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Rebecca Gayheart Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

The milky-skinned, curly-haired Rebecca Gayheart won attention as both the Noxzema Girl in a series of TV commercials in the early 1990s, and as the bride of Dylan (Luke Perry) on “Beverly Hills, 90210″ (Fox, 1995), whose death was used as the actor’s out from the series. Since then the attractive brunette with striking blue eyes has begun racking up both TV and feature film credits as a leading lady whose star is rising.

Born into poverty as the daughter of a coal miner in Kentucky, Gayheart, at age 15, won a modeling contest that promised a career in NYC. With $300 in her pocket (all her parents could afford) she took off for the big city. Within two years, Gayheart had won a contract with Noxzema. While enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Institute, she began to find bit roles and extra work on the soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” and on the NBC sitcom “The Cosby Show”. Her big break came in 1991 when she was cast as Hannah Mayberry, a young woman who becomes psychotically obsessed with her college professor, on the ABC daytime drama “Loving”. After nearly three years on the show, she left in August 1993 to pursue other career opportunities.

Heading to the West Coast, Gayheart soon landed the role of Clair in several installments of the syndicated TV-movies “Vanishing Son”. She then was cast as the wife of a cowardly government agent in the short-lived sci-fi series “Earth 2″ (NBC, 1994-95). In 1997, Gayheart once again played Luke Perry’s love interest, this time in the NBC miniseries “Robin Cook’s ‘Invasion’”, although he was infected with an extraterrestrial virus and it was up to her character to save the earth.

Gayheart made her screen debut in the short film “Whatever Happened to Mason Reese?” (1990). She was featured in Martin Donovan’s 1996 film “Somebody is Waiting” as the girlfriend of a sullen teenager. Gayheart followed with a supporting turn in “Nothing to Lose” (1997), starring Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence.

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Elisa Donovan Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Elisa Donovan.jpg

Elisa Donovan is probably best known for her work as Amber, Cher’s chief fashion rival, in Amy Heckerling’s 1995 comedy “Clueless” and its spin-off TV series. She began acting at age seven, starring as the male lead in the play “Westward Ho Ho Ho”. This gender bending role prepared the young actress to take roles removed from her own experience and since then she never shied away from portraying less-than-likable characters both in film and on television. The Long Island-raised Donovan appeared on the NYC based soap “Loving” after a move to Manhattan and also worked off-Broadway in plays including “Safe” and “Mad Love”. Next the actress was off to Los Angeles in 1994, having landed a recurring role on the NBC sitcom “Blossom” playing Tanya, the girlfriend of Joey Lawrence’s clueless character.

Donovan scored big screen points as a rival to Alicia Silverstone’s Cher in the blockbuster comedy “Clueless”; her strong screen persona made for the perfect Amber, a character whose wild wardrobe could easily outshine an actress with a less dynamic presence. That same year, she increased her industry profile with a more substantial and misanthropic part as the conniving Ginger, a blackmailing, drug using thief in Fox’s primetime serial “Beverly Hills, 90210″. The redheaded New Yorker proved adept at playing California girls, and was cast in “Encino Woman”, a 1996 ABC TV-movie, followed by the regular starring role on the TV series adaptation of “Clueless” (ABC, 1996-97; UPN, 1997-99). Here Donovan’s character was now firmly in the forefront of the action, showcased along with Stacey Dash as Dionne and Rachel Blanchard as Cher. While its beginnings were shaky, with low ratings leading to a first season cancellation by ABC, the series found a place at UPN and was a successful addition to the network’s “Moesha”-led teen-geared lineup. As Amber, the arrogant, competitive friend of good-natured Cher, Donovan delivered the funniest lines on the program, was put in the zaniest situations, and paraded around in remarkable parodies of eclectic high fashion. While still going strong on “Clueless”, the actress made a 1998 film appearance as misguided fortune hunter Cambi in the comedy “A Night at the Roxbury”, a full length adaptation of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch featuring a pair of loser brothers in a nightclub. Donovan followed with her first significant role in a non-comedic production in “Loving Jezebel” (1999), shot in her native New York.

Milestones:

2000 Joined cast of “Sabrina” when it moved to The WB
1999 Had featured role in the drama “Loving Jezebel”
1998 Featured in the comedy “A Night at the Roxbury” as a gold digging model
1996 Appeared in the ABC TV movie comedy “Encino Woman”
1996 In a December interview with PEOPLE, revealed that she had struggled with anorexia from1993 to 1995
1995 Appeared in a bit part in “Guns on the Clackamas”, the debut live-action feature for animator Bill Plympton
1995 Featured as Cher’s rival Amber in the big-screen comedy hit “Clueless”
1995 - 1996 Had a recurring role as bad girl Ginger on Fox’s primetime soap “Beverly Hills, 90210″
1995 Had a guest role in The WB’s short-lived series “Simon”
1994 Relocated to Los Angeles; had a recurring role on the NBC sitcom “Blossom” playing Tanya, the girlfriend of Joey Lawrence’s character
1991 Moved from Northport, New York to Manhattan
1979 Began acting career at age seven as the male lead in the stage production “Westward Ho Ho Ho” (date approximate)
Raised in Northport, New York
Appeared in the ABC daytime drama “Loving”; also worked in off-Broadway theater
Starred on the TV series “Clueless” reprising her role as fashion obsessed Amber (ABC, 1996-1997; UPN, 1997-1999)

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Dana Delany Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Dana Delany.jpg

This attractive and engaging talent became a TV star as the Vietnam nurse Colleen McMurphy in the acclaimed ABC series “China Beach” (1988-91). Dana Delany is the granddaughter of the inventor of the Delany toilet-flush valve and was raised in upper-middle-class Stamford, Connecticut. After attending prep school, she graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in drama and headed to NYC where she soon found work in TV commercials and on daytime serials (”Love of Life”, “As the World Turns”), Her first real break, though, came when she was cast as the young version of Roy Dotrice’s wife in the Broadway production of Hugh Leonard’s play “A Life” (1980). Delany segued to the big screen in a bit role in “The Fan” (1981) and went on to play a nun in “Where the River Runs Black” (1986), John Glover’s lover in “Masquerade” (1988) and a member of the SLA who kidnapped “Patty Hearst” (1988), directed by Paul Schrader. At the same time, she found herself cast in the role of the consummate girlfriend in guest spots on “Magnum, P.I.” and “Moonlighting”. Delany headlined the little-seen NBC sitcom “Sweet Surrender” (1987) before finding fame and earning two Emmy Awards for “China Beach”.

After achieving small screen recognition, Delany returned to features, playing Steve Martin’s cold-hearted girlfriend in “Housesitter” and Willem Dafoe’s suicidal ex-lover in Schrader’s “Light Sleeper” (both 1992). She delivered excellent support as the actress wife of Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp in the modestly entertaining “Tombstone” (1993) before tackling her first screen lead as a leather-clad dominatrix in the tame and contrived crime yarn mixed with sex farce, “Exit to Eden” (1994). Delany’s much anticipated return to Broadway in 1995 proved a bust when the play–Brian Friel’s “Translations”–failed to attract an audience. She bounced back with the lead in the Lifetime biopic “Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story” (1995) and as a schoolteacher stricken with the potentially fatal disease scleroderma in “For Hope” (ABC, 1996).

Delany went on to portray the steadfast lover of an eccentric Jeff Daniels in “Fly Away Home” (1996) and a Texas suffragette in the Western miniseries “True Women” (CBS, 1997). She and Martin Donovan played a Dutch farm couple who harbor Jews during WWII in the 1998 Showtime original “Rescuers: Stories of Courage: Two Couples”. The actress next stepped into Ellen Burstyn’s Oscar-nominated role as a car crash survivor who develops healing powers in a small screen remake of “Resurrection” (ABC, 1999). Delany returned to the stage in the Pulitzer-winning Off-Broadway play “Dinner With Friends” in 2000. The following year, she netted another Emmy nomination for her guest turn on an episode of CBS’ “Family Law” and in the fall returned to series TV as society heiress in the Fox primetime serial “Pasadena”, with Martin Donovan once again cast as her husband.

In 2002, Delany protrayed Dr. Rae Brennan in the CBS medical drama series “Presidio Med,” which also co-starred Blythe Danner.

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Geena Davis Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Geena Davis.jpg

Since the early 1980s, this statuesque (about 6′) former fashion model has carefully crafted a winning screen persona that has made her one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actors. While Davis’ somewhat goofy charm has been well deployed in quirky comedies (e.g., “Fletch” 1985; “Beetlejuice” 1988; “Quick Change” 1990), she has also displayed a flair for light drama, notably with an Oscar-winning turn in Lawrence Kasdan’s “The Accidental Tourist” (1988). Strikingly attractive with just a touch of gawkiness, Davis projected an all but irresistible friendliness and vulnerability in her early appearances. More often than not, her best characterizations had her starting out as an untried and fairly ditsy naif who is forced to make decisions that allow her to grow over the course of the narrative. Davis has also avoided much of the stereotypical fare offered contemporary actresses in that she’s never played a character who was dying of a terminal disease, been cast as a hooker (with a heart of gold or otherwise) or portrayed a conventional woman in peril. Her imposing physique has given her rare credibility to play athletes and other unusually physical female roles.

Davis first registered on TV in 1982 in the briefly recurring role of the guileless maid Karen Nicholson hired by precocious young conservative Alex P Keaton (Michael J Fox) on the hit NBC sitcom “Family Ties”. Davis’ slightly daft domestic enchanted both her diminutive employer and a huge primetime audience. She next surfaced as Wendy Killian, an ingenuous research assistant, providing one of several foils to Dabney Coleman’s titular detestable talk show host “Buffalo Bill” (NBC, 1983-84) in that short-lived but highly acclaimed sitcom. Davis graduated to sitcom lead as “Sara” (NBC, 1985), a young single attorney sharing a San Francisco storefront apartment with three other lawyers. This failed but inoffensive attempt to recreate “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” for the 80s boasted a sterling supporting cast that included Alfre Woodard, Bill Maher and Bronson Pinchot. But success and stardom for the actress would come in the movies.

Davis made her feature debut as a scantily clad soap-opera performer who innocently shares a dressing room with the cross-dressing Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie” (1982). She graduated to leads with David Cronenberg’s ickily transcendent remake of “The Fly” (1986), cast opposite Jeff Goldblum whom she married the following year. Rarely has film offered a more convincing depiction of two bright and interesting people falling in love. Offscreen, Goldblum and Davis made for a great celebrity couple: both were long, lean, a little loopy and seemingly very much in love and they gave memorably entertaining interviews. The pair seemed like a Nick and Nora Charles for postmodern times. (Their marriage, however, faltered and they filed for divorce in 1990.)

Davis surprised many by winning an Oscar for her portrayal of the kooky dog-trainer who wins the heart of a traumatized William Hurt in Lawrence Kasdan’s comedy-drama “The Accidental Tourist”. She made a much greater impact–and earned her first Best Actress nod from the Academy–as Thelma, an oppressed and none-too-brainy housewife who finds notoriety, liberation and herself on an outlaw road trip in Ridley Scott’s seminal “Thelma & Louise” (1991). Filmed shortly after Davis’ divorce from Goldblum, this female buddy movie became a cult favorite for many feminists and Davis and co-star Susan Sarandon assumed the status of a distaff Redford and Newman. She rose capably above the material in Penny Marshall’s popular period baseball comedy-drama, “A League of Their Own” (1992). Impressively serious amid the sentimental shenanigans, Davis won kudos for her portrayal of Dottie Hinson, a softball player in rural Oregon awaiting the return of her husband from overseas in WWII. Additionally, she proved convincing as the catcher and star player of a pro women’s ball team. Davis fared less well that same year as a career-driven reporter tracking down the “Hero” (Dustin Hoffman or Andy Garcia) who saved a plane full of crash survivors from death by smoke inhalation. The screenplay of this attempt at contemporary Capra-corn, though, received more criticism than the female lead.

In 1993, Davis married transplanted Finnish action flick helmer Renny Harlin and the pair formed Forge Productions the following year. “Angie” (1994) offered a bit of a stretch for the striking WASPish leading lady as she played a working-class Italian-American Brooklynite who gets pregnant out of wedlock yet refuses to do the conventional right thing. Davis garnered reasonable reviews for her deft handling of a role conceived for Madonna but audiences steered clear of the light comedy-drama. Nor did they cast their vote later that year for “Speechless”, a romantic comedy set in the world of politics. Starring opposite “Beetlejuice” co-star Michael Keaton as competing speech writers who fall in love, Davis also made her co-producing debut (with Harlin) on this project. She moved up to executive producer on the made-for-cable courtroom thriller “Mistrial” (HBO, 1996).

Married as she was to an action specialist, Davis cannot be faulted for trying her hand at the genre. The potential boost in international box-office clout seemed a worthy prize as the producing duo joined forces for the lavish pirate adventure “Cutthroat Island” (1995). Helmed by Harlin, the film boasted elaborate stunts, vibrant lensing, meticulous production design and impressive battle sequences. On the other hand, the conventional derring-do and lame scripting all but neutralized Davis’ quirky appeal. That flaw, along with poor pacing and an all but irrelevant male lead (Matthew Modine), helped sink this $100 million white elephant at the box office, which also took a movie studio–the already troubled Carolco–down with it to the ocean floor. In the plus column, Davis performed her action chores with considerable aplomb. She and Harlin sprang into action again with “The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996). Armed with a hot Shane Black script, ace supporting player Samuel L. Jackson and some $70 million, the film delivered the action goods and a breezy tone but disappointing box office. Still, Davis charmed many with her initially tongue-in-cheek portrait of a suburban housewife whose amnesia prevents her from remembering her past as a top-ranked government assassin. Her attempt to transition back into television with the ABC sitcom “The Geena Davis Show” (2000-2001) playing a materialistic woman whose whirlwind romance takes her from singlehood to being the married mother of two after only six dates also failed to score with audiences.

Despite these commercial and critical setbacks (not to mention personal–she and Harlin ultimately divorced in 1998), Davis found a hit with the popular children’s film “Stuart Little” (1999), charming audiences as the winsome wife and mother Eleanor Little, who is perfectly nonplussed that her adopted son is a talking white mouse. She would also reprise the role for the 2002 sequel, “Stuart Little 2.” The actress would then give television yet another go, taking the lead in producer Rod Lurie’s political-minded series “Commander in Chief” (ABC, 2005 - ) as Mackenzie Allen, a political independent who became vice president as a lure for women voters who, after the death of her running mate, takes to the Oval Office as president despite strong opposition from both her allies and her enemies.

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