Molly Ringwald biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Actress. Born Molly Kathleen Ringwald on February 18, 1968, in Roseville, California, to parents Adele and Bob Ringwald. Adele worked as a pastry chef while Bob, a blind jazz musician, served as the frontman and banjo player for the Great Pacific Jazz Band. Molly was the youngest of three sisters.

Inheriting a familial love for entertainment, Ringwald began acting at an early age. She played the role of the dormouse in a stage performance of "Alice in Wonderland" at the age of five. The following year, she released I Wanna be Loved by You, a jazz album performed with her father and his band. Ringwald continued to perform throughout the 70s, playing the role of an orphan in a stage performance of "Annie," as well as being a Mouseketeer on the Disney Channel's The New Mickey Mouse Club.

It wasn't until Ringwald's preteen years that her television and film career began to take shape. It began with a brief stint on The Facts of Life (1979), where the actress played a supporting role as Molly Parker, a girl dealing with the effects of her parents' divorce. In 1982, she made her big-screen debut in a film version of the Shakespeare play, "The Tempest." Her performance as Miranda Dimitrius resulted in a Golden Globe nomination‚ and helped get Ringwald noticed by legendary film director and producer, John Hughes.

Breakthrough Role

In 1984, Hughes cast Ringwald in the starring role for the coming of age film, Sixteen Candles. Ringwald played the endearingly awkward Samantha Baker, who struggles to cope with unrequited love and the fact her entire family has forgotten her 16th birthday. Her performance made her an instant cultural icon, and earned the actress a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture.

After Ringwald's success, Hughes decided to cast her in his next film, The Breakfast Club (1985), a film about five high school students who bond through a Saturday detention. The movie was another instant success, opening at the No. 3 position at the box office, grossing more than $5 million its first weekend.

In 1986, Ringwald earned another leading role in the Hughes film, Pretty in Pink. As a "wrong side of the tracks" variety love story, Ringwald's character Andie Walsh and love interest Blane McDonnagh (played by Andrew McCarthy) wrestle against socioeconomic disparities in their burgeoning relationship. In the end of the film, the couple comes to terms with their financial differences.