Wendie Jo Sperber Biography

Wendie Jo Sperber (September 15, 1958 " November 29, 2005) was an American actress, known for her performances in the films I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), Bachelor Party (1984) and Back to the Future (1985) as well as the television sitcom Bosom Buddies (1980"1982).

Early life and career

Sperber was born in Hollywood and aimed for a performing-arts career from high school onward. She attended the summer Teenage Drama Workshop at California State University, Northridge, during the 1970s, and began her screen career at a young age when she was cast in the small role of "Kuchinsky," in Matthew Robbins' 1978 teen comedy Corvette Summer, alongside Mark Hamill and Annie Potts. She appeared in Robert Zemeckis' period comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand, as the irrepressible "Rosie Petrofsky." Sperber was overweight, but was able to move quickly on screen (Entertainment Weekly described Rosie Petrofsky as "a screaming Beatlemaniac who, among other things, climbed through elevator shafts and leapt from a moving car"), and her "girl-next-door" appearance helped her to overcome the stigma of her weight.

She played the title role in the ABC Afterschool Special feature Dinky Hocker, which dealt with a teenager's attempts to hide her feelings by eating, and engaged in physical comedy in Steven Spielberg's 1941. Zemeckis, who also worked on 1941, brought Sperber back to the big screen in 1980 with a role in his comedy Used Cars, but it was on television that year that Sperber finally began to receive more serious attention. She was cast in the role of "Amy Cassidy;" a character that was funny, romantic, and exuberant— in the series Bosom Buddies, starring Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari. Following its cancellation in 1982, Sperber appeared in the comedy The First Time, and worked a year on the series Private Benjamin. She then resumed her feature work in the Tom Hanks theatrical vehicle Bachelor Party, directed by Neal Israel. Israel used her again in Moving Violations in 1985. That same year, she appeared as Linda McFly in Zemeckis' highly successful Back to the Future.

Sperber's roles grew larger in the wake of Back to the Future, and over the next decade she starred in the series Babes (a comedy about three zaftig women; her costar Susan Peretz also lost her fight with breast cancer a year earlier). In 1994, Sperber was cast in a major supporting part in the CBS-TV series Hearts Afire. By this time, she had lost a lot of weight. As far as acting roles were concerned, she preferred comedy. As she told TV Guide in 1990, "I'm an actress who likes to say something funny—everybody laughs and your job is done."

Involvement in social issues

In addition to her work on TV and movies, Sperber also was the founder of weSPARK Cancer Support Center, an independent organization formed in 2001 to advance and help support individuals and their families fighting various forms of cancer through free emotional support, information and social events/activities. In addition to being the founder, Sperber also served on the board of directors and wrote the quarterly newsletter. According to one of the last known interviews with Sperber by Terra Wellington, the weSPARK organization was her key cause and effort in the last year of her life with her stating "The whole idea of weSPARK's programming was that I didn't want people to walk into a room and have a therapist ask how they feel. I wanted peer support."

Each year, weSPARK has put on an extravagant benefit show called weSPARKLE to raise funds for the organization. The event has been attended by many of Sperber's friends and colleagues, including Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, John Ritter, and Eric McCormack. In 1998, Sperber also helped the United States Postal Service unveil and promote a breast-cancer stamp.

Personal life

In 1983, Sperber married Richard Velasquez and had a son, Preston, in 1986, and a daughter, Pearl, in 1990. Pearl also goes by the name "Daphne". The marriage ended in divorce in 1994.

Death

In 1997, Sperber was diagnosed with breast cancer, which seemed to go into remission following treatment. She revealed in April of 2002, though, that the cancer had reappeared and spread throughout her body, and by mid-2004 it had reached Stage 4 at which time she had also undergone experimental brain radiation therapy. She continued to work in television and movies during this period, including episodes of Unhappily Ever After, Home Improvement, Will & Grace, Grounded for Life, and the movies Desperate But Not Serious (1999) and Sorority Boys (2002).

She died on November 29, 2005 at the age of 47. Her last work was lending her voice to "Roger 'n' Me", an episode of American Dad in 2006, which aired after her death. The producers of the show renamed her character as Wendie Jo in honor of the actress.

Documentary film

Sperber is the subject of the documentary The Show Must Go On, directed by Beth Murphy. The film follows the actress through her treatments to battle breast cancer during the production of the 2004 weSPARKLE event.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Take 22: Behind the Scenes of Sequestered	Cece
2003	My Dinner with Jimi	Louella
2002	Sorority Boys	Professor Bendler
2000	Pissed	Wendy
1999	Desperate But Not Serious	Landlady
1996	Big Packages
1995	The Return of Hunter	Lucille	Television Movie
1995	Mr. Payback: An Interactive Movie	Woman With Kitten
1994	Mr. Write	Roz
	Love Affair	Helen
1990	Back to the Future Part III	Linda McFly
	The Image	Anita Cox	Television Movie
1987	Delta Fever	Claire
1986	Stewardess School	Jolean Winters
1985	Back to the Future	Linda McFly
	Moving Violations	Joan Pudillo
1984	Bachelor Party	Dr. Tina Gassko
1983	The First Time	Eileen
1980	Used Cars	Miss Wendie Jo Sperber as Nervous Nona
1979	1941	Maxine Dexheimer
	Dinky Hocker	Susan 'Dinky' Hocker	Television Movie
1978	Corvette Summer	Kuchinsky
	I Wanna Hold Your Hand	Rosie Petrofsky

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	American Dad	Old Lady/Wendie Jo (Voice)	Episode - Roger & Me
2005	Grounded for Life	Mrs. Robinson	Episode - The Letter(s)
2003	Touched by an Angel	Tricia	Episode - And A Nightingale Sang
2002 - 2005	8 Simple Rules	Alice	4 Episodes
	Will and Grace	April	Episode - My Fair Maid-y
1992 - 1993	Hearts Afire	Mavis Davis
1991	Married... With Children	Sandy (Al's old girlfriend from high school)	Episode - I Who Have Nothing
1990 - 1991	Babes	Charlene Gilbert
1989	Designing Women	Estelle Rhinehart	Episode - The Women of Atlanta
1987 - 1988	Women in Prison	Pam
1982 - 1983	Private Benjamin	Pvt. Stacy Kouchalakas
1980 - 1982	Bosom Buddies	Amy Cassidy