Pax TV Spotlight on Kellie Martin



You'd think her smashing debut on network TV's number one show would be enough adulation for Kellie Martin during the 1998-99 television season. But, apparently, playing third year medical student Lucy Knight on E.R. isn't her only current source of pride. According to the 22-year-old actress, she's often stopped by people who want to tell her how much they love her work on two other series. They're speaking, of course, about the family favorites, Life Goes On and Christy, both now airing exclusively on PAX TV.

Her work on these critically acclaimed family dramas made Kellie Martin one of the major television stars of her generation and a role model for many teenagers. About PAX TV's airing of her two series, Martin has said, "So many people didn't get to see Life Goes On when it ran on Sundays opposite Sixty Minutes or Christy, I'm glad people are getting a second chance."

A Heavenly First Break

Born October 17, 1977, this petite, blue-eyed beauty was born in Riverside, California. She got her first acting break at the age of 7 when her aunt, a governess for actor Michael Landon, showed the actor Kellie's picture. After a successful audition, she landed a spot on his NBC series, Father Murphy. That show didn't last long, but, for Kellie, working with Landon was a wonderful beginning to a dream that has indeed come true.

Growing up with Life Goes On

After guest spots on series such as Highway to Heaven, Charles in Charge and Thirtysomething, Kellie's first starring role came at age 13 when she became Becca Thatcher, the spunky every-teen of Life Goes On. Launched in 1989, this series was hailed for its dramatically compelling and sensitive treatment of many real life challenges that families and especially adolescents must contend with.

On the show, Drew and Libby Thatcher are Becca's parents, doing their loving best to run this close and mostly functional two-career household of three children. In addition to Kellie's character, the family includes Corky, a middle child with Down's Syndrome (the first time a disabled TV character was played by a actor who actually had the same disability) and Paige, Drew's often aimless 19-year-old daughter from a former marriage.

As millions of fans of Life Goes On know, Kellie Martin's Becca Thatcher jumps gamely into the fun, insecurities and peer pressures of adolescence while remaining staunchly loyal to her often-teased brother Corky. In its explosive fourth season, the series breaks more new ground by introducing the character of Jesse McKenna, Becca's HIV positive boyfriend. Played by Melrose Place star Chad Lowe (who won an Emmy for the role), this story line has Becca supporting Jesse as he develops full-blown AIDS but ultimately graduates from high school. In subsequent episodes, the two go their separate ways, then reunite, at least in spirit, for an emotionally charged series' finale.

For Kellie Martin, who enjoys a close relationship with her own family and whose mother still often accompanies her daughter to the set, the experience of playing Becca was life changing.

"Luckily," she says, "I never had to deal with the problems Becca dealt with. (But) dealing with those problems on the show opened my eyes and made me a better person"

This emotional maturity was often cited by critics who noted her solid, no-nonsense performances as the missionary schoolteacher on Martin's next network TV series, Christy, (1994). Said one, "As she proved on Life Goes On, Kellie Martin is a quietly excellent actor who can embody spunkiness without making you think, like Lou Grant, 'I hate spunk.' "

Kellie Martin's Christy is considered by many PAX viewers to be a kindred spirit to the character of Monica from Touched By An Angel. Based on the international bestseller by Catherine Marshall, the series' main characters -- 19-year-old Christy and her mentor, Miss Alice (played by Cagney & Lacey's Tyne Daly) - draw on their Quaker faith for inspiration in dealing with the challenges of operating a school and helping the dirt-poor people of Cutter Gap, Tennessee.

Christy also makes dramatic room for feuding neighbors and more than one love interest for Kellie, but it's the one-room schoolhouse at the heart of the story that remains her character's primary passion.

Now a staple of PAX's weekend family schedule (Sunday's at 5 pm), Christy was the ideal series for Kellie Martin as she made her own transition to womanhood. During the year of its production, Kellie lived and worked on location with fellow cast members and producers in rural Tennessee.

At that time, Christy creator and executive producer, Ken Wales, pointed to many coincidences which, as he put it, "showed God's hand" in both the creation and timing of the series. Among these, he cited the fact that the exact month of Kelly Martin's birth marked the beginning of his own 18-year effort to turn Catherine Marshall's book into a film. Ken Wales also shared his opinion that, "I had to wait for Kellie to grow up to play Christy."

For Kellie Martin, this has already been an incredible year in which she's risen to the top of her field as a television actress. But, she's made it clear that success, even with new fame and legions of fans thrown in, isn't everything. Kellie, who is currently taking a year off from her art history studies at Yale to play a medical student on E.R., recently announced her own real-life engagement to Columbia University law student, J. Keith Christian. With a wedding planned for this summer, clearly, the on and off screen miracles for this inspiring young woman have only just begun.