American actress Lisa Robin Kelly died on August 14, 2013 in her sleep, Kelly played Laurie Forman, the promiscuous and malicious older sister of Eric Forman, on That ’70s Show.
She abruptly left the show midway through the third season, and her character was written out of the show to “attend beauty school”.
She returned to the show in the fifth season for four episodes, but was replaced with Christina Moore in the sixth season.
She first made her acting debut, at age 21, in a 1992 episode of Married with Children (1987), and went on to guest-star in many popular television shows, such as Murphy Brown (1988), The X-Files (1993), Sisters (1991) and Silk Stalkings (1991) and appeared in many obscure, straight-to-video/TV movies.
She finally earned her big break and minor celebrity status, at age 28, with her role as “Laurie Forman”, the promiscuous elder sister of “Eric Forman”, on That ’70s Show (1998).
The character garnered her #6 placement on Maxim’s TV’s “Best Nymphos” list. She enjoyed brief success, mild publicity and increased output during the first two years of the show, including one of her only high-profile movies, Jawbreaker (1999).
On March 31, 2012, Kelly was arrested on a felony charge of corporal injury upon a spouse, and was released on $50,000 bail.
The charge was based on a complaint filed by her ex-boyfriend, John Michas.
She later made public statements saying that she was the one who had been assaulted, and denied Michas’ claim that she assaulted him.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney declined to file charges.
She briefly returned to the show in the fifth season, and was offered appearances in thirteen episodes of the sixth season.
She filmed the first few episodes, but was replaced by Christina Moore, as she was in the midst of a key story, and her character couldn’t up and leave, again.
Fox stated this was a mutual agreement, and Wilmer Valderrama, with whom she spent most of her screen time in season five, said she wanted to try other things, her agent restating that, and adding that she had been clean for two years.
He was sentenced to 12 months of unsupervised probation in North Carolina after pleading guilty to drunken driving.
In June 2013 she filed for divorce from her husband of 8 months Robert Joseph Gilliam, but they were never divorced before her death 2 months later.