Jennifer Grey Biography

Jennifer Grey (born March 26, 1960) is an American actress known for her roles in the 1980s films Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Dirty Dancing, the latter for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. She is also known for her 2010 victory in the eleventh season of the American version of Dancing with the Stars. Grey is the daughter of Academy Award-winning actor Joel Grey and former actress/singer Jo Wilder.

Early life

Jennifer Grey was born on March 26, 1960 in New York City, the daughter of stage and Academy Award-winning screen actor Joel Grey and former actress/singer Jo Wilder. Her paternal grandfather was comedian and musician Mickey Katz. Grey's parents both came from Jewish families.

Grey is an alumna of the Dalton School, a private school in Manhattan where she studied dance and acting, and where she met her best friend, actress Tracy Pollan. After graduating in 1978, Grey enrolled at Manhattan's Neighborhood Playhouse for two years of training as an actress. While waiting for roles, she supported herself waitressing.

Career

Grey's commercial debut was at the age of 19, in an ad for Dr Pepper before making her film debut in Reckless (1984), in a small role. She appeared in a small role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984). That year she starred in the war film Red Dawn. She then appeared in the 1985 John Badham project American Flyers, for which she became linked with the Brat Pack group of actors.

In 1986 she played the role of jealous sister Jeanie Bueller in the John Hughes comedy film Ferris Bueller's Day Off opposite Matthew Broderick. The film was quite successful and received a positive critical reception.

The following year, she reunited with Patrick Swayze, whom she had played opposite in Red Dawn, to play Frances "Baby" Houseman in Dirty Dancing. The story is a coming of age drama that documents a teenage girl's rebellion against her father by starting a relationship with a dance instructor during the family's summer vacation. The low-budget film was a surprise hit, and the first film to sell one million copies on video, and is considered a classic. The film also defined Grey's career, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress.

Grey's sole Broadway theatre credit is her 1993 appearance in The Twilight of the Golds.

In the early 1990s, Grey underwent two rhinoplasty procedures"the second of which was necessary to correct problems stemming from the first"that resulted in a nose that caused even close friends to fail to recognize her, and the major change in her appearance negatively affected her career. Of the experience she said, "I went in the operating room a celebrity " and came out anonymous. It was like being in a witness protection program or being invisible." She briefly considered changing her name in order to start her career anew, but ultimately decided against this.

From March 1999 until January 2000 Grey starred as herself in the short-lived ABC sitcom It's Like, You Know..., which satirized her much-publicized nose job as a running gag.

Grey appeared with Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minnelli and Kathy Bates in the CBS television movie The West Side Waltz, adapted by Ernest Thompson from his play, an episode of Friends as Mindy, and she had a small role in the 2000 film Bounce with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck. In 2007 Grey portrayed Daphne on the HBO series John from Cincinnati. In October 2010 she played Abbey, the mother of a sick child in "Unplanned Parenthood", a Season 7 episode of House.

Grey was one of the twelve contestants in the eleventh season of Dancing With the Stars. She was partnered with professional dancer Derek Hough. She came out very strong at first, frequently topping the leaderboard, however, injuries, stress, and exhaustion took their toll on Grey, and for a couple of weeks she fell behind. In Week 7, however, she improved, tying with previous frontrunner Brandy Norwood. On November 23, 2010, Grey and her partner Hough won the competition.

In September 2011 Grey appeared in the Lifetime Bling Ring as Iris Garvey, the mother of Zack Garvey. On November 5 and 6, 2011, Grey stood in for head judge Len Goodman on the BBC One TV show Strictly Come Dancing.

Personal life

On August 5, 1987, Grey suffered severe whiplash in a car accident in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, while vacationing with Matthew Broderick, whom she began dating in semi-secrecy during the filming of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The accident, which was the event through which their relationship became public, occurred when the rented BMW Broderick was driving crossed into the wrong lane and slammed head-on into a Volvo driven by a local mother and daughter, Anna Gallagher, 28, and Margaret Doherty, 63, who were killed instantly in the accident. Broderick was later convicted of careless driving and fined $175. Dirty Dancing was released a few weeks after the accident, catapulting Grey to fame, but she has said that her grief and survivor's guilt over the crash prevented her from enjoying the film's success, and led her to withdraw from acting for some time.

Grey was also romantically involved with actor Johnny Depp and journalist George Stephanopoulos. She married actor/director Clark Gregg on July 21, 2001. They have a daughter Stella, born December 3, 2001. They live in Venice, California. The couple co-starred in the Lifetime movie Road to Christmas in 2006.

Prior to her 2010 appearances on Dancing with the Stars, Grey had a physical examination to ensure that she was fit enough to compete and saw a doctor to address chronic neck problems caused by the car accident years before. Her spinal cord was compressed and her surgeon placed a titanium plate in her neck to stabilize it. He also found a suspicious white spot on her thyroid via MRI. The nodule was cancerous and was removed. Grey has stated she believes the cancer was caught before it metastasized and that she is now cancer-free.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Reckless	Cathy Bennario
	Red Dawn	Toni Mason
	The Cotton Club	Patsy Dwyer
	ABC Afterschool Specials	Carol Durate	1 episode: "The Great Love Experiment"
1985		Laura Eller	1 episode: "Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale"
	American Flyers	Leslie
1986	Ferris Bueller's Day Off	Jeanie Bueller
	The Equalizer	Valerie Jacobs	1 episode: "A Community of Civilized Men"
1987	Dirty Dancing	Frances "Baby" Houseman	Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy Or Musical
1988	Gandahar	Airelle (voice)
1989	Bloodhounds of Broadway	Lovey Lou
1990	Murder in Mississippi	Rita Schwerner	TV movie
	Criminal Justice	Liz Carter
	If the Shoe Fits	Kelly Carter / Prudence
1991	Eyes of a Witness	Christine Baxter
1992	Wind	Kate Bass
1993	A Case for Murder	Kate Weldon	TV movie
1995	Friends	Mindy	1 episode: "The One with the Evil Orthodontist"
	Fallen Angels	Ginger Allen	1 episode: "A Dime a Dance"
	The West Side Waltz	Robin Ouiseau	TV movie
1996	Portraits of a Killer	Elaine Taylor
	Lover's Knot	Megan Forrester
1997	Red Meat	Candice
1998	Outrage	Sally Casey	TV movie
	Since You've Been Gone	Patty Reed	TV movie
1999	It's Like, You Know...	Herself	TV Series
2000	Bounce	Janice Geurrero
2001	Ritual	Dr. Alice Dodgson
2006	Road to Christmas	Claire Jameson	TV movie
2007	John from Cincinnati	Daphne	3 episodes
2008	Redbelt	Lucy Weiss
	Keith	Caroline
	Phineas and Ferb	Dr. Gevaarlijk (voice)	1 episode: "The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein/Oil on Candace"
2009		Louisa Patel (voice)	1 episode: "Hide and Seek/That Sinking Feeling"
		Librarian (voice)	1 episode: "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo"
	The New Adventures of Old Christine	Tracey	1 episode: "Love Means Never Having to Say You're Crazy"
2010	House	Abbey	1 episode "Unplanned Parenthood"
	Dancing with the Stars	Herself	Winner, 11th Season
2011	The Bling Ring	Iris Garvey	TV movie
2011	Strictly Come Dancing	Herself	Guest Judge, 9th Season
2013	In Your Eyes	Diane