About Molly Ringwald
Molly Kathleen Ringwald (born February 18, 1968) is an American actress, singer and dancer. She became popular with teenage audiences in the 1980s, as a result of her starring roles in the John Hughes movies Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Pretty in Pink (1986). She resumed her acting career with her role as Anne Juergens in the ABC Family show The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
Molly Kathleen Ringwald was born in Roseville, California, just outside of Sacramento, the daughter of Adele Edith, a housewife and chef, and Robert Scott "Bob" Ringwald, a blind jazz pianist. Ringwald has two siblings, Elizabeth and Kelly. She started her acting career at age five, starring in a stage production of Alice in Wonderland as the Dormouse. The next year, she recorded "I Wanna Be Loved by You," a music album of Dixieland jazz with her father and his group, the Fulton Street Jazz Band.
As a child, Ringwald appeared in many local TV commercials and stage plays in the Sacramento area. In 1978, at the age of 10, Ringwald was chosen to play Kate in the West Coast production of Annie, performing in Los Angeles. In 1979, Ringwald appeared in the TV series Diff'rent Strokes and was selected to become a cast member of the spin-off Facts of Life. She played "Molly Parker," a perky, fun-loving student at Eastland Girls School. Although she had essentially a supporting role, one entire episode, "Molly's Holiday" revolved around her character dealing with the effects of her parents' divorce.
In 1980, Ringwald performed as a lead vocalist on two Disney albums. On the patriotic album Yankee Doodle Mickey, Ringwald sang "This Is My Country", "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America". She later performed one track on a Disney Christmas album. Turning toward motion pictures, she was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her role in the 1982 film Tempest. She then found her breakout role in Sixteen Candles (1984). Ringwald was a member of the so-called Brat Pack of 1980s teen actors. Though she played a high school "princess" in her biggest hit, 1985's The Breakfast Club, Ringwald specialized in portrayals of moody, awkward, brainy, angst-filled characters. Among Ringwald's 1980s films were The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Pick-up Artist and Fresh Horses. She was considered to be the muse of writer/director John Hughes. During the mid- to late-1980s, she appeared on the covers of such publications as Tiger Beat, Teen, Time and Life.
In the early 1990s, Ringwald reportedly turned down the female lead roles in Pretty Woman and Ghost. In the mid-1990s, Ringwald, who had been educated at a French high school in Los Angeles and was fluent in French, moved to Paris and starred in several French movies. She returned home to the US intermittently to appear in American movies and television. In 1994, she starred in the TV adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. In 1996, she played a leading role in the film Malicious as Melissa Nelson, a disturbed woman who has an affair with a college star baseball player. 1996 saw her return to television, starring on the ABC sitcom Townies. She also made one appearance as a blind woman on the critically acclaimed cable series Remember WENN. She starred with Lara Flynn Boyle and Teri Hatcher in the 1998 made for television film Since You've Been Gone. In 1999, she played the starring role of "Li'l Bit" in John Vogel's play "How I Learned to Drive" at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. In 2000, she appeared in an episode of Showtime's The Outer Limits.
In 2000, Ringwald appeared in the ensemble restaurant-themed film, In the Weeds; in 2001, she had a cameo in Not Another Teen Movie. In late 2004, she starred in the play Modern Orthodox on Broadway, opposite Jason Biggs and Craig Bierko. In 2006, she starred in the television film The Wives He Forgot.
Ringwald has appeared in Cabaret, tick, tick... BOOM!, and Enchanted April on Broadway, and in the fall and winter of 2006, she starred as Charity Hope Valentine in the national tour of the Broadway revival of the musical Sweet Charity.
Ringwald is starring in the ABC Family network's series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, which debuted on July 1, 2008, playing the title teenager's mother.
In the 80s Ringwald dated Adam Horovitz and Dweezil Zappa.
Ringwald was married to Valery Lameignère, a French writer, in Bordeaux, France, on July 28, 1999; they divorced in 2002. She married Panio Gianopoulos, a Greek-American writer and book editor, in 2007. They have a daughter, Mathilda Ereni (born October 22, 2003), and twins, Adele Georgiana and Roman Stylianos (born July 10, 2009). Her pregnancy was written into the storyline of The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
In April 2010, Ringwald published her first book, Getting the Pretty Back with It Books (HarperCollins Publishers).
