Peter Gallagher Is Still 'Very Protective' over Mischa Barton, Who He Says He's 'So Grateful' Is 'Still Alive'

Mar. 15, 2025

Peter Gallagher at the Broadway opening night of “Left on Tenth” (left); Mischa Barton attends the “Rumours” premiere during the 62nd New York Film Festival (right).Photo:Kristina Bumphrey/Variety/Getty; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Kristina Bumphrey/Variety/Getty; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

To say thatPeter Gallagheris protective overMischa Bartonis an understatement.

Gallagher, 69, starred as Sandy Cohen onThe O.C.alongside Barton’s Marissa Cooper, and he didn’t just play a fictional father figure on the show — he took the role quite literally.

“I’ve always felt very protective of her,” Gallagher toldThe Independentof Barton, 38. “First fame is toxic. First fame can kill you.”

“She was 16 years old when she started working with us, so just the fact that she’s still alive, I’m just so grateful,” he said.

Barton’s youthfulness when she joined the hit series, which ran from 2003 to 2007 even though she exited after three seasons andher character was killed off, is not a new topic. She’sbeen open about the “trauma” that she experienced due to her exposure at such a young age, tellingThe Sunday Timeslast year, “You can go to therapy every day for the rest of your life. But there’s just a certain amount of trauma [from] all that I went through, particularly in my early 20s, that just doesn’t go away overnight.”

Fame was “never” something she “sought out,” she said, which made it all the more challenging. Gallagher, who played a father to Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) and adoptive father to Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie), whowas Barton’s love interest both on and off-screen, was evidently aware of that.

Mischa Barton, Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan, Adam Brody in ‘The O.C.'.WB/Everett

WB/Everett

Barton is not the only one of Gallagher’s former costars he’s been speaking out about recently, though.

Benjamin McKenzie, Mischa Barton, and Peter Gallagher on ‘The O.C.'.Warner Bros Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock

Warner Bros Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock

Gallagher has always looked back fondly at his time onThe O.C., which he told PEOPLE in 2020 he felt was “exactly what this country has been waiting for” right after 9/11.

“People were drumming up a xenophobia, a fear of the outsider. I thought it was giving into our worst instincts, and it was entirely un-American,” he said. “We really had something with that show. And the audience felt the same way.”

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The O.C.can be streamed in full on Hulu and Max.

source: people.com