At 17, Susan Dey began her acting career as Laurie, the older daughter in The Partridge Family. Now, half her life later, divorced, the mother of an eight-year-old daughter, the actress has traded in that wholesome-girl-next-door image for something a little more down to earth in the NBC-TV hit L.A. Law. She plays deputy D.A. Grace Van Owen, prosecuting criminals in the courtroom and cavorting with co-star Harry Hamlin in the bedroom. Freelance writer Dick Lochte caught up with Dey at a Hollywood restaurant. "There'd been a couple of recent magazine articles depicting her as a depressed, melancholy neurotic," Lochte says. "They didn't jibe with the upbeat, energetic, tanned blonde who strode purposefully across the floor and flopped onto a chair. Introductions over, she lighted an unfiltered cigarette, causing some guy at the next table to complain loudly to the waiter. The waiter explained that this was, after all, the smoking area. And as the guy huffed away in search of rarer air, Susan called after him cheerily, 'Try 'em. You'll like 'em. Really.'"

Q 1

PLAYBOY: It's hard to believe you're the Susan Dey we've been reading about. "WHY SUSAN DEY SAYS...'I'M AFRAID OF EVERYTHING.'" "SUSAN DEY: HOLLYWOOD ALMOST KILLED ME." Are we catching you on a particularly good day?

Susan Dey: I ran into the woman who wrote the "AFRAID OF EVERYTHING" article. She said, "Do you hate me?" I said, "No, I don't hate you. I hated the article, though. But I don't hate you." And she said, "I'm so glad you didn't take it personally." I told her I realized she was in business to sell magazines. I didn't hate her, but I blamed her.

Anyway, no, I don't fear everything. We were talking about being afraid and how frightening it is to take risks, and I said that I felt it was better if you do take risks and are afraid.

The other one, "HOLLYWOOD ALMOST KILLED ME," was this conversation about my anorexic days, when I was 17. Twenty minutes out of a three-hour interview. At one point, the interviewer said, "I guess you could say Hollywood almost killed you." And I laughed and said, "I don't think so. I never even went to a hospital. But I suppose you could say that." And they did.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: Grace Van Owen has been described as driven, uptight and a control freak, yet millions of men seem to be terribly attracted to her. Why?

Susan Dey: It's the suits. That's what a man told me on an airplane. He said, "I want you to know the only reason I watch that show is the suits."

Seriously, I think it's terribly exciting to see a woman who is so independent and so powerful and yet sexual and sensuous at the same time. And vulnerable. You do see Grace's vulnerability. Until recently, television viewers never really had an opportunity to see that kind of woman.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: Are there parts of Grace's character you'd like to acquire yourself?

Susan Dey: I would love to be ruder. I would love to feel OK about being rude.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: Before that happens, let's talk a little about your past. Specifically, how does a shy teenager from Mount Kisco, New York, become a successful model?

Susan Dey: I was--shy is not the word. Any time I could perform, I was performing. My parents would have people over. My sister and brother would hide in their rooms. Not me. I was right up front.

If there was any shyness, it was in terms of "Who am I?" I knew there was a world out there--beyond Mount Kisco--but I didn't have any sense of what it could be. I remember, I had just turned 15, and I talked to my stepmother about it. I told her I didn't know what I wanted to do that summer, but I felt this need to see what was going on. And she told me she had sent my photograph to a modeling agency in Manhattan. I was horrified at first. But that's how it all happened. My stepmother took me to the agency. They told me to lose five pounds and come back in the summer. It was that simple.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: Was it everything Brooke Shields makes us think it is--dining with Scavullo and flying down to Rio to do a fashion shoot?

Susan Dey: More so then than now. I understand things are really tight now. But I guess it goes both ways. We would change behind rocks in Central Park; now they have to have Winnebagos. But some of it used to be absolutely wonderful. All of a sudden, they would call and say, "You're going to Puerto Rico. You're going to St. Croix."