Barry Williams on His Dad’s ‘Jealousy’ That He Out-Earned Him as a Teen Actor

Barry Williams found success as a child and teen actor — but it did come with a price.

On the April 15 episode of The Real Brady Bros podcast, Williams and his co-host Christopher Knight were joined by their Brady Bunch costars Susan Olsen and Mike Lookinland. Williams, 70, played eldest sibling Greg Brady. Knight, 67, played Peter, while Olsen, 63, and Lookinland, 64, played the youngest Bradys, Cindy and Bobby.

During the episode, the four on-screen siblings reminisced about how they joined The Brady Bunch and how they got started as young actors.

“I just thought, ‘Oh my gosh. This is gonna be a series,’ ” he remembered. He was particularly excited to play the oldest sibling since in real life, he was the youngest of three boys. The fact that “it was going to be a series, so I probably wouldn’t have to audition as much” was part of why he was “very, very excited,” he added.

However, his newfound success from The Brady Bunch, which ran from 1969 to 1974, led to some difficulties with his dad, Frank Blenkhorn. “He never was, at any point, exactly approving of the fact that I was in show business,” he explained. “As the show became more successful, I think he was more disenchanted. And I think there was a point where I may have had more opportunities, or there was a year or two where I was literally making more money than he was.” Williams said that only happened when his dad’s business would have a “down period” once in a while.

“He was very sharp with me about ego, about, you know, about making sure that I wasn’t getting too big for my britches, which probably was deserved,” Williams continued. “But I sensed a bit of jealousy.” His dad, he thought, felt frustrated that “a kid” didn’t have to go through “25 years” of work and instead had success “handed to him.”

Williams said he also thought his success took “a toll on his brothers” as his family’s life began to revolve around him and what he needed. “There was some resentment,” he said.

Knight said that in some ways, he could relate. His mother, Wilma, “was absolutely vociferously opposed to whatever the show was standing for, which was a challenge.” He explained that in retrospect, as an adult, it caused his mother “internal grief” that her real family couldn’t live up to the Bradys.

Meanwhile, his father, Edward, had been a Shakespearean actor and felt The Brady Bunch was not “high art.” His dad didn’t do any TV at all, he said, because he felt, “It was beneath actors that did stage.”