Valerie Bertinelli biography

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Actress Valerie Anne Bertinelli was born April 23, 1960, in Wilmington, Delaware,to Nancy and Andy Bertinelli, a General Motors executive.

Raised in a Catholic household with one older and two younger brothers, the family traveled through so many cities that she called herself a "GM brat." In her early teens, her father was transferred to the GM assembly plant in Van Nuys, California.

After doing a commercial for J.C. Penney, Bertinelli got the acting bug and enrolled at the Tami Lynn School of Artists. In 1974, she made a guest appearance on CBS drama Apple's Way.

In January 1975, she got a call to do the television situation comedy One Day At a Time, produced by Norman Lear. Bertinelli played Barbara Jean Cooper, one of two daughters of a recently divorced woman.During her nine years on the show, Valerie grew from a chubby, awkward teenager to a polished sex symbol.

Bertinelli also starred in two other short-lived situation comedies, Sydney (1990) and Café Americain (1993). She also joined the cast of Touched By An Angel in 2001 for the show's final two seasons.

She has appeared in feature films such as C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979), Ordinary Heroes (1986) and Number One with a Bullet (1987). Bertinelli was also the protagonist of the TV miniseries I'll Take Manhattan (1987), based on a novel by Judith Krantz. In 1981, she formed her own film company producing and starring in such films as Shattered Vows (1984) and Silent Witness (1985).

After dating actor Scott Colomby and director/producer Steven Spielberg, Bertinelli married rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen in 1981. They had one son, Wolfgang (born 1991), before separating in 2001 and divorcing in 2007.

In 2008, while promoting her autobiography Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound At a Time, Bertinelli confessed that she and Van Halen had both cheated during their marriage. She has been with financial planner Tom Vitale since 2004.

Bertinelli also admitted to struggling with a cocaine addiction. "I got to the point where whenever I heard the birds chirp, I'd be like, 'Oh, God, no,'" she recalled. "It took me years after stopping the cocaine before I was able to enjoy a sunrise and enjoy the sound of birds."

Bertinelli had slowly gained weight over the years, but lost a total of 40 pounds as of January 2008. She became a spokesperson for the Jenny Craig weight-loss program. In 2008 she released the autobiography, Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound At A Time, which discusses her struggles with weight loss. In 2009, she wrote a follow-up book called