Judy Norton

More than 50 years since she first graced American screens, and almost as long since she first played Mary Ellen in The Waltons; actor, writer, and director Judy Norton is still as busy and as popular as ever. In 2020, for example, she began appearing The Quarantine Bunch, an inventive Zoom-based drama starring former child stars. In recent years, she has also written, directed, and starred in comedy-drama Disorganized Zone and crime show Bluff.

Norton was just fourteen years old when she shot to fame as Mary Ellen Walton in The Waltons, a major CBS drama about the life of a Virginia family during the Great Depression and Second World War. The original series ran for nearly a decade, over 200 episodes, won numerous awards, including the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama and was broadcast worldwide, making stars of its principal cast — Norton among them. After the show finished in the early 1980s, Norton appeared in several subsequent movie spin-offs. She then defied expectations by posing for Playboy, shattering the public stereotype of her as a child actor (she was by then in her late 20s).

Norton was largely absent from television work during her 30s, preferring to focus on theatre work and a passion for sports that saw her compete in horse jumping and sky diving competitions. A singer of note, she has performed seasons in cabaret and released her debut album, Reflections, an enthralling mix of jazz standards and Broadway hits, in 2016. With several feature films recently completed, Norton continues to maintain a level of activity that would put many younger actor to shame.