Tracy Jo Pollan (born June 22, 1960), is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Ellen Reed on the sitcom ''

Family Ties ''Family Ties'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC for seven seasons, premiering on September 22, 1982, and concluding on May 14, 1989. The series, created by Gary David Goldberg, reflected the move in the United States ...

'' (1985–1987).

Early life

Pollan was born on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, the daughter of Corinne Elaine "Corky" (Staller), a magazine editor, and Stephen Michael Pollan, a financial consultant and writer. She was raised in Woodbury, New York. Pollan is from a

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

family and was raised in the faith. She attended

Syosset High School Syosset High School (SHS) is a public high school located in Syosset, New York, United States, in Nassau County, on Long Island. It serves as the public high school for residents of the Syosset Central School District. As of 2012, the news mag ...

and later graduated from the

Dalton School The Dalton School, originally the Children's University School, is a private, coeducational college preparatory school in New York City and a member of both the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York Interschool. The school is located i ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York. She studied acting at the

Herbert Berghof Studio The HB Studio (Herbert Berghof Studio) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization offering professional training in the performing arts through classes, workshops, free lectures, theater productions, theater rentals, a theater artist residency progra ...

and later at the Lee Strasberg Institute.

Personal life

Pollan was in a five-year relationship with actor

Kevin Bacon Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...

in the 1980s. She first met Michael J. Fox when she played the girlfriend of his character on ''

''; they worked together again on the set of '' Bright Lights, Big City'' a couple of years later and began a relationship. They married on July 16, 1988. They have four children together; a son Sam, twin daughters Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Frances, and a daughter Esmé Annabelle.

Publications

In October 2014, Pollan, along with her two sisters and mother, co-authored ''The Pollan Family Table'', a cookbook of family recipes, kitchen tips and cooking techniques. The foreword was written by her brother,

Michael Pollan Michael Kevin Pollan (; born February 6, 1955) is an American author and journalist, who is currently Professor of the Practice Non-Fiction and the first Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer at Harvard University. Concurrently, he is the Knight Professo ...

, who is an author of several books about socio-cultural impacts of food.For the Pollans, informal dinner is a family affair
at The Boston Globe; by Michael Floreak; published October 21, 2014; retrieved December 23, 2014

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

References

External links

* *
Pollan Family Table
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollan, Tracy 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses Actresses from New York (state) American film actresses American people of Russian-Jewish descent American stage actresses American television actresses Dalton School alumni Jewish American actresses Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni Living people Michael J. Fox People from Woodbury, Nassau County, New York Syosset High School alumni 1960 births