Profile of Molly Ringwald on Famous Like Me

Molly Ringwald (born February 18, 1968 in Roseville, California) is a red-haired American actress who first became famous and popular with teenagers in the 1984 movie Sixteen Candles. After the success of the film, she appeared in many other teen movies.

Early musical career

Ringwald, the daughter of blind jazz pianist Bob Ringwald, started her acting career young. At age five, she starred in a stage production of Alice in Wonderland, playing the dormouse. By age six, she had recorded an album - now highly collectible - of Dixieland jazz with her father. At age eight, she landed herself a place on TV's New Mickey Mouse Club and sang one track on a 1980 Disney Christmas album.

Acting career

Ringwald appeared in several episodes of the television series Diff'rent Strokes in 1979. That year she also became a cast member of the spin-off The Facts of Life, but her character was written out after the first season. Turning toward motion pictures, her breakout role was Sixteen Candles (1984). Ringwald was a member of the so-called Brat Pack. The term was first coined in 1985 after a night out with a reporter of the New Yorker Magazine. The reporter published a sensationalist article calling her and her fellow actors (Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore and Anthony Michael Hall) The Brat Pack.

Though she played a high school "princess" in her biggest hit, 1985's The Breakfast Club, Ringwald specialized in touching portrayals of moody, awkward, brainy, angst-filled characters. Her performances greatly influenced teen-oriented television and movies that would follow in the 1990s.

Among Ringwald's movies are Fresh Horses, The Pick Up Artist, and the movie that got the Brat Pack together: The Breakfast Club. During the period that Ringwald was Hollywood's top female teen, she appeared in countless covers of such publications as Tiger Beat, Teen and many others.

Her career cooled in the 1990s, as she appeared mainly in made-for-TV and B-horror films. A 1996 return to television in the ABC sitcom "Townies" was critically-praised, but low ratings doomed the show after just nine episodes.

She later lived in France for four years and only appeared in French-language films.

Ringwald is currently participating in plays in London, and she performed on Broadway before moving to England. She recently appeared in Not Another Teen Movie — a parody/tribute film of teen movies.

Molly married her long time fiance Valéry Lameignère on July 28, 1999, but they have since filed for divorce.

Selected filmography

• Tempest (1982)
• Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)
• Sixteen Candles (1984)
• The Breakfast Club (1985)
• Pretty in Pink (1986)
• The Pick-up Artist (1987)
• For Keeps? (1988)
• Fresh Horses (1988)
• Strike It Rich (1990)
• Betsy's Wedding (1990)
• The Stand (mini series) (1994)
• Not Another Teen Movie (2001)

Trivia

The Detroit rock group Sponge had a 1995 hit "Molly (Sixteen Candles)", that appeared to make several clear references to Ringwald and her film career even though the song's title was not mentioned in its lyrics. The band denied that it was about her, though Ringwald stated in interviews that she believed that it was written about her.

Ringwald reportedly turned down Julia Roberts' part in the 1990 box office smash Pretty Woman.

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