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Carla Gugino Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Carla Gugino.jpg

As a teenager, Italianate beauty Carla Gugino began a career as a fashion model but quickly became disillusion. At the suggestion of her aunt, TV spokesmodel Carol Merrill (of “Let’s Make a Deal” fame), she took an acting class with former soap star Gene Bua and became hooked, leading to her first screen role in the Shelley Long vehicle “Troop Beverly Hills” in 1989.

Born in Florida, Gugino relocated to California with her mother following her parents’ divorce and experienced an unorthodox, bohemian upbringing that encompassed frequent moves as well as a stint living in a teepee in Northern California. Despite her sojourn in the modeling world and her acting classes, Gugino was able to maintain her grades and was named valedictorian of her high school class. Rather than attend college, though, she opted to concentrate on her burgeoning acting career. In fall 1989, she joined the cast of the long-running primetime serial “Falcon Crest” (CBS), but the show was in its last throes and while the role gave her some stature, it did little to move her to the ranks of stardom. Gugino was next tapped to play the youthful incarnation of the title character (essayed by Winona Ryder) in “Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael” (1990). Following supporting turns in the 1992 HBO abortion-themed drama “A Private Affair” and the 1993 big screen family drama “This Boy’s Life”, the actress landed her first film lead as Pauley Shore’s bride—a farmer’s daughter—in the comedy “Son-in-Law” (1993).

1995 proved to be a banner year for Gugino with high profile roles on the big and small screen. She garnered good notices for her turn as the restlessly unhappy bride and youngest daughter in a Jewish family in “Miami Rhapsody” while her performance as one of a group of turn-of-the-century debutantes in the BBC/PBS co-production “The Buccaneers” demonstrated her range. Despite her ascending movie career, Gugino agreed to co-star in a sitcom, playing the journalist girlfriend of a deputy mayor (Michael J Fox) in ABC’s “Spin City.” Despite impressive reviews, she departed the show after a dozen episodes in what was reported as a mutual decision. From the producers’ standpoint, the series’ format needed tweaking and it was thought Fox’s character would prove more interesting as a single man, while the actress supposedly did not like living in NYC where the show was taped.

Returning to California, Gugino found several roles in quick succession, although such indie fare as “The War at Home” (1996) and “Lovelife” (1997) did not exactly set box office records. Donning a blonde wig, she gave an impressive performance as a woman with a secret in “Snake Eyes” (1998). Branching out into producing, Gugino debuted with the caper drama “Judas Kiss” (1998), in which she also starred as the leader of a kidnapping plot. After premiering at Toronto, the movie ended up being sold to Cinemax before its video release. Returning to TV, Gugino joined the cast of “Chicago Hope” for its final season. She then co-starred with Antonio Banderas as retired espionage agents who are called back into service in director Robert Rodriguez’s amusing, entertaining hit “Spy Kids”—a role she reprised for two sequels, “Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams” (2002) and “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over” (2003)—played a stripper’s best friend in “The Center of the World” and Jet Li’s love interest in “The One” (all 2001), and starred in the bizarre and creepy mermaid-as-monster TV flick “She Creature” (2001). In the fall of 2003, she took the title role in the ABC TV crime drama “Karen Sisco” as the beautiful federal marshal created by novelist Elmore Leonard and first played by Jennifer Lopez in the film “Out of Sight” (1998). Although it was one of the best reviewed dramas of that season, the show struggled in the ratings, prompting ABC to yank it from the schedule and relaunch it 2004.

Gugino reunited once more with Rodriguez along with writer-artist Frank Miller for their visually arresting adaptation of Miller’s crime noir comic book series “Sin City” (2005); the actress appeared—frequently sans top—as Lucille, the protective lesbian parole officer of the noble but violent antihero Marv (Mickey Rourke). She then landed a regular role on “Threshold” (CBS, 2005- ), Shaun Cassidy’s supernatural drama about a small Florida town recovering from a devastating hurricane rumored to have been caused by aliens from outer space. Gugino played a crisis team scientist who, along with her eccentric, but brilliant colleagues, tries to figure out why a strange alien object that may be altering human DNA entered the Earth’s orbit after the storm. Along with generally positive reviews from critics, “Threshold” helped CBS consistently win Friday nights in the never-ending ratings war.

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Kirstie Alley Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

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Sultry and deep voiced, with a wealth of wavy dark hair, Alley has made a name for herself as both a wacky comic and an impressive dramatic actor primarily on the small screen. First known as the beautiful Vulcan Lt. Saavik in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982), Alley struggled through a series of unrewarding roles in the early 1980s. In features, she followed “Star Trek” (she lost the role of Saavik in the third feature after reportedly asking for a salary on par with original franchise stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy) with “Champions” (1983), “Blind Date” and “Runaway” (both 1984) and the teen comedy “Summer School” (1987). On TV, she played a trucker in the NBC pilot “Highway Honeys” (1983), a spy in the short-lived “Masquerade” (ABC, 1983) and turned up in such TV-movies as “Prince of Bel-Air” (ABC, 1985) and “Infidelity” (ABC, 1987).

None of these projects knew how to use Alley’s quirky gifts, though she gained a bit of prestige as Gloria Steinem in “A Bunny’s Tale” (ABC, 1985) and in the successful miniseries “North and South” (ABC, 1985) and its 1986 sequel. Her big break came when she became the female lead (after Shelley Long departed) in the long-running hit NBC sitcom “Cheers” in 1987. Alley was cast as neurotic overachiever Rebecca Howe, who despite an attraction to bar owner Sam Malone (Ted Danson), tended to become involved with wealthy powerful men who might improve her status in life. Her small screen success led to movie stardom as a flustered single mom in the surprise 1989 hit, “Look Who’s Talking” and its the less successful sequels “Look Who’s Talking Too” (1990) and “Look Who’s Talking Now” (1993).

Projecting intelligence, vulnerability, and a Lucille Ball-like comedic talent, Alley has carved a niche in TV and films. She finally gained respect as a dramatic actress with her brilliant Emmy-winning performance as “David’s Mother” (CBS, 1994), a slovenly woman raising a mentally-challenged son. Besides appearing on numerous awards and tribute specials, Alley was a voice-over on “Peter and the Wolf” (ABC, 1995), and played another put-upon mother in “Radiant City” (ABC, 1996). She made her bow as executive producer with the ABC drama “Suddenly” (1996), in which she also starred.

Alley’s film career has been rockier. While filming “Cheers”, she moonlighted in such poorly-received features as “Loverboy” (1989), “Madhouse” and “Sibling Rivalry” (both 1990). After the sitcom ended in 1993, Alley returned to features in John Carpenter’s unnecessary remake of “Village of the Damned” (1994) and co-starred with Steve Guttenberg and the Olsen twins in the romantic comedy “It Takes Two” (1995). She has continued to appear in a variety of projects ranging from the revisionist Western “Nevada”, about a town seemingly populated only by women, to Woody Allen’s “Deconstructing Harry” (both 1997), as the title character’s ex-wife. That same year, she co-starred with Tim Allen as a married couple on the run from the IRS who hide out among the Amish in “For Richer or Poorer”. She rounded out the year by returning to series TV as the star of the NBC sitcom “Veronica’s Closet”, a less than stellar effort that nevertheless managed to run for three years. Alley continued to appear in the occasional feature, such as playing a controlling mother of an aspiring beauty queen in the pageant comedy “Drop Dead Gorgeous” (1999) and frequently headlined high profile telepics and miniseries including “The Last Don” (1998), the Marilyn Monroe mini “Blonde” (2001), “Salem Witch Trials” (2002) and the particularly well-acted “Profoundly Normal” (2003), opposite Delroy Lindo, about the true-life romance between a mentally challenged couple.

The actress also remained in the public eye as the pitchwoman in a series of commercials for the home furnishing company Pier 1 from 2001-2003, although media attention began to focus on how the former sex symbol’s once jaw-dropping figure had begun to expand in middle age–she later revealed she weighed as much as 219 lbs. Always an outspoken actress with a button-pushing sense of humor, Alley played off the tabloid obsession with her weight by agreeing to star in the Showtime series “Fat Actress” (2005 - ), playing a comedic interpretation of herself as a once-successful actress struggling in Hollywood after packing on extra pounds. As a result, Alley–who revealed that her weight was strictly moniored during her sit-com days, and brashly confronted talk show host Jay Leno for his fat jokes at her expense–also became a spokeswoman for the weight loss system Jenny Craig and began dramatically shedding her excess weight.

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