Growing Pains star Ashley Johnson turned 43 this August. Just a month earlier, she revisited one of the scariest moments of her childhood on her “Weird Kids” podcast: around the age of 7, during a live taping of the show, a stranger broke from the crowd and grabbed her. “So, I’m walking with my mom and then I just remember some guy hops out of the line and he grabs me and starts booking it,” she told her co-host, Taliesin Jaffe (from She’s the Sheriff). He had a gun and tried to run off with the young actress. “Somebody had written in and said, ‘I am coming to set and I am going to bring a gun and I am going to murder some of the cast,’” she continued.
It’s a jarring memory from an era Johnson otherwise remembers fondly.
Even though Ashley Johnson’s Chrissy Seaver only showed up in Season 6 of Growing Pains (after twins Kelsey and Kirsten Dohring handled the character’s toddler years), fans can’t think of the show without remembering the cute 6-year-old blonde girl with attitude. Now, at 42 years old, she talks about her time on the family show with fond memories. “Every memory that I have from Growing Pains is so good,” she said on Pod Meets World, remembering Alan Thicke as “the greatest” and that she “loved hugging him.” So, it’s probably no surprise that she went on to be one of the most successful actors from Growing Pains (after Leonardo DiCaprio, of course).
Johnson is probably one of the few actors who never got stuck with the label “that kid from Growing Pains”. Instead, she worked hard enough to appear in other big classics like What Women Want and The Help. Later, she returned to TV for roles in The Killing and Blindspot. She’s been busy. Heck, she even had a small moment in Marvel’s The Avengers.
But while she’s appeared in plenty of movies and TV shows, it’s her voice acting that Johnson’s most known for today. Kids from the ‘90s will remember her as Gretchen in Recess. Others know her as Terra in Teen Titans. And gamers will definitely know her as Ellie in The Last of Us, a role that picked up two BAFTAs and a huge fanbase.
And to think, her career only started because she stumbled into an audition for Lionheart.
And, no, it wasn’t smooth sailing either. She had her share of ups and downs over the years, including the death of her father at 16. And there’s also the very public legal battle with ex-fiancé Brian W. Foster.
While Ashley Johnson is still very busy as a voice acting star, new fans will probably recognize her as Anna, Ellie’s mother, on HBO’s The Last of Us.
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