Jennifer Grey
Jennifer Grey | |
|---|---|
 at the 1988 Academy Awards | |
| Born | Jennifer Elise Grey March 26, 1960 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Other names | Jenny Grey |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1979–present |
| Spouse | Clark Gregg (2001–present) |
| Children | one |
Jennifer Elise Grey (born March 26, 1960) is an American actress. She is best known for playing Frances "Baby" Houseman in the hit film Dirty Dancing (1987) and Jeanie Bueller in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986).
Early life
Born in New York City, Grey is the daughter of stage and screen actor Joel Grey and the former actress/singer Jo Wilder. Grey is the granddaughter of comedian and musician Mickey Katz. She is an alumna of the Dalton School, a private school in Manhattan, and studied both dance and acting.
Career
Her commercial debut was at the age of 19, in an ad for Dr Pepper. After other small roles, she landed the part of jealous sister Jeanie in the hit 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The following year, she reunited with Patrick Swayze, whom she had played opposite in Red Dawn, for her biggest role ever, Frances "Baby" Houseman in Dirty Dancing. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress.
In the early 1990s, Grey underwent a rhinoplasty procedure that resulted in a nose that caused even close friends to fail to recognize her, and the major change in her appearance negatively affected her career. Of the experience she said, "I went in the operating room a celebrity – and came out anonymous. It was like being in a witness protection program or being invisible."[1] She briefly considered starting over with a new name to go with the new face, but stuck with her original name.[2] In 1999, she reappeared in the short-lived ABC sitcom It's Like, You Know... portraying herself. In an episode of the series, she poked fun at herself with a storyline about her much-publicized nose job.
Grey also appeared with Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minnelli and Kathy Bates in the CBS television movie The West Side Waltz, adapted by Ernest Thompson from his play, an episode of Friends as Mindy, and she had a small role in the 2000 film Bounce with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck. Her sole Broadway theatre credit is The Twilight of the Golds (1993). On the HBO series John from Cincinnati, Grey portrayed Daphne, Meyer's fiancee. In October she played Abbey, the mother of a sick child in a Season 7 episode of House, Unplanned Parenthood.[3]
In August 2010 it was announced that she would be one of twelve celebrities joining the eleventh season of Dancing With the Stars. She is partnered with professional dancer Derek Hough.[4] She came out very strong at first, topping the leaderboard very often. However, injuries, stress, and exhaustion took their toll on Jennifer and for a couple of weeks she fell behind, and then shot straight up to the top of the leaderboard in Week 7, tying with previous frontrunner Brandy Norwood, and is considered one of the front runners to be the season's victor. She continued to perform well in both dances in Week 8 and won.
Personal life
Following engagements to Matthew Broderick (her on-screen brother in Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and Johnny Depp, and after dating George Stephanopoulos,[5] Grey married actor/director Clark Gregg (The New Adventures of Old Christine) on July 21, 2001. They have a daughter Stella (b. December 3, 2001) together.[6] The couple co-starred in the Lifetime movie Road to Christmas in 2006.[7]
Grey lives in the Los Angeles, California, area with her family. [8]
On August 5, 1987, Grey was in Northern Ireland, vacationing with Broderick, when in a rented BMW, he veered into the wrong lane on a country road in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh and smashed head-on into a car driven by Anna Gallagher, 30. She and her mother, Margaret Doherty, 63, died instantly. Broderick spent four weeks in a Belfast hospital with a fractured leg and ribs, collapsed lung and concussion. Grey suffered severe whiplash. Broderick told authorities he had no recollection of the crash and did not know why he was in the wrong lane. "I don't remember the day. I don't remember even getting up in the morning. I don't remember making my bed. What I first remember is waking up in the hospital, with a very strange feeling going on in my leg," he said at the time. Broderick was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and faced a prison term of up to five years. He was later convicted of the lesser charge of careless driving and fined $175. The victims' family called the case "a travesty of justice." Broderick agreed to meet with the family of the two women in the spring of 2003 so that the family could gain some sense of closure on the accident.
Prior to her stint on Dancing with the Stars, Grey had a physical examination to ensure that she was fit enough to compete. In addition, Grey saw a doctor to address chronic neck problems caused by the car accident years before.[9] Her spinal cord was compressed and her surgeon said "If you fell or got rear-ended, you'd be paralyzed". Surgeon Robert S. Bray placed a titanium plate in her neck to stabilize her spinal cord but also told her to see another doctor about a suspicious white spot on her thyroid that he'd seen on her MRI. Grey had believed the spot to be a benign nodule but it was cancerous and was removed. Grey told ABC's Good Morning America she believes the cancer was caught before it metastasized and that she is now cancer-free. On the November 8 episode, it is revealed that she has a partially torn knee tendon.[10]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Reckless | Cathy Bennario | |
| Red Dawn | Toni | ||
| The Cotton Club | Patsy Dwyer | ||
| ABC Afterschool Specials | Carol Durate | 1 episode: "The Great Love Experiment" | |
| 1985 | Laura Eller | 1 episode: "Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale" | |
| American Flyers | Leslie | ||
| 1986 | Ferris Bueller's Day Off | Jeanie Bueller | |
| The Equalizer | Valerie Jacobs | 1 episode: "A Community of Civilized Men" | |
| 1987 | Dirty Dancing | Frances 'Baby' Houseman | |
| 1988 | Gandahar | Airelle (voice) | |
| 1989 | Bloodhounds of Broadway | Lovey Lou | |
| 1990 | Murder in Mississippi | Rita Schwerner | TV movies |
| Criminal Justice | Liz Carter | ||
| If the Shoe Fits | Kelly Carter / Prudence | ||
| 1991 | Eyes of a Witness | Christine Baxter | |
| 1992 | Wind | Kate Bass | |
| 1993 | A Case for Murder | Kate Weldon | TV movie |
| 1995 | Friends | Mindy | 1 episode: "The One with the Evil Orthodontist" |
| Fallen Angels | Ginger Allen | 1 episode: "A Dime a Dance" | |
| The West Side Waltz | Robin Ouiseau | TV movie | |
| 1996 | Portraits of a Killer | Elaine Taylor | |
| Lover's Knot | Megan Forrester | ||
| 1997 | Red Meat | Candice | |
| 1998 | Outrage | Sally Casey | TV movies |
| Since You've Been Gone | Patty Reed | ||
| 1999 | It's Like, You Know... | Herself | TV Series |
| 2000 | Bounce | Janice Geurrero | |
| 2001 | Ritual | Dr. Alice Dodgson | |
| 2006 | Road to Christmas | Claire Jameson | TV movie |
| 2007 | John from Cincinnati | Daphne | Episode: "His Visit: Day Five" Episode: "His Visit: Day Seven" Episode: "His Visit: Day Nine" |
| 2008 | Redbelt | Lucy Weiss | |
| Keith | Caroline | ||
| Phineas and Ferb | Dr. Gevaarlijk (voice) | 1 episode: "The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein/Oil on Candace" | |
| 2009 | Louisa Patel (voice) | 1 episode: "Hide and Seek/That Sinking Feeling" | |
| Librarian (voice) | 1 episode: "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo" | ||
| The New Adventures of Old Christine | Tracey | 1 episode: "Love Means Never Having to Say You're Crazy" | |
| 2010 | Dancing with the Stars | Contestant, 11th Season | TV series |
| House | Abbey | 1 episode "Unplanned Parenthood" |
References
- ^ Dirty Dancing - Dirty Dancer Grey's Nightmare Nose Job
- ^ Kendall Hamilton (March 22, 1999). "It's Like, Uh ... Jennifer Grey". Newsweek. pp. 73–74.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Jennifer Grey to Guest-Star on House". TVGuide.com.
- ^ "Dancing With the Stars Sources Confirm Margaret Cho and Jennifer Grey—Guess Which One Gets Derek Hough". eonline.com.
- ^ Sheridan, Peter. "What became of Patrick's Dirty Dancing partner?", The Express (Scotland), September 25, 2010, pp. 36-37
- ^ (no author) "Brefly", USA TODAY, December 6, 2001, p. LIFE, 5D
- ^ Listing imdb.com, retrieved November 23, 2010
- ^ Tutelian, Louise. "Mr. Grey's granddaughter Stella, age 6, lives nearby [Venice, Calif] with her parents, Jennifer Grey and her husband, the actor Clark Gregg.", excerpt from "Putting Out a 'Willkommen' Mat" The New York Times, May 23, 2008, p. Escapes, 1
- ^ "Matthew Broderick - Matthew Broderick Car Crash Family Reach Out". contactmusic.com.
- ^ "How 'Dancing' Saved Jennifer Grey: Checkup Found Cancer". Good Morning America.
External links
- Jennifer Grey at IMDb
- Jennifer Grey at AllMovie
- Jennifer Grey at the Internet Broadway Database
- Please use a more specific IOBDB template. See the template documentation for available templates.
- Washington Post interview
- Dirty Dancing, The E! True Hollywood Story, video documentary, first aired September 3, 2000