Kim McGuire
Encyclopedia
Kim McGuire is a former film and stage actress who gained widespread media attention in the early 1990s following her eye-catching performance as Mona "Hatchetface" Malnorowski in John Waters
' cult film Cry-Baby
. She has albinism
.
, to attorney Raymond A. McGuire and his wife, the former Mary Toole. She initially intended to follow in her father's footsteps, and, after taking undergraduate studies at the University of New Orleans, completed her education at the Loyola University School of Law. However, McGuire also became interested in performing from an early age; following her casting in the film Cry-Baby, she stated that "This has been my dream since I was 3. I started off as a dancer and said I wanted to make myself as triple-threat
as possible, and do Chekhov and Shakespeare... I just think it's so magical. I hate to say it, but I've always wanted to be a star."
's Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker – had originally been conceived by John Waters with Divine in mind. The overweight female impersonator (real name, Harris Glenn Millstead), who had been a distinctive presence in Waters' films for almost two decades, had died suddenly in March 1988, before production of Cry-Baby began.
When Waters came to cast the role of Hatchetface in March 1989, the character was described thus: "She's got the body of Jayne Mansfield
and the face of Margaret Hamilton
... [and] nobody, but nobody, gives her grief." To find a suitable actress, Waters placed a print advertisement that simply requested: "Wanted: Girl with a good body and an alarming face who is proud of it". Prospective candidates were invited to send a recent photograph to "Cry-Baby Productions, 222 St. Paul Pl., Baltimore, MD, 21201." McGuire, then working on stage in New York City, saw the advertisement and was reportedly hired by Waters "almost immedately" after her audition. In a 2005 documentary about the film, titled It Came From Baltimore, McGuire recalled:
For the movie, McGuire's naturally unusual physiognomy
was greatly exaggerated through grotesque make-up so that she resembled (as one critic later put it) "a Cubist
poster-child". The transformation was incredible; later, John Waters stated: "that face that she wears in the movie is certainly make-up; Kim has a very blank face in real life". McGuire herself once quipped "When people see me after seeing that, they think I look really good."
After principal production of Cry-Baby was completed in July 1989, a series of test screenings were held, where McGuire's performance as Hatchetface was so well received that Waters decided to insert some additional sequences involving the character. An additional fortnight of shooting took place in November, after which two new Hatchetface scenes found their way into the final cut. According to Waters, the scene in which Hatchetface breaks through the screen of a 3D movie into a terrified audience of male prisoners, generated the biggest laugh of the entire film.
When the film premiered in April 1990, the McGuire's eye-popping performance caught the attention of every critic who saw it. The New Yorker, for example, observed that "There's a spectacularly ugly girl called Hatchet-Face (Kim McGuire), and Waters zooms in on her mug at every opportunity". Writing in New York Magazine, David Denby noted the presence of "a startlingly ugly baby tramp, Hatchetface, played, with makeup spread all over her face, by the masochistically courageous Kim McGuire". Another observer wrote of McGuire, "whose screwed-up face is an object of much bad-taste-flouting hilarity". Other critics were no less descriptive, and variously described her as "a hideously contorted floozy" (New York Times), "gorgeously grotesque" (Newsweek), "a character with a mug like silly putty with eyes" (The Advocate) and "a sort of junior Margaret Hamilton
" (Atlanta Journal Constitution).
Many observers astutely noted that McGuire proved herself an able successor not only to the late Divine and also to another odd-looking stalwart of Water's previous films, the late Edith Massey
, who had died in 1984. The Boston Globe reported that "Divine's kind of generous outrageousness comes from Kim McGuire as a tough-talking tough-looking character called Hatchet Face". Another critic stated that "Divine's rubber-faced antics find a new home in the actress Kim McGuire's Hatchet Face", while yet another simply noted that "the closest thing to an old-time Waters' face is Mona 'Hatchet Face' Malnorowski, as played, with twisted face, by someone named Kim McGuire". Waters himself described McGuire as "a definite starlet on the rise" and, in another interview, wistfully stated that "she should have been in Dick Tracy". For many months after the release of Cry-Baby, McGuire remained a prominent feature on the Hollywood social circuit, being photographed at film premieres (including Postcards from the Edge
and David Lynch's Wild at Heart
), parties, benefits and other A-list events.
as a psychotic doctor. Soon afterwards, and without even having yet acquired an agent, McGuire signed to appear opposite James Caan
in Rob Reiner
's film adaptation
of Stephen King
's novel, Misery. However, her lead role as the psychopathic nurse Annie Wilkes
was subsequently taken by Kathy Bates
, who went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Nevertheless, McGuire continued to work in films over the next few years, with appearances in a TV movie, Acting on Impulse
(1993) and an uncredited cameo in John Waters' next project, Serial Mom
(1994). Her unusual appearance was also put memorable use in two off-beat television series, each featuring odd characters in quirky scenarios: the HBO series Dream On
(1990) and David Lynch
's short-lived On the Air (1992), which was cancelled after only three episodes. Like Cry-Baby, the latter series was set in the 1950s; McGuire played the role of Nicole Thorne, a "shrewish publicist" to a television executive. Notwithstanding the quirkiness of the series, she grasped the opportunity to break away from her Hatchetface image. In one interview, she said: "After [Cry-Baby], when I went on job interviews producers expected to see this big, ugly six-foot-tall actress whereas I'm just five feet high. This series, I hope, will make people forget me as Hatchetface." She added, "I always wanted to meet David Lynch, so I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be working on the show. And there are lots of other pluses. For example, it really feels great to show up groomed with my hair in place wearing decent clothes". In one episode, a magician performed a series of unconventional magic tricks, prompting one critic to describe the sequence as "a must-see, if only for the nightmarishly Fly
-like image of Kim McGuire steeping out of a vanishing box with her head on the body of a skittering iguana".
, where, a few years earlier, McGuire's parents (still living in New Orleans) had purchased a seaside vacation house in the exclusive Holy Land district. While McGuire thereafter concentrated as her career as an attorney, both she and her partner maintained an interest in the performing arts. In September 2002, they became members of a local theatre group, the Mississippi Repertory Theatre Company; McGuire in the capacity of legal counsel, and Piotrowsky as director of marketing and advertising.
In September 2005, McGuire and Piotrowsky were rendered homeless by Hurricane Katrina
; it was reported that "they lost everything except for Gene’s Emmy, which was found broken amidst the rubble that was their home". This moving account of their plight was later published on a social networking website:
On the aftermath of the disaster, Piotrowsky told a reporter: "Though they plan and equip themselves for something like this, it's never enough. We ought to know: We lived in L.A. during the 1994 earthquake, we were visiting New York on 9/11, and now we lived through this. I told a friend about all of that and he said, 'Do me a favor and tell me where you're moving to next'.". The couple were temporarily accommodated in a local grade school with 300 other hurricane survivors before transferring to more permanent accommodation in Mobile, Alabama
.
By November 2005, McGuire had become temporarily licensed to practice law in Alabama, and subsequently resumed her career as an attorney, specialising in family law. She was admitted to the Alabama State Bar in September 2006, and re-admitted to the California State Bar (after a period of professional inactivity in that state) in April 2010.
. The former actress was one of several original cast members (along with Johnny Depp, Amy Locane
, Traci Lords
, Ricki Lake
, Darren E. Burrows
and Stephen Mailer
) who reunited for the filming of a short documentary, which was included on the disc as a special feature. Of the reunion, Waters quipped: "we found all the people today, including Hatchetface. I hadn't seen Hatchetface since we made the movie almost 20 years ago. She looked great, she looked like a regular middle-aged woman. But she looked very different to how she does in the movie, so it was kind of startling."
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
' cult film Cry-Baby
Cry-Baby
Cry-Baby is a 1990 American teen musical film written and directed by John Waters. It stars Johnny Depp as 1950s teen rebel "Cry-Baby" Wade Walker, and also features an expansive ensemble cast that includes Amy Locane, Iggy Pop, Traci Lords, Ricki Lake, Kim McGuire, David Nelson, Susan Tyrrell, and...
. She has albinism
Albinism
Albinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to absence or defect of an enzyme involved in the production of melanin...
.
Early life
Kim Diane McGuire was born in New Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, to attorney Raymond A. McGuire and his wife, the former Mary Toole. She initially intended to follow in her father's footsteps, and, after taking undergraduate studies at the University of New Orleans, completed her education at the Loyola University School of Law. However, McGuire also became interested in performing from an early age; following her casting in the film Cry-Baby, she stated that "This has been my dream since I was 3. I started off as a dancer and said I wanted to make myself as triple-threat
Triple threat man
In gridiron football, the phrase triple-threat man refers to a player who excels at all three of the skills of running, passing, and kicking. In modern usage, such a player would be referred to as a utility player....
as possible, and do Chekhov and Shakespeare... I just think it's so magical. I hate to say it, but I've always wanted to be a star."
Cry-Baby and its aftermath
In early 1985, John Waters announced that he was working on a script for a new film entitled Hatchet-Face, which was "about a woman and her multilevel beauty problems". Although this film did not eventuate, a similar character of the same name was subsequently incorporated into the project that became Cry-Baby. It has been said that the character of Mona "Hatchetface" Malnorowski – a grotesque, loud-mouthed member of the teenage delinquent gang headed by Johnny DeppJohnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
's Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker – had originally been conceived by John Waters with Divine in mind. The overweight female impersonator (real name, Harris Glenn Millstead), who had been a distinctive presence in Waters' films for almost two decades, had died suddenly in March 1988, before production of Cry-Baby began.
When Waters came to cast the role of Hatchetface in March 1989, the character was described thus: "She's got the body of Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield was an American actress working both in Hollywood and on the Broadway theatre...
and the face of Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz...
... [and] nobody, but nobody, gives her grief." To find a suitable actress, Waters placed a print advertisement that simply requested: "Wanted: Girl with a good body and an alarming face who is proud of it". Prospective candidates were invited to send a recent photograph to "Cry-Baby Productions, 222 St. Paul Pl., Baltimore, MD, 21201." McGuire, then working on stage in New York City, saw the advertisement and was reportedly hired by Waters "almost immedately" after her audition. In a 2005 documentary about the film, titled It Came From Baltimore, McGuire recalled:
For the movie, McGuire's naturally unusual physiognomy
Physiognomy
Physiognomy is the assessment of a person's character or personality from their outer appearance, especially the face...
was greatly exaggerated through grotesque make-up so that she resembled (as one critic later put it) "a Cubist
Cubism
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
poster-child". The transformation was incredible; later, John Waters stated: "that face that she wears in the movie is certainly make-up; Kim has a very blank face in real life". McGuire herself once quipped "When people see me after seeing that, they think I look really good."
After principal production of Cry-Baby was completed in July 1989, a series of test screenings were held, where McGuire's performance as Hatchetface was so well received that Waters decided to insert some additional sequences involving the character. An additional fortnight of shooting took place in November, after which two new Hatchetface scenes found their way into the final cut. According to Waters, the scene in which Hatchetface breaks through the screen of a 3D movie into a terrified audience of male prisoners, generated the biggest laugh of the entire film.
When the film premiered in April 1990, the McGuire's eye-popping performance caught the attention of every critic who saw it. The New Yorker, for example, observed that "There's a spectacularly ugly girl called Hatchet-Face (Kim McGuire), and Waters zooms in on her mug at every opportunity". Writing in New York Magazine, David Denby noted the presence of "a startlingly ugly baby tramp, Hatchetface, played, with makeup spread all over her face, by the masochistically courageous Kim McGuire". Another observer wrote of McGuire, "whose screwed-up face is an object of much bad-taste-flouting hilarity". Other critics were no less descriptive, and variously described her as "a hideously contorted floozy" (New York Times), "gorgeously grotesque" (Newsweek), "a character with a mug like silly putty with eyes" (The Advocate) and "a sort of junior Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz...
" (Atlanta Journal Constitution).
Many observers astutely noted that McGuire proved herself an able successor not only to the late Divine and also to another odd-looking stalwart of Water's previous films, the late Edith Massey
Edith Massey
Edith Massey was an American actress and singer. Massey was best known for her appearances in a series of movies by director John Waters...
, who had died in 1984. The Boston Globe reported that "Divine's kind of generous outrageousness comes from Kim McGuire as a tough-talking tough-looking character called Hatchet Face". Another critic stated that "Divine's rubber-faced antics find a new home in the actress Kim McGuire's Hatchet Face", while yet another simply noted that "the closest thing to an old-time Waters' face is Mona 'Hatchet Face' Malnorowski, as played, with twisted face, by someone named Kim McGuire". Waters himself described McGuire as "a definite starlet on the rise" and, in another interview, wistfully stated that "she should have been in Dick Tracy". For many months after the release of Cry-Baby, McGuire remained a prominent feature on the Hollywood social circuit, being photographed at film premieres (including Postcards from the Edge
Postcards from the Edge (film)
Postcards from the Edge is a 1990 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Carrie Fisher is based on her 1987 semi-autobiographical novel of the same title.-Plot:...
and David Lynch's Wild at Heart
Wild at Heart (film)
Wild at Heart is a 1990 American film written and directed by David Lynch, and based on Barry Gifford's 1989 novel Wild at Heart: The Story of Sailor and Lula. Both the book and the film revolve around Sailor Ripley and Lula Pace Fortune , a young couple from Cape Fear, North Carolina who go on...
), parties, benefits and other A-list events.
Later film and TV appearances
In February 1990, when Cry-Baby was first screened for its cast and crew, McGuire was already working on her next film: Charles Winkler's horror flick, Disturbed, which starred Malcolm McDowellMalcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...
as a psychotic doctor. Soon afterwards, and without even having yet acquired an agent, McGuire signed to appear opposite James Caan
James Caan
James Caan is an American actor. He is best known for his starring roles in The Godfather, Thief, Misery, A Bridge Too Far, Brian's Song, Rollerball, Kiss Me Goodbye, Elf, and El Dorado...
in Rob Reiner
Rob Reiner
Robert "Rob" Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist.As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Archie and Edith Bunker's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s...
's film adaptation
Misery (film)
Misery is a 1990 American Psychological Horror Film based on Stephen King's 1987 novel of the same name. Directed by Rob Reiner, the film received critical acclaim for Kathy Bates' performance as the psychopathic Annie Wilkes...
of Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's novel, Misery. However, her lead role as the psychopathic nurse Annie Wilkes
Annie Wilkes
Anne Marie Wilkes Dugan, usually known as Annie Wilkes, is a fictional character and the antagonist/main villain in the 1987 novel Misery, by Stephen King. In the 1990 film adaptation of the novel, Annie Wilkes was portrayed by Kathy Bates, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal...
was subsequently taken by Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates
Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...
, who went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Nevertheless, McGuire continued to work in films over the next few years, with appearances in a TV movie, Acting on Impulse
Acting on Impulse (film)
Acting on Impulse is a 1993 film starring Linda Fiorentino, Nancy Allen and C. Thomas Howell. The film is also known under the alternate titles Secret Lives and Eyes of a Stranger...
(1993) and an uncredited cameo in John Waters' next project, Serial Mom
Serial Mom
Serial Mom is a 1994 American dark satire written and directed by John Waters, starring Kathleen Turner as the title character, Sam Waterston as her husband, and Ricki Lake and Matthew Lillard as her children. Despite statements to the contrary in the movie, the story is completely fictional...
(1994). Her unusual appearance was also put memorable use in two off-beat television series, each featuring odd characters in quirky scenarios: the HBO series Dream On
Dream On (TV series)
Dream On is an American adult-themed situation comedy about single New Yorker, Martin Tupper. The show used a gimmick where old black and white clips were used to punctuate the main character's feelings or thoughts...
(1990) and David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
's short-lived On the Air (1992), which was cancelled after only three episodes. Like Cry-Baby, the latter series was set in the 1950s; McGuire played the role of Nicole Thorne, a "shrewish publicist" to a television executive. Notwithstanding the quirkiness of the series, she grasped the opportunity to break away from her Hatchetface image. In one interview, she said: "After [Cry-Baby], when I went on job interviews producers expected to see this big, ugly six-foot-tall actress whereas I'm just five feet high. This series, I hope, will make people forget me as Hatchetface." She added, "I always wanted to meet David Lynch, so I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be working on the show. And there are lots of other pluses. For example, it really feels great to show up groomed with my hair in place wearing decent clothes". In one episode, a magician performed a series of unconventional magic tricks, prompting one critic to describe the sequence as "a must-see, if only for the nightmarishly Fly
The Fly (1958 film)
The Fly is a 1958 American science-fiction horror film, directed by Kurt Neumann. The screenplay was written by James Clavell , from the short story "The Fly" by George Langelaan...
-like image of Kim McGuire steeping out of a vanishing box with her head on the body of a skittering iguana".
Life after Hollywood
By the mid-1990s, McGuire had all but given up on her film career. In December 1997, she was admitted to the California State Bar and began working as an attorney in Los Angeles, specialising in entertainment and appellate law. She and her partner, Emmy-winning television producer Gene Piotrowsky, were in New York at the time of the September 11 attacks and consequently found themselves unemployed. The couple moved to Biloxi, MississippiBiloxi, Mississippi
Biloxi is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, in the United States. The 2010 census recorded the population as 44,054. Along with Gulfport, Biloxi is a county seat of Harrison County....
, where, a few years earlier, McGuire's parents (still living in New Orleans) had purchased a seaside vacation house in the exclusive Holy Land district. While McGuire thereafter concentrated as her career as an attorney, both she and her partner maintained an interest in the performing arts. In September 2002, they became members of a local theatre group, the Mississippi Repertory Theatre Company; McGuire in the capacity of legal counsel, and Piotrowsky as director of marketing and advertising.
In September 2005, McGuire and Piotrowsky were rendered homeless by Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
; it was reported that "they lost everything except for Gene’s Emmy, which was found broken amidst the rubble that was their home". This moving account of their plight was later published on a social networking website:
On the aftermath of the disaster, Piotrowsky told a reporter: "Though they plan and equip themselves for something like this, it's never enough. We ought to know: We lived in L.A. during the 1994 earthquake, we were visiting New York on 9/11, and now we lived through this. I told a friend about all of that and he said, 'Do me a favor and tell me where you're moving to next'.". The couple were temporarily accommodated in a local grade school with 300 other hurricane survivors before transferring to more permanent accommodation in Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
.
By November 2005, McGuire had become temporarily licensed to practice law in Alabama, and subsequently resumed her career as an attorney, specialising in family law. She was admitted to the Alabama State Bar in September 2006, and re-admitted to the California State Bar (after a period of professional inactivity in that state) in April 2010.
Cry-Baby cast reunion
In July 2005, McGuire's unforgettable performance as Hatchetface in Cry-Baby was introduced to a new generation of fans when the film was released on DVD as a director's cutDirector's cut
A director's cut is a specially edited version of a film, and less often TV series, music video, commercials, comic book or video games, that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit...
. The former actress was one of several original cast members (along with Johnny Depp, Amy Locane
Amy Locane
-Career:Locane was born in Trenton, New Jersey. She starred as one of the original cast on the television series Melrose Place, in which she played Sandy, an aspiring actress who waited tables at the show's bar hangout, Shooters. She left Melrose Place after its first 12 episodes of season one and...
, Traci Lords
Traci Lords
Traci Lords , also known as Traci Elizabeth Lords and Tracy Lords, is an American film actress, producer, film director, writer and singer...
, Ricki Lake
Ricki Lake
Ricki Pamela Lake is an American actress, producer, and television host. She is best known for her starring role as Tracy Turnblad in the original Hairspray, her ground-breaking documentary film The Business of Being Born, and her talk show which was broadcasted internationally from...
, Darren E. Burrows
Darren E. Burrows
Darren E. Burrows is an American Actor / Director.Burrows was born in Winfield, Kansas, the son of actor Billy Drago. Burrows is best known for playing Ed Chigliak in the television series Northern Exposure...
and Stephen Mailer
Stephen Mailer
Stephen McLeod Mailer is an American stage and screen actor. His credits include appearances in films like A League of Their Own, Cry Baby, and Baby Mama, and the television shows Gilmore Girls and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Mailer was born in New York City, New York, the son of novelist...
) who reunited for the filming of a short documentary, which was included on the disc as a special feature. Of the reunion, Waters quipped: "we found all the people today, including Hatchetface. I hadn't seen Hatchetface since we made the movie almost 20 years ago. She looked great, she looked like a regular middle-aged woman. But she looked very different to how she does in the movie, so it was kind of startling."