Brady Bunch’s Susan Olsen Says She ‘Almost Died’ Filming Pilot

Susan Olsen, the actress who played the youngest Brady sibling, Cindy, is opening up about a terrifying moment that nearly ended her time on The Brady Bunch before it even began.

While appearing on The Real Brady Bros podcast—hosted by her former co-stars Barry Williams (Greg), Christopher Knight (Peter), and Mike Lookinland (Bobby)—Olsen dropped a bombshell: she was seriously injured while filming the show’s very first episode in 1969, and it could have been fatal.

“My eyes were black. I mean, I had two black eyes. My nose was swollen. My face was swollen,” Olsen said, describing the aftermath of the accident that left her with severe facial trauma.

The injury happened while Olsen was getting body makeup applied on set. She recalled standing on a makeup chair on the Culver Studios lot when debris fell from above.

“Something from the catwalk, where they keep all the lights and everything, fell,” she explained. “It hit the makeup man first, bounced off the body makeup woman, and then slammed right into my face.”

Despite the shocking injury, Olsen’s family didn’t sue Paramount Studios, fearing it might jeopardize her role on the show. Looking back, she’s not so sure that was the right call.

“The saddest news is that we didn’t sue Paramount, because I would have made more off of that than the show,” she joked. “But I came to work the next day. Florence [Henderson] was the first one to see me. She said, ‘You make sure everybody sees her.’ And my mom was like, ‘Oh yes, I will.’ Because everyone was trying to say, ‘It didn’t really hit her. She’s fine.’”

Olsen said she looked like she had walked off the set of a horror movie, and only when others saw her bruised and swollen face did they realize how serious it was.

To make matters even more surreal, famed Hollywood makeup artist Hal King—best known for his work with Lucille Ball—was brought in to cover up her bruises for the pilot shoot.

“He was the specialist to cover up my black eyes. I loved Lucy. She was my idol,” Olsen said. “And every day, my bruises would be a different color, and I’d say, ‘My bruises are purple today, Hal.’”

Her story even surprised her former castmates, with Knight admitting he had never known how badly she had been hurt.

Thanks to expert makeup work and Olsen’s grit, the pilot was a success, setting the stage for what would become one of America’s most iconic family sitcoms. The Brady Bunch ran on ABC from 1969 to 1974 and spawned countless spin-offs, movies, and pop culture references in the decades that followed.

But behind all that cheerful TV magic was a tough little girl who showed up to work with two black eyes and a bruised face—and didn’t let it stop her.