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"Imagine growing up and hearing about Disney and seeing all of the animated movies and now I was actually getting to be a part of that."

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Although Julie Piekarski's time in the spotlight was relatively brief, she was able to feature on two of the most iconic TV shows of her time in The New Mickey Mouse Club (1977) and The Facts of Life (1979-81), parts for which she is still recognized today. Where many young performers do everything they can to stay in the spotlight after their breakout roles, Piekarski has been one of the few who was content to make her mark and then sit back and enjoy the quiet life of a retired actress.

The New Mouseketeers

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Born January 2, 1963 in St. Louis, Missouri, Julie Ann Piekarski got her start like many young talents, as a dancer. "Growing up, my mom enrolled me in dance classes. When I was five, one of the ladies there thought I had potential, took me under her wing, and became my mentor."

Piekarski's breakthrough into the mainstream came with The New Mickey Mouse Club. The show was a revival of the 1950s series The Mickey Mouse Club (1955-59), a loosely structured variety show, featuring classic cartoon shorts, musical performances, adventure serials, and whatever else the producers felt like featuring in an episode. Beginning as a stage production, the show became something of a star-launcher, forming a part of the foundation for the Disney studio system, with the 80s and 90s run kicking off the careers of performers including Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling and Christina Aguilera.

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Julie Piekarski would feature in the first real revival of the series after the cancellation of the first iteration of the show in the late 1950s, filling out the cast with future Facts of Life co-star Shawnte Northcutte, and Mindy Feldman, sister to 80s superstar Corey Feldman.

After two years as a Mouseketeer, she would feature in the Diff'rent Strokes (1979) episode "The Girls School," a backdoor pilot that would lead into the spin-off series The Facts of Life. Backdoor pilots are seen as a relatively low-risk endeavor compared to conventional pilots, trying out a premise in a single episode of an existing show rather than trying to pitch an unproven idea and an unknown cast to network executives. In the case of "The Girls School," the backdoor pilot plan was a success, and that same year Julie Piekarski was one of the leads of the new series.

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Ask any cast member of that first season and you'll hear the same story: The camaraderie you saw between the girls on-screen was very real.

"The seven of us girls got along great. Actually, Kim Fields and I became very close and still keep in touch. I looked forward to going in every day."

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Unfortunately, the cast of the series was deemed to be a little crowded, and several first-season cuts were made. Along with co-stars Julie Anne Haddock, Felice Schachter, and even future 80s icon Molly Ringwald, Julie had her character, Sue Ann Weaver, cut from the main cast after just thirteen episodes in the first season. Over the next two seasons she would be a recurring character, along with Haddock and Schachter, while Ringwald only appeared as a guest in the second season. Piekarski, Haddock and Schachter were mostly absent from the rest of the series, appearing as guests in a reunion episode for season eight.

Life After The Facts Of Life

Piekarski spent the next few years featuring in bit parts here and there, including spots on Three's Company (1983), Quincy, M.E. (1982), and an ABC Afterschool Special (1983), "Have You Ever Been Ashamed Of Your Parent?" Piekarski's interest in acting waned around the mid-80s, as she was studying at UCLA to earn a degree in biochemistry, and met future husband John Probst, a dentist from her hometown of St. Louis. The two moved back to St. Louis together to start a family.

Since then, Piekarski's largest role has been a part in the film The Importance of Doubting Tom (2016) and does the occasional stage play, but has spent most of the last few decades raising her family. Toay, Julie Piekarski generally lives a quiet life as a private citizen, but still enjoys those moments of recognition that come with having once been famous for The New Mickey Mouse Club and The Facts of Life.

"I see that look on their face that they know me but not sure why, I’ll usually wait until it really starts bugging them and then give them a hint."