Sarah Jessica Parker Movies
A child performer who went on to become an adult actor in one of the more radical transformations in the history of the American entertainment industry, Sarah Jessica Parker has captained both a career and a public image that could be accurately classified under the heading Revenge of the Nerd. As a pubescent actor most famous for her roles in the acclaimed high school-set TV series Square Pegs and in the big screen's Footloose and Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Parker played the skinny girl with frizzy hair who was either the sidekick or underdog; when she wasn't cleaning up after Lori Singer in Footloose, she was battling snotty rich girls for the right to dance on local television in Girls Just Want to Have Fun. However, thanks to perseverance, talent, a fabulous stylist, and an HBO series called Sex and the City, Parker had emerged, by the end of the 1990s, as one of the most glamorous and employable actors around, known as much for the designer frocks she wore to awards ceremonies as for her work on the screen.Born in Nelsonville, OH, on March 25, 1965, as the fourth of eight siblings, Parker grew up in relative poverty following the divorce of her mother, an elementary school teacher, and her father, an aspiring writer. Raised by her mother and often out-of-work stepfather, she trained as a dancer and singer, bringing home paychecks from a young age. As a fledgling actor, Parker landed her first TV show at the age of eight; in 1976, after winning her first Broadway role in The Innocents, her family moved to New Jersey to encourage her career. Parker worked on the stage for the next few years, touring -- with four of her siblings -- in the national company of The Sound of Music and getting her first major break when she was chosen to take over the title role of Annie on Broadway, from 1979 to 1980.
Continuing her training at the American Ballet Theater and the New York Professional Children's School, Parker made her film debut in the 1979 Rich Kids, which co-starred John Lithgow, Trini Alvarado, and Olympia Dukakis. In 1982, she won her first starring role in the aforementioned Square Pegs, and then received additional attention thanks to her role as Lori Singer's best friend and Chris Penn's girlfriend in the 1984 hit Footloose. The following year, Parker kept on dancing -- this time alongside a very young Helen Hunt -- in the similarly winning Girls Just Want to Have Fun. The actor's success in both films paved the way for steady work through the rest of the decade; in addition to her work on the big screen, Parker also starred in a number of TV shows, including the 1986 miniseries A Year in the Life and the drama series Equal Justice.
The early '90s saw Parker segue into more adult roles, playing the Southern Californian creation SanDeE* alongside Steve Martin in L.A. Story (1991), then earning both critical and cult credibility as Nicholas Cage's fiancée in Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) and as the wife of consummate schlockmeister Ed Wood in Tim Burton's celebrated 1994 film about Wood's life and times. Offscreen, as well, she was garnering notice for her attachment to actor Matthew Broderick; Parker -- who had been in high-profile relationships with Robert Downey Jr. and John F. Kennedy Jr. -- married Broderick in 1997.
Following a turn as Mia Farrow's daughter in the widely panned Miami Rhapsody (1995), supporting work in The First Wives Club and Burton's Mars Attacks! (both 1996), and a number of New York productions (including Sylvia, for which she earned a Drama Desk Award nomination), Parker landed the starring role of New York sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw on the new HBO series Sex and the City. Touted by some observers as the luckiest break in the actor's career to date, the show, which focused on the sex lives of four close friends (played by Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis) became a huge hit among both critics and viewers, ensuring Parker -- who won the Golden Globe for her work in 2000, 2001and 2002 -- both steady employment and an unimpeachably chic image that was eons removed from the bony elbows and frizzy bangs of her days as a square peg. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 1979
- PG
The rich kids of the title are 12-year-old Trini Alvarado and her intellectual pal Jeremy Levy. Alvarado is down in the dumps because her parents are going through a divorce. She finds a kindred spirit in Levy, whose folks split up long ago. He points out the advantages and privileges of being a child of divorce-and is so persuasive that he almost convinces himself as well as Alvarado. An early project of director Robert M. Young, Rich Kids was produced through the auspices of Robert Altman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Trini Alvarado, Jeremy Levy, (more)
Square Pegs follows the hilarious misadventures of Patty (Sarah Jessica Parker, TV's Sex and the City) and Lauren (Amy Linker), two freshmen girls desperate to fit in at Weemawee High School. Befriended by oddball characters Marshall (John Femia), a budding comedian, and Johnny Slash (Merritt Butrick), a wacky new-waver, Patty and Lauren still hope to impress the popular kids: valley girl Jennifer (Tracy Nelson), her tough boyfriend Vinnie (Jon Caliri), and their sassy friend LaDonna (Claudette Wells). And it would "behoove us" to not forget Muffy (Jami Gertz), the ever-peppy preppie!
- Starring:
- Sarah Jessica Parker, Amy Linker, (more)
Upon knocking her noggin, a young, recently fatherless woman discovers an amicable apparition; the ghost of a young man who was killed in an aviation accident. As the spirit helps her cope with some of life's difficulties, the two fall in love. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Jessica Parker, Nancy Addison, (more)
- 1984
- PG13
A teenager and his kid brother spar with their mother's shady new boyfriend in this dramatic thriller from veteran British director Michael Apted. When her ex-husband remarries, Wendy (Teri Garr) feels despondent -- until she starts dating handsome, unctuous Sam (Peter Weller), an underemployed salesman with no shortage of big ideas. Excited to finally feel good about herself again, Wendy invites Sam to move in and offers to invest in his get-rich-quick schemes. None of this sits well with her sons, Jake (Christopher Collet) and Brian (Corey Haim), who remain unimpressed with Sam even after he convinces Wendy to buy Jake a motorbike. They're even less jazzed when Sam stops currying favor and turns disciplinarian even while pulling Wendy into his hard-partying lifestyle. Within a few months, Brian's on the verge of expulsion for picking fights at school, and even honor-role student Jake is mouthing off to his teachers. As for Wendy, she's too busy taking beatings and doing cocaine to notice that her family has fallen apart. It isn't until Jake gets wise to the industrial quantities of white powder squirreled away under the floorboards that he comes up with a plan to get Sam out of their lives forever. Although onetime Tiger Beat heartthrob Christopher Collet plays Firstborn's title role, the films' supporting cast is littered with actors whose stars would far eclipse his (Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert Downey Jr.) -- though in some cases only for a little while (Corey Haim). ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teri Garr, Peter Weller, (more)
- 1984
Things get complicated for this family, whose recently inherited house sits on an island smack dab in the middle of the St. Lawrence River between the U.S. and Canada and is not the territory of either country. ~ All Movie Guide
In this lively adolescent-oriented musical, a city kid attempts to adapt to life in an ultra-conservative backwater Midwestern town. Once there, he ends up leading the repressed teenagers into a rebellion against the town fathers, who have outlawed rock & roll and dancing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, (more)
- 1985
The story of Olympic downhill racer Bill Johnson is related in this made-for-TV biopic. Future ER star Anthony Edwards plays Johnson, who while growing up in Oregon was known far and wide for his capacity as a troublemaker. After several brushes with the law (one landing him behind bars), Johnson straightens out and flies right when he develops an interest in skiing. Dennis Weaver co-stars as Johnson's supportive dad. Going for the Gold was first telecast May 18, 1985, less than a year after Johnson's Gold Medal win at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
On her first day at an all-girls Catholic High School in Chicago, shy and reserved Janey Glenn (Sarah Jessica Parker) meets the wild and wacky Lynne Sands (Helen Hunt). Even though her oppressive dad, Col. Glenn (Ed Lauter), won't let her go, Lynne talks her into sneaking out to try out for a spot on the beloved show Dance TV. Janey wows the judges with her gymnastic ability and makes first cuts, conveniently assigned to a cute dance partner: blue-collar bad boy Jeff Malene (Lee H. Montgomery). They compete against the bratty rich girl Natalie Sands (Holly Gagnier), who sabotages them because she wants Jeff and the contest for herself. Janey and Lynne get revenge by inviting punks and street kids to crash her debutante ball. Natalie then resorts to making her wealthy industrialist dad, J.P. Sands (Morgan Woodward), threaten Jeff; If he doesn't let Natalie win, his dad (Biff Yeager) could lose his job at the factory. It all leads up to the live television broadcast of the Dance TV contest, right when Janey's dad races to the studio to stop her. Also starring Shannen Doherty as Jeff's little sister, Maggie. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Jessica Parker, Lee Montgomery, (more)
The year is 1978: 12-year-old Joey Cramer, playing in the woods near his home, is knocked unconscious. He awakens and heads home, only to find strangers living there. He also finds that the year is 1986, and that he's been officially missing for eight years. NASA officials determine that Cramer was abducted by aliens during his blackout, and hope to scan the boy's brain in order to unlock a few secrets of the universe. Answering the call of a strange, unseen force, Cramer boards a well-hidden spaceship and takes off, guided by the jocular voice of a computer named MAX (voiced by none other than Paul Reubens, aka Pee-wee Herman). Realizing that he can't fit into 1986 so long as he's a child of the seventies, Cramer hopes to retrace the steps of his alien abductors and get back to his own time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joey Cramer, Veronica Cartwright, (more)
More a series of ragged comic anecdotes than a unified whole, the made-for-TV The Room Upstairs top-bills Stockard Channing as a Boston teacher of the hearing-impaired. Strapped for cash, Ms. Channing converts her family home into a boarding house. Six tenants with varying degrees of eccentricities and personal hang-ups take up residence, including soft spoken cellist Sam Waterston. Various crises involving her boarders inspire Ms. Channing to come out of her own emotional shell--she even stops her chain-smoking. Based on a novel by Norma Levinson and originally telecast as a Hallmark Hall of Fame special, The Room Upstairs was filmed on location in Boston and Vancouver. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Ryan White was the teenaged hemophiliac who contacted AIDS through a blood transfusion, then was barred from attending school in Kokomo, Indiana. All but ostracized by the community, Ryan's mother (Judith Light) engages the services of a high-powered attorney (George C. Scott) to win back her son's basic rights. While the film ends with Ryan triumphing over his human adversaries, no effort is made to sugarcoat the situation. Even after he has been welcomed by another school, we see how the boy is shunned by certain students and their parents; nor is there any glossing over the fact that Ryan's days are numbered, despite the boy's enthusiastic plans for the time he has left (young White died shortly after this TV movie was first telecast in 1989). Despite its inherent sadness, The Ryan White Story is a celebration of an exceptional young human being whose short life touched so many others in a positive, uplifting manner. While Lukas Haas portrays the title character, the real Ryan White appears in the small role of Chad, another hemophiliac AIDS victim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
This two-part TV movie, produced in Australia, was based on the tragically true story of an Australian teenager (John Polson) condemned to death for dealing in drugs in Malaysia. Part One set up the circumstances which landed Polson and his friend Hugo Weaving on Malaysia's death row. In Part Two, Polson's mother, played by Julie Christie, races desperately against time to save her son from the gallows. She enlists the support of the Queen of England, the Pope, and a large international organization of concerned citizens--but the Malaysian government remains unmoved. Evocatively filmed in Macao, Dadah Is Death had the bad luck to premiere on American TV opposite the highly rated miniseries Favorite Son. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Christie, John Polson, (more)
- 1989
The four-part British miniseries Pursuit, based upon Robert L. Fish's novel of the same name, was first telecast in the United States as the two-part "movie special" Twist of Fate. Bruce Greenwood essayed the leading role of Helmut Von Schraeder, an ex-S.S. officer on the run after conspiring to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. Undergoing plastic surgery, Von Schraeder assumed the new identity of Jewish concentration camp survivor Daniel Grossman. And as if that wasn't unbelievable enough, "Grossman" went on to a colorful career as an Israeli freedom fighter. The huge multinational cast included British film and TV stalwart Ben Cross and American leading lady Sarah Jessica Parker. Though made for British television, Pursuit did not air in that country until 1990, a full year after its American debut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Cross, Veronica Hamel, (more)
- 1991
Shalom Sesame 10: Passover -- Jerusalem Jones and the Lost Afikoman is the tenth tape in the Muppets special edition series, Shalom Sesame, an educational journey through ancient and modern Israel. Kids meet old and new Muppet friends on Rechov Sumsum, the Israeli version of Sesame Street, including Grover, Cookie Monster, Moishe Oofnick the grouch, and Kippy ben Kipod, a large porcupine. In this episode, kids join Jerusalem Jones, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, and the Rechov Sumsum gang for a Passover adventure. There is a mystery to be solved, as the afikoman has disappeared. Without the afikoman, the seder cannot come to a conclusion. By jumping literally into the pages of the story of Passover, or the Haggadah, Jerusalem Jones and Kippi ben Kipod look for clues and learn something new. ~ Betsy Boyd, All Movie Guide
Steve Martin wrote and stars in this look at the promise and dreamtime of Los Angeles culture. Martin stars as Harris K. Telemacher, a light-hearted television weatherman who does wacky comedy in lieu of reports since, being in L.A., he has very little weather to report. He spends his time roller-skating through museums and spending time with California's beautiful people. But Telemacher is fired and discovers that his girlfriend Trudi (Marilu Henner) is having an affair. He walks away from the relationship and re-evaluates his life, getting advice from a friendly electronic highway road sign. The sign suggests that he call SanDeE (Sarah Jessica Parker), a sprightly and attractive Valley Girl he met in a clothing store. With SanDeE he experiences a liberating and carefree spirit. But Telemacher comes to realize that he has actually fallen in love with Sara (Victoria Tennant), a tuba-playing British journalist who is in California to do a feature on Los Angeles lifestyles. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Victoria Tennant, (more)
- 1992
After being released from an institution, a manic-depressive attempts to get custody of her 5 children and struggles with the opposition of her oldest daughter and the foster parents. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Jessica Parker, Sally Struthers, (more)
After making a deathbed promise to his mother that he would never marry, Jack Singer (Nicolas Cage) finds that resolve challenged when his girlfriend, Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker), begins making noise about wanting to start a family. Worried he might lose her, Jack makes the rash decision that they should fly to Las Vegas that weekend to tie the knot. Feet still cold, Jack spurns Betsy's idea to get married the moment they step off the plane, preferring to procrastinate for a few hours over a game of poker arranged by notorious gambler Tommy Korman (James Caan). Peddling the game as a get-to-know-you thrown by the hotel, Korman steadily raises the stakes on Jack until the novice is in for 65,000 dollars of the house's money on a hand he's sure he'll win -- a straight flush to the jack. When he loses the fixed hand, the flabbergasted Jack has a major problem on his hands. Korman offers an unusual solution: If Betsy, whom Korman spotted in the lobby because of her resemblance to his late wife, will spend the weekend with him, Jack's debt will be forgiven. Betsy initially refuses, considering it a ploy by Jack to postpone the wedding, but soon agrees to fly to Hawaii with Korman, in part because it will teach Jack a lesson. When she finds herself charmed by Korman's smooth and sensitive shtick, her desperate fiancé goes to incredible lengths to win her back, including jumping from a plane with a troop of skydiving Elvises. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Caan, Nicolas Cage, (more)
Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy romp around like coked-up versions of The Three Stooges in the frantic Disney romp Hocus Pocus. The film begins in 1693 where three witches -- Winifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary (Kathy Najimy) -- are preparing a potion that will grant them immortality and eternal youth. But before they finish mixing their cocktail, the people of Salem capture them and execute them for practicing witchcraft. Before their deaths, they vow to return to Salem 300 years hence on Halloween to exact their revenge. Three hundred years later, a skeptical, newly transplanted Californian, Max (Omri Katz), explores the ruins of the legendary witches' house and dares the witches to manifest themselves. Disregarding the warnings of his sister Dani (Thora Birch) and girlfriend Allison (Vinessa Shaw), Max lights the Candle of Black Flame. With that, the witches reappear to wreak havoc on the town. The kids take off with the witches' spellbook and a musty tome of hexes and recipes. The sorceresses, who will die by the morning light if they don't recite the incantation for immortality, have to get the books by whatever means they can. So, Winifred, Sarah, and Mary hop on their broomsticks for a chase through Halloween night. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, (more)
A maverick Pittsburgh policeman loses his job after he shares his suspicion that one of his colleagues is a serial killer. This thriller centers on his hunt to prove his point, a search that becomes more desperate when the killer begins killing the cop's female associates. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker, (more)
- 1994
This 1994 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Sarah Jessica Parker and features musical guest R.E.M. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Jessica Parker, R.E.M., (more)
Hollywood visionary Tim Burton pays homage to another Hollywood visionary, albeit a less successful one, in this unusual fictionalized biography. The film follows Wood (Johnny Depp) in his quest for film greatness as he writes and directs turkey after turkey, cross-dresses, and surrounds himself with a motley crew of Hollywood misfits, outcasts, has-beens, and never-weres. The real story, however, is his friendship with aging, morphine-addicted Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), whom he tries to help stage a comeback. Landau's unforgettable Oscar-winning performance must be seen to be believed, as must Rick Baker's Oscar-winning makeup. While it would have been easy to make a film simply ridiculing the bumbling director, Burton instead focuses on his driving passion for filmmaking and his unwavering persistence in the face of ridicule and failure. Possibly the most surprising aspect of the film is the genuine sentiment with which Burton treats the relationship between Wood and Lugosi; his devotion to Lugosi is touching, as is Lugosi's final soliloquy -- an inane bit of dialogue from the hilariously bad Bride of the Monster that grows into a poignant metaphor for the actor's life and ultimate triumph of his spirit. Even the look of the film is right; it manages to preserve the air of one of Wood's own films while retaining a sense of artistry in much of the composition on screen (note the scene at the drug rehab where Lugosi endures a horrifying night of detox). In all, Ed Wood is a unique film -- at times side-splittingly funny; at others, tragic or even frightening -- and a heartfelt tribute to the love of movies, good and bad alike. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, (more)
- 1994
With his impending divorce nearly finalized, an increasingly troubled Hank (Jeffrey Tambor) begins exhibiting increasingly bizarre behavior and hitting on guests Sarah Jessica Parker and Mary Gross. With his desperation spiraling increasingly out of control, Hank hits on a visibly distressed Darlene (Linda Doucett) before checking into a hotel to embark on a hollow frenzy of sex and drugs. When the network begins to catch wind of Hank's plunge into darkness, Artie (Rip Torn) sets out to convince his old friend to stay away from destruction and join his old friends in the land of the living. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
