<P> Susan Hallock Dey (born December 10, 1952) is an American actress, known for her television roles as Laurie Partridge on the sitcom The Partridge Family from 1970 to 1974, and as Grace Van Owen on the drama series L.A. Law from 1986 to 1992 . A three - time Emmy Award nominee and six - time Golden Globe Award nominee, she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series for L.A. Law in 1988 . </P> <P> Dey was born Susan Hallock Dey in Pekin, Illinois to Ruth Pyle (née Doremus) Dey, a nurse who died in 1961, when Susan was eight years old, and Robert Smith Dey, a newspaper editor for the Standard - Star in New Rochelle, New York . She attended Columbus Elementary School in Thornwood, New York, later moving to Mount Kisco, New York, where she graduated from Fox Lane High School in 1970 . </P> <P> Dey was a model before starring as Laurie Partridge in the television series The Partridge Family from 1970 to 1974 . She was 17 years old when she won the part and had no previous acting experience . She returned to weekly network television in 1977 as the co-star of the short - lived sitcom Loves Me, Loves Me Not . </P> <P> Her first film role was as a passenger in the 1972 airline hijack movie Skyjacked starring Charlton Heston . In a 1977 made - for - television movie, Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night, Dey portrayed a disturbed young mother with serious psychological problems, who begins to take them out on her toddler daughter . Also in 1977, Dey starred opposite William Katt in First Love, directed by Joan Darling . </P>

Who played the oldest daughter in the partridge family
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