'Brady Bunch' Star Credits This Movie for Saving Life

The Brady Bunch alum Eve Plumb had a rough time after the beloved sitcom ended. The actress, who portrayed Jan Brady, revealed what it was like post-Brady to Fox News Digital. After the series ended, she went back to high school and planned to attend Cal State Northridge for theater arts. After a few years of living a semi-normal life, Plumb wanted to return to acting, but she was worried about being typecast as Jan. When Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway came in 1976, it all turned around. Plumb starred in the television movie as the titular 15-year-old. She runs away from home to Hollywood and becomes a prostitute to support herself.

Plumb credits the role for saving her life and her career, saying, "What happened for me was very fortunate. I auditioned for it and tested for it back in the day… And I got the role. That was the giant leap that sent me from being Jan Brady to being an adult actress. By that time, I had already been in high school for several years. I was already becoming an 18-year-old. I was already very nearly adult… I was very excited to play something very different and very challenging."

It all paid off in the end, as well. Not only was Plumb able to play something different and challenging, but she said the film "was very popular. It did really well in the ratings. I haven't faced a lot of typecasting. I've been fortunate enough to continue to be cast in different roles. Nobody has seemed to put me in a niche." Plumb went on to appear in multiple shows like Little Women, The Facts of Life, Murder, She Wrote, Law & Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, That '70s Show, and Bull. She even reprised her role as Dawn Wetherby in the sequel to Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway, Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn in 1977.

Plumb's most recent role was in 2021's Paramount+ special Dragging the Classics: The Brady Bunch. Even despite the special, she remains close with her Brady siblings, as all six of them did HGTV's A Very Brady Renovation when the network purchased the Brady house in 2019. She's set to star in the upcoming drama series Folk alongside Cj Pawlikowski, Kasie Gasparini, Shoshana Bean, Connie Shi, and Sydney Morton. If not for Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway all those years ago, who knows where Plumb would be now. She is not just Jan Brady, she is definitely much more than that. And her many roles prove that.