In 1982, Family Ties debuted to great success. The program had seven seasons and was the recipient of one Golden Globe and three Emmy awards. The Keaton family—consisting of the parents and their four children—was the subject of the show.
Star actors like Michael J. Fox and Justine Bateman used the show as a springboard for their acting careers. A previously unheard-of amount of celebrity was also bestowed upon Scott Valentine for his depiction of Nick Moore, Mallory’s lover on the show, in which he costarred with Batemen.
While many fans still have positive memories of Valentine’s character, the actor himself would disagree…
Valentine experienced a horrific accident and went through a lot of hardships before his breakthrough on Family Ties. He was reliant on Medicaid and public assistance after being ran over by a truck in New York City in 1981.
His acting career was put on hold as a result of the accident, and he struggled in agony for years to heal his shattered hip and pelvis.
I had to persuade them that I could walk, talk, and stand on stage without falling. In 1992, he recalled being so frustrated during a casting session that he got up and started dancing on the woman’s desk.
In 1985, Valentine participated in what was intended to be a one-shot audition for the part of Nick Moore. But his persona ultimately became known as “the date that wouldn’t.”
Mallory and Nick made a fantastic team. I always thought Scott Valentine looked and sounded like a young Rambo; for those who don’t know, he had a voice akin to Sylvester Stallone.
In the fourth season of the sitcom, Valentine made his debut as Nick Moore, the eccentric lover of Mallory, the Keaton family’s eldest daughter. Nick was intended to be a one-off character as the show’s bumbling but endearing sidekick, but viewers responded to him so favorably that Valentine ended up playing the position for 45 episodes.
The Art of Being Nick, a spin-off series, is a result of Valentine’s success as Nick Moore. On August 27, 1987, NBC broadcast a special version of it.
Sadly, the spin-off never gained traction. Valentine received a ton of praise and encouragement for his work, but he admitted to “feeling horrible” in hindsight about the character. Although Valentine’s character is still fondly recalled by many fans, the actor tends to disagree.
It was quite beneficial in terms of exposure. However, it was really damaging in that it led some people to believe that I was the monosyllabic moron I depicted, he told the Santa Maria Times in 1992.
Nick’s ignorance worried him.
The actor had previously studied acting at a number of esteemed institutions, but he claimed that he felt that he was only cast in the show “so I could grunt on primetime television.” Despite the popularity of the character, the actor found the simplicity to be difficult.
It was a lot of fun, but he said, “There were occasions when I literally only needed to make two guttural noises in a presentation and they paid me a bundle for it. “I occasionally felt awful.”
Between 1985 and 2012, Scott was wed to the actress Kym Denyse (Fisher) Stephenson. Trevin John (1986), Shayler Stephenson (1988), Jesstin Jay-Owen (1992), and Caden Edward (1993) were the couple’s four sons (1998).
In his hometown of Saratoga Springs, New York, 64-year-old Valentine operates a hedge fund rather than performing. He married Jennifer Wood (née Malchow), another Saratoga Springs resident, in 2021 after finding love once more.
Scott is no longer working as an actor, but he will always be recognized for his superb work in Family Ties and all the other films he appeared in.
But what strikes us most about Scott as we read about him is that he comes off as a genuinely decent person. He is far from the Hollywood stereotype, as many people seem to attest. Just take a look at these wonderful anecdotes from a few years ago that some admirers shared; they speak volumes about Scott Valentine.
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