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Biography
 Maureen
Denise McCormick was born on August 5, 1956 to Richard and Irene
McCormick. Maureen has three older brothers, Michael, Kevin and Dennis.
Maureen's acting career started at age seven when a grandmotherly
next-door neighbor, who loved Maureen as a little girl invited her to
her home. Maureen was a frequent visitor. One day Maureen’s next door
neighbor came across an article in the newspaper, telling about the Baby
Miss San Fernando contest, and told Maureen's parents that Maureen
should enter the Baby Miss San Fernando contest, knowing that she had
been a photographer's model since about 18 month of age and seemed to
love "hamming it up" and performing. Soon after winning the contest,
Maureen had won the lead role in Ray Stark's play "Wind It Up and It
Breaks", which was performed at the La Jolla Playhouse. Within a year,
McCormick was a popular choice for TV commercials and sitcoms. In
addition to ads for Barbie and Kool-Aid, she won a continuing role on
the sitcom Bewitched and worked for famed director Elia Kazan in her
feature film debut, The Arrangement.
 Maureen
went on to perform in My Three Sons and Camp Runamuck and provided
voice-over recordings for a dozen Mattel talking dolls, including the
famous Chatty Cathy doll. Shortly after Maureen then answered "the
call," along with hundreds of other child actors, to read for a role in
the upcoming "Brady Bunch" TV series. Producer Sherwood Schwartz was
suitably impressed and offered her the role of Marcia Brady, which she
accepted. McCormick quickly became one of America's top teen role
models, admired by millions. When the Brady kids became a singing group
on the side, producers noticed her special talent for singing and
encouraged her to record a number of solo tracks with some turning up
later on the LP, Chris Knight and McCormick.
 After
touring and recording several albums with the original Brady Bunch cast,
McCormick started her solo singing career at the age of 16. Her first
solo release was the single "Little Bird," which she performed on
American Bandstand for Dick Clark, who encouraged the young star to
pursue a full time musical career. Years later, McCormick would revive
her interest in singing and recorded a popular country pop record When
You Get a Little Lonely with many leading Nashville musicians. McCormick
also starred as country sensation Barbara Mandrell in the hit TV movie,
Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story. In an interview with
Barbara Mandrell she stated about McCormick, "In all candor, at first I
thought ... when I see her playing me all I'm going to be able to think
about is Marcia Brady, the truth is, when I saw the movie, not once did
I think 'Marcia.' I liked that she was strong, kind of self-assured, and
not wimpy. Because I'm not."
 McCormick
has appeared in many feature films such as Skatetown USA, Return to
Horror High and Texas Lightning, for which she wrote the song, "Typical
Day." She has also appeared in many TV guest spots. She was cast as a
regular on Teen Angel, and she has made appearances on Herman's Head,
Moesha and The Single Guy. McCormick continues to pursue all aspects of
her career, including television, movies, theater, commercials and also
voice work in cartoon shows. She recently appeared as a contestant on
VH1's Celebrity Fit Club and CMT’s Gone Country. Maureen is a regular on
the reality show "The Outsider's Inn" and has written a book "Here's The
Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice" which will be
available in October 2008. Maureen is happily
married to Michael Cummings and together they have one daughter,
Natalie.
Biography written by Lennon Parker
(1999).
Source of Information: Irene McCormick, Wendy Winans, Brady Mania, The
Brady Bunch Book, TV Treasures presents The Brady Bunch.
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