Susan Olsen turned 65 on 14 August 2026, bringing fresh attention to the child actor who first became familiar to viewers as Cindy Brady on The Brady Bunch in 1969. Born on 14 August 1961, Susan Marie Olsen grew up in public alongside the youngest Brady child, whose braids and lisp became part of the character’s identity.
That first role came in 1968, when Olsen appeared in an episode of Julia, but The Brady Bunch made her name. The series ran through five seasons and ended in 1974, yet Cindy did not disappear with it. She returned in The Brady Kids in 1972, later appeared in The Brady Bunch Hour from 1976 to 1977 and came back again in The Brady Girls Get Married in 1981. In 1990, she rejoined The Bradys for a six-episode run, then turned up in a segment for the 1993 MTV movie awards and later guested on a 1999 episode of Pacific Blue.
The 1980s were less kind to Olsen’s screen career. She largely disappeared from view in that decade, aside from an appearance in Divorce Court, a stretch that stands out sharply against the long, steady afterlife of Cindy Brady. That gap is part of what makes the later reunions feel like returns rather than routine cameos: Olsen kept being pulled back into the role that made her famous even as other work came and went.
By 2004, she was back with the cast for The Brady Bunch 35th Anniversary Reunion Special: Still Brady After All These Years, and that same year she officially split from her second husband, Mitch Markwell. Olsen and Markwell had wed in 1995 and share a son, Michael. She had also separated from Steve Ventimiglia in 1990. In 2017, she joined Barry Williams, Christopher Knight and Mike Lookinland on TODAY to pay tribute to Florence Henderson after Henderson died in late 2016.
What the birthday makes clear is that Olsen’s career never really detached from Cindy Brady. The question now is not whether she will be remembered for the role, but how much of her public life will continue to be read through it.
