Actress Kellie Martin had a rather impressive list of accomplishments on her resume before ever appearing on Life Goes On. A lot of her roles were guest spots and she did serve as an extra in some instances but she was still on the scene long before the show. If you don’t recall Life Goes On you might recognize it from the clip below as it has at least a couple of very memorable characters that were big in the 80s and 90s. The show only lasted four years but it definitely served to make an imprint on society and managed to get the careers of a couple of the cast members off the ground for a while.
Kellie had a lot of other roles before Life Goes On.
She appeared in Mr. Belvedere, Charles in Charge, Baywatch, Dallas, and a host of other shows that might not be as remembered today as they were in the 90s. The point is that she did a lot before getting to the show and honestly it doesn’t seem like it got remembered. Even after the show she stayed as busy as she could and has been on the acting scene for years now. Whether it’s because she’s been taking smaller roles that are harder to notice or because she’s stayed in the background more often is hard to tell, but she didn’t just up and disappear from the TV industry. She’s even been in a few films since the show.
She did win three awards for her time on the show.
Granted, none of them were Emmy’s, but she was nominated for one Emmy even though she didn’t win. She was still recognized for her excellence at some point however and that’s enough to think that she would be considered as one of the success stories in Hollywood. But like many child stars she had her moment in the sun and then kind of faded off even though she remained in the business. It’s strange really how a person can win awards, put in great performances, and still be overshadowed by so many other people. In the 80s it felt like every show and every star for themselves, while during the 90s the fallout of that attitude came through in a big way as shows actively tried to outdo one another and wound up taking their competition down with them at times. In terms of the actors however it was difficult for anyone to really get a handle on their own career if they decided to keep moving about in an attempt to get noticed. Kellie had already been lost in the mix since the 80s and by the 90s was hard to find no matter how one tried.
Kellie has continued to plug away at her career, managing to hang around in guest roles and find new shows that have taken her on for several episodes before she’s moved on. Most recently it’s been found that she’s currently in Polson, Montana, where she owns and operates her own toy store and has authored a novel. It would seem that she might be slowing down or has possibly contemplated retirement after so long, but until she makes that announcement there’s no way to be sure. What is fairly certain is that her acting career, despite being long an having stretched across many years, could very well be winding down. At this point she has a family, a business, and has not been in a movie for several years. She just completed a role on the show The Guest Book in 2017 but aside from that she really hasn’t done much.
Up until that point however she was plenty busy, showing up on TV movies, shows, and participating in films in order to keep herself busy. A lot of her movies were TV movies such as NBC, ABC, Lifetime, and the like, but she did appear in at least a few movies that were seen in theaters. People don’t seem to recall that she had quite a successful career when she was younger and was a skilled actor by the time she reached Life Goes On. In fact it’s almost safe to say that she had more acting credits than some of her fellow cast members. The role she took on the show was great because she knew what she was doing and didn’t have to be coached all that much.
It seems fair to say that Kellie has definitely taken a step back and decided to live a slightly quieter life away from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood. It’s enough to think that she might go back just to show up for guest appearances or for some other reason, but at this point there’s nothing left to prove and she’ll leave behind a legacy that some people will remember, if not many.
