Sarah Jessica Parker

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Sarah H. Jessica Parker

Born March 25, 1965 (age 42)
Flag of United States Nelsonville, Ohio, USA
Spouse(s) Matthew Broderick (19 May 1997 - present) 1 child
Notable roles Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Comedy Series
2001 (producer)
Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series
2004 Sex and the City
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actress in a Television Comedy or Musical
2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 Sex and the City

Sarah Jessica Parker (born March 25, 1965), is a Golden Globe and Emmy-winning American actress and an Emmy-winning producer, with a portfolio of television, movie, and theatre performances. She is best known for her role as newspaper relationship columnist Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and career

Parker was born in Nelsonville, Ohio, to Stephen Parker, a Jewish American businessman, and Barbara, who may also have Jewish ancestry.[1] Her parents divorced early on in Parker's life and her mother remarried Paul Forste, a truck driver. Parker grew up with her mother, stepfather and seven siblings. As a young girl, she trained in singing and ballet, soon being cast in the Broadway production of The Innocents. Her family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and then to Dobbs Ferry, New York, near New York City, where Parker was developing her career as a child actress. In 1977, the family moved to the newly opened planned community on Roosevelt Island, in the East River between Manhattan and Queens, and later to Manhattan proper; her parents later moved to Englewood, New Jersey where she attended Dwight Morrow High School.

Parker attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts, the School of American Ballet and the Professional Children's School, and later Dwight Morrow High School. She and four siblings appeared in a revival of The Sound of Music, and Parker went on to the new 1977-81 Broadway musical Annie — first in the small role of "July," and then succeeding Andrea McArdle and Shelley Bruce in the lead role as the plucky Depression-era orphan, for a year beginning March 6, 1979.

In 1982, Parker was cast in the co-lead role of the CBS-TV sitcom Square Pegs. The show lasted only one season before being cancelled by the network, but Parker's performance was critically well received. In the three years that followed, she was cast in four films - the most significant of those being Footloose in 1984 and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, co-starring Helen Hunt, in 1985. Also that year, she become romantically involved with actor Robert Downey Jr., whom she met on the set of Firstborn and with whom she lived through 1991; during their relationship, Downey Jr. had a drug problem, and Parker has commented that she thought that she was "the person holding him together".[2]

[edit] Adult career

By the early 1990s, Parker's career was gaining momentum. In 1991, she appeared in a supporting role in the romantic comedy, L.A. Story; both the movie and her performance garnered some positive reviews. The following year she landed an important starring role in the well-received film, Honeymoon in Vegas, co-starring Nicolas Cage. Her 1993 role in the film Hocus Pocus was a higher grosser at the box office but received negative reviews. She next appeared opposite Johnny Depp in the critically acclaimed movie Ed Wood. The film Miami Rhapsody, in 1995, saw her back on familiar territory with more romantic comedy material and a leading role. She appeared in another Tim Burton-directed movie, Mars Attacks!, The First Wives Club, and The Substance of Fire, in which she reprised her 1991 stage role, in 1996.

In 1997, she appeared as Francesca Lanfield, a washed-up Maureen McCormick-esque former child actress in the comedy Til There Was You. Later that year, the script for an HBO drama/comedy series titled Sex and the City was sent to Parker and the show's creator Darren Star was determined that she be cast in his project. Despite some early doubts about being cast in a long-term television series, Parker agreed to star.[3]

The first season of the show proved to be an instant success, elevating Parker to a higher status. Despite the show's increasingly raunchy storylines, Parker retained the strict no-nudity clause of her contract throughout the show's six-season run. Parker became a producer for the show starting with its third season. In 2004, Parker won an Emmy award for her lead role (after five consecutive losses). Many gambling and betting establishments stopped taking bets on her Emmy victory, because it was so widely predicted that she would win. Parker has since stated that she will "never do a television show again",[4] although she will co-executive produce a new HBO series based on Washingtonienne, but will not star in it.[5]

After Sex and the City ended in 2004, rumours of a film version circulated and it has since been revealed that a script had been completed for such a project. However, Parker has commented that it will likely never be made.[6] Two years later, however, preparations were already underway and HBO is currently in negotiations with executive producer Michael Patrick King and the cast from the Sex and the City TV series, including Parker, to produce a feature film of the same name.[7] In addition to work in movies and television, she is also a respected stage actor, having appeared in well-reviewed lead roles in the off-Broadway play Sylvia, alongside husband Matthew Broderick in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and the Tony Award-nominated Once Upon A Mattress, as Princess Winifred the Woebegone.

In December 2005, Parker appeared in her first theatrical film in several years, The Family Stone; she received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress - Comedy for the role. Her next film, the romantic comedy Failure to Launch, co-starring Matthew McConaughey, was released on March 10, 2006 and opened at #1 in the North American box office, grossing slightly over $24 million,[8] despite mediocre reviews.[9]. Parker's work as a producer continues with the independent film Spinning Into Butter, based on the Rebecca Gilman play scheduled for a 2006 release, which she will also star in. Her latest confirmed project is Slammer, a prison-themed musical comedy to be directed by Adam Shankman and released in 2007. The role as imprisoned publicist who stages an all-inmate musical will give Parker the opportunity to revisit her musical roots, which have yet to be explored in her film and television work.

[edit] Personal style

Parker has become very influential in the world of fashion; she is considered one of the more stylish celebrities and has been recognized as "Best Dressed" in certain magazines.[citation needed] In 2000, she hosted the MTV Movie Awards and appeared in no less than 15 different costumes throughout the show.

She has also become the face of many of the world's biggest fashion brands through her work in a variety of advertising campaigns. In August 2003, Parker signed a highly lucrative deal with Garnier to appear in television and print advertising promoting their Nutrisse hair products. In 2004, she fronted an international campaign by Gap but her contract with the clothing giant was suddenly terminated in Spring of 2005 in favour of British soul singer Joss Stone. A friend of Parker commented to the press that "Sarah's spring campaign for GAP has only just started and she feels the announcement of her replacement in the same week that the new ads are appearing is a bit of a snub" [10]. In addition to her advertising work, Parker released her own fragrance in 2005 called "Lovely" - an innocent parody in itself.[1] In March 2007 Sarah Jessica Parker announced that she is launching her own fashion line, Bitten.[11]

[edit] Personal life

As her career continued to blossom into the 1990s, she met journalist John Kennedy Jr. and dated him for several months. Prior to this, Parker had a serious relationship with Robert Downey Jr. She was also romantically linked to singer-songwriter Joshua Kadison in the early 90s, who described their tumultuous relationship and their cat Moses in the song "Jessie" on the album Painted Desert Serenade.

On May 19, 1997, she married actor Matthew Broderick, to whom she was introduced by her brother. The couple married in a civil ceremony in a historic synagogue on the Lower East Side of Manhattan that is no longer used as a house of worship; both Parker and Broderick have Jewish ancestry and consider themselves to be "culturally Jewish."[12] The couple's first child, son James Wilke Broderick, was born on October 28, 2002. He was named after Broderick's father, the distinguished Irish-American actor James Broderick.

Parker and Broderick spend a considerable amount of time at their holiday home in County Donegal, Ireland. Parker is a prominent member of the Hollywood's Women's Political Committee and is UNICEF's Representative for the Performing Arts; in 2006, she traveled to Liberia as a UNICEF celebrity ambassador, and has commented that, "It's a place that gets little or no attention, so we're going to try and bring some attention to it."[13] As of 2007, she lives in New York City with her husband and son.

[edit] Awards

Golden Globes

  • 2005: Nominee: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Musical or Comedy - The Family Stone
  • 2005: Nominee: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series: Musical or Comedy - Sex and the City
  • 2004: Winner: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series: Musical or Comedy - Sex and the City
  • 2003: Nominee: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series: Musical or Comedy - Sex and the City
  • 2002: Winner: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series: Musical or Comedy - Sex and the City
  • 2001: Winner: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series: Musical or Comedy - Sex and the City
  • 2000: Winner: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series: Musical or Comedy - Sex and the City
  • 1999: Nominee: Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series: Musical or Comedy - Sex and the City

Emmy Awards

  • 2004: Winner: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2004: Nominee: Outstanding Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2003: Nominee: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2003: Nominee: Outstanding Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2002: Nominee: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2002: Nominee: Outstanding Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2001: Nominee: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2001: Winner: Outstanding Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2000: Nominee: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 1999: Nominee: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City

Screen Actors Guild Awards

  • 2005: Nominee: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2005: Nominee: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2004: Winner: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2003: Nominee: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2002: Nominee: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2002: Winner: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2001: Winner: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2001: Nominee: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City
  • 2000: Nominee: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series - Sex and the City

[edit] Selected filmography

Year Title Role Other notes
1982 Square Pegs Patty Greene
1984 Footloose Rusty
1985 Girls Just Want to Have Fun Janey Glenn
1986 A Year in the Life Kay Erickson (The "Free Spirited" girl)
1986 Flight of the Navigator Carolyn
1991 L.A. Story SanDeE*
1992 Honeymoon in Vegas Betsy/Donna
1993 Striking Distance Jo Christman/Det. Emily Harper
1993 Hocus Pocus Sarah Sanderson
1994 Ed Wood Dolores Fuller
1995 Miami Rhapsody Gwyn Marcus
1996 Mars Attacks! Nathalie Lake
1996 If Lucy Fell Lucy Ackerman
1996 The First Wives Club Shelly Stewart
1997 'Til There Was You Francesca Lanfield
1999 Dudley Do-Right Nell Fenwick
2000 State and Main Claire Wellesley
2001 Life Without Dick Colleen Gibson direct-to-video
2005 The Family Stone Meredith Morton
2006 Strangers With Candy Peggy Callas
2006 Failure to Launch Paula
2007 Smart People Janet
2008 American Dog Voice

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ San Francisco Jewish paper. Celebrity Jews. Retrieved on March 13, 2006.
  2. ^ Entertainment Wise. Sarah Jessica Parker Knows All About Addiction. Retrieved on March 15, 2006.
  3. ^ 365gay.com. Sarah Jessica Parker. Retrieved on March 13, 2006.
  4. ^ 365gay.com. Sarah Jessica Parker. Retrieved on March 16, 2006.
  5. ^ United Press. Sarah Jessica Parker in new HBO project. Retrieved on March 16, 2006.
  6. ^ Winnipeg Sun. No Sex for Sarah. Retrieved on March 13, 2006.
  7. ^ "Sex and the City" movie close to green light
  8. ^ 13Wham.com. McConaughey & Parker's Film Soars to the Top. Retrieved on March 13, 2006.
  9. ^ Rotten Tomatoes. Failure to Launch. Retrieved on March 13, 2006.
  10. ^ FemaleFirst. Joss Stone Ousts Sarah Jessica Parker At GAP. Retrieved on March 13, 2006.
  11. ^ Actress Sarah Jessica Parker is launching her own fashion line EnjoyFashion, March 14, 2007
  12. ^ San Francisco Jewish paper. Celebrity Jews. Retrieved on March 13, 2006.
  13. ^ Star Pulse. Sarah Jessica Parker Joins UNICEF, Will Travel to Liberia. Retrieved on March 13, 2006.
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