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Background:
An American actress who made an auspicious debut with the Golden Globe
nominating performance as John Cassavetes’ daughter in the acclaimed Tempest
(1982), Molly Ringwald was launched as the teen queen of mainstream films during
the mid- to late ‘80s with her roles in the John Hughes hit trilogy: Sixteen
Candles (1984), where she won a Young Artist Award for portraying the hero
Samantha, The Breakfast Club (1985) and the comedy Pretty in Pink (1986). The
slender, carrot-topped and luscious-lipped actress was handed a Paris Film
Festival award after playing the pregnant student in the flop For Keeps (1988).
Aside from solid movie career, the 1987 recipient of Theatre World Award,
Ringwald has also performed in a number of stage productions, including the
Broadway plays “Enchanted April” (2003), “When Harry Met Sally” and “Modern
Orthodox” (both 2004), as well as the off-Broadways “How I Learned to Drive”
(1998) and “Lily Dale” (1986) and TV programs like the miniseries “Stephen
King’s The Stand” (1994) and The Big Time (2002). She currently guest starred in
one episode of “Medium” (2006) and will work with Christina Applegate in the
Broadway revival of “Sweet Charity” (2006).
Off screen, the 34C-24-35 actress was once ranked no 17 and no 1 at VH1’s “100
Greatest Kid Stars” lists, as well as voted one of John Willis’ Screen World “12
Promising New Actors” in 1984. In 2000, she was the jury member at the
Australian Tropfest film festival. As for her marriage life, the cover model of
the 1986 Time magazine, Ringwald was married to French novelist Valery
Lameignere from 1999-2002. Her love life has also been linked to actor Anthony
Michael Hall, Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz (together in the mid 1980s), and Panio
Gianopoulos, a book editor and writer boyfriend who becomes the father of her
only daughter Mathilda (born in 2003).
I Wanna Be Loved By You
Childhood and Family:
In Roseville, California, Molly Ringwald was born on February 18, 1968. Her
father is Bob Ringwald, a blind jazz pianist and the front man of the Great
Pacific Jazz Band, and her mother is Adele Ringwald, a pastry chef. She has two
older siblings: brother Kelly and sister Beth, who is also an actress.
The daughter of a musician, Molly started singing jazz with her father as a
child, and by age 6, she had launched an album called I Wanna Be Loved By
You--Molly Sings. Aside from musical talent, young Molly also set her interest
on acting and began professionally performing at age 5 by starring as the
dormouse in a stage production of “Alice in Wonderland” and the daughter of a
priest in ”The Grass Harp.” Molly and her family later relocated to the San
Fernando Valley of Los Angeles so that both Molly and her father could develop
their career.
5’ 8” Molly was married to her long-term fiancé, French novelist Valery
Lameignère, on July 28, 1999, in Bordeaux, but they divorced in November 2002.
She gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Mathilda Ereni, on October
22, 2003, with lover Panio Gianopoulos. On a more personal note, Molly is a
rapacious reader. She also likes writing short stories and screenplay, hanging
out with friends and cooking.
Tempest
Career:
Molly Ringwald got her start as a child performer, singing with her father’s
band at age 4 and releasing a jazz album when she turned 6. At age 5, she also
made her professional acting debut by snagging roles in such stage productions
as Truman Capote’s “The Grass Harp” and “Alice in Wonderland,” followed by a TV
performance in the syndicated show “The New Mickey Mouse Club” at age 8. After
moving to Los Angeles, the 11-year-old girl got her first series regular on the
NBC sitcom “The Facts of Life,” playing Molly Parker. Though her role was
written out after only a season, it paved the way for consequent screen roles.
Two years later, Ringwald hit the wide screen for the first time with the role
of John Cassavetes’ child Miranda in Paul Mazursky’s acclaimed Tempest (1982),
in which she also showed off her talent by singing “Why Do Fools Fall in Love.”
Her favorable performance in the comedy film brought her a Golden Globe
nomination as well as set her star on the rise.
After the made-for-TV movie Packin’ It In and the feature Spacehunter:
Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (both 1983), Ringwald delivered a big
breakthrough when the impressed director/writer John Hughes had her star as the
protagonist Samantha in his comedy/romance film Sixteen Candles (1984), opposite
Justin Henry, Michael Schoeffling and Haviland Morris. The film became a hit,
and so did Ringwald. In addition to massive popularity, her bright turn as a
second daughter who disregards her 16th birthday due to her sister’s marriage
also handed her a 1985 Young Artist for Best Young Actress.
Ringwald’s further established her status as a top female teen in Hollywood in
the next years when she rejoined Hughes for the 1985 drama The Breakfast Club
and in the comedy Pretty in Pink (1986), directed by Howard Deutch. The first
film, which starred Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson and saw
Ringwald as an affluent and popular girl named Claire, scored a massive hit
among teen audience, while in the latter it was her attractiveness and appeal as
well as the winning performance of costar Jon Cryer that helped power the
lacking film to a huge commercial success. In between, she appeared on the
television film Surviving (1985) and in an episode of “Tall Tales and Legends”
(1986). She also debuted on off-Broadway with a role in the 1986 production of
“Lily Dale” and won a 1987 Theatre World for her significant contribution on the
world of theater.
At the height of success, however, Ringwald had to deal with failures when she
received offers to play Randy, the love interest of Robert Downey Jr. in The
Pick-Up Artist (1987) and a pregnant student in For Keeps (1988), which were box
office bombs. Despite picking up the Paris Film Festival Best Actress Award for
her fine turn in the latter, Ringwald’s career gradually sank throughout the
1990s. She took part in another box office disaster Alan Alda’s Betsy’s Wedding
(1990) and moved to the small screen with the ABC movie Something to Live for:
The Alison Gertz Story (1992).
Disappointing with the movement of her career, Ringwald left America for Paris,
where she appeared in several French movies like the 1995 Seven Sunday. She
returned home to film the ABC miniseries “Stephen King’s The Stand” (1994).
Ringwald then had roles in Baja (1995), the thriller Malicious (1995, offered
topless scenes as Melissa), Bastard Brood (1996), the indie Office Killer
(1997), Requiem for Murder (1999), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999) and Kimberly
(1999). She also worked in several TV projects, including “Townies” (1996),
Since You’ve Been Gone (1998) and Twice Upon a Time (1998), and in 1998, she
emerged on the acclaimed off-Broadway play “How I Learned to Drive.”
After a guest starring role in “The Outer Limits,” Ringwald continued to take on
film roles such as in Cut (2000), The Giving Tree (2000), In the Weeds (2000),
The Translator (2000), Cowboy Up (2001), Not Another Teen Movie (2001), The Big
Time (2002, TV) and The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story (2003).
She had the lead as Rose in the Broadway production of “Enchanted April” (2003),
and played Sally in “When Harry Met Sally” at the Haymarket Theatre in London,
the next year. In late 2004, she was in New York City to star in Broadway play
“Modern Orthodox.”
In 2006, Ringwald resurfaced on the small screen with a one episodic turn as the
blind Kathleen Walsh in “Medium.” The accomplished stage actress is scheduled to
perform in the national tour of the Broadway revival of the musical “Sweet
Charity,” opposite Christina Applegate.
Awards:
- Paris Film Festival: Best Actress, For Keeps, 1988
- Theatre World, 1987
- Young Artist: Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical, Comedy,
Adventure or Drama, Sixteen Candles, 1985
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