What happened to Wendy Schaal? Wikipedia, Biography, Age, Family, Height, Net Worth, Fast Facts

• Wendy Schaal is an American actress known for her voice-over role of Francine Smith in the “American Dad!” series
• She grew up in New York with her stepmother Valerie Harper
• She attended Los Angeles City College and multiple acting studios and courses
• She has a net worth of $400,000 and is still signed to the cartoon series “American Dad!”
• Wendy enjoys wearing feminine middle length dresses with bright floral prints, as well as blazers and trousers.

Everyone knows Wendy Schaal for her fantastic voice-over role of Francine Smith in the “American Dad!” series. She’s also appeared in such popular series as “The X Files” and “The A-Team”, so let’s find out more about her current net worth, recent works, husband and other details of her personal life.

Early life and family

Wendy K. Schaal was born on 2 July 1954 in Chicago, Illinois USA, so under the sign of Cancer and holding American nationality. Wendy’s mother’s was Lois Treacy Schall, and her father Richard Schaal – he was an actor, born on 5 May 1928 in Chicago, and died in 2014 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. Wendy’s grandparents had no connection with the performing arts, however, her father decided to become an actor, and built his successful career on his own.

He is famous for his working with “The Second City”, a famous American improvisational theater ensemble, where he developed his comedy sketch skills. He is also famous for his appearing in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (1970-1977) and “The Bob Newhart Show” (1972-1978). Richard met Valerie Harper – his second wife and Wendy’s stepmother – on the set of “Rhoda”, a popular sitcom. He is also known for his appearances in such TV series and movies as “Phyllis” (1975-1977) where he played Leo Heatherton, “The Hollywood Knights” (1980), “Once Bitten” (1985) and “O’Hara’s Wife” (1982).

Childhood with a stepmother

Wendy’s parents divorced when she was less than 10 years old, and Richard Schaal re-married in 1964 to Valerie Harper, an actress who starred in such popular series as “Columbo” (1968-2003), “Desperate Housewives” (2004-2012) and “Sex and the City” (1998-2004), and with whom Wendy had very close and warm relationship – Valerie admitted that the role of Wendy’s stepmother was a top-priority task for her. When Wendy was 12 years old, she moved from Corona del Mar to New York to live with Valerie and her father; Valerie shared that she was very afraid of such bad influences in those times, such as strong alcohol and drugs.

Valerie and Richard chose St. Joan of Arc School for Wendy’s education, believing that such a respected and old (founded in 1920) school would shelter Wendy from bad companies and the detrimental effects of the society of those times. Even though the school was just two blocks away from their house, Valerie was anxious all the times and traced her stepdaughter. As she walked to the school every morning, Valerie followed her step by step trying to hide behind the corners so Wendy didn’t notice her. And even though she reached her school every day without any troubles, the neighborhood Wendy had to walk through on her way to school almost scared Valerie to death.

Worried about his wife’s nervous state, Richard made his decision: the following had to be stopped. He asked his wife to calm down and let Wendy live her life and deal with the problems herself. However, Valerie kept on worrying about Wendy’s outfits also, as even though New York weather was far from very warm climate of California, where Wendy moved from, she kept on wearing shirt-sleeved blouses in chilling winds of New York.

Education

Wendy attended a local elementary school in Corona del Mar, California, until she moved to New York, She matriculated from St. Joan of Arc School, in 1972, and enrolled into Los Angeles City College, from which she graduated in 1976.

Wendy SchaalShe also attended multiple acting studios and courses, however there is not much information on their particular names.

Career

Early career

Wendy started working as a professional actress even before she graduated, debuting in an episode of the famous TV series “Happy Days” (1974-1984) as Lorraine, a young girl. Then she was in the cast of series in which her father also starred, such as “Rhyllis”, “Rhoda” and others, getting minor, usually non-speaking roles, but was noticed by producers and continued appearing in more projects.

Thus she was cast as Christie Norton in “Little House on the Prairie” (1974-1983), then she appeared in an episode of the “Welcome Back, Kotter” series (1975 – 1979), played Sarah in the “Family” sitcom (1976 – 1980), and had the role of Julie in “Fantasy Island” (1977-1984). After graduation, Wendy was able to accept all the offers she got, so also appeared in “Record City” (1978) and “Bound for Glory” (1976). She felt a strong interest in TV series and soap operas, so starred in such TV series as “Knight Rider” (1982 – 1986) in the role of Jamie Downs, and as Karen in a super-popular series “The A-Team” (1983 – 1987), sharing the screen with Mr. T, and “Airwolf” (1984 – 1986) in which she played Marilyn Kelsy.

Later works

Wendy continued with series’ performances such as Zuleika Brown in “Murder, She Wrote” (1984 – 1996), “MacGyver” (1985 – 1992) in the role of Karen Blake, “Gung Ho” (1986 – 1987) as Kelly, and “Amazing Stories” (1985 – 1987), in which she played the character of Sheena.

However, she also appeared in movies and TV films, including “Innerspace” (1987), “Creature” (1985), Munchies” (1987) and “When the Time Comes” (1987). Working in parallel on two series, “Batteries Not Included” and “Full House”, Wendy was invited to “Bright Lights, Big City” series in her first voice-over role.

Wendy enjoyed this kind of work, and started focusing on this direction, but before switching fully to voice-over roles, she participated in TV series such as: “Out There”, “Star Trek: Voyage” and “Fired Up”, and also appeared in several episodes of “Red Shoe Diaries”, “The X-Files” and “Friends”.

Nevertheless, Wendy was soaked-up by her voice-over role of Francine Smith in the “American Dad!” animated series. For almost 15 years in a row she’s been working in the cast of the project, once sharing that she felt like home working on the series, as the cast and all technical workers became a real family for her.  In an interview at the celebration of the series’ 10th anniversary, she emotionally shared: ‘We’ve had so much life happen!

We’ve got babies born, and marriages, and divorces, and deaths, and everything… When you work together with people for a whole decade, a lot happens’.

Personal life, ex-husband Stephen M. Schwartz

In 1977 at the age of 23, Wendy married her long-term boyfriend Stephen M. Schwartz, and they looked happy with their decision as they appeared together at various Hollywood events, such as the “Where the Boys Are” movie pre-release party in 1984 (Wendy starred there in the role of Sandra Roxbury). They welcomed two sons, Victor and Adam, with Wendy’s stepmother, Valerie Harper very active helping her stepdaughter with her grandsons, while Stephen and Wendy were working.

Nevertheless, Wendy and Stephen divorced in October 1987. Nothing is known about Wendy’s current relationship status as she prefers to keep the details of her private life low-key. There are no updates on current or former boyfriends who she could have dated after her divorce with Stephen.

Social media presence

Wendy is not at all active on any popular social media platforms – Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. However, the series “American Dad!” that she’s been voiced-over for more than a decade, has its profile on Twitter which is followed by over 730,000 fans.

Appearance, clothing style

Wendy has naturally light brown medium length hair, which she always bleaches blonde, and always wears a bang; she has hazel eyes. She has to wear glasses due to her light myopia. Wendy is 5ft 5ins (1.65m) tall, weighs around 141lbs (64kgs), and her vital statistics are 32-34-35. As to her clothing style, she enjoys wearing feminine middle length dresses with bright floral prints, as well as blazers and trousers. He favorite color is red.

Net worth and salary

According to authoritative sources Wendy’s current net worth is estimated to be around $400,000. She has always been a professional actress and consistently developed her skills in this sphere. She is still signed to the popular cartoon series “American Dad!”, and continues her voicing-over of Francine Smith, so her net worth is still going.