Kellie Martin Is Part of the Family After Years of Playing Just a Friend

It’s a credit to Kellie Martin’s abilities that she can pull off playing such dissimilar high school girls as “Life Goes On’s” Becca and “Matinee’s” Sherry. “Getting to play someone so unlike Becca was the thing that attracted me to ‘Matinee,’ ” says Martin of Joe Dante’s comedic takeoff on B movies, now playing.

Filming the weekly saga of the struggle with AIDS by Becca’s boyfriend Jesse (Chad Lowe) is often difficult for the 17-year-old actress. “It’s not fun work, but it’s good work. It’s very intense--hard to shake off. There have been days when it’s so emotional I wish I was doing more of Sherry.”

Sherry is an airhead. She is a 1962-Barbie doll-type that this 5-foot 3-inch brown-haired performer played last spring on location in Key West and Orlando while on hiatus from her critically acclaimed ABC series. Dressed in pink dresses with petticoats underneath, Sherry is “an aspiring tramp,” says Martin. Having just seen the Universal release, she notes she was amused that her scenes are accompanied by musical numbers like “My Boyfriend’s Back.”

Off the set she enjoys ballet, swimming and ice skating. She learned to snorkel when “Life” was on location in Hawaii in ‘91, and resumed it in Key West while on the “Matinee” shoot.

It was her mom’s sister Rhonda who set the stage for her career. She was looking after the children of Michael Landon, then producing his kid-filled “Father Murphy,” and showed him a picture of Martin.

Later she played a Girl Scout in “Troop Beverly Hills.” She recites a number of episodic TV appearances--”The Hogan Family,” “Life With Lucy,” “Baywatch,” “My Two Dads,” “Mr. Belvedere”--mostly as friends or girlfriends to the series’ regulars.

“I played a lot of friends. Now I’m part of the family.”