Tina Yothers
Encyclopedia
Kristina Louise "Tina" Yothers (born May 5, 1973) is an American
actress and singer
. Beginning a career as a child actor
at the age of 8, she is perhaps best known for her role as Jennifer Keaton on the hit NBC
series Family Ties
, as well as for her roles in numerous television films throughout the 1980s and early 1990s including The Cherokee Trail, Crash Course
, and Spunk: The Tonya Harding Story among others.
, but spent half of the year in Flint, Michigan
. Her father, Robert Yothers, was a television producer
. She has three brothers, Jeffrey, Randy and Cory, who all acted in commercials as children. Her brother, Cory (born in 1972) is the most well-known, appearing in numerous films and television shows throughout the early 1980s, often credited as "Bumper" Yothers.
s at age three. Her first cinema role was in the 1981 television movie
The Cherokee Trail. She also appeared in the 1982 feature film Shoot the Moon
. Her most famous role was as Jennifer Keaton, the youngest daughter in the television comedy Family Ties
from 1982 to 1989. She also competed in the Battle of the Network Stars
in December 1988. When Family Ties ended, Yothers abandoned her blonde hair color and has since worn it black.
She wrote the book Being Your Best: Tina Yothers's Guide for Girls and formed the band Jaded with her brother Cory. She provided the lead vocals while Cory played keyboard. In 1998, Jaded released their self titled CD, which was co-written by Cory Yothers, Michael Anderson, Tina Yothers & Jaded. With Tina Yother (lead vocals), Michael Anderson (guitars/vocals), Jerry France (guitars/vocals), Larry Rosales (drums) and Mike Wilson (bass). Additional musicians were Phil Jordan from the Orange County band No Doubt on Trumpet, and a DJ, name unknown. Previously, Yothers sang a cover of The Raes
song "Baby I'm Back In Love Again", which she would later record as a single, in a Family Ties episode "Band on the Run" (original tx: Feb 26, 1987).
After a nine year absence from acting, Yothers was given the lead role in Lovelace the Musical, a 2004 stage show based on the life of former pornographic movie
star Linda Lovelace
. She followed that up with a stint as a stock player in the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater in Boca Raton, Florida from 2005 to 2007.
Yothers appeared on the fourth season of the VH1
reality television
show Celebrity Fit Club, which began on August 6, 2006. After Yothers' second pregnancy, she appeared on Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp to try get back to her post-Fit Club weight.
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress and singer
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
. Beginning a career as a child actor
Child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...
at the age of 8, she is perhaps best known for her role as Jennifer Keaton on the hit NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
series Family Ties
Family Ties
Family Ties is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. This was particularly expressed through the relationship between young...
, as well as for her roles in numerous television films throughout the 1980s and early 1990s including The Cherokee Trail, Crash Course
Crash Course
Crash Course is a 1988 made for television teen film directed by Oz Scott.-Plot:Crash Course centers on a group of high schoolers in a driver’s education class; many for the second or third time...
, and Spunk: The Tonya Harding Story among others.
Early life
Yothers was born in Whittier, CaliforniaWhittier, California
Whittier is a city in Los Angeles County, California about southeast of Los Angeles. The city had a population of 85,331 at the 2010 census, up from 83,680 as of the 2000 census, and encompasses 14.7 square miles . Like nearby Montebello, the city constitutes part of the Gateway Cities...
, but spent half of the year in Flint, Michigan
Flint, Michigan
Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...
. Her father, Robert Yothers, was a television producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
. She has three brothers, Jeffrey, Randy and Cory, who all acted in commercials as children. Her brother, Cory (born in 1972) is the most well-known, appearing in numerous films and television shows throughout the early 1980s, often credited as "Bumper" Yothers.
Career
Yothers began her acting career in television advertisementTelevision advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
s at age three. Her first cinema role was in the 1981 television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
The Cherokee Trail. She also appeared in the 1982 feature film Shoot the Moon
Shoot the Moon
Shoot the Moon is the title of the fourth album by singer-songwriter Judie Tzuke, released in April 1982. It was Tzuke's first album for Chrysalis Records, after leaving Elton John's label Rocket Records...
. Her most famous role was as Jennifer Keaton, the youngest daughter in the television comedy Family Ties
Family Ties
Family Ties is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. This was particularly expressed through the relationship between young...
from 1982 to 1989. She also competed in the Battle of the Network Stars
Battle of the Network Stars
Battle of the Network Stars is the name of 19 US television specials featuring competitions among teams of popular television performers representing the three major broadcast networks at that time: ABC, CBS, and NBC.- History :...
in December 1988. When Family Ties ended, Yothers abandoned her blonde hair color and has since worn it black.
She wrote the book Being Your Best: Tina Yothers's Guide for Girls and formed the band Jaded with her brother Cory. She provided the lead vocals while Cory played keyboard. In 1998, Jaded released their self titled CD, which was co-written by Cory Yothers, Michael Anderson, Tina Yothers & Jaded. With Tina Yother (lead vocals), Michael Anderson (guitars/vocals), Jerry France (guitars/vocals), Larry Rosales (drums) and Mike Wilson (bass). Additional musicians were Phil Jordan from the Orange County band No Doubt on Trumpet, and a DJ, name unknown. Previously, Yothers sang a cover of The Raes
The Raes
The Raes were the Welsh-Canadian husband-and-wife singing duo of Robbie and Cherrill Rae, who had a handful of disco-inflected pop hits in the late 1970s.-Career:...
song "Baby I'm Back In Love Again", which she would later record as a single, in a Family Ties episode "Band on the Run" (original tx: Feb 26, 1987).
After a nine year absence from acting, Yothers was given the lead role in Lovelace the Musical, a 2004 stage show based on the life of former pornographic movie
Pornographic movie
Pornographic films are motion pictures with the purpose of promoting sexual arousal in the viewer, often featuring depictions of sexual activity. They are sold and rented out on DVD, shown through Internet and special channels and pay-per-view on cable and satellite, and in adult...
star Linda Lovelace
Linda Lovelace
Linda Susan Boreman , better known by her stage name Linda Lovelace, was an American pornographic actress who was famous for her performance of deep throat fellatio in the enormously successful 1972 hardcore porn film Deep Throat...
. She followed that up with a stint as a stock player in the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater in Boca Raton, Florida from 2005 to 2007.
Yothers appeared on the fourth season of the VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
show Celebrity Fit Club, which began on August 6, 2006. After Yothers' second pregnancy, she appeared on Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp to try get back to her post-Fit Club weight.
Personal life
In 2002, Yothers married an electrician, Robert Kaiser, who had twin sons from a previous marriage. Yothers has two children, daughter Lillian Grace 'Lilly', born October 2005, and a son, Robert Jake born September 24, 2007. The family resides in Ontario, CaliforniaOntario, California
Ontario is a city located in San Bernardino County, California, United States, 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire region, it lies just east of the Los Angeles county line and is part of the Greater Los Angeles Area...
.
Filmography
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 1982 | Shoot the Moon Shoot the Moon Shoot the Moon is the title of the fourth album by singer-songwriter Judie Tzuke, released in April 1982. It was Tzuke's first album for Chrysalis Records, after leaving Elton John's label Rocket Records... |
Molly Dunlap | |
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1981 | The Cherokee Trail | Peggy Breydon | Television movie |
| The Wonderful World of Disney | Peg Breydon | 1 episode | |
| 1982 | Father Murphy Father Murphy Father Murphy is an American television drama series that aired on the NBC network from November 3, 1981 to September 18, 1983. Michael Landon created the series, was the executive producer, and also directed the show in partnership with William F... |
Beatrice | 1 episode |
| 1982–1989 | Family Ties Family Ties Family Ties is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. This was particularly expressed through the relationship between young... |
Jennifer Keaton | 176 episodes |
| 1983 | Your Place... or Mine | Television movie | |
| 1984 | Domestic Life | Sally Dwyer | 2 episodes |
| 1985 | Family Ties Vacation | Jennifer Keaton | Television movie |
| 1988 | Crash Course Crash Course Crash Course is a 1988 made for television teen film directed by Oz Scott.-Plot:Crash Course centers on a group of high schoolers in a driver’s education class; many for the second or third time... |
Alice Santini | Television movie |
| Mickey's 60th Birthday Mickey's 60th Birthday Mickey's 60th Birthday is the 1988 television special broadcast on the Walt Disney anthology television series on November 13, 1988 on NBC. As the title suggests, it was produced for the 60th anniversary of the Mickey Mouse character... |
Jennifer Keaton | Television special | |
| 1990 | Laker Girls | Tracy | Television movie |
| 1990 | Family Double Dare Double Dare Double Dare is a children's game show, originally hosted by Marc Summers, that aired on Nickelodeon. The show combines trivia questions with occasionally messy "physical challenges"... |
Herself | Celebrity contestant |
| 1993 | Spunk: The Tonya Harding Story | Tonya Harding Tonya Harding Tonya Maxine Harding is an American figure skating champion. In 1991 she won the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and placed second in the World Championships. She was the second woman, and the first American woman, to complete a triple axel jump in competition... |
Television movie |
| 1995 | A Perry Mason Perry Mason Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial... Mystery: The Case of the Jealous Jokester |
Claire Howard | Television movie |
Awards & nominations
| Year | Award | Result | Category | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Young Artist Award Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award is an accolade bestowed by the Young Artist Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to recognize and award excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically and/or financially challenged.The Young Artist... |
Nominated | Best Young Actress in a New Television Series | Family Ties |
| 1984 | Best Young Actress in a Comedy Series | |||
| 1985 | Won | Best Young Supporting Actress in a Television Comedy Series | ||
| 1989 | Nominated | Best Young Actress - Starring in a Television Comedy Series |