Jennifer Rhodes

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Jennifer Rhodes is an American actress whose career spans four decades.

Jennifer Rhodes grew up in Rosiclare, Illinois, a small town on the Ohio River. She became interested in theater while attending Southern Illinois University and moved to New York City soon after graduating. She studied acting and began getting cast for theatre roles. After marrying Jordan Rhodes she eventually moved to Los Angeles where she stopped acting for a while because she felt, as a stage actress, she didn't know very much about acting for television or movie roles. She eventually auditioned successfully for commercials roles, later moving on to television and film.

Her first credited roll was in the 60's television series "The High Chaparral" as the character Tanea. In 1980, she played a press secretary on a made-for-TV movie about Jackie Kennedy. In 1989 she appeared in the New World Pictures film Heathers as Winona Ryder's mother. Her television resume proved to be quite extensive as she appeared on the following select series: Fame, Matlock, Little House on the Prairie, L.A. Law, Quantum Leap, Knots Landing, Designing Women, Full House, Red Shoe Diaries, Party of Five, ER, Wings, Murphy Brown, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Family Matters, Friends, Popular, The Agency and Boston Public - just to name a few.

Although she never had children of her own, Jennifer is frequently recognized as "Grams" from The WB series, Charmed, where she portrayed the spirit of the Charmed One's grandmother. There she played the tough as nails matriarch of the Halliwell clan. Although not a regular, she is the only actress to have guest-starred in all eight seasons of the series. Her recurring role as “Grams” is her second regular series though, her first being Nightingales as the character Effie Gardner.

[edit] Trivia

When filming the movie Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, she tried to keep the time period in mind and used a 60s hairstyle for her character. She was surprised when she later discovered that star Jaclyn Smith didn't wear an original Jackie Kennedy hairstyle. She wore a modern 80s bob hairstyle instead.
Her favorite episode of Charmed in which she took part in is the episode Necromancing the Stone.
Charmed is the second project Jennifer has worked on with actress Shannen Doherty. They previously worked together in the film Heathers.
She has the distinct honor of being the longest running, recurring character on Charmed starting with the season one episode Is There A Woogy In The House?.
She loves cats and dogs. She has a dog (Willy) and two cats (Fletcher & Wilson).

[edit] Quotes

I was in my dentist’s office in the waiting room and somebody walked by and said, "Hi, Grams". (a nod to her Charmed character) Having never had children, that always sort of startles me.