Category: Redhead of the Week
Redhead of the Week – Deborah Kerr
Posted by admin in Redhead of the Week Friday, 29 January 2010 20:25 1 Comment
The Scottish television, stage and film actress Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer CBE popular by the name Deborah Kerr was born on the 30th September 1921 in Glasgow, Scotland. Kerr was the only daughter and eldest child of Kathleen Rose & Capt. Arthur Charles Kerr-Trimmer who was a veteran pilot of the First World War and later worked as a civil engineer and naval architect. Deborah Kerr had a younger journalist brother Edward who died in a 2004 road accident.
In 1938, Kerr as a ballet dancer first appeared at Sadler’s Wells and soon jumped to the next step on the performance ladder, acting. In 1940, Kerr appeared in the British war-time spy film Contraband but unfortunately her scenes were edited in the final released version. Her next role was in the 1941 British film Hatter’s Castle. In the subsequent year Kerr played the hero’s love interest in Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell’s film titled The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Deborah Kerr struck fame and recognition after playing the acclaimed role of a nun in the 1947 Black Narcissus for which she bagged Actress of the Year Award by the New York Film Critics’.
Deborah Kerr appeared as Karen in the film From Here to Eternity in 1953, the role brought her an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Actress. AFI termed the movie as one of “AFI’s top 100 Most Romantic Films” ever produced in the history of American cinema.
Kerr portrayed various roles such as a nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, a governess in The Chalk Garden, a mama’s girl in Separate Tables, a sheep-herder’s wife in The Sundowners, a beautiful and lustful screen enchantresses in Beloved Infidel and Bonjour tristesse and as a comic in The Grass is Greener. Deborah Kerr’s most popular roles were in the 1956 musical The King and I and in An Affair to Remember. In 1967, Kerr performed in the James Bond movie Casino Royale, getting the honour of being the oldest Bond Girl at the age of 46. In 1969, Deborah Kerr appeared nude in John Frankenheimer’s The Gypsy Moths, an act intended to maintain her competitiveness against young and upcoming actresses. However Deborah Kerr soon expressed her unwillingness to repeat her nude performance and drifted towards theatres & television towards the end of the 1960’s.
On the 29th November 1945 Kerr married Anthony Bartley who was a commissioned officer in the Royal Air Force and had the rank of Squadron Leader. The couple had 2 daughters namely Melanie Jane who was born on the 27th December 1947 & Francesca Ann who is the actor John Shrapnel’s wife. The couple separated after fourteen years of marriage. On the 23rd July 1960, Deborah Kerr married author Peter Viertel who had a daughter Christine Viertel. Although Kerr resided in Klosters, Switzerland & Marbella, Spain for a long time, she eventually returned to Britain to her own children. Soon after returning to Britain her health condition started deteriorating. Deborah Kerr died of Parkinson’s disease on the 16th October 2007 at Botesdale, Suffolk.
Deborah Kerr received a total of six nominations in the category of Best Actress at the Academy Awards along with four Golden globe nominations during her career as an actress. Out of these Deborah won a Golden Globe for the film The King and I. She was also distinguished by a Henrietta Award bestowing her the title of Best Female in World Cinema.
Although Kerr never received an Oscar, Cannes or BAFTA award dirctly for her perfornamce, she received honorary awards such as a Cannes Film Festival Tribute in 1984 ,a BAFTA Special Award in 1991 & an Honorary Academy Award in 1994 in appreciation of “Perfection, Discipline and Elegance”. In 1998, Deborah Kerr was appointed as a Commander of the Order the British Empire. Deborah Kerr also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for her outstanding contributions to the motion picture industry.
Redhead of the Week – Rupert Grint
Posted by admin in Redhead of the Week Tuesday, 15 December 2009 20:49 5 Comments
Rupert Alexander Lloyd Grint (born 24 August 1988) is an English actor best known for playing Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films. In December 2007, Grint was ranked #16 in the list of Forbes Top twenty earners under 25 with an annual earning of $4 million (US).
Early life
Grint was born in Harlow, Essex and grew up in Hertfordshire. His mother, Joanne Grint (née Parsons), is a housewife, and his father, Nigel Grint, is a memorabilia dealer. He has one brother, James (born in 1990), and three sisters: Georgina (born in 1993), Samantha (born in 1996) and Charlotte (born in 1998). Before being cast in Harry Potter, he had only appeared in plays for school and his local theatre group, Top Hat Stage School. As a young child, he was once cast as a fish in a play based on the story of Noah’s Ark. He also played Rumpelstiltskin in another school play.
Career
A self-proclaimed fan of the Harry Potter book series, young Grint was interested in getting a role in the film. For his audition, he sent a video he made of himself, in which he dressed as his drama teacher while rapping about how much he wanted the part; Grint won the casting selection with the video. After completing the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, he appeared as science-whiz Alan A. Allen in the British film Thunderpants (2002) which received mainly negative reviews[citation needed] and was considered a flop[by whom?]. In 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009 he again starred as Ron Weasley in the Potter sequels Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Grint also starred in the coming-of-age story Driving Lessons with Laura Linney and Julie Walters (who acted as his character’s mother, Mrs Weasley, in the Harry Potter movies), which was released in the summer of 2006. Grint got excellent reviews for his first leading role: the critics praised the realism he brought into the role of shy teenager Ben Marshall, as well as his “riotous comedic timing” and “fantastic screen chemistry” with Walters.
Also known for his radio and television voice-over work, he appeared as Nigel Molesworth in the Baggy Trousers series for BBC Radio 4 and voiced Peter Pan in a BBC documentary.
On 9 July 2007, Grint and fellow cast-mates Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson left imprints of their hands, feet and wands in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
Redhead of the Week – Gillian Anderson
Posted by admin in Redhead of the Week Sunday, 22 November 2009 19:25 2 Comments
Gillian Leigh Anderson (born August 9, 1968) is an Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG winning actress, best known for her roles as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the American TV series The X-Files, Moro in the English dub of Princess Mononoke, Lily Bart in The House of Mirth and Lady Dedlock in the BBC TV series Bleak House.
Early life
Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Rosemary Anderson, a computer analyst, and Edward Anderson, who owned a film post-production company.Soo n after her birth, her family moved to Puerto Rico for 15 months and then to Crouch End and finally Harringay in North London, so that her father could attend the London Film School. When Anderson was 11 years old, her family moved again, this time to Grand Rapids, Michigan. She attended Fountain Elementary and then City High-Middle School, a program for gifted students with a strong emphasis on the humanities; she graduated in 1986.
With her English accent and background, Anderson was mocked and felt out of place in the American Midwest and soon adopted a Midwest accent. To this day, her accent depends on her location – for instance, in an interview with Jay Leno she spoke in an American accent, but in an interview with Michael Parkinson she spoke with an English accent. In addition, she had her nose pierced in the early 1980s and dyed her hair various colors. Her high school classmates voted her as “Most Bizarre,” “Class Clown”, “Most Likely to go Bald” and “Most Likely to be Arrested.” She was caught trying to jam the high school doors by filling their locks with glue on the eve of her graduation.
Anderson was interested in marine biology, but began acting her freshman year in high school productions, and later in community theater, and served as a student intern at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre. She attended The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago (formerly the Goodman School of Drama), where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990. She also participated in the National Theatre of Great Britain’s summer program at Cornell University.
Career
Anderson moved to New York when she was 20 years old. To support herself when she started her career, Anderson worked as a waitress. She began her career in Alan Ayckbourn’s play, Absent Friends at the Manhattan Theatre Club alongside Brenda Blethyn; she won the 1990-91 Theatre World “Newcomer” Award for her role. Her next theatrical role was in Christopher Hampton’s The Philanthropist at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut.
Anderson moved to Los Angeles in 1992, spending a year auditioning. Although she had once vowed she would never do TV, being out of work for a year changed her mind. Anderson did Home Fires Burning for a cable station, as well as the audio book version of Exit to Eden. She broke into mainstream television in 1993, with a guest appearance on the collegiate drama, Class of ‘96, on the fledgling Fox Network.
As a result of her guest appearance in Class of 96, Anderson was sent the script for The X Files at the age of 24. She decided to audition because “for the first time in a long time, the script involved a strong, independent, intelligent woman as a lead character.” Producer Chris Carter wanted to employ her, but Fox wanted someone with previous TV exposure and greater sex appeal. Fox sent in more actresses, but Carter stood by Anderson, and she was eventually cast as Special Agent Dana Scully. Anderson got the part assuming it would run for 13 episodes, the standard minimum order for American TV networks. Filmed in Vancouver and then in Los Angeles, the series would run for nine seasons, and included two films, released in 1998 and 2008. During her time on The X Files, Anderson won several awards for her portrayal of Special Agent Scully, including an Emmy Award, Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild awards for “Best Actress in a Drama Series.” While filming, Anderson met assistant art director Clyde Klotz, whom she would eventually marry.
Anderson had roles in a handful of films during the run of The X-Files and starred in The House of Mirth, an adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel of the same name.
In 1999, Anderson had a supporting role in the English-language release of Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, where she voiced the character of Moro. Anderson is a proclaimed lover of Miyazaki’s work. She also took part in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues.
When The X-Files ended, Anderson performed in several stage productions and worked on various film projects. She has participated in narrative work for documentaries on scientific topics. In 2005, she appeared as Lady Dedlock in the BBC television adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel Bleak House, had a starring role in the Irish film The Mighty Celt (for which she won an IFTA award for Best International Actress) and performed in A Cock and Bull Story, a film version of the novel Tristram Shandy.
In 2006, Anderson was nominated for a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for Best Actress and won the Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio Award for Best Actress for her role in Bleak House. Anderson also received an Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie” for her performance as Lady Dedlock. Furthermore, she was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award and Golden Globe for her performance in Bleak House and came in second place in the Best Actress category of the 2005 BBC Drama website poll for her performance as Lady Dedlock (Billie Piper came in first and Anna Maxwell Martin came in third).
During 2006 and 2007, Anderson appeared in two British films: The Last King of Scotland (2006) and Straightheads (2007).
In December 2007, it was announced that Anderson will host PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre during the Jane Austen series.
On December 10, 2007, Anderson began filming for The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Filming concluded on March 11, 2008. The movie was released on July 25, 2008, with a DVD released on December 2, 2008.
Gillian portrayed Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at the Donmar Warehouse in London’s West End during a limited engagement which ran from May 14, 2009 until July 18, 2009.
Redhead of the Week – Ann Margaret
Posted by admin in Redhead of the Week Wednesday, 11 November 2009 13:16 1 Comment
Ann-Margret Olsson (born April 28, 1941) is a Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer.
Early life
Ann-Margret was born in Stockholm, the daughter of Anna (née Aronsson) and Gustav Olsson, a native of Örnsköldsvik. While young she moved with her parents to Valsjöbyn, Jämtlands län, which she later described as a small town “of lumberjacks and farmers high up near the Arctic Circle”. Her father worked in the United States during his youth and immigrated back in 1942, working with the Johnson Electrical Company, while his wife and daughter stayed behind.
Ann-Margret and her mother moved to the United States in November 1946, and her father took her to Radio City Music Hall on the day they arrived. They settled just outside of Chicago in Wilmette, Illinois. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1949. She took her first dance lessons at the Marjorie Young School of Dance, and showed natural ability from the start, easily mimicking all the steps. Her parents were supportive and her mother handmade all her costumes. Ann-Margret’s mother worked as a funeral parlour receptionist after her husband suffered a severe injury on his job. While a teenager, Ann-Margret appeared on the Morris B. Sachs Amateur Hour, Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club and Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour.
Through high school, she continued to star in theatricals and she attended Northwestern University, where she was a member of the sorority Kappa Alpha Theta but did not graduate. As part of a group known as the “Suttletones,” they performed at the Mist, a Chicago nightclub, and went to Las Vegas for a promised club date which fell through after they arrived. They plugged ahead to Los Angeles and, through agent Georgia Lund, secured club dates in Newport Beach and Reno, where Ann-Margret had a chance encounter with Marilyn Monroe, who was on location for The Misfits. Monroe noticed the striking girl in a crowd of onlookers, then chatted privately with her, offering her encouragement.
The group finally arrived at The Dunes in Las Vegas, which also headlined Tony Bennett and Al Hirt at that time. George Burns heard of her performance and she auditioned for his annual holiday show, in which she and Burns did a soft-shoe routine. Variety proclaimed, “George Burns has a gold mine in Ann-Margret…she has a definite style of her own, which can easily guide her to star status”.
Recording career
Ann-Margret began recording for RCA in 1961. Her first RCA recording was “Lost Love” from her debut album And Here She Is: Ann-Margret, produced in Nashville with Chet Atkins on guitar, the Jordanaires (Elvis Presley’s backup singers), and the Anita Kerr Singers, with liner notes by mentor George Burns. She had a sexy throaty singing voice and RCA attempted to capitalize on the ‘female Elvis’ comparison by having her record a version of “Heartbreak Hotel” and other songs stylistically similar to Presley’s. She scored the minor hit “I Just Don’t Understand” (from her second LP) which entered the Billboard Top 40 in the third week of August 1961 and stayed six weeks, peaking at 17. The song was later covered in live performances by The Beatles, who never officially recorded any version of the song. Her only charting album was The Beauty and the Beard (1964) on which she was accompanied by trumpeter Al Hirt. She also sang at the Academy Awards presentation in 1962, singing the Oscar-nominated song “Bachelor in Paradise”. Her contract with RCA ended in 1966. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she had hits on the dance charts, the most successful being 1979’s “Love Rush” which peaked at number eight on the disco/dance charts.
Film career
Video of Ann Margaret and Elvis from the movie Viva Las Vegas
1960s
In 1961, at nineteen, she filmed a screen test at 20th Century Fox and was signed to a seven-year contract. Ann-Margret made her film début in a loan out to United Artists in Pocketful of Miracles, with Bette Davis. It was a remake of the 1933 movie Lady for a Day. Both versions were directed by Frank Capra.
Then came a 1962 remake of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical State Fair playing the “bad girl” role of Emily opposite Bobby Darin and Pat Boone. She had tested for the part of Margy, the “good girl,” but she seemed too seductive to the studio bosses who decided on the switch.[7] The two roles mimicked her real-life personality — shy and reserved off stage but wildly exuberant and sensuous on stage. As she summed up in her autobiography, she would easily transform herself from “Little Miss Lollipop to Sexpot-Banshee” once she stepped on stage and the music began.
Her next starring role, as the all-American teenager Kim from Sweet Apple, Ohio, in Bye Bye Birdie (1963) made her a major star. The premiere at Radio City Music Hall, 16 years after her first visit to the famed theater, was a smash hit—the highest first-week grossing film to date at that theater. Life magazine put her on the cover for the second time and announced that the “torrid dancing almost replaces the central heating in the theater”. She was asked to sing “Baby, Won’t You Please Come Home” at President John F. Kennedy’s private birthday party at the Waldorf-Astoria, one year after Marilyn Monroe’s famous “Happy Birthday”.
Ann-Margret met Elvis Presley on the MGM soundstage when the two filmed Viva Las Vegas (1964).
‘Ann-Margrock’ in The Flintstones.
In 1963, Ann-Margret guest-starred in a popular episode of the animated TV series The Flintstones, voicing Ann-Margrock, an animated version of herself. She sang the ballad “The Littlest Lamb” as a lullaby and the (literally) rock-ing song, “Ain’t Gonna Be A Fool”. Decades later, she recorded the theme song, a modified version of the Viva Las Vegas theme, to the live-action film The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas in character as Ann-Margrock.
While working on the film Once a Thief (1965), she met Roger Smith, who after his successful run on the private-eye television series 77 Sunset Strip was performing a live club show at the Hungry i on a bill with Bill Cosby and Don Adams. That meeting began their courtship, which met with resistance from her parents.
Ann-Margret starred in The Cincinnati Kid in 1965 opposite Steve McQueen. She also co-starred along with friend Dean Martin in the spy spoof Murderers’ Row (1966).
Her redhead hair color (she is a “natural brunette”) was the idea of Sydney Guilaroff, a hairdresser who changed the hair color of other famous actresses such as Lucille Ball.
She was offered the title role in Cat Ballou (1965) which would go to Jane Fonda, but her manager turned it down without telling her. In March 1966, Ann-Margret and entertainers Chuck Day and Mickey Jones teamed up for a USO tour to entertain U.S. servicemen in remote parts of Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia. She still has great affection for the veterans and refers to them as “my gentlemen.” Ann-Margret, Day and Jones reunited in November 2005 for an encore of this tour for veterans and troops at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
During a lull in her film career in the late 1960s, she performed live in Las Vegas, with her husband Smith (whom she had married in 1967) taking over as her manager after that engagement. Elvis and his entourage came to see her during the show’s five-week run and to celebrate backstage. She followed up with a television special on December 1, 1968, starring Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Danny Thomas and Carol Burnett. Then she went back to Saigon as part of Hope’s Christmas show. A second television special followed with Dean Martin and Lucille Ball. In 1970, she returned to films with R.P.M. and C.C. and Company.
1970s and 1980s
In 1971, she starred in Mike Nichols’s Carnal Knowledge, playing the over-loving girlfriend of a viciously abusive Jack Nicholson and garnering a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
On September 9, 1972, while performing at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, she fell 22 feet from an elevated platform to the stage and suffered injuries including a broken left arm, cheekbone and jawbone. Smith flew a stolen plane from Burbank, California to Lake Tahoe and back to get his wife to surgeons at UCLA for treatment, which included meticulous facial reconstructive surgery that required wiring her mouth shut and putting her on a liquid diet. Unable to work for ten weeks, she ultimately returned to the stage almost back to normal.
Throughout the 1970s, Ann-Margret balanced her live musical performances with a string of dramatic film roles that played against her glamorous image. In 1973 she starred with John Wayne in The Train Robbers. Then came the musical Tommy in 1975, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. In addition, she has been nominated for ten Golden Globe Awards and has won five times, including her Best Actress for Tommy. She also did a string of successful TV specials, starting with The Ann-Margret Show for NBC in 1968.
In 1978, she co-starred with Anthony Hopkins in the horror/suspense thriller Magic.
In 1989, an illustration was done of Oprah Winfrey that graced the cover of TV Guide, and although the head was Oprah’s, the body was referenced from a 1979 publicity shot of Ann-Margret. The illustration was rendered so tightly in color pencil by freelance artist Chris Notarile that most people thought it was a composite photograph.
1990s and 2000s
In 1993, she starred in the comedy Grumpy Old Men with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. Her character returned for Grumpier Old Men (1995), the sequel.
Ann-Margret published an autobiography in 1994 titled Ann-Margret: My Story (ISBN 0-399-13891-9), in which she publicly acknowledged her recovery from alcoholism. In 1995, she was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history; she ranked 10th.
Ann-Margret had a supporting role in The Limey. Although her acting was considered superb, her entire performance was cut from the movie.
In an episode of the TV series Popular she played God.
In 2001, she made her first appearance in a stage musical, playing the character of brothel owner Mona Stangley in a new touring production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
She also filmed Any Given Sunday (1999) for director Oliver Stone, portraying the mother of football team owner Cameron Diaz. In Memory (2006), she starred with Billy Zane and Dennis Hopper. Also in 2006, Ann-Margret had a small role in The Break Up starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn.
Portrayal
In the 2005 CBS miniseries Elvis, she is portrayed by Rose McGowan. which depicted her affair with Presley during the filming of Viva Las Vegas.
Personal life
Ann-Margret has been married to Roger Smith since May 8, 1967. He was an actor who later became her manager; Smith is now semi-retired due to myasthenia gravis.
Filmography
* Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
* State Fair (1962)
* Bye Bye Birdie (1963)
* Viva Las Vegas (1964)
* Kitten with a Whip (1964)
* The Pleasure Seekers (1964)
* Ann-Margret: Made in Paris (Short subject, 1965)
* Bus Riley’s Back in Town (1965)
* Once a Thief (1965)
* The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
* Made in Paris (1966)
* Stagecoach (1966)
* The Swinger (1966)
* Murderers’ Row (1966)
* The Tiger and the Pussycat (1967)
* The Prophet (1968)
* Seven Men and One Brain (1968)
* Rebus (1969)
* R.P.M. (1970)
* C.C. and Company (1970)
* Carnal Knowledge (1971)
* The Outside Man (1972)
* The Train Robbers (1973)
* Tommy (1975)
* The Twist (1976)
* Joseph Andrews (1977)
* The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977)
* The Cheap Detective (1978)
* Magic (1978)
* The Villain (1979)
* Middle Age Crazy (1980)
* The Return of the Soldier (1982)
* Lookin’ to Get Out (1982)
* I Ought to Be in Pictures (1982)
* Twice in a Lifetime (1985)
* 52 Pick-Up (1986)
* A Tiger’s Tale (1988)
* A New Life (1988)
* Newsies (1992)
* Grumpy Old Men (1993)
* Grumpier Old Men (1995)
* The Limey (Scenes deleted, 1999)
* Any Given Sunday (1999)
* The Last Producer (2000)
* Interstate 60 (2002)
* Taxi (2004)
* Mem-o-re (2005)
* Tales of the Rat Fink (Voice, 2006)
* The Break Up (2006)
* The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006)
* The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2008)
* All’s Faire in Love (2009)
* A Handful of Beans (2010)
Television work
* The Flintstones: Ann-Margrock Presents (Episode 89 Season 4 September 19, 1963)
* The Ann-Margret Show (1968)
* Ann-Margret: From Hollywood with Love (1969)
* Dames at Sea (1971)
* Ann-Margret: When You’re Smiling (1973)
* Ann-Margret Olsson (1975)
* Ann-Margret Smith (1975)
* Ann-Margret: Rhinestone Cowgirl (1977)
* Ann-Margret: Hollywood Movie Girls (1980)
* Who Will Love My Children? (1983)
* A Streetcar Named Desire (1984)
* The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987)
* Our Sons (1991)
* Queen: The Story of an American Family (Miniseries, 1993)
* Following Her Heart (1994)
* Scarlett (Miniseries, 1994)
* Seduced by Madness: The Diane Borchardt Story (1996)
* Blue Rodeo (1996)
* Four Corners (1998)
* Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story (1998)
* Happy Face Murders (1999)
* Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: JonBenét and the City of Boulder (2000)
* Touched by an Angel (1 episode, 2000)
* The 10th Kingdom (Miniseries, 2000)
* Popular (1 episode, 2000)
* Blonde (Miniseries, 2001)
* A Woman’s a Helluva Thing (2001)
* A Place Called Home (2004)
* Third Watch (3 episodes, 2003)
Redhead of the Week – Molly Ringwald
Posted by admin in Redhead of the Week Wednesday, 4 November 2009 08:56 4 Comments
Molly Kathleen Ringwald (born February 18, 1968) is an American actress, singer and dancer. She became popular with teenage audiences in the 1980s, as a result of her starring roles in the John Hughes movies Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. She returned to the public eye with her role as Anne Juergens in the ABC Family show The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She ranked #1 in VH1’s 100 Greatest Teen Stars.
Molly Kathleen Ringwald was born in Roseville, California, just outside of Sacramento, the daughter of Adele Edith (née Frembd), a housewife and chef, and Robert Scott “Bob” Ringwald, a blind jazz pianist. Ringwald has two siblings, Elizabeth and Kelly. She started her acting career at age 5, starring in a stage production of Alice in Wonderland as the dormouse. By the time she was 6 years old, she had recorded “I Wanna Be Loved by You”, a music album of Dixieland jazz with her father and his group, the Fulton Street Jazz Band.
Acting career
As a young actress, Ringwald appeared in numerous local TV commercials and stage plays in the Sacramento area. In 1978, at the age of 10, she was chosen to play Kate in the West Coast production of Annie, performing in Los Angeles. In 1979, Ringwald appeared in one episode of the TV series Diff’rent Strokes and was selected to become a cast member of the spin-off Facts of Life. Molly played “Molly Parker”, a perky, fun-loving student at Eastland Girls School. Although essentially a supporting role, one entire episode, “Molly’s Holiday” revolved around her character dealing with the effects of her parents’ divorce. After the first thirteen episodes, the producers restructured the show to be more like the popular film Little Darlings,[citation needed] so Ringwald and three other girls were written out of the series in 1980. However, she made a final guest appearance at the start of the second season.
In 1980, Ringwald performed as a lead vocalist on two Disney albums. On the patriotic album Yankee Doodle Mickey, Ringwald sang “This Is My Country” , “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America”. She later performed one track on a Disney Christmas album. Turning toward motion pictures, she found her breakout role in Sixteen Candles (1984). Molly Ringwald was a member of the so-called Brat Pack of 1980s teen actors. Though she played a high school “princess” in her biggest hit, 1985’s The Breakfast Club, Ringwald specialized in portrayals of moody, awkward, brainy, angst-filled characters. Among Ringwald’s movies are Fresh Horses, The Pick-up Artist and Pretty in Pink. During the mid- to late-1980s, when Ringwald was among Hollywood’s top female teens, she appeared on many covers of such publications as Tiger Beat, Teen, Time and Life.
In the early 1990s, Ringwald’s high profile movie career went into rapid decline. Ringwald reportedly turned down the female lead roles in Pretty Woman and Ghost. During the 1990s, Ringwald lived in France for four years and appeared in French language films. She performed in Horton Foote’s Lilly Dale on Broadway and performed in When Harry Met Sally on the West End in London. In 1994 she starred in the tv adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand. Her 1996 return to television, starring on the ABC sitcom Townies, was critically praised, but low viewer ratings resulted in the show’s cancellation after nine episodes. She also made one appearance as a blind woman on the critically acclaimed cable series Remember WENN. She also starred with Lara Flynn Boyle and Teri Hatcher in the 1998 made for TV movie Since You’ve Been Gone. In 2000, she appeared in an episode of Showtime’s The Outer Limits.
In 2000 Ringwald appeared in the ensemble restaurant-themed film, In the Weeds; in 2001 she had a cameo in Not Another Teen Movie. In late 2004, she starred in the play Modern Orthodox on Broadway, opposite Jason Biggs and Craig Bierko. In 2006 she starred in the TV movie The Wives He Forgot. Ringwald recently appeared in an episode of the TV series Medium.
Ringwald has appeared in Cabaret, tick, tick… BOOM!, and Enchanted April on Broadway, and in the fall and winter of 2006 she starred as Charity Hope Valentine in the national tour of the Broadway revival of the musical Sweet Charity.
Ringwald is currently starring in the ABC Family network’s series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, which debuted on July 1, 2008, playing the title teenager’s mother.
Personal life
Ringwald briefly dated actor Anthony Michael Hall during the time when they co-starred in The Breakfast Club. During the filming of Pretty in Pink, Ringwald dated Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank Zappa. She was romantically linked with Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz in the mid ’80s. They dated for about a year. At the time, rumors incorrectly hinted at their marriage.
Ringwald was married to Valery Lameignère, a French writer, in Bordeaux, France, on July 28, 1999; they divorced in 2002. Ringwald married Panio Gianopoulos, a Greek-American writer and book editor, in 2007. They have a daughter, Mathilda Ereni (born October 22, 2003), and twins, Adele Georgiana and Roman Stylianos (born July 10, 2009). Her pregnancy was written into the storyline of The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
Filmography
Features:
* Tempest (1982)
* Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)
* Sixteen Candles (1984)
* Surviving (TV movie) (1985)
* The Breakfast Club (1985)
* Pretty in Pink (1986)
* P.K. and the Kid (1987) (filmed in 1982)
* King Lear (1987)
* The Pick-up Artist (1987)
* For Keeps (1988)
* Fresh Horses (1988)
* Strike It Rich (1990)
* Betsy’s Wedding (1990)
* Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story (1992)
* Face the Music (1993)
* The Stand (1994)
* Malicious (1995)
* Baja (1995)
* All Day Sunday (1995)
* Bastard Children (1996)
* Office Killer (1997)
* Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999)
* Kimberly (1999)
* Cut (2000)
* The Brutal Truth (2000)
* In the Weeds (2000)
* Cowboy Up (2001)
* Not Another Teen Movie (2001)
* The Tulse Luper Suitcases (2003)
* The Wives He Forgot (2006)
* Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front (2006) (TV movie) as Helen McIntire
* Guest of Cindy Sherman (2008) (documentary)
Short subjects:
* Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade (1994)
* Titey (1998) (voice)
* The Translator (2000)
TV:
* The Facts of Life (1979-1980)… Molly Parker
* Townies (1996)… Carrie Donovan
* Medium (2006)… Kathleen Walsh
* The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008 – present)… Anne Juergens
