Before his breakthrough on Family Ties, Valentine struggled a lot
and suffered from a tragic accident. In 1981, he was run over by a
truck in New York City and was dependent on public assistance and
Medicaid.
The injury halted his acting career and he spent several years in
pain trying to rehabilitate his broken hip and pelvis.
”I had to convince people that I could walk, talk and would not fall
down on stage. I remember at one casting meeting that I gott so
exasperated that I got up on this woman’s desk and started
dancing,” he said in 1992.
Valentine auditioned for the role of Nick Moore in 1985 in what was
supposed to be a one-shot appearance. But his character ended up
as ”the date that wouldn’t” leave.
In my opinion, Nick and Mallory were great together. To those who
don’t know, Scott Valentine had a voice similar to Sylvester Stallone
– I always thought he looked and sounded like a young Rambo.
Valentine joined the show in its fourth season as Nick Moore, an offbeat boyfriend to Mallory, the eldest daughter in the Keaton family.
Nick was meant to be short-lived as a dumb but warm-hearted
counterpart to the show lead, but audiences took to him so well that
Valentine actually fulfilled the role for 45 episodes.
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Unfortunately, the spin-off never took off. Valentine received
boundless attention and support for his work, but he expressed
“feeling bad” about the character in retrospect. While many fans
still remember Valentine’s character with fondness, the actor
himself is inclined to disagree.
”It was a big plus in terms of getting exposure. But very detrimental
in people thinking that I was the monosyllabic idiot that I
portrayed,” he told Santa Maria Times in 1992.
According to Mental Floss, the dumbness Nick had bothered him.
The actor’s background included studying the artform at several
prestigious acting skills, but he cited feeling as though he was hired
on the sitcom “so I could grunt on primetime television.” While the
character was popular, the actor felt challenged by the simplicity.
“It was a lot of fun, but literally there were times where I only had
to utter two guttural utterances in a show and they paid me a
bundle of cash for it,” he explained. “I felt bad at times.”
Scott Valentine children
Scott was married to actress Kym Denyse (Fisher) Stephenson
between 1985 and 2012. The couple had four sons together; Trevin
John (1986), Shayler Stephenson (1988), Jesstin Jay-Owen (1992) and
Caden Edward (1998).