonough became synonymous with her character, the friendly, outgoing Erin Walton. But McDonough came quite close to playing a very, very different iconic young female character instead. As she revealed during a panel at the MidSouth Nostalgia Festival in Olive Branch, Mississippi, earlier this month, McDonough was once in the running to play Regan MacNeil, the 12-year-old girl whose horrifying possession is at the heart of 1973’s The Exorcist.

As McDonough recalled, she was a tween enrolled in dance classes in her hometown of Los Angeles, when she heard that about an opportunity to give acting a try: “About then, producers of The Homecoming, the pilot for The Waltons, were looking for red-headed kids because creator Earl Hamner’s family was all redheads.”