What happens when someone becomes connected to a television star but never tries to become a celebrity herself? That question helps explain why people still search for Maura Nielsen Kaplan, even though she has spent most of her life outside Hollywood’s spotlight.
Maura Nielsen Kaplan is best known as the first wife of actor Richard Kline, the man millions of viewers remember as Larry Dallas from the classic sitcom Three’s Company. Maura and Richard married before his biggest television success, and they later became parents to a daughter named Colby Kline.
Their marriage eventually ended, and Richard remarried more than once. Maura, meanwhile, largely disappeared from entertainment coverage. That privacy has created plenty of unanswered questions. Who was Maura before Richard became famous? What happened to their marriage? And what do we actually know about her life today?
Why Is Maura Nielsen Kaplan Known?
Maura’s name appears primarily in searches about Richard Kline’s personal life.
Richard built a long career as an actor and director.
His most famous television role was Larry Dallas, the confident and often woman-chasing best friend of Jack Tripper on Three’s Company.
The sitcom became one of the biggest television comedies of its era.
Richard’s fame naturally made people curious about his relationships.
Who was his wife?
Did he have children?
How many times did he marry?
Those questions eventually lead to Maura.
She was part of Richard’s life before and during an important early stage of his career.
Maura Was Richard Kline’s First Wife
Richard Kline has been married multiple times.
Maura Nielsen was his first wife.
Reliable entertainment databases generally record the couple as marrying in 1974.
Their marriage lasted until 1982.
That means Maura was married to Richard during the period when Three’s Company turned him into a familiar television face.
This is important.
She did not marry Richard after he became a nostalgic sitcom star.
She knew him while his career was still developing.
She then watched as a supporting television role transformed his professional life.
Who Is Richard Kline?
To understand why people are interested in Maura, it helps to understand the man she married.
Richard Kline was born on April 29, 1944, in New York City.
He studied at Queens College and later earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Northwestern University.
Before becoming a professional actor, Richard served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War era.
His military experience included service in Vietnam.
After returning to civilian life, he concentrated on acting.
Theater played an important role in his early career.
Television eventually gave him the role that would make him famous.
Larry Dallas Changed Richard Kline’s Career
Three’s Company premiered in 1977.
The show starred John Ritter as Jack Tripper, Joyce DeWitt as Janet Wood, and Suzanne Somers as Chrissy Snow during its famous early lineup.
Richard appeared as Larry Dallas.
Larry was Jack’s friend and neighbor.
He worked as a used-car salesman and was known for his confidence with women.
The character was originally a recurring role rather than one of the central roommates.
But Larry became popular.
Richard eventually appeared in well over 100 episodes of the series.
For Maura, her husband’s career was suddenly reaching millions of American homes.
Maura Experienced the Rise of Three’s Company From Inside the Family
Imagine the change.
One year, your husband is a working actor looking for roles.
Then he joins a television comedy.
The show becomes a hit.
People recognize him.
His character develops a fan following.
That was the professional world surrounding Maura’s marriage during the late 1970s.
But very little has been publicly documented about how Maura personally experienced Richard’s growing fame.
There are no major interviews in which she describes what it was like being married to him during Three’s Company.
That gap should not be filled with invented stories.
What can be established is that their marriage overlapped with the period that made Richard famous.
Maura and Richard Had a Daughter Named Colby
The most important lasting family connection from Maura and Richard’s marriage is their daughter.
Her name is Colby Kline.
Colby was born in the early 1980s, with entertainment records commonly giving March 26, 1982, as her birth date.
That means Maura became a mother near the end of her marriage to Richard.
Colby later entered entertainment herself.
This created an interesting family pattern.
Richard became an actor.
His daughter eventually acted too.
Maura remained the private person connecting those two generations.
Colby Kline Became a Child Actress
Colby did not remain completely outside her father’s professional world.
She began acting when she was young.
Her credits include appearances in television and film during the 1980s and 1990s.
One of her better-known early projects was Jaws: The Revenge.
The 1987 film was the fourth movie in the Jaws series.
Colby played Thea Brody.
She was still a child.
That meant Maura had now experienced entertainment from another direction.
First, her husband became a television actor.
Then her daughter worked professionally as a child performer.
Colby Also Appeared in Just Between Friends
Colby had additional screen work.
She appeared in Just Between Friends, the 1986 drama starring Mary Tyler Moore, Christine Lahti, Ted Danson, and Sam Waterston.
She also accumulated other acting credits during her younger years.
However, Colby did not eventually become a Hollywood star on the level of some famous child performers.
Her career took other directions as she grew older.
Still, her childhood acting makes the Nielsen-Kline family story more interesting.
Maura herself stayed away from acting fame while both her former husband and daughter appeared on screen.
Did Maura Nielsen Kaplan Work as an Actress?
There is no strong evidence that Maura built a professional acting career comparable to Richard’s.
Some online profiles describe her using different occupations.
The problem is that those descriptions are rarely supported by authoritative sources.
Her public identity comes almost entirely from marriage and family records.
This means it would be misleading to invent a career simply because a biography feels incomplete without one.
Maura may certainly have had professional work of her own.
But her exact career history has not been documented widely enough to state it confidently.
Sometimes a private person’s job remains exactly that—private.
Why Is “Kaplan” Part of Maura’s Name?
Readers may notice something confusing.
Richard’s surname is Kline.
Yet Maura is often searched as Maura Nielsen Kaplan.
Nielsen appears in records connected with her earlier identity, while Kaplan appears to reflect a later surname.
This strongly suggests that Maura later used Kaplan after her marriage to Richard ended.
However, details about a later husband or exactly when she began using the Kaplan surname are not widely documented in major entertainment sources.
That creates an important distinction.
The name itself appears in public records.
A detailed second-marriage story does not.
Without stronger evidence, it would be wrong to invent a spouse, wedding date, or relationship timeline simply to explain the surname.
Why Did Maura Nielsen and Richard Kline Divorce?
Maura and Richard’s marriage ended in 1982.
That basic fact is established in entertainment biographical records.
The exact reasons are not.
This is another place where celebrity biography websites sometimes become too creative.
A marriage can end for countless reasons.
Career pressure may be involved.
Personal differences may be involved.
People may simply grow apart.
But none of those possibilities should be presented as Maura and Richard’s actual reason without reliable evidence.
There is no need to create a scandal where none is publicly established.
The responsible answer is simple.
Their marriage ended, but the private reasons behind the divorce have not been clearly documented.
Their Divorce Came During a Major Time in Richard’s Career
The timing is interesting.
Richard and Maura divorced in 1982.
Three’s Company was still on television.
The show did not end until 1984.
That means Richard was still playing Larry Dallas while his first marriage came to an end.
At the same time, Maura had recently become a mother to Colby.
It was a period containing two very different realities.
Richard had professional success.
The marriage was ending.
Public success does not always reflect what is happening inside someone’s home.
For Maura, this was also the point when her life began moving further away from Richard’s public career.
Richard Kline Married Again After Maura
Richard did not remain single permanently after his divorce from Maura.
He later married Sandy Molloy.
Entertainment databases generally place that marriage between 1982 and 2002.
The relationship lasted much longer than Richard’s marriage to Maura.
It also eventually ended in divorce.
Years later, Richard married again.
His third wife is actress and singer Beverley Osgoode.
They married in 2002.
This makes Maura the first chapter in Richard’s documented marriage history.
Who Is Beverley Osgoode?
Beverley Osgoode has worked in entertainment and theater.
Her marriage to Richard created a relationship very different from his first one in terms of public documentation.
Because both Richard and Beverley have professional entertainment backgrounds, their work has sometimes placed them in public settings together.
Maura’s story is much quieter.
She did not remain publicly connected with Richard’s later marriages.
There is no reason to frame the women as rivals.
They simply belong to different periods of his life.
Did Richard Kline Have Other Children?
Colby is Richard Kline’s best-documented child.
Major entertainment biographies consistently identify her as his daughter.
There is not similarly strong documentation establishing additional biological children from his later marriages.
That makes Colby especially important in Maura and Richard’s shared story.
Even after their marriage ended, they remained connected through their daughter.
But because Colby is now an adult, the details of her relationship with each parent belong primarily to the family.
Maura’s Daughter Eventually Moved Beyond Child Acting
Colby’s childhood acting career did not define her entire adult life.
She later pursued other interests, including music.
Biographical information has connected her with singing and performance beyond her early screen work.
That shows how creative interests remained part of the family.
Richard built his career through acting and theater.
Colby explored acting and music.
Maura remained far less public.
Three people in one family could therefore have very different relationships with attention.
Maura Never Tried to Build Fame From Richard Kline
This may be the most revealing part of Maura’s public story.
She could have spent years discussing Three’s Company.
She could have given interviews about Richard.
She could have turned her former marriage into a celebrity identity.
There is little evidence that she did.
Instead, Maura largely disappeared from entertainment reporting after the divorce.
That is not the same as disappearing from life.
It simply means she stopped being relevant to Hollywood news.
The difference is important.
A private person can live a full life without newspapers or entertainment websites documenting it.
What Happened to Maura After the Divorce?
Public information becomes much thinner after 1982.
The use of the surname Kaplan suggests a later stage in her personal life.
But major sources do not provide a complete timeline.
There is no reliable mainstream biography describing every relationship, job, or move she made after Richard.
That may frustrate readers searching for a dramatic “where is she now?” answer.
But it is also completely normal.
Maura was no longer married to a famous actor.
She was not pursuing a celebrity career.
There was little reason for entertainment journalists to follow her everyday life.
Is Maura Nielsen Kaplan Still Alive?
There is no widely reported mainstream obituary clearly establishing Maura Nielsen Kaplan’s death.
That means it would be irresponsible to claim she has died simply because current information is scarce.
At the same time, absence of an obituary should not be used to create detailed claims about her present circumstances.
As of 2026, reliable public information about Maura’s current life remains extremely limited.
The safest conclusion is that her current status is private rather than publicly documented in detail.
How Old Is Maura Nielsen Kaplan?
Maura’s exact date of birth is difficult to establish through strong entertainment sources.
Some online genealogy and celebrity pages provide birth years or ages.
Those claims are not consistent enough to treat as unquestionable facts.
This is especially important because Maura never became a celebrity herself.
Unlike Richard, there is no major professional biography documenting her birth date, education, and career.
Therefore, giving readers a precise age in 2026 would create more certainty than the available evidence supports.
Her exact age has not been reliably confirmed publicly.
What Is Maura Nielsen Kaplan’s Net Worth?
There is no credible public estimate of Maura’s personal net worth.
Any website claiming an exact figure should explain how that number was calculated.
Usually, it cannot.
Maura’s career and finances are not publicly documented in enough detail to estimate her wealth responsibly.
Richard Kline’s earnings cannot simply be assigned to his former wife either.
They divorced decades ago.
Their financial lives after divorce would have been separate in many important ways.
Without reliable information about Maura’s assets, income, investments, property, and liabilities, her exact net worth remains unknown.
Where Is Maura Nielsen Kaplan Now in 2026?
Maura remains outside the public spotlight.
There is no strong recent reporting confirming her exact residence, current occupation, or relationship status in 2026.
That is why many online articles about her rely heavily on information about Richard.
There simply is not much verified current material about Maura herself.
The most accurate answer is that she has maintained a private life since her marriage to Richard Kline ended.
Anything more specific requires reliable evidence.
Privacy should not be treated as an invitation to guess.
Why Do People Still Search for Maura?
The answer begins with Three’s Company.
The sitcom remains popular decades after its original run.
People discover old episodes.
They remember John Ritter.
They search for Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt.
Then they remember Larry Dallas.
Richard Kline’s character was not one of the three roommates in the title, but he became a memorable part of the show.
Fans searching Richard’s personal life eventually find his first wife.
Maura.
That curiosity has kept her name appearing online long after she stepped away from any connection with entertainment publicity.
Maura’s Story Is Also Connected to a Different Hollywood Generation
There is another reason her biography is interesting.
She connects Richard’s television generation with Colby’s child-acting years.
Richard belonged to the world of late-1970s and 1980s sitcom television.
Colby appeared in films during the 1980s.
Maura stood between those two careers as wife and mother.
Yet she was not trying to compete with either.
That gives her an unusual place in the family.
She was surrounded by people who appeared on screens while remaining mostly unseen herself.
Why Accurate Information About Maura Matters
Private relatives of celebrities are easy targets for low-quality biography content.
A website may need 1,500 words.
But only 300 words of reliable information exist.
So it starts filling gaps.
Suddenly the person has a birth date.
A profession appears.
Then a net worth.
Then a detailed love story.
After several sites copy those claims, they begin looking real.
Maura Nielsen Kaplan is exactly the kind of person who requires more care.
The confirmed story may be shorter than readers expect.
That does not mean it should be decorated with invented facts.
Interesting Facts About Maura Nielsen Kaplan
Maura Nielsen was the first wife of actor Richard Kline.
The couple married in 1974.
Their marriage overlapped with Richard’s rise to fame as Larry Dallas on Three’s Company.
Maura and Richard had a daughter named Colby Kline.
Colby later worked as a child actress.
One of Colby’s best-known film roles was Thea Brody in Jaws: The Revenge.
Maura and Richard’s marriage ended in 1982.
Richard later married Sandy Molloy and then Beverley Osgoode.
Maura has also been publicly identified using the surname Kaplan.
She did not build a major acting or television career of her own.
The exact reason for her divorce from Richard has not been publicly established.
Her birth date, net worth, current residence, and professional history are not reliably documented by major public sources.
Final Thoughts
Maura Nielsen Kaplan is remembered because she shared an important part of Richard Kline’s life.
They married in 1974, before Three’s Company made Richard famous as Larry Dallas.
Then television success arrived.
Millions of viewers knew Richard’s face.
Meanwhile, Maura and Richard became parents to Colby Kline, who would later have her own experience as a child actress.
Their marriage did not last.
By 1982, it was over.
Richard eventually remarried and continued acting for decades.
Maura moved away from the entertainment spotlight.
That is where her story becomes quieter.
There are no endless interviews.
No reality series.
No carefully managed celebrity profile.
And there is no reliable reason to invent one.
Maura Nielsen Kaplan remains an interesting part of Richard Kline’s personal history and Colby Kline’s family story, but she also represents something much simpler: a person who once lived close to fame and later chose—or was able—to live largely outside it.
FAQs About Maura Nielsen Kaplan
Who is Maura Nielsen Kaplan?
Maura Nielsen Kaplan is best known as the first wife of actor Richard Kline, who played Larry Dallas on the classic television sitcom Three’s Company.
When did Maura Nielsen marry Richard Kline?
Entertainment biographical records generally place their marriage in 1974.
When did Maura Nielsen and Richard Kline divorce?
Their marriage ended in 1982, while Three’s Company was still airing.
Did Maura Nielsen Kaplan and Richard Kline have children?
Yes. They have a daughter named Colby Kline, who worked as a child actress.
Is Colby Kline an actress?
Colby has acting credits from her younger years. One of her best-known roles was Thea Brody in the 1987 film Jaws: The Revenge.
What is Maura Nielsen Kaplan’s net worth?
Maura’s exact net worth has not been publicly confirmed. Her career and personal finances are not documented well enough to support the precise estimates found on some biography websites.
Where is Maura Nielsen Kaplan now?
As of 2026, Maura maintains a very low public profile. Reliable recent sources do not clearly document her current residence, occupation, or everyday activities.
