Martha Plimpton

Former child star Martha Plimpton is dishing out lots of surprises this fall. First the 30-something shows up playing a grandmother in the new hit comedy Raising Hope. Now the grown-up Goonie Girl was featured singing God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch of tonight’s World Series game in Texas.

Performing in front of a crowd comes naturally for Plimpton, who is the daughter of actors Keith Carradine and Shelley Plimpton. Her parents met during the original Broadway run of the show Hair.


Her famous father was largely missing from the early portion of her life and didn’t meet his daughter until she was four years old. “I said, ‘You’re on your own,’ basically,” Carradine admitted of learning his ex-girlfriend was pregnant . “I said, ‘I can’t deal with this.’ I was 19 and, as I said, it was probably my low point. [Shelley] She did a hell of a job raising Martha. I was not there. I was a very young man, absolutely terrified. She just took that in, and then she welcomed me into Martha’s life when I was ready.”

She went on to attend the Professional Children’s School in Manhattan and had a string of hit movies in the 80s including The Gooonies and Parenthood.