Lauren Chapin became a veritable star after her role as youngster Kathy in the classic television series Father Knows Best. All told, she was awarded five Children’s Emmy Awards, and appeared in almost every episode of the show.
Many might think that Lauren had everything she wanted. After all, she was famous and earned plenty of money as a young child. However, Chapin’s life was one of dark undertones, and she would unfortunately encounter big problems in many different areas.
Today, Chapen has turned 77 years of age. Here’s what she looks like now …
There have been hundreds of child actors to make their name in all manner of TV series and films.
For many of these children, their lives are changed forever, and not always for the better. Some, for example, don’t attend school because of their fame, while others become victims of the business itself.
Lauren Chapin as Kathy Anderson on ‘Father Knows Best’
Lauren Chapin definitely fits into the latter category. The actress became a massive celebrity prior her 10th birthday, and for a time it looked liked everything was on track. Ultimately, though, the resulting fame almost brought about a premature end to her life.
On May 23, 1945, Lauren Chapin was born in Los Angeles, California. When she was only nine years old, she got the part of Kathy in the television series Father Knows Best.
Her mother, Marguerite Chapin, took her to the casting, where more than 20 actors and actresses were auditioning.
They went to the audition, left, went back for more screen tests and meetings, and so on, and so on. Lauren actually went along with her eldest sibling, Michael, who was reading for the role of Bud in the same series.
“In fact, one day when he and Lauren were both reading, [producer] Mr. Rodney told me you might hit the jackpot and have two of your children in this series”. It turned out, however, that Michael looked too mature for the part,” Lauren’s mother recalled.
At the same time as Michael was auditioning, Lauren was aiming for the role of Kathy.
“She couldn’t even read, and she had no acting experience,” Marguerite said. “If Lauren hadn’t been selected for the role of Kathy, I’m sure I’d have had a heartbroken little girl.”
“I grew up in a make-believe fairyland”
Indeed, it wasn’t a sure bet that Lauren Chapin would land the role at all. Her screen test was the last one they did – had they found someone before her, maybe Chapin’s life would’ve looked very different.
Fortunately, though, they waited until she came into the room – and, according to a 1960 article, screamed, “that’s Kathy!”
The show would go on to become one of the classics of the 1950s, with Chapin starred alongside Robert Young, Elinor Donahue, and Jane Wyatt.
The characters on the show dealt with the gentle humor and everyday drama of life in a family. All kinds of problems were resolved within half an hour.
In total, the show aired for more than 200 episodes, and ran for over nine years on NBC and CBS. It also won six Primetime Emmys. Furthermore, Lauren herself was a very talented young actress; she won five Junior Emmy’s for Best Child Actress.
“I grew up in a make-believe fairyland,” Lauren said. “It was the most wonderful time for me.”
Though Father Knows Best became a top-rated show, it also garnered its fair share of criticism.
Grew up surrounded by movie stars
Most commonly, people thought it depicted what some considered an unrealistically perfect family. However, for Chapin, working on the show was more about just having fun.
As mentioned, her brother Michael was also working as a child star in the 1950s. Around the sets at Columbia studios in Los Angeles, they got to see the likes of Dean Martin and Kim Novak.
Chapin even sat and watched Academy Award-winning costume designer Edith Head create different costumes for television series and films between takes. Beyond all else, though, Lauren’s absolute favorite thing to do between filming was to lock herself inside a hairdressing closet and try on all the wigs. She recalled the producer on Father Knows Best throwing tantrums because she was always going missing.
“He would go, “where is that girl?” Chapin recalled. “Of course, there I am in the closet with all these hairpieces. It would just kill him.”
On her 12th birthday, Lauren got the birthday present of a lifetime. Her producers surprised her with an extraordinary gesture – as they sent her and a friend to Disneyland.
However, they weren’t only there to go on the rides. Instead, Chapin got to meet the legendary Elvis Presley. As their limousine stopped at Paramount studios, he presented her with a cake and sang “Happy Birthday.”
“She would never let me look like Lauren Chapin”
It became her favorite memory from the time.
“We were so enamored with him. It was just amazing,” Chapin said. “I think the both of us were running fevers.”
In her 20s, Lauren would meet Elvis again when she dated one of his friends. However, by that time, her life had taken a very different course.
Personally, she felt that she was pressured to live up to her character even when she wasn’t on-screen; that her life was becoming more about being Kathy than Lauren. This only grew worse, as her mother started to treat her like she was her character.
“My mother always made me dress like Kathy Anderson,” Lauren recalled.
“She would never let me look like Lauren Chapin. She’d always put this pigtail on and bobby sicks. I’d take off my socks and roll up my jeans. I’d say I want to be me, but my mom would say, ‘how could you shame me like that. You can’t be you. You’ve got to be Kathy Anderson.'”
In 1960, Father Knows Best was canceled after Robert Young left the show. For Lauren, who had grown up on the set, it was a major setback for her and her mother.
Soon after, it became a problem. With the show’s end, Lauren remembered it as being like “everything finished.”
Married at 16
“I couldn’t get a job; I’d been typecast as Kathy Anderson,” she said. “The more I didn’t work, the more my mother drank, and the more belligerent I became, I started running away from home. I became an incorrigible child.
“I want to be married, have the piece of paper, the ring on the finger, and have a neat partnership.”
Lauren’s development became severely damaged following the ending of Father Knows Best. She ran away, quit high school, and even married her classmate at 16.
Chapin also started hanging out with the sort of people that didn’t have a good influence on her. She began dating several men and hung out at Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. Over the years, her mental health continued to worsen.
At 18, Lauren and her then-husband divorced. She got some smaller jobs, but illegal substances soon replaced the pills that were to help her with depression.
She even went to prison – for trying to forge a payroll check – and was later on admitted to rehabilitation centers and mental institutions.
Lauren Chapin – life after ‘Father Knows Best’
“I saw these people walking around wearing diapers and baby bonnets and sucking from bottles, and I thought, “Oh my God, I’m in the nuthouse, and I’ll never get out,” she said in a 1983 interview with Reading Eagle.
“But they train you to give up all your identity and go back to the beginning. A lot of people don’t make it, but the ones who do, make it for life.”
Even though Lauren would go on to star in some television productions in the 1970s, she never really had the urge to stay in the industry. Instead, she found another path in life, one that was better suited for her.
Lauren managed to turn her life around through becoming an ordained evangelist.
“All my life,” “she said, “I’ve wanted to be loved. God’s love is the most complete, love, and I think that’s what I was looking for.”
In 1989, she co-wrote the book Father Does Know Best: The Lauren Chapin Story, where she gave details about her life on the television show and the horror that faced her when she left.
She also became a mother, welcoming two children in son Matthew and daughter Summer.
Though it had been years since she was on the Father Knows Best show, at the time, she understood that many would recognize her name.
Children & net worth
Even though she had become someone else, there would always be people who saw her only as the former child actress whose life was destroyed.
“I know that Matthew and Summer are going to hear bad things about me from their friends. People can be so cruel sometimes. But, again, I have to trust Jesus to solve the problem, “she said.
“I really can’t blame anyone but myself for the past,” Lauren added. “And I can’t thank anyone but Jesus for the present and the future. My goal now is to spread His word and honor His name.”
Chapin became a motivational speaker, visiting churches all over the United States. In 2016, she returned to the screen and starred in eight episodes of the television series School Bus Diaries.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Chapin has a net worth of around $6 million.
In 2012, Chapin sang and starred in a one-woman show called Forever Kitten, named after Kathy “Kitten” Anderson. It premiered in Vero Beach, Florida, where Chapin is also said to live.
Lauren Chapin today
As reported by Amomama, Chapin has, through her charitable activities, been bestowed the title of “honorable Mayor” in Oklahoma, Texas, and Florida.
The 77-year-old’s life might not have turned out as she had planned, but Chapin now hopes to restore the same sort of family values seen on Father Knows Best.
“Let’s get back to sitting down at the table and asking your kid, “How was your day?” she said.
“We can get back to loving our children, being part of a family unit.”
Lauren Chapin is such a powerful woman. Despite her troubles in life, she came back stronger and more focused on helping others. Still to this day, we love seeing her as Kathy in Father Knows Best, and wish her all the best in the future.
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