The Brat Pack

Molly Ringwald was the 80’s icon. Girls wanted to be her and boys wanted to be with her! Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink and The Breakfast Club were the 80’s movies that matter and Molly stole the show in all of them. Her career since may not have been as successful but she will remain a screen legend for all time.

Molly Ringwald Bio
Molly Ringwald was born on 18th February 1968 in Roseville California and is the daughter of Robert and Adele Ringwald. Her father Robert is a renowned blind jazz pianist. Molly began getting involved in the entertaainment business at a very early age, performing with her dad’s Dixieland Band, The Fulton Street Jazz Band. She even released an album at six years old titled ‘I Wanna Be Loved By You, Molly Sings’.

A stage role in Alice in Wonderland followed by a stint in the tv show ‘The New Mickey Mouse Club’ were the next stages in Molly’s career. She followed that by joining a West Coast Production of “Annie” when she was ten years old. ‘The Facts of Life’ show on NBC then established her and even though she was axed from the show, it gave her a platform to do other things.

Molly’s first major role was in the 1982 film, Tempest. Although it wasn’t a smash hit, it was enough to get her more attention and more film offers. She went on to appear in the small budget movies, P.K. and the Kid and Packin It In.

The John Hughes Connection
Next for Molly was the film that launched her to super stardom, ‘Sixteen Candles’. Her film work had gained the attention of one John Hughes who cast her in the lead role of Samantha. It’s Samantha’s sixteenth birthday and this event slips her parent’s minds. The film was an instant classic and started a long and fruitful relationship between Ringwald and Hughes.

The Breakfast Club was the second collaboration between Molly Ringwald and John Hughes and proved to be an even bigger hit than Sixteen Candles. Molly plays Claire Standish, and stars alongside fellow Brat Packers Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, and Ally Sheedy.

The two finally worked together on Molly’s biggest hit, Pretty In Pink. This was to be her last film with director John Hughes after she turned down his offer of the lead role in Some Kind of Wonderful.

Fall From Grace
After Pretty In Pink, Molly never managed to recapture the same level of success and after a string of flops, she turned down or missed out on roles in such box office hits as Ghost and Pretty Woman.

Face the Music was filmed in Paris, where Molly stayed for four years and married Valery Lameignere. After returning to the US, she starred in Malicious, which featured her first and only topless scene.

Townies was a short lived sitcom which was cancelled after one series despite being well received. Molly did various film work following this but without much success.

Molly has since focused her attention on the stage and has appaeared in a variety of plays including Tick, Tick, Boom, Enchanted April and Cabaret. She also starred in When Harry Met Sally on London’s West End.

Since divorcing Valery Lameignere in 2002, Molly met her boyfriend, writer Panio Gianopoulos and the two now have a baby girl together, Mathilda Ereni, born 22 October 2003.

Molly Quotes
“I think I was blessed to be given the opportunity to be in those [Brat Pack] movies. I think they’re great movies, and I’m proud of my work in them. But on the other hand, to talk about something I did so long ago when I have continued to work and do other things is a little tiring. I just get bored. I keep going back to those movies when I don’t have anything new to say about them.”

“I have to accept the fact that these films have had a fantastic effect on people, and to deny that doesn’t make any sense until I do something that has the same cultural and social impact of those movies. That’s just the way it is.”

“You can’t be 16 forever.”

Molly Ringwald Resources
The Essential Guide To Molly Ringwald - The definitive guide to Molly and her career, from Lindsay Holmes.

Molly on Wiki - A detailed bio for Molly Ringwald on Wikipedia.

Molly Ringwald Interviews John Hughes - From Seventeen Magazine, Spring 1986