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Christina Ann "Kristy" McNichol (born September 11, 1962, in Los Angeles, California) is a retired American actress and two-time Emmy Award winner best known for her role as Letitia "Buddy" Lawrence on the ABC family drama Family (1976-1980).1 She provided a guest voice for Extreme Ghostbusters in 1997.2
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McNichol was born in Los Angeles to a father who worked as a carpenter and a mother who was a registered nurse.1 She has Scottish and Irish ancestry on her father's side and Lebanese Christian heritage on her mother's side.1 She and her brother Jimmy began appearing in television commercials together as young children, an early experience that led directly to acting work.1 She made guest appearances on several prominent series during the mid-1970s, including Starsky & Hutch, The Bionic Woman, and The Love Boat, before landing a lead role at age thirteen.1
McNichol's breakthrough came in 1976 when she was cast as Letitia "Buddy" Lawrence, the teenage daughter in the ABC drama series Family.1 The role made her one of the most prominent young actresses of the late 1970s. She received three consecutive Emmy Award nominations (1977, 1978, and 1979) for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, winning in both 1977 and 1979.1 In 1980, she earned an additional nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series as her profile on the show grew.1
McNichol moved into feature films during the Family years and beyond. Her notable film roles include:
McNichol joined the cast of Empty Nest, a Golden Girls spin-off, in 1988, playing Barbara Weston across approximately 100 episodes.1 In 1992 she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, prompting her to leave the series midway through its fifth season.3 She later returned to appear in the show's finale.1
After stepping back from on-camera work, McNichol took on voice acting roles. In 1997 she guest-voiced the character Michelle in the Dry Spell episode of Extreme Ghostbusters.2 The following year she provided voice work for the animated series Invasion America (1998).1 In June 2001, McNichol announced her retirement from the entertainment industry, citing personal well-being as her reason. She had spent 24 years in the business.1
Following her retirement, she began teaching acting at a private school in Los Angeles.1
McNichol voiced the character Michelle in the Extreme Ghostbusters episode "Dry Spell" (1997).2 The episode involves a water-system ghost that drains moisture from its victims. Her guest appearance was one of several notable voice casting choices the series made during its single-season run.
McNichol has been in a relationship with Martie Allen since the early 1990s.1 In January 2012, she publicly came out as a lesbian in a statement released via People magazine, saying she hoped her openness would provide support to young people who were being bullied.4 She has confirmed no plans to return to acting.1
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
"Kristy McNichol," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristy_McNichol. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20
IMDb, "Extreme Ghostbusters" (1997), Kristy McNichol as Michelle, accessed 2026-06-13, https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0121932/characters/nm0001531/. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
Variety, "McNichol taking break from 'Nest'" (October 6, 1992), https://variety.com/1992/tv/news/mcnichol-taking-break-from-nest-100214/. ↩
The Hollywood Reporter, "Kristy McNichol, 'Family' and 'Empty Nest' Actress, Comes Out as Lesbian" (January 2012), https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/kristy-mcnichol-lesbian-bullying-279403/. ↩
