Marie Osmond
Marie Osmond has just been chosen as one of the contestants on the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars, but she has been around the Hollywood scene for years.
Olive Marie Osmond was born in 1959, the only girl in a family of eight boys. Her brothers, the Osmonds, were a popular pop band of the 70s. Marie began her own singing career in 1973 at the age of 13, focusing not on pop, but country music. She had a #1 hit with the remake of the song “Paper Roses.” She released many albums, but by 1976, she had turned her focus to television. She and her brother Donny starred in the “Donny & Marie” variety show on ABC. The show made both stars household names and ran from 1976 to 1979.
After the show ended, Marie briefly retired from the music business and took on more acting roles. She turned down the role of Sandy in Grease because she objected to some of the content, but she did appear in several made for TV movies. Marie decided in the mid 80s to return to country music and recorded the #1 hit “Meet Me in Montana” with Dan Seals. She also had a solo #1 hit with “There’s No Stopping Your Heart.” She had more singles hit the charts in the 80s, with her last single “Like a Hurricane” charting in 1990.
In 1991, Marie started her own doll business. Marie’s sculpts the dolls and each one has a beauty mark near her left eye, just like Marie. Her doll line originally debuted on QVC, but has since expanded to being sold in retail stores, on the Internet, and through direct response.
For a while, Marie starred on the short-lived series “Maybe This Time” and a talk show with her brother titled “Donny and Marie” that lasted two seasons. She has performed on Broadway in The King and I and The Sound of Music. Prior to joining Dancing with the Stars, she even had a brief stint in reality TV as a judge on Celebrity Duets.
Marie and actor John Schneider are co-founders of the Children’s Miracle Network, which helps raise funds for children’s hospitals, medical research, and also helps raise awareness of children’s health issues. To date, the Children’s Miracle Network has raised over $3.2 billion dollars that have benefited 170 hospitals.
While Marie has had a tremendously successful public live, her private life has not always been rosy. She married Stephen Craig in 1985 and they had one child, but divorced in 1985. She married record producer Brian Blosil in 1986, but they are currently going through a divorce. They have seven children, five of which are adopted. Marie battled post partum depression after the birth of her son Matthew in 1999. She even left the family for a brief period of time due to the depression. She wrote the book Behind the Smile: My Journey Out of Postpartum Depression to help others understand and overcome the disease.
The Osmonds recently announced that they would have a 50th year reunion show titled “Still” that will air on PBS sometime next year.
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November 15th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
I would like to say I’m very happy that both Marie Osmond and her dancing partner Jonathan Roberts were saved by ” Dancing With The Stars ” because of all of her family members including her brother and son by her side gave Marie the opportunity to really show a single woman with eight kids can surely delivered a amazing performance during their dance routines and learning it every night until 2 a.m. in the morning imagine this woman who has been in this business when she was three years old and still managed to pull it off until now . I think since the semi-finals are started to heat up, I truly believe deep down in my heart that Marie Osmond and Jonathan Roberts will conquered the entire show no matter what it takes as long as everybody shall cheered her on and Donny will be there, this one hot cougar named Marie Osmond can do it all ! You go girl !