Lydia Cornell, who skyrocketed to fame as a definitive sex symbol during the 1980s on the beloved sitcom Too Close for Comfort, was recently spotted looking as radiant as ever during a casual outing in Los Angeles. Now aged 72, the actress was seen walking her dog over the weekend, her luminous complexion beautifully framed by her still-blonde hair. She dressed her lithe figure in a comfortable sweater and a pair of black trousers, accessorising with a baseball cap and sunglasses to ward off the bright California sunshine.
From El Paso to Hollywood Stardom
Born Lydia Korniloff in El Paso, Texas, Cornell hails from a profoundly artistic family. Her father was a concertmaster, and her mother was a concert violinist. Intriguingly, on her maternal side, she is the great-great-granddaughter of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the renowned 19th-century author of the seminal anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Her Hollywood dreams began early. "I dreamed everyday of coming to Hollywood and being in movies. I guess kids who don’t get enough love at home, need attention on a grand scale," she once recalled in an interview with the website Retro Crush. Before her big break, while studying at college in Colorado, she worked as a photographer and a 'kitchen girl' at the legendary Caribou Ranch recording studio. There, she mingled with music icons including Billy Joel, the Beach Boys, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and David Cassidy.
The Audition That Changed Everything
Her relentless pursuit paid off. Cornell meticulously tracked down television producers and wrote to them expressing her ambitions. Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, an agent invited her to a dinner party where she found herself starstruck, seated near the legendary producer Aaron Spelling, who was dining with Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner.
This fortuitous encounter led directly to her first speaking role: a guest spot on Spelling's iconic series The Love Boat in 1980. Later that same year, she landed the career-defining role of the delightfully ditzy Sara Rush on Too Close for Comfort, a part she would play for five successful seasons on ABC from 1980 to 1985.
The audition itself is the stuff of Hollywood legend. The producers had already seen approximately 300 actresses for the part. Cornell won the role because of a charming and innocent mistake. When the script called for 'Sara gives Dad a raspberry,' she literally handed a real raspberry to the producer reading her father's lines. The room erupted in laughter after they explained the phrase meant making a rude sound with the tongue. The show's co-developer, Arne Sultan, declared, "She just fell off the turnip truck. She’s perfect, she’s Sara!"
Instant Fame and Its Complexities
As Sara Rush, Cornell instantly became a major sex symbol, a status that concerned her own manager, who was openly worried about "trying to make sure she doesn't get locked into a T&A image." The show, adapted from the British sitcom Keep It in the Family, was a major hit. Fame brought extravagant fan gifts, including jewellery from Tiffany's, but also unsettling "letters that are scary, that are so strange, you have to wonder," as she told the Spokesman-Review newspaper.
Her relationship with her on-screen father, played by the late Ted Knight, was famously complex. "Ted and I had a love-hate relationship," Cornell confessed. "He didn’t want the girls to become more popular than he was, so when we had funny episodes that revolved around us, Ted would put a stop to that." She recalled rumours that her fan mail was hidden and an incident where Knight threw a magazine with her picture on the cover at her, declaring, "I’m the star of the show, not you!"
Despite this tension, they reconciled before his death from cancer in 1986. "We made up before he died and I cried so hard at his funeral... We really loved him and he was like a father figure to us - a real father," she said emotionally.
Life Beyond the Sitcom
After Too Close for Comfort was retooled into The Ted Knight Show (which lasted one season), Cornell continued a prolific television career. She guest-starred on a slew of iconic series including Knight Rider (briefly dating star David Hasselhoff), Charlie's Angels, The A-Team, The Dukes of Hazzard, Hunter, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Drew Carey Show. Her film work includes the 1982 horror movie Bloodtide, starring James Earl Jones.
She maintained a warm, lifelong friendship with her TV sister, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, posting a recent reunion lunch photo on Instagram with her "costar/BFF." She also shared a close bond with co-star Jim J. Bullock, admitting she had "a major crush on" him, unaware at the time that he was gay.
Personal Struggles and Triumphs
Cornell's personal life has seen both joy and challenge. She has a 31-year-old son, Jack Mulholland, whose father's identity she has kept private. She was married to producer Paul Hayeland from 2002 to 2010.
She has been candid about her past struggles with alcoholism. During the height of her fame, she and her castmates would "go out every night" and "drink like five bottles or something." After the show ended, this escalated into binge drinking. A pivotal, harrowing moment came after her son's birth when, in a "blackout" drunk state while holding her baby, her family staged an intervention. "They took the baby away from me. Just retelling this story makes me cry, but I do it in hopes it will encourage someone to seek help," she revealed. She has since found sobriety with the support of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Today, at 72, Lydia Cornell embodies a serene chapter of life, far removed from the dizzying heights of 1980s sitcom fame, yet her legacy as the unforgettable Sara Rush endures, a testament to a unique and resilient Hollywood journey.
