Carol Potter biography

Synopsis

Profile

Actress. Born on May 21, 1948, in New York, New York. Carol Potter became widely known as Cindy Walsh, the almost-too-good-to-be-true mother on 1990s prime time series Beverly Hills 90210. Raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, she liked to go to Broadway shows and watch movies while growing up. Potter got a degree in psychology from Radcliffe College in 1970 but decided to pursue her interest in acting after graduating.

Like many aspiring actors, Carol Potter started out on the stage and in commercials. She got her first television role on the daytime drama One Life to Live in 1979. Two years later, she had her first television series, Today??s F.B.I., in 1981. While the series failed to build an audience, Potter??s next show made her a part of a pop culture phenomenon. Beginning in 1990, she played Cindy Walsh, a wife and mother of two twin teenagers Brenda (Shannen Doherty) and Brandon (Jason Priestley), who, along with her family, moves to glamorous Beverly Hills from Minnesota. The series Beverly Hills 90210 was created by legendary producer Aaron Spelling and quickly became a huge hit.

Carol Potter and her on-screen husband James Eckhouse portrayed the ultimate down-to-earth parents. No matter what kind of trouble??including car wrecks??their teenagers got into they never seemed to lose their temper. Cindy Walsh even acted as a mother figure to other characters on the show, including Kelly, played by Jennie Garth. Many of the show??s younger stars, such as Priestley and Luke Perry, became teen idols, helping to boost the popularity of the series. Later in the show??s run, Cindy and Jim Walsh moved to Hong Kong.

While occasionally reprising her role as Cindy Walsh over the years, Carol Potter had a recurring role on the daytime soap opera Sunset Beach??another Aaron Spelling project??in the late 1990s. She has also made several guest television appearances, most recently on Crossing Jordan and JAG.

Twice married, Carol Potter lost her first husband, screenwriter Spencer Eastman, to lung cancer in 1988, months after the birth of their son Christopher. In 1990, she married actor Jeffrey Josephson.

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