Christina Applegate (born November 25, 1971) is an
American Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated actress, particularly well-known for playing the very
attractive, promiscuous, dim-witted Kelly Bundy on the Fox television network sitcom Married… with Children. She has since established a film and
television career, with major roles in several pictures, such as Anchorman, The Sweetest
Thing, the ABC sitcom
Samantha Who? and recently starred on Broadway in a revival of the musical Sweet Charity.
Biography
Early life
Applegate was born in Hollywood, California. Her father, Robert W. Applegate, was a record producer
and record company executive,[1] and her mother,
Nancy Lee Priddy, was a singer and an actress.
Career
Applegate quit school at age 17 to pursue acting. From 1987 to 1997, she played Kelly Bundy on Married… with Children.
From 1998 to 2000, she starred in her own sitcom, Jesse, on NBC. In 2002 she co-starred with Cameron Diaz, on the comic movie
The Sweetest Thing, playing the role of Courtney Rockcliffe, Diaz's best
friend.
"I started doing radio commercials for Kmart when I was 4. They had to splice all my consonants together because I couldn't
talk very well. But these jobs helped my mother and me put food on the table. It took the two of us working." Christina
Applegate
At the tender age of three months old, Christina Applegate made her TV debut appearing with her mother in the soap "Days of
Our Lives" and later, at age five months, was seen in a commercial for Playtex.
Christina landed on the big screen at age nine when she was seen in the 1981 films Jaws of Satan (a.k.a. King Cobra) and
Beatlemania.
Applegate debuted in a television movie as Young Grace Kelly in the biopic Grace Kelly (1983, opposite Cheryl Ladd) and
appeared on her first TV series in Showtime's political comedy "Washingtoon" (1985), in which she played a Congressman's
daughter. She was also spotted as a guest in the shows "Father Murphy" (1981) and "Charles in Charge" (1984 and 1985).
In 1986, Applegate won the role of Robin Kennedy (1986-1987), a cop's daughter, on the police drama series" Heart of the
City." Meanwhile, she was also seen guest starring in the sitcoms "All Is Forgiven," "Still the Beaver," "Amazing Stories" and
"Family Ties."
"The secret to playing dumb is that you think that everything you're saying is completely brilliant, that you're right-on
about everything, and also I used to play [Kelly] as a virgin. That's what I'd tell myself before I'd go out, so she had this
sort of wonderful, vulnerable quality about her." Christina Applegate
Applegate eventually scored her most memorable role of ditzy Kelly Bundy in Fox's comedy series "Married... with Children."
She portrayed her character for ten years (1987-1997) in the successful sitcom. While working on the series, Applegate was seen
in Dance 'Til Dawn (1988, NBC) and became a teen prostitute in Streets (1990).
Applegate guest starred in "21 Jump Street" (1988), "Top of the Heap" (1991, as Kelly Bundy) as well as hosted "Saturday Night
Live" (May 1993) and "Mad TV" (1996).
Playing Sue Ellen Crandell in the comedy feature Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991) was Applegate's first starring
role. She followed it up with films like Vibrations (1995, a.k.a. Cyberstorm, alongside James Marshall), Across the Moon (1995,
costarring Elizabeth Pena and Burgess Meredith), Wild Bill (1995, starring Jeff Bridges and Ellen Barkin) and Mars Attacks!
(1996, with Jack Nicholson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Glenn Close and Pierce Brosnan) as well as Nowhere (1997).
"There are people, including certain studio executives who will remain nameless, who still think of me as an 18 year old girl
with long blonde hair and tight clothes. Maybe they're not on the up and up with what I've done in the last few years and that's
okay. That'll happen. But it gets really old. I mean, we stopped doing "Married... with Children" a long time ago. It was another
century ago." Christina Applegate
After the sitcom "Married... with Children" was cancelled in May 1997, Applegate starred as Claudine Van Doozen in the
independent feature Claudine's Return (a.k.a. Kiss of Fire), was cast in the action-comedy The Big Hit (with Mark Walhberg), and
played the fiancée of a Mob descendant in the Mafia satire Jane Austen's Mafia (1998).
In that same year, NBC handed her the leading part of "Jesse" in their sitcom with the same title. The series debuted in 1998,
received rave reviews, and brought Applegate a People's Choice Award for Favorite Female Performer in a New TV series and the TV
Guide Award for Star of a New Series as well as a nomination at the Golden Globe for Lead Actress in a Comedy. Though the series
gained praise, it only stayed on for two years and eventually was cancelled in 2000.
"This was a major commitment. I really had to sit and think about it. I eventually came to the conclusion that it came into my
life for a reason." Christina Applegate (on accepting her role in the sitcom Jesse).
The new millennium saw Applegate playing the dual role of a 12th-century noblewoman, Princess Rosalind, and her 21st-century
descendant, Julia Malfete, in the time-travel comedy Just Visiting (2001, opposite Jean Reno). After gaining wide notice for
playing Cameron Diaz's levelheaded best friend, Courtney Rockcliffe, in The Sweetest Thing (2002), Applegate continued to win
roles in such movies as Heroes (2002), the airplane comedy View from the Top (2003, as Gwyneth Paltrow's best friend), Wonderland
(2003, starring Val Kilmer), Grand Theft Parsons (2003, with Johnny Knoxville), Surviving Christmas (2004, opposite Ben Affleck)
and Employee of the Month (2004, with Matt Dillon). Behind the screen, she was the executive producer of Comforters, Miserable
(2001).
As for her small screen work, Applegate won the 55th Annual Prime Time Emmy Award for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy after she
guest starred as Amy Green, Jennifer Aniston's sister, in the hit series "Friends" in November 2002 and October 2003. On the
silver screen, she portrayed TV anchorwoman Veronica Corningstone in the 2004 films Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie (opposite Will Ferrell).
Adding to her screen work, Applegate has performed on stage in such productions as "The Axeman's Jazz," "Nobody Leaves Empty
Handed," "The Runthrough," as well as John Cassavetes' "The Third Day" (co-starring Gena Rowlands). In 2004, she debuted on the
Broadway stage playing the title role of Charity Hope Valentine in a revival of the 1966 musical "Sweet Charity." She eventually
took home the 2005 Theatre World Award and was nominated for a 2005 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
Applegate was one of the founding members of the Pussycat Dolls, which debuted at the
Viper Room on Sunset Strip, Los Angeles in 1995.[2]
[3] Applegate emceed for the Dolls when they moved to
The Roxy in 2002.
While playing the title role in a revival of Sweet Charity, she broke her foot, and it was announced that the musical
would close during previews. She persuaded the producers to rescind their decision, and on April
18, 2005, she made her Broadway debut.[4] Sweet Charity ended its Broadway run on December 31, 2005. She also guest-starred on two episodes of Friends, one in the ninth season, and one in the tenth, titled "The One with Rachel's Other Sister" and "The One Where Rachel's Sister Babysits" respectively (in 2002 and 2003) as Amy
Green, Rachel's (Jennifer Aniston) youngest
sister. She won an Emmy for her performance in "The One with Rachel's Other Sister". In 2006, she appeared in an advertising
campaign for Hanes title "Look who we've got our Hanes on now". The campaign started in
2005 but she, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Kevin
Bacon were added to the ads in 2006.
In 2006, Applegate appeared in Jessica Simpson's music video "A Public Affair", alongside Eva Longoria,
Ryan Seacrest and Christina Milian.
Christina is currently starring in the ABC comedy, Samantha Who?. Jean Smart, Jennifer Esposito, and Melissa McCarthy are co-starring. The
series is about a 30-year-old psychiatrist who, after a hit-and-run accident, develops
amnesia and has to rediscover her life, her relationships and herself.[5]
Personal life
On October 20, 2001, Applegate married longtime boyfriend
Johnathon Schaech, in a small mixed-religion Palm Springs ceremony attended by family and close friends.[6] On December 5, 2005, the publicists of
Applegate and Schaech confirmed that they had filed for divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court,[citation needed] and their divorce was finalized Aug.
10, 2007.[citation needed]
Applegate was the 2003 spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day fundraiser
which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer education and research. Applegate's
mother is a breast cancer survivor. Applegate is a supporter of animal rights and PETA. Applegate is friends with actresses Cameron Diaz, Nicole Eggert (born two months after Christina), Gwyneth Paltrow
(Applegate actually called Paltrow at the end of an E! television interview with Jules Asner with Paltrow referring to Applegate as "Tini" in 2001.), Jennifer Aniston (Applegate is
extremely close to Aniston after helping her through her split with Brad Pitt),
Robin Antin (creator of The Pussycat Dolls), Tori
Spelling, Leah Remini, Lance Bass,
Matt LeBlanc (from Married... with Children and Friends) and actress/singer
Jessica Simpson.[citation needed] She studies jazz and dance.
Awards
- Applegate won a prime-time Emmy Award for her guest-starring role as Amy Green on
Friends.
- In the 1980s and early 1990s, she was nominated four times in the annual Youth in Film Awards, two of which she won.[7]
- She was nominated for the Tony Award as "Best Leading Actress in a Musical" for Sweet
Charity.
Filmography
Guest starring
References
External links
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