Christopher Knight Tribute Jennifer Runyon: ‘Never a Sweeter Person’

The Brady Bunch actor honored his late co-star three days after she died at 65. The two had worked together since 1981, starting on a New York soap opera.

Christopher Knight, who played Peter Brady on The Brady Bunch, paid tribute to Jennifer Runyon after she died on March 6, 2026, at the age of 65. The two acted together twice across their careers, first on a daytime soap opera in 1981 and again seven years later in the television film A Very Brady Christmas.

Three months before her death, Runyon sat for a video interview about that film. She talked about how the cast had been terrific to work with, how she had known Knight from the soap opera years before CBS put them on screen as brother and sister, and how she did not know anyone who would turn down the chance to be a Brady once in their life. She had already been diagnosed with cancer when she recorded it.

Knight posted his tribute to Instagram on March 9, 2026, alongside a photo of the two of them from one of their scenes in the 1988 film.

“I’m altogether saddened to learn about the passing of Jennifer Runyon. I had wonderful privilege of working with Jennifer a number of times over the years. There was never a sweeter person to befriend or more conscientious actor to work alongside or a brighter smile to behold. My thoughts are with her family, friends, and everyone who knew and loved.”

Christopher Knight, Instagram, March 9, 2026

How Christopher Knight and Jennifer Runyon first worked together

Knight played Peter Brady on ABC’s The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974. In 1980 he joined the NBC daytime drama Another World as a character named Leigh Hobson. Runyon arrived the following March, playing Sally Frame, and the two characters were written as a couple. An IMDB record of an episode from March 12, 1981, describes one of their scenes, in which Leigh tells Sally about his difficult upbringing. Knight left the show later that year. Runyon stayed on until February 1983.

Seven years later, CBS reunited them as siblings.

Runyon took the role of Cindy Brady in A Very Brady Christmas after Susan Olsen, who had played the character through the original run, turned it down. Olsen had a pay dispute with the producers that coincided with her honeymoon. “I decided to take a stand because they were doing this ‘You’re the youngest, so we’ll pay you the least’ thing,” she said later. Runyon auditioned and joined a cast that brought back Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, and Mike Lookinland.

The film aired on CBS on December 18, 1988. It pulled a 25.1 Nielsen rating and a 39 share, meaning four in ten American households watching television that night had it on. It ranked as the second highest rated television movie of the year, and its numbers convinced CBS to commission a follow-up drama series, The Bradys, in 1990.

That production was the last time Knight and Runyon worked together. He stopped acting the same year to take a job in the computer industry. He later became involved with the furniture company Christopher Knight Home, and in 2019 he reunited with the original Brady cast for HGTV’s A Very Brady Renovation, in which they restored the house used for exterior shots in the series.

Who was Jennifer Runyon?

Jennifer Runyon Corman was born on April 1, 1960, in Chicago. Her father, Jim Runyon, was a radio announcer and disc jockey whose work took the family between Chicago, Cleveland, and Boston during her childhood. Her mother, Jane Roberts, was also an actress. Runyon moved to Los Angeles at 20 and began finding work within the year.

She made her feature film debut in 1980 and spent two years on Another World in New York before returning to Los Angeles. In 1984 she appeared in Ghostbusters as the student that Bill Murray’s character puts through an ESP card test in the opening scene. The same year she became a regular on the CBS sitcom Charles in Charge, playing Gwendolyn Pierce opposite Scott Baio during its first season. Her credits through the late 1980s and early 1990s included 18 Again!, the Quantum Leap pilot, and Murder, She Wrote. Her last major role before she stepped away from Hollywood was in the 1993 film Carnosaur.

Why Jennifer Runyon walked away from acting

Runyon explained the decision herself in a July 2016 interview with the podcast A Lady in Red.

“I got married in 1991, and in 1993 we had our son, Wyatt,” she said. “Once we had our son I kind of knew that I wanted to take some time just to be a mom. I grew up in a family where my parents worked, and we had housekeepers and nannies. I grew up with other people who were there every day. I didn’t want that for my kids, because I know all I wanted was my mom. I wanted to be a mom.”

“I didn’t want somebody calling me on the set going, ‘Oh my God, Wyatt walked!’ I wanted to be the one, if possible, that experienced that first.”

She and her husband Todd Corman, a college basketball coach she had met on a film set in the Caribbean in 1986, left California and moved to Idaho, then Oregon. “We were gone for about 10 years,” she said. While the children were in school, she taught them acting through improv exercises, with the aim of helping kids get comfortable speaking in front of other people rather than training them to perform. The family came back to California about a decade later, as her parents were getting older. In her later years she co-hosted a cooking podcast and took small roles in a handful of films between 2015 and 2017.

By December 2025, three months into her diagnosis, she was still talking about the work fondly, sitting for the video interview about A Very Brady Christmas in which she spoke warmly about Knight and the rest of the cast.

Jennifer Runyon’s death at 65

Runyon died on the night of Friday, March 6, 2026, at 65.

Her family shared the news on Facebook the next morning: “This past Friday night our beloved Jennifer passed away, it was a long and arduous journey that ended with her surrounded by her family.”

Her mother-in-law, Nan Morris Corman, said the illness had lasted six months, which places the diagnosis around September 2025. Her friend Erin Murphy, known for Bewitched, wrote on Instagram: “So sad to share that my friend Jennifer Runyon Corman has passed away after a brief battle with cancer. Some people you just know you’ll be friends with before you even meet. She was a special lady.”

How co-stars and family remembered her

Willie Aimes, who worked with Runyon on Charles in Charge and remained close to her for more than thirty years, was with her in her final weeks. He addressed her directly in a Facebook post: “Jenn: you were my rock. Watching you slip away these last few months was one of the hardest times of my life. I can still hear your voice so clearly.”

Scott Baio, her co-star on the same show, wrote: “I had the extreme pleasure of working with Jennifer Runyon on Charles in Charge. She was a sweet, kind, and generous actress to work with. We last saw each other at the Hollywood Christmas Parade in late 2019.”

Susan Olsen, the original Cindy Brady, posted within hours of the announcement. She recalled meeting Runyon by chance years after the 1988 film, both of them at a Burger King with their children. “Just like in the movies, we trotted toward each other, meeting in the middle of the play area in an embrace,” Olsen wrote. “We were instant friends.” The two went on to co-host a podcast together. “She was always kind, always funny and always gorgeous,” Olsen added.

Her brother, David Runyon, wrote: “My beautiful sister Jennifer has joined the angels in Heaven. Always dedicated to her convictions, Jenn was a wonderful mother and talented actress who especially loved the beauty in nature. Her soft voice and incredible smile will remain with me forever.”

The one name that stuck

In her tribute, Susan Olsen drew a line between Runyon and the other actresses who had filled Brady roles over the years. “Over the decades, all three Brady Bunch girls have been replaced for one reunion or another. There is ‘Fake Jan’ and ‘Fake Marcia.’ But Jennifer Runyon must always be referred to as ‘Christmas Cindy,'” she wrote, signing off “Love You Forever! – OG Cindy.”

The day after her mother died, Bayley Corman posted on Instagram. She did not mention Ghostbusters, or Charles in Charge, or the Christmas film that drew tens of millions of viewers the night it aired. She wrote: “All of the best parts of me came from you. The kindest most compassionate person I’ve ever known. My best friend. I wasn’t ready for this.”