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Eve Plumb is an American actress best known for playing the middle sister, Jan, on the hit television sitcom The Brady Brunch from 1969 to 1974.

Synopsis

Actress Eve Plumb was born on April 29, 1958, in Burbank, California. She appeared in television commercials at the age of 6, and was cast as Jan Brady, the long-suffering middle sister on the 1970s sitcom The Brady Bunch. The show ran for five years, after which Plumb landed roles in numerous made-for-TV movies. She also appeared on stage and in motion pictures. Plumb married twice and is a talented realistic painter.

Early Life and Career

Eve Aline Plumb was born in Burbank, California, on April 29, 1958. Her mother, Flora Plumb, worked as a dancer, and her father, Neely Plumb, was an RCA music producer. Her siblings are Flora, Benjamin and Catherine. Flora Plumb is also an actress.

Eve Plumb began her acting career in television at the age of 6, appearing in toy commercials for Mattel. Over the next few years, she landed roles in The Virginian, The Big Valley, Lassie, It Takes a Thief, Mannix and Family Affair, among other TV series.

Jan, Jan, Jan

When she was only 10 years old, Plumb was cast as Jan Brady, the middle child of three blonde sisters, on The Brady Bunch, a primetime sitcom about a blended family starring Florence Henderson and Robert Reed as Carol and Mike Brady. The show ran for five years, from 1969 to 1974.

Plumb played the freckle-faced and eyeglass-wearing Jan, sandwiched between an older and more popular sister, Marcia (played by Maureen McCormick), and a younger, adorable, doll-toting Cindy (played by Susan Olsen). Her place in the family made for some memorable storylines that included Jan's efforts to find her own identity and face her insecurities as the middle child. In one episode, she spouted out the now-famous and often parodied line, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!"

When the series ended in 1974, Plumb finished high school at Montclair College Preparatory in the San Fernando Valley, where she was a cheerleader and homecoming queen. (Years later, she attended California State University in Northridge, California, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in theater.)

Life After 'The Brady Bunch'

In 1976, Plumb, reportedly not wanting to sign a five-year contract, decided not to join the rest of the cast in their first reunion attempt, a song-and-dance variety show called The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. She was replaced in the show by Geri Reischl (who unfortunately earned the nickname "the fake Jan Brady"). The show ran for only nine episodes. That same year, Plumb chose to play against type when she took the role of a young prostitute in the made-for-TV movie Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976).

Plumb did, however, take part in future Brady Bunch cast reunions, including the made-for-TV movies The Brady Girls Get Married, The Brady Brides, A Very Brady Christmas and The Bradys, a short-lived series that ran in 1990.

Plumb would later be the only surviving cast member who did not attend when her fellow Brady stars accepted TV Land's Pop Culture Award (2007).

Film, TV and Stage Credits

In 1977, Plumb, now a sought-after and popular TV movie actress, starred in Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn, Telethon and Breast Men. She appeared in the made-for-TV movie Little Women in 1978, and in the series of the same title the following year. She also made numerous guest-starring appearances around this time, including on the series One Day At A Time; The Facts of Life; Here's Lucy; Wonder Woman; Murder, She Wrote; The Love Boat; and Fantasy Island.

Plumb later played the mother on Fudge, the 1990s series based on books by Judy Blume. She went on to appear on the popular game show The Weakest Link in 2001, the daytime soap opera All My Children in 2003 and the nighttime soap Army Wives in 2013.

Plumb's film credits include Force of Evil (1977), I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) and Blue Ruin (2013). Her stage credits include Slumber Party, Your Very Own TV Show, South Pacific (at the Bucks County Playhouse) and Miss Abigail's Guide to Dating, Mating, and Marriage.

Personal Life

Plumb married lighting technician Rick Mansfield in 1979. The couple divorced two years later. In 1995, she married computer analyst Kenneth Pace. 

Plumb is a critically acclaimed realistic painter, creating large oil paintings of everyday life scenes. She paints from her Laguna Beach, California, studio. Additionally, Plumb has done voiceover work for California tourism advertisements.