Kristy Swanson

Kristy Swanson
Swanson signing autographs outside the Directors Guild of America, Hollywood, before the premiere of Fly Me to the Moon on August 3, 2008.
Born	Kristen Nöel Swanson (1969-12-19) December 19, 1969 Mission Viejo, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1984–present
Spouse(s)	Lloyd Eisler (m. 2009)
Children	1

Kristen Nöel "Kristy" Swanson (born December 19, 1969) is an American actress. She played Buffy Summers in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She has also played Catherine "Cathy" Dollanganger in the movie version of the V.C. Andrews book Flowers in the Attic.

Early life

Swanson was born in Mission Viejo, California, to physical education teachers Robert and Rosemary Swanson, and graduated from El Toro High School.

Career

Swanson started her career at The Actors Workshop with R.J. Adams and promptly moved into TV advertising roles and several one-off appearances in TV series such as Cagney and Lacey and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1986, she debuted on the big screen in two John Hughes films: Pretty In Pink, in a non-speaking role, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off as a character who announces a convoluted excuse for Ferris' absence in class. Her first starring role was later in 1986, in Wes Craven's Deadly Friend as Samantha – "the girl next door". The next year she played Cathy in the adaptation of V. C. Andrews' best-seller Flowers in the Attic.

By 1990, Swanson had made many television appearances, including multiple appearances in Knots Landing (1987–1988), Nightingales (1989),^[1] her first starring role in a TV series, although it only lasted a season, and a short-lived Burt Reynolds television series called B.L. Stryker (1989).

Throughout the 1990s, she starred mostly in films. She played the title role in the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Although not a hit at the box office originally, it had a profitable rental life. She appeared in both starring and supporting roles in movies such as Hot Shots!, The Program, The Chase, or her most critically acclaimed role, playing Kristen Connor, a student discovering her sexuality, in John Singleton's Higher Learning. She also appeared in the film adaptation of the comic-book The Phantom and the dark comedy 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag with Joe Pesci. Most of these films failed at the box office, and she reverted to TV work in the late 1990s.

In the 1998–99 season of Early Edition, Swanson played Erica Paget, a love interest of the main character, Gary Hobson. In 1999, Swanson played Vanessa, the girlfriend of Adam Sandler in the movie Big Daddy. In 2000, she returned to a television series, as the star of Grapevine, a revamp of a 1992 TV series that was canceled after five episodes.

Swanson posed nude for Playboy magazine in November 2002 in a cover-featured pictorial. She appeared in and won the 2006 Fox television program Skating with Celebrities, partnered with Lloyd Eisler.

On May 8, 2007, Swanson appeared in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Bombshell", playing a fictionalized variation on Anna Nicole Smith.

In 2007, she became a spokesperson of the Medifast diet. In the following year, she guest-starred in three episodes of the lesbian web series 3Way.

In July 2009, she filmed What If..., co-starring Kevin Sorbo and Debby Ryan, released on August 20, 2010. It was her first theatrical film in 10 years.

Swanson made a cameo appearance in the "Don't You Forget About Me" episode of One Tree Hill, which aired on February 1, 2010. The episode was a homage to John Hughes; Swanson appeared in two films produced by him in the 1980s.

Personal life

Swanson began a relationship with her Skating with Celebrities partner Lloyd Eisler during the show's run, while Eisler was still married to his then-pregnant wife, Marcie.^[2] Swanson gave birth to a son named Magnus Hart Swanson Eisler on February 16, 2007, just one month after Lloyd's divorce from Marcia O'Brien was finalized.^[3] Swanson married Eisler on February 7, 2009 in San Luis Obispo, California.^[4] They currently live in Santa Clarita, California.^[5]

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

Wins

• 1989: Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress in a Horror or Mystery Motion Picture – Flowers In The Attic

Nominations

• 1988: Young Artist Award for Best Young Female Superstar in Motion Pictures – Deadly Friend
• 1987: Young Artist Award for Exceptional Young Actress Starring in a Television Special or Movie of the Week – Mr. Boogedy
• 1986: Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress – Guest in a Television Series – Cagney & Lacey episode "On The Street"

References

External links

• Official website
• Kristy Swanson at the Internet Movie Database
• Kristy Swanson at AllMovie
• Kristy Swanson Interview on Fox News Radio