Lori Loughlin got her start as a young soap opera star and made it big on network TV — but her time in the spotlight hasn’t been all positive.
The New York native became interested in acting at a young age after she fell into the modeling world at 11 years old. “My mom had a friend that was going into Manhattan to meet with an agency for modeling,” she recalled in a 2004 interview with the Washington Post. “My mom reluctantly let me go, but I don’t think she ever thought anything would come of it. And I went in and they handed me a contract and said, ‘We’ll take you.'”
At 15, she scored her first television gig with a role on ABC’s popular soap, The Edge of Night. She appeared on the series from 1980 to 1983, and five years later, was cast in her most recognizable role to date: Aunt Becky in Full House.
Loughlin starred alongside John Stamos, Bob Saget, Dave Coulier, Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for eight seasons on the beloved family sitcom. The series ran from 1987 to 1995, and still held a special place in Loughlin’s heart after it went off the air.
“I keep in touch with everybody from that show,” she told the Washington Post. “We are truly a family, and I think that’s a large reason we were as successful as we were.”
Loughlin looked back on her time working on Full House while speaking to Us Weekly in February 2019, admitting that she kept all of her “wrap gifts” from each season’s end.
“My favorite memory from Full House was [during] my first week with Bob, Dave and John,” she revealed at the time. “[We] were all laughing about something and David said, ‘I think Lori is going to be around for a long time.’ It was so sweet, and he was right!”
More than 20 years after Full House ended, Netflix announced that a sequel series, Fuller House, was officially in the works. Much of the original cast returned to reprise their roles for five seasons on the streaming platform. However, Loughlin was left out of the show’s final season after her involvement in the nationwide college admissions scandal, which first made headlines in March 2019.
The Summerland star and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, were among several people implicated in a bribery scam to help their kids get into college. Loughlin and the fashion designer allegedly spent a large sum of money to ensure that their daughters, Bella and Olivia Jade, would be admitted into the University of Southern California as crew recruits. It was later revealed that neither student had ever played the sport.
As more details of the case continued to emerge, Loughlin and Giannulli were faced with charges of fraud, money laundering and bribery. The pair initially pleaded not guilty, but changed their tunes in May 2020 when they accepted a plea deal, which included consequences of community service, jail time and supervised release.
Despite the major media frenzy caused by the actress’ alleged involvement in the scandal, the family is hoping to someday put it all out of their minds.
“They’re all longing for the day when they can move on and put this nightmare officially behind them,” a source told Us exclusively in May 2020.
Scroll down to relive Loughlin’s rise to fame, from Full House to facing charges.
Five years after her stint on ABC’s soap opera The Edge of Night, Loughlin was cast in the network’s now-iconic sitcom Full House in 1988. Her character, Rebecca Donaldson (a.k.a. Aunt Becky), was originally intended to have a six-episode arc, but she quickly became a series regular.
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The New York native tied the knot with investment banker Michael R. Burns in 1989.
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After eight successful seasons, fans bid farewell to Full House in 1995. She went on to work with Tony Danza on the ABC sitcom Hudson Street, but the series was canceled after only one season.
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Loughlin and Burns finalized their divorce in 1996 after 7 years of marriage. One year before she became newly single, she met now-husband Mossimo Giannulli.
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Wedding bells! Loughlin and the fashion designer eloped on Thanksgiving in 1997, two years after meeting. At the time, Giannulli had a son, Gianni, from a previous relationship.
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Budding family! The couple welcomed two daughters shortly after exchanging their vows: Isabella Rose, born in September 1998, and Olivia Jade, born in September 1999.
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Following the finale of Full House, Loughlin took several guest-starring roles in popular TV shows, including Spin City, Seinfeld and Suddenly Susan.
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The actress' next big project was as co-creator, producer and star of the WB’s Summerland from 2004 to 2005. Jesse McCartney, Zac Efron and Kay Panabaker also starred in the short-lived series, which was canceled after two seasons.
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Loughlin starred in the first three seasons of 90210 in the late 2000s, nearly 20 years after the original Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered. Her character, Debbie Wilson, moved to Paris at the end of season 3, but made an appearance during the premiere of the show’s fifth and final season. The series ended in May 2013.
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In 2010, Loughlin starred in the Hallmark made-for-TV movie, Meet My Mom. She later signed on to long-term projects with the network, including When the Heart Calls (premiered in 2014) and the Garage Sale Mystery film series, which has produced 15 movies since 2013.
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In April 2015, two decades after the original series ended, Netflix confirmed that they were planning to produce a reboot called Fuller House. Most of the original cast returned for the new series, which aired for five seasons between February 2016 and June 2020.
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Loughlin and Giannulli were caught up in a nationwide scandal in March 2019 when they were among 50 people charged by the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office on counts of fraud and bribery amid a scheme to get their children into college. The couple allegedly paid $500,000 to have their daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as crew recruits, even though neither child had ever participated in the sport.
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Shortly after news broke of the college admissions scandal in March 2019, Hallmark and Netflix announced that they would no longer be working with Loughlin. She was later edited out of scenes in season six of When Calls the Heart and dropped from Fuller House entirely.
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One month after being slammed with additional bribery charges in October 2019, Us confirmed that Loughlin would not be pleading guilty in the college scandal case. "The only hope is that she is acquitted or if she is convicted, the judge will realize the government has been completely overzealous and gives her a very light prison sentence," a source said in October.
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Despite months of insisting they were not involved in illegal activity, the couple entered their guilty plea in May 2020. Loughlin and Giannulli attended a virtual court hearing amid the coronavirus crisis and were scheduled to be sentenced later that summer. An insider later told Us that the duo hoped to serve their sentences at different times. "Lori wants one parent to be free to provide emotional support to the girls," the source added.
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Despite her legal drama, Loughlin remained an "eternal optimist" about returning to her acting career in the future. A source told Us in June 2020 that she "would love to return to TV" and "tell her side of the story."
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from Celebrity News – Us Weekly https://ift.tt/318Grvd
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