The costars, who famously portrayed Steven and Elyse Keaton, were both born on June 21, 1947.

Family Ties star Michael Gross celebrates TV wife Meredith Baxter on their shared 79th birthday

The costars, who famously portrayed Steven and Elyse Keaton, were both born on June 21, 1947.

By Kathleen Perricone

June 22, 2026 6:39 p.m. ET

'Family Ties' stars Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross. Credit:

Tony Costa/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

- *Family Ties* patriarch Michael Gross celebrated TV wife Meredith Baxter on their shared 79th birthday.

- The two were both born on June 21, 1947, albeit 2,000 miles apart.

- Gross and Baxter instantly clicked and have remained friends, nearly four decades after the NBC sitcom ended in 1989.

Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross didn't just share the screen for seven seasons — they've also shared the exact same birthdate for 79 years.

On June 21, the *Family Ties* costars each celebrated the big 7-9, and Gross gave his fellow Gemini a special social media shout-out.

"79 years ago today, baby Michael was born in the Central Time Zone and baby Meredith in the Pacific Time Zone," the Chicago native wrote of Baxter, who was born and raised in South Pasadena. "Thirty-five years later, the two of them met and played husband and wife on @nbc's *Family Ties*. @familytiescentral #fans already know this, but for those who don't, Happy Birthday, Meredith Baxter!!!"

The birthday twins instantly clicked when they were cast as Steven and Elyse Keaton, 1960s radicals raising "preppie" kids in Ohio: eldest son Alex, a Young Republican (Michael J. Fox), superficial Mallory (*Justine Bateman*), and tomboy Jennifer (Tina Yothers).

In season 3 of the NBC sitcom, the onscreen couple welcomed their fourth child, a son named Andy, to coincide with Baxter's real-life pregnancy.

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Gross and Baxter were both 41-years-old when *Family Ties* went off the air in 1989, and at the time he had been married to his fictional wife longer than his actual spouse, Elza.

"My workaholic behavior kept me from dealing with… problems," Gross told the *San Antonio Star* in 1990. "I'm certainly closer to Meredith. We're in the same generation. We speak the same language. We even have the same birthdays."

Baxter, who divorced her second husband David Birney in 1989, agreed that she and Gross shared a different bond than he did with his wife of six years. "He nags," she revealed in the same interview. "I hear him on the phone talking to Elza and I say, 'I wouldn't want to hear that coming at me.' But I have the nicest relationship with Michael. I absolutely adore him."

Baxter, Gross, Michael J. Fox, and his wife Tracy Pollan at the 2011 TV Land Awards in New York.

Larry Busacca/Getty

The two reunited several times over the years, including at the 2011 TV Land Awards with their TV son, Fox, and his wife Tracy Pollan, who played Alex's love interest on the sitcom. Seven years later, Baxter and Gross costarred in the 2018 stage production of *Love Letters* at the Bucks County Playhouse

"We met thanks to the series and we've been friends ever since," Gross told the *Sunday Democrat*. "I had no idea that because of *Family Ties*, we'd become iconic."

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Most recently in 2020, Baxter and Gross reunited with three of their TV kids: Fox, Yothers, and Brian Bonsall, who played Andy in the final three seasons.

"I loved the time that we were together," Gross told his onscreen family. "I think I took some of how great we were together for granted… I didn't know how contrary some shows could be and how some casts quarreled the way they did. I mean, I just thought it was all perfection the way ours was and I didn't really understand that things don't always go this particularly well — that there was no controversy, not a lot of problems."

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