Happy Birthday Suitless: Michelle Pfeiffer ~ Cinesnatch

Nathaniel over at TFE has a HUGE crush on Michelle Pfeiffer (how could one not?). Perhaps not at the same level that Matthew over at Boy Culture has on Madonna, but quite sizable none-the-less. And I get the pfandom, being a movie-obsessed child of the 80s. Pfeiffer began her ascent in the tackiest of eras and her blinding beauty was unmatched. Additionally, she had an ability to capture a variety of emotions as an actress. She could be believably sweet, innocent, and vulnerable to falling in love, or she could have an edge to her and be a complete bad ass. The bitch could do anything and negotiate her way through any genre: musical, comedy, period, drama, fantasy, action. ANY-THING. My favorite Pfeiffer will be the droll way in which she effortlessly fired off bon-mots, where she quintessentially captured Catwoman in Tim Burton's Batman Returns. While she managed to have a few hits, she was never able to consistently open films on her name alone. I remember reading in an article in the 90s asking her what she would do if she ran Hollywood and her answer was something to the effect of, "Probably run it into the ground." She never prided herself on her business acumen and didn't care to offer herself up as America's Sweetheart, so, out of no fault of her own, she wasn't ever going to last commercially, which would only amount to a major loss for film-going audiences.

Red Is Her Signature Color

Born and raised in the OC/LA-area, Pfeiffer worked as a checkout girl and trained as a court stenographer before competing for the title of Miss California in 1978. That led to an acting agent, which first started her on various television shows, including B.A.D. Cats, which I've never seen, but for some inexplicable reason, always makes me think of her birthday twin Mia Wallace's joke-telling character in fictional unaired pilot Fox Force Five. After plenty of crappy movies on both the big and small screens, Pfeiffer scored the lead role in cult classic Grease 2. While it never matched the critical or commercial reception of the original, there are a few catchy songs and lines quoted by a sizable group of fans. The next year, she'd cooly saunter through Scarface as Elvira Hancock. The girl always had better things to do and we could never get enough of her. That led to higher profile roles working with directors John Landis, Richard Donner, and Alan Alda. She landed on people's radars even more with her blonde baby factory Sukie Ridgemont opposite Jack Nicholson, Cher, and Susan Sarandon in the memorably John Williams' scored The Witches of Eastwick.

Pfeiffer heating up the screen with Mel Gibson
when he was hot and kept his mouth shut--well,
not in this scene

During one of the most important years of her film career, 1988, she would have three diverse movies released. In Jonathan Demme's wacky comedy Married to the Mob, she drove the story as the tough-talking, but sweet, Angela de Marco, who goes informant on her husband. Their professional relationship led to Demme's request that she play Clarice Sterling in The Silence of the Lambs, which she turned down. (She would also forgo parts in Thelma & Louise, Bugsy, Basic Instinct, Disclosure, and Pretty Woman.) She played between Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell in the steamy action hit Tequila Sunrise, directed by Robert Towne. And she ended the year caught in the middle of a different kind of triangle with the Oscar-nominated role of Madame de Tourvel in Dangerous Liaisons.

Pfeiffer heating it up on the piano
in that red dress

All those films would build up momentum for one of her best roles in The Fabulous Baker Boys. She played the sexy and tough Susie Diamond in yet another messy threesome. But, instead of it being romantic or part of some kind of French game of manipulation, it was as a professional and emotional cog between two struggling musician brothers. The film is understated and touching and Pfeiffer delivers a performance that is so magnificent and nuanced, that the Academy members who are usually enamored by ingenues in knockout roles, chose to overlook Pfeiffer that year and give the Oscar to the never-nominated Jessica Tandy in the runaway hit Driving Miss Daisy.

Pfeiffer would continue to do sound work with an accent in The Russia House, adapted play Frankie and Johnny opposite her Scarface costar Al Pacino and her last (but, hopefully that will change) Oscar-nominated role in Love Field. She worked with Martin Scorsese in The Age of Innocence and reunited with Nicholson in Mike Nichols' Wolf. Within five year years, she would accumulate six lead Golden Globe nods (and one win).

Eat your heart out, Anne

Perhaps her most iconic/best/memorable role was as Selina Kyle in Batman Returns. She's the nerdy, put upon secretary who decides she's not going to take the chauvinistic bullshit in her world when she acts upon one of her reinvented lives as Catwoman. The movie itself was a less-than-stellar followup up to Tim Burton's first Batman caper, but she got all the killer lines, as she purred them with complete disaffected aplomb while unleashing her whip wearing that sleek, skin-tight glossy black catsuit. Unfortunately, she would never follow her role up with a Burton sequel. And, then, there would be that mess with Halle Berry that would follow a decade later. But, at least, we have the memories. Meow.

Pfeiffer managed her very own box-office hit playing a real teacher in Dangerous Minds who challenges inner-city youths to read. She followed it up starring opposite Robert Redford in the romance Up Close & Personal, which would have been more interesting if it stuck to its source material being a biography of anchorperson Jessica Savitch. But, it did quite well, so, from a business standpoint, the alterations worked towards its benefit. That same year, she would have some more luck romancing George Clooney in One Fine Day. It was around this time that she and Nicole Kidman bet him that he would be a father by age 40. Kidman double-downed at 50. At almost age 51, Clooney remains happily fatherless.

Pfeiffer started to get a little more ambitious. After producing One Fine Day, she drove the production of adapting Jane Smiley's King Lear update A Thousand Acres. The epic family drama didn't pan out and turned Pfeiffer off from working behind the camera. At this point, having two children of her own, she made a habit out of playing mothers in The Deep End of the Ocean and The Story of Us. However, her movies didn't reach any levels of intrigue until those mothers got some bite. In White Oleander, she played a woman convicted of murder who emotionally manipulates her daughter. It was a brilliant turn as a heartless woman. In What Lies Beneath, she was in every frame of the $155M-grosser about a mother suffering from empty nest syndrome who begins to believe she is surrounded by ghosts. Director Robert Zemekis paid serious homage to Alfred Hitchcock in what was essentially a ridiculous, yet very thrilling Hollywood suspense. She'd also try Shakespeare on film in A Midsummer Night's Dream (her one play remains to be Twelfth Night), as well as play second-banana to Sean Penn in I Am Sam.

She'd take a four-year long break before she'd return in 2007 in what looked like a possible comeback. She had supporting roles in the fantasy Stardust, as well as the popular musical adaptation Hairspray. Her leading turn was uniting with Amy Heckerling in the promising, but ultimately disappointing I Could Never Be Your Woman where she romances younger man Paul Rudd. The movie went straight to DVD. Two years later, she had another May/December romance bypass the movie theaters: Personal Effects with douche bag Ashton Kutcher. Her highly anticipated Oscar-bait Chéri also had her as the older woman, but it too bombed.

Last year, she joined the trainwreck that was New Year's Eve, which her storyline concerned playing opposite much younger actor Zac Efron. I guess the moral of the story here is people aren't interested in watching Pfeiffer get it on with guys a lot younger than her. I'm not sure if she gets any lovin' from anyone her junior (or equal to her age or her senior) in her next two films, but they open fairly shortly: Dark Shadows in May and People Like Us in June. Today, the beauty turns 54.

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