In the 1990s, Meryl Rifkin was a popular actor in Columbus.

She performed at the Springer Opera House and The Human Experience Theatre.

In 1999, tragedy struck her family.

On the way home from at trip to Florida, her husband, Lt. Col. Jeff Rifkin, a Fort Benning family practice/geriatrics doctor was killed in an accident.

A few years ago, she and her companion, Andy Smith, moved to Los Angeles with hopes that the move would help her youngest child, Aaron, get a head start in show business.

Last year tragedy struck again when Andy died of a massive heart attack.

Aaron, now 18, graduated from John Burroughs High School in Burbank. He’s still auditioning, but he wants to pursue a career in robotics, mom said.

“We moved to Burbank because of the school system,” Meryl said the other day. “He’ll be going to Cal-Poly Pomona to study mechanical engineering.”

Meryl said Aaron wants to build robots that will clean house, do work in surgical facilities and clean the bottom of the ocean. He was on the team that built a float in the Rose Parade in January and is currently working on the 2011 float.

“It’s a huge deal,” proud mama said.

He’s still looking for his big break in show biz, though it sounds like robotics is where his passion lies right now. He did, however, audition for a Best Buy commercial last week.

Meryl has also been doing extra work, independent movies and commercials. She auditioned for a KIA commercial last week.

“I’m not doing what I want to do and that’s working on a sitcom or a movie, making lots of money,” she told me. “But this is a very competitive business.”

A Jenny-O turkey commercial got her enough work to get a Screen Actors Guild card, but she’s yet to buy her membership.

“It was nice to be featured,” she said. “People in Columbus told me they saw me before I saw it.”

Two independent movies she did are currently in the hands of Lifetime.

“They can do two things,” she said. “A. They can show it, or B. Do nothing.”

She’s not just sitting around waiting, though. She has set up Meryl Rifkin Artist Management.

Meryl’s newest client is New Zealand musician/sound engineer/actor, Johnny Kempt.

Kempt began his show business career as a child actor alongside John Carradine in the 1982 Sam Pillsbury film “The Scarecrow” in New Zealand.

He is most famous in Australia and New Zealand for playing rock icon Buddy Holly in the musical “Buddy.”

Kempt is also an accomplished music producer and has had a number of chart hits.

Meryl says she’s enjoying all her roles -- mother, actor and now artist manager.

Her other two children are Shari Ford, 30, a Chicago area math teacher who is expecting her first child around Thanksgiving, and Randi MacPherson, 28, a property manager in Greensboro, N.C. Randi’s son, Jaxson, is 2 years old.