Tracey Gold born Tracey Claire Fisher on May 16, 1969 in New York City is an American actress, best known for playing Carol Seaver on the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains.

 

 

The following are just some of the trivia about her:

  • As a child, Gold would only order tuna melt sandwiches at a restaurant, no matter how fancy.
  • Gold’s first idea of diet as a very young child consisted of skipping dinner, and eating a Kit Kat bar instead.
  • Gold’s childhood pediatrician was Dr. Gettleman, the same doctor used for the children of Lucille Ball. He was the first doctor to diagnose her anorexia.
  • During her many years struggling with eating disorders, Gold ordered the same takeout dinner every night for years: Angel hair pasta with marinara sauce from California Pizza Kitchen.
  • During her battle with anorexia, Gold admits she drank excessive amounts of Diet Coke, and continued to love it even years later.
  • Although Gold played the younger sister of Mike Seaver, played by actor Kirk Cameron, she is actually a year older than the former teen idol. Gold and Cameron have known each other since childhood, having worked together previously in commercials, and in the movie The Best of Times.
  • When she was nine, Gold played one of the daughters in the Albert Finney and Diane Keaton film Shoot the Moon. Also in the cast was fellow future famous child actress Tina Yothers.
  • Gold’s second child Bailey nearly drowned as a toddler in a pool.
  • Gold has appeared as an anorexia "expert" on the television show Extra, and has counseled the famed anorexic twins from England.
  • The Synth/pop band Freezepop has a song entitled "Tracey Gold" with few references to her on Growing Pains.
  • Gold’s high school prom date was co-star Kirk Cameron, although she says there was nothing romantic about the night.
  • Two of Carol Seaver’s on-screen love interests placed Gold alongside two future A-list stars when they appeared as guest actors on Growing Pains: Brad Pitt and Matthew Perry. Interestingly, Perry’s character of boyfriend Sandy is killed-off in a drunk driving incident as part of a very special episode of the series. Many years later, Gold herself would be involved in a drunk driving incident.
  • Gold’s brother-in-law Christopher V. Marshall is the Alumni Director at Lehigh University, and is the person credited with getting Gold over her fear of driving following her DUI arrest in 2004.
  • Gold’s DUI accident in September 2004 was only days apart from the twentieth anniversary of the murder of her late mother-in-law Maria Marshall. (Gold’s father-in-law Robert O. Marshall is in prison for planning the murder).
  • In a documentary filmed about Gold and her acting siblings in 1984, both Tracey and Missy Gold accurately predicted their futures. Missy predicted she would be in medicine, and is now a psychologist. Tracey said she would be an actress and have lots of children, which is the case.
  • In the mid-eighties, Gold’s younger acting sister Brandy Gold appeared in the miniseries Fatal Vision, based on a book by Joe McGinnis. A few years later, another McGinnis book Blind Faith, about the 1984 Maria Marshall murder in Toms River, New Jersey, was made into a mini-series. It starred Joanna Kerns who introduced the Marshall’s son Roby to her Growing Pains co-star Tracey Gold. The two are married to this day.