Tracy Pollan
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
A lithe, blonde actress from a prominent New York family, Tracy Pollan is perhaps best known for her recurring role as the love interest of future real-life husband Michael J. Fox's Alex P. Keaton on NBC's "Family Ties." Active professionally since the early 1980s, Pollan acted on stage and had prominent roles in several TV-movies as well as features before slowing down her career in the mid-1990s following the birth of twin daughters.
Beginning her career on stage in 1980's Off-Broadway play "Album," Pollan made her film debut in John Sayles' "Baby, It's You" (1983) and was featured that same year in the TV-movies "Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer" (CBS) and "Sessions" (ABC). More TV work followed, and in 1985, the actress made her Broadway debut in "Pack of Lies" playing a British teenager whose neighbors may be spies. 1985 also marked the beginning of her recurring run on "Family Ties," where she played thoughtful college student Ellen, a headstrong liberal who won the heart of staunchly conservative capitalist Alex P Keaton. Here Pollan was cast opposite Fox, but sparks didn't initially fly. It was while filming the 1988 feature "Bright Lights, Big City" that the two became a couple. While starring on "Family Ties," Pollan, a graceful and poised actress with fresh-faced beauty, proved a versatile presence, ably portraying both cosmopolitan sophisticates and outdoorsy All-American characters. She impressed with more TV turns, playing a troubled young woman from a high-ranking family who turns to the streets in the 1986 "American Playhouse" (PBS) production "The Little Sister," and portraying an Olympic athlete kidnapped and forcibly held as her captor's wife in "The Abduction of Kari Swenson" (NBC, 1987). Her stirring performance in this fact-based TV-movie and her heartfelt turn in that year's independent drama "Promised Land" underlined the actress' appeal and displayed her capabilities.
Her next major role came in the ABC miniseries "The Kennedys of Massachusetts" (1990) where she played the clan's Kathleen. 1992 saw her return to the Broadway stage with a co-starring turn in Neil Simon's "Jake's Women." That same year she played a Hassidic woman with a checkered past whose jeweler fiance is murdered in the Sidney Lumet crime drama "A Stranger Among Us." In 1993 Pollan returned to the small screen, portraying a charming con woman who dupes men looking for their match through personal ads in the CBS TV-movie "Dying to Love You." She was cast alongside Peter Horton as the parents of two girls afflicted with a rare disease that prohibits them from daylight in the ABC TV-movie "Children of the Dark" that same year.
After a brief career hiatus, Pollan returned to series television with a guest stint on "Spin City" (ABC) in 1997, playing Renee, a former girlfriend of Fox's deputy mayor Michael Flaherty, a role she reprised in 1998. A guest turn in 2000 on the NBC drama series "Law & Order," however, not only featured the actress more prominently, it earned her an Emmy nomination for her strong portrayal of a rape victim unable to recover from the trauma and the fear accompanying her attacker's freedom Pollan displayed her notable dramatic skill with an emotionally gripping and appropriately controlled performance.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1980
Made professional acting debut in Joan Micklin Silver's "Album"; produced Off-Broadway; co-starred Kevin Bacon
1982
Appeared in the failed pilot "For Lovers Only"
1983
Featured in the CBS TV-movie "Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer"
1983
Film debut, "Baby, It's You"
1983
Played the younger sister of Veronica Hamel's high-priced call girl in the ABC TV-movie "Sessions"
1984
Co-starred in the TV-movies "A Good Sport" and "The Baron and the Kid" (both CBS)
1984
Starred in the "The Great Love Experiment", a presentation of "ABC Afterschool Specials"
1985
Appeared on TV series "Family Ties"; first collaboration with future husband Michael J Fox
1985
Featured as a British schoolgirl in the Broadway play "Pack of Lies"
1986
Starred as a troubled young woman from an esteemed New England family who ends up living on the streets in "The Little Sister", an "American Playhouse" (PBS) presentation
1987
Played the titular kidnapped Olympic athlete in the fact-based TV-movie "The Abduction of Kari Swenson" (NBC)
1987
Starred in the independent drama feature "Promised Land"
1988
Co-starred with Fox in the feature "Bright Lights, Big City"
1990
Played Kathleen Kennedy in the ABC miniseries "The Kennedys of Massachusetts"
1992
Had a featured role in the Broadway production of the Neil Simon comedy "Jake's Women"
1992
Had key role as the fiance of a murdered Hassidic jeweler in Sidney Lumet's "A Stranger Among Us"
1993
Starred as a con woman who dupes men she meets through personal ads in the CBS TV-movie "Dying to Love You"
1994
Played a mother who discovers her two daughters are afflicted with a disease that makes daylight deadly in the TV-movie "Children of the Dark"
1997
Guest starred on an episode of the ABC series "Spin City", cast opposite Fox as former girlfriend Renee
1998
Reprised role of Renee in a subsequent episode of "Spin City"
2000
Gave an Emmy-nominated performance in a guest role as a rape victim on the NBC spin-off drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
Family
Companions
