WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO: TRACI LIND

Being a fan of actress Traci Lind was always a bit confusing since she always seemed to go by different names. On some films she was Traci Lind, or Traci Lin, or Traci Linn-Tavi, or even Tracy Lin.

I first saw her in a 1986 TV movie CLUB MED. Also starring Linda Hamilton (from T.A.G.: THE ASSASSINATION GAME ), Traci played a French girl, trying to have Patrick Macnee sneak her into the resort.

She did a lot of TV work. She had been on RYAN’S HOPE, but did guest spots on FAME and 21 JUMP STREET, and the 1987 TV movie CASANOVA with Richard Chamberlain.


In 1987 she had one of her best roles, in MY LITTLE GIRL. This film, produced by the Merchant Ivory team, starred Mary Stuart Masterson as a rich girl who goes to volunteer at a school for troubled girls. Traci played one of the kids, on the run from her pimp (Peter Gallagher). Also starring James Earl Jones and Geraldine Page, the film is notable today mainly for being the film debut of Jennifer Lopez (although the last time I saw it on cable, I couldn’t even recognize who she was). Traci more than held her own in this film.

Also in 1987 she made what may be her most lasting legacy, to music fans at least.

Lou Gramm |MTV Music

She played the girl in the video for Lou Gramm’s “Midnight Blue”. I saw this video many times in 1987, and only in the late 90’s did I realize it was her.

What followed were a lot of roles in popular, but small films, such as Richard Pryor’s MOVING, A TIGER’S TALE with Ann-Margret and C. Thomas Howell, FRIGHT NIGHT 2, SURVIVAL QUEST, and CLASS OF 1999.


She starred in two films for Volker Schlondorff, 1990’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE and 1991’s VOYAGER. In 1991’s NO SECRETS, she starred with Amy Locane (the actress who inspired this What Ever Happened to Series).

There were small roles in bigger films, 1991’s BUGSY, and playing a nurse in 1994’s THE ROAD TO WELVILLE.


In 1993 she starred in Bob Balaban’s MY BOYFRIEND’S BACK. A highly underrated film where a guy becomes a zombie and his family understands and accepts it, as if he told them he was changing religions. It didn’t find an audience, but should have. Traci played the female lead.

There were a lot of direct to video, if even that, films that followed. The best being 1997’s RED MEAT, a film she even served as co-producer of. This film, inspired by IN THE COMPANY OF MEN, also deserved to find an audience.

Surprisingly, her last role was also one of her best, in Wim Wender’s THE END OF VIOLENCE. Like Wenders’ other L.A. efforts, it is a bit muddled, but Lind gave her best performance in it. While it should have led to bigger and better roles, it was her last.


SO WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO HER?

You know, I can’t find out! She seems to have truly disappeared.

The only mention of her since 1997 was in a Vanity Fair article on Dodi Al-Fayed. Apparently, she had dated him before Princess Diana. Since I can't find it online to link to, and it has been years since I read it, I will just say that, according to the article, it wasn't a good relationship.

There are some comments around the internet that she is working on a screenplay with her husband. Someone points to an L.A. networking group where someone with her name has been posting, but those appear to be several years old.

She was a good actress. In the mid 90’s, I remember tracking all of her films down in video stores. CLASS OF 1999 was the hardest to find (and the least memorable). But, I eventually managed to find them all.

She had a good 10-year run in the industry. Whether she wanted it to be more, or is doing something else with her life, I don’t know.