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Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (IPA: ; born April 29, 1958) is an American actress. Over the course of her film career, she has been the recipient of a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award, for her performances in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988) respectively, as well as three Academy Award nominations. She is considered one of the most beautiful women in the cinema, having appeared on the cover of the first People Magazine's '50 Most Beautiful People in the World' issue in 1990, and re-appearing a record six times during that decade, making the cover again in 1999.
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Meow.
I come from a family without the talent to sing, but somehow I inherited something, and I am actually not too bad at it.
MichellePfeiffer.org interview
Hollywood should be more modest about what they submit to the public, and parents should not allow their children to see movies with ratings that do not suit them.
MichellePfeiffer.org interview
Encyclopedia
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (IPA: ; born April 29, 1958) is an American actress. Over the course of her film career, she has been the recipient of a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award, for her performances in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988) respectively, as well as three Academy Award nominations. She is considered one of the most beautiful women in the cinema, having appeared on the cover of the first People Magazine's '50 Most Beautiful People in the World' issue in 1990, and re-appearing a record six times during that decade, making the cover again in 1999. She is married to television writer and producer, David E. Kelley.
Early life
Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, California, the second of four children born to Richard Pfeiffer, a heating and air-conditioning contractor, and Donna (née Taverna), a homemaker. She has one elder brother, Rick, and two younger sisters, Dedee Pfeiffer and Lori Pfeiffer, both actresses. The family moved to Midway City, California, where Pfeiffer spent her childhood. She attended Fountain Valley High School and worked as a check-out girl at Vons supermarket. She then attended Golden West College where she was a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority. After a short stint training to be a court stenographer, she decided upon an acting career, and entered the Miss Orange County beauty pageant in 1978 (which she won), and the Miss Los Angeles contest later that year, after which she was signed by a Hollywood agent who appeared on the judging panel. Moving to Los Angeles, she began to audition for commercials and bit parts in films.
Film career
First television and film appearances
Pfeiffer's early acting appearances included television roles in Fantasy Island, Delta House and BAD Cats, and small film roles in Falling in Love Again (1980) with Susannah York, The Hollywood Knights (1980) opposite Tony Danza, and Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981), none of which met with much success. Pfeiffer took acting lessons, and appeared in three further television movies - Callie and Son (1981) with Lindsay Wagner, The Children Nobody Wanted (1981), and a remake of Splendor in the Grass (as Ginny) - before landing her first major film role as Stephanie Zinone in Grease 2 (1982), the sequel to the smash-hit musical Grease (1978). The film was a critical and commercial failure, although Pfeiffer herself received some positive attention, notably from the New York Times, which said "although she is a relative screen newcomer, Miss Pfeiffer manages to look much more insouciant and comfortable than anyone else in the cast." Despite escaping the critical mauling, Pfeiffer's agent later admitted that her association with the film meant that "she couldn't get any jobs. Nobody wanted to hire her."
Screen success
Director Brian de Palma, having seen Grease 2, refused to audition Pfeiffer for Scarface (1983), but relented upon the producer's insistence. During her screen test, Pfeiffer accidentally cut leading man Al Pacino with broken glass, after which she subsequently won the role of cocaine-addicted trophy wife Elvira Hancock. The film was considered excessively violent by most critics, but became a commercial hit and gained a large cult following in subsequent years. Pfeiffer received positive reviews for her supporting turn; Richard Corliss of Time Magazine wrote, "most of the large cast is fine: Michelle Pfeiffer is better..." while Dominick Dunne, in an article for Vanity Fair entitled "Blonde Ambition", wrote, "[s]he is on the verge of stardom. In the parlance of the industry, she is hot."
Following Scarface, she accepted the roles of Isabeau d'Anjou in Ladyhawke (1985) opposite Rutger Hauer, Diana in John Landis' comedy Into the Night (1985) opposite Jeff Goldblum, Faith Healy in Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty (1986) opposite Michael Caine, and Brenda Landers in a segment of the 1950s sci-fi parody Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), all of which, despite achieving only modest commercial success, helped to establish her as an actress. She finally scored a major box-office hit as Sukie Ridgemont in the supernatural comedy The Witches of Eastwick (1987), alongside Jack Nicholson, Cher and Susan Sarandon. Despite reported on-set tensions between cast, crew and studio executives, it proved to be Pfeiffer's breakthrough to the A-list.
Critical acclaim
Pfeiffer was cast against type, as a murdered gangster's widowed moll on the run, in Jonathan Demme's mafia comedy Married to the Mob (1988), opposite Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell and Mercedes Ruehl. For the role of Angela de Marco, she donned a curly brunette wig and a Brooklyn accent, and received her first of six consecutive Golden Globe Best Actress Award nominations. Pfeiffer then appeared as chic restauranteuse Jo Ann Vallenari in Tequila Sunrise (1988) opposite Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell, but experienced creative and personal differences with director Robert Towne, who later described her as the "most difficult" actress he's ever worked with.
At Demme's personal recommendation, Pfeiffer joined the cast of Stephen Frears's Dangerous Liaisons (1988) alongside Glenn Close and John Malkovich, playing the virtuous victim of seduction, Madame Marie de Tourvel. Her performance won her widespread acclaim; Hal Hinson of the Washington Post saw Pfeiffer's role as "the least obvious and the most difficult. Nothing is harder to play than virtue, and Pfeiffer is smart enough not to try. Instead, she embodies it. Her porcelain-skinned beauty, in this regard, is a great asset, and the way it's used makes it seem an aspect of her spirituality." She won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Pfeiffer then accepted the role of Susie Diamond, a hard-edged former call girl turned lounge singer, in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), which co-starred Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges as the eponymous Baker Boys. She underwent intensive voice training for the role, and performed all of her character's vocals. The film was a modest success, but Pfeiffer's portrayal of Susie drew unanimous raves from critics. Pauline Kael wrote of the performance as possessing "the grinning infectiousness of Carole Lombard, [and] the radiance of the very young Lauren Bacall," while Roger Ebert compared her to Rita Hayworth in Gilda and Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot, and described the film as "one of the movies they will use as a document, years from now, when they begin to trace the steps by which Pfeiffer became a great star." Variety singled out her memorable performance of 'Makin' Whoopee', writing that Pfeiffer "hits the spot in the film's certain-to-be-remembered highlight... crawling all over a piano in a blazing red dress. She's dynamite." During the 1989-1990 awards season, Pfeiffer dominated the Best Actress category at every major awards ceremony, winning awards at the Golden Globes, the National Board of Review, the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Chicago Film Critics Association. At the Academy Awards, she was the clear favourite to win the Best Actress Oscar, but the award went to Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy in what was considered a surprise upset. The only other major acting award she did not take home for The Fabulous Baker Boys was the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which also went to Tandy.
Mid-career
Pfeiffer continued to build on her A-list status in Hollywood, accepting (and also turning down) many varied, high-profile roles. She took the part of Katya Orlova in the film adaptation of John le Carré's The Russia House (1990) opposite Sean Connery, a role that required her to adopt a Russian accent. For her efforts, she was rewarded with a third Golden Globe nomination. Pfeiffer then landed the role of damaged waitress Frankie in Garry Marshall's Frankie and Johnny (1991), a film adaptation of Terrence McNally's Broadway play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, which reunited her with her Scarface co-star, Al Pacino. The casting was seen as controversial by many, as Pfeiffer was considered far too beautiful to play an "ordinary" waitress; Kathy Bates, the original Frankie on Broadway, also expressed disappointment over the producers' choice. Pfeiffer herself stated that she took the role because it "wasn't what people would expect of [her]." Pfeiffer was once again nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.
Pfeiffer earned her third Academy Award nomination and fifth Golden Globe nomination for her performance as Lurene Hallett in the nostalgic independent drama Love Field (1992), a film that had been temporarily shelved by the financially-troubled Orion Pictures. It was finally released in late 1992, in time for Oscar consideration. The New York Times review wrote of Pfeiffer as "again demonstrating that she is as subtle and surprising as she is beautiful." For her portrayal of the eccentric Dallas housewife, she won the Silver Bear Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival.
Pfeiffer's status in Hollywood was cemented with her portrayal of Catwoman (Selina Kyle) in Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992) opposite Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito. She won the role after original star Annette Bening became pregnant. For the role of Catwoman, she trained in martial arts and kickboxing; one co-star stated that "Michelle had four stunt doubles - but she did all her own whippin'." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised her for giving the "feminist avenger a tough core of intelligence and wit" and called her a "classic dazzler." The character of Catwoman, as portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, has acquired an iconic status in American movie history (and popular culture); she placed 3rd in Empire magazine's '69 Sexiest Movie Characters of All Time' list. Premiere retrospectively lauded her performance: "Arguably the outstanding villain of the Tim Burton era, Michelle Pfeiffer's deadly kitten with a whip brought sex to the normally neutered franchise. Her stitched-together, black patent leather costume, based on a sketch of Burton's, remains the character's most iconic look. And Michelle Pfeiffer overcomes Batman Returns heavy-handed feminist dialogue to deliver a growling, fierce performance."
The following year, she played Countess Ellen Olenska in Martin Scorsese's film adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence (1993) opposite Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder, receiving the Elvira Notari Prize at the Venice Film Festival, and a sixth nomination for a Golden Globe award.
Pfeiffer's subsequent career choices have met with varying degrees of success. After The Age of Innocence, she played the role of Laura Alden opposite Jack Nicholson in Wolf (1994), a horror film that garnered a mixed critical reception. Her next role was that of high school teacher and former US Marine LouAnne Johnson in the surprise box office hit Dangerous Minds (1995). She appeared as her character in the music video for the soundtrack's lead single, 'Gangsta's Paradise' by Coolio (featuring L.V.). The song won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance, and the video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video. She then took the role of Sally Atwater in the romantic drama Up Close & Personal (1996) opposite Robert Redford; the film's screenplay, co-written by husband and wife team John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion, was intended to be a biographical account of the career of news anchor Jessica Savitch, but the final version had almost nothing to do with Savitch's life, leading Dunne to write an exposé of his eight-year battle with the Hollywood producers, Monster: Living Off the Big Screen.
Subsequent performances included the title (but technically supporting) role of Gillian Lewis in To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday (1996) opposite Peter Gallagher and Claire Danes, Melanie Parker in One Fine Day (1996) opposite George Clooney, Rose Cook Lewis in the film adaptation of Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Thousand Acres (1997) with Jessica Lange and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Beth Cappadora in The Deep End of the Ocean (1998) opposite Treat Williams, Titania the Queen of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) with Kevin Kline, Rupert Everett and Stanley Tucci, and Katie Jordan in The Story of Us (1999) opposite Bruce Willis.
Her next film, the Hitchcockian thriller What Lies Beneath (2000) with Harrison Ford, was a commercial success, opening number one at the box office in July 2000. She then accepted the role of highly-strung lawyer Rita Harrison in I Am Sam (2001) opposite Sean Penn. For her performance as murderous artist Ingrid Magnussen in White Oleander (2002), alongside Alison Lohman in her film début, Renée Zellweger and Robin Wright Penn, Pfeiffer garnered a substantial amount of critical praise. Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote that "Ms. Pfeiffer, giving the most complex screen performance of her career, makes her Olympian seductress at once irresistible and diabolical." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times described her as "incandescent," bringing "power and unshakable will to her role as mother-master manipulator" in a "riveting, impeccable performance." She earned Best Supporting Actress Awards from the San Diego Film Critics Society and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.
Pfeiffer also lent her vocal talents to two animated films during this period, voicing Tzipporah in The Prince of Egypt (1998), in which she introduced the Academy Award-winning song, 'When You Believe', and Eris in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003).
Return to films
After a four-year hiatus, during which she remained largely out of the public eye and devoted time to her husband and children, Pfeiffer returned to the screen in 2007 with villainous roles in two major summer blockbusters, as Velma von Tussle in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Hairspray (2007) with John Travolta and Christopher Walken, and as ancient witch Lamia in fantasy adventure Stardust (2007) opposite Claire Danes and Robert De Niro.
Pfeiffer's recent projects have included the roles of Rosie in Amy Heckerling's I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007) with Paul Rudd and Saoirse Ronan, and Linda in Personal Effects (2008) opposite Ashton Kutcher. She recently completed filming Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Colette's Chéri (2009), playing the role of Léa de Lonval opposite Rupert Friend and Kathy Bates. The film was directed by Stephen Frears, who worked with Pfeiffer and Hampton on Dangerous Liaisons (1988). Chéri was premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2009; The Times of London reviewed the film favourably, describing Hampton's screenplay as a "steady flow of dry quips and acerbic one-liners" and Pfeiffer's performance as "magnetic and subtle, her worldly nonchalance a mask for vulnerability and heartache."
Theatre
In 1989, Pfeiffer made her stage début in the role of Olivia in Twelfth Night, a New York Shakespeare Festival production staged in Central Park. Other well-known film actors involved in the play included Pfeiffer's former co-stars Jeff Goldblum as Malvolio and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Viola. Frank Rich's review in the New York Times was extremely negative on all aspects of the production (except for Mastrantonio's performance), though his criticism of Pfeiffer's performance was directed more at those who cast her: "Ms. Pfeiffer offers an object lesson in how gifted stars with young careers can be misused by those more interested in exploiting their celebrity status than in furthering their artistic development." Rich went on to praise Pfeiffer's performance in what was then her most recent film, the screwball comedy Married to the Mob, before lamenting it as "unfortunate that the actress has been asked to make both her stage and Shakespearean comic début in a role chained to melancholy and mourning." To date, the part of Olivia has marked Pfeiffer's only appearance on stage.
Personal life
Marriages
At the start of her career, Pfeiffer met Peter Horton (who would later achieve fame playing Gary Shepherd on Thirtysomething) at an acting class taught by Milton Katselas in Los Angeles. They married in Santa Monica when Pfeiffer was 22, and it was on their honeymoon that she discovered she had won the lead role in Grease 2. Horton directed Pfeiffer in a 1985 ABC TV special, One Too Many, in which she played the high school girlfriend of an alcoholic student (Val Kilmer); and in 1987, the real-life couple then played an on-screen couple in the 'Hospital' segment of John Landis's comedy skit compilation, Amazon Women on the Moon. However, they decided to separate in 1988, and were divorced two years later; Horton later blamed the split on their devotion to their work rather than their marriage.
In 1993, Pfeiffer was set up on a blind date with television writer and producer David E. Kelley (creator of Chicago Hope, Picket Fences, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, The Practice and Boston Legal), but it became a group event and they barely spoke to each other. The following week, Kelley took her to the movies to see Bram Stoker's Dracula, and they began dating seriously. They married on November 13, 1993. Since then, she has made an uncredited cameo appearance in one episode of Kelley's television series, Picket Fences (reportedly to the surprise of Kelley, who was unaware that she had filmed it), and played the titular character in To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday, for which Kelley wrote the screenplay.
Other relationships
In between her marriages to Horton and Kelley, Pfeiffer had a three-year relationship with Fisher Stevens (Early Edition, Hackers and Short Circuit). They met when Pfeiffer was starring in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Twelfth Night, in which Stevens had the part of Sir Andrew Aguecheek. She has also been romantically linked to some of her male co-stars, including John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons), Michael Keaton (Batman Returns) and Val Kilmer.
Children
Pfeiffer and Kelley have two children, one adopted daughter and one biological son. Pfeiffer, who was by her own admission desperate to start a family, had entered into private adoption proceedings before she even met Kelley. The biracial baby girl she adopted had been born in March 1993, to a young nurse in New York who could not afford to support all of her children; she was christened Claudia Rose in November 1993, on the same day that Pfeiffer and Kelley were married. Pfeiffer immediately became pregnant, and in August 1994, gave birth to a son, John Henry.
Filmography
Television work
External links
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