Picture Legend
1. Beautiful Anne
2. “The Shadow” John Archer
3. Anne’s mom, Marjorie Lord, cheating with Danny Thomas
4. “Hold me Closer Tiny Dancer”
5. Early head shot
6. First film with James Coburn
7. Or, first film with Jon Voight in “All American Boy”... take your pick
8. With Sam Elliot in Lifeguard
9. “Fatal Attraction” with Glenn Close & Michael Douglas
10. With Harrison Ford fighting Irish people in “Patriot Games”
11. A Golden Globe for Golden Globe Girl in Altman’s “Short Cuts”
12. With Ford and Clancy again in “A Clear and Present Danger”
13. “Rules of Engagement” with Tommy Lee Jones & Samuel Jackson
14. With Tommy again in “Man of the House”
15. “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia”
16. Playing Jennifer Love Hewitt’s mom on “Ghost Whisperer”
17. Sexy shot
18. With hubby, producer Terry Jastrow
19. Beautiful Anne
It is my great pleasure and honor this morning to give a happy birthday shout out to one of my favorite actresses, Ms Anne Archer!
Anne is an L.A. girl, born here at a very early age as a small female infant. Not surprisingly her parents we’re both successful actors. John Archer, who began his acting career on the radio playing Lamont Cranston in "The Shadow," (here’s an interesting tidbit... “30 Rock,”s Alex Baldwin also played Cranston in a 1994 version of “The Shadow,” after appearing as the first actor to play the Jack Ryan character in 1990‘s “The Hunt for Red October,” a role later played by both Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck. Anne of course played Cathy Ryan, Jack’s wife, with Ford in two films) before turning to films and appearing in such classics as “White Heat,” with James Cagney, “Rock Around the Clock,” with Bill Haley & His Comets,” (and which obviously inspired the famous sit-com “Happy Days”), “Ten Thousand Bedrooms,” (which when you think about it is a lot of bedrooms) Dean Martin’s first film after he broke up with Jerry Lewis, “Decision at Sundown,” with Randolph Scott, and “Blue Hawaii,” with Elvis Presley.
Anne’s mom, Marjorie Lord, after working for Universal Pictures in several films (including “Sherlock Holmes in Washington,” starring my favorite Sherlock actor, Basil “The Nose" Rathbone), was offered the role of Kathy "Clancey" O'Hara Williams, the wife of Danny Williams, who was really Danny Thomas, on “The Danny Thomas Show,” (known as “Make Room for Daddy” during the first three seasons) from 1957 to 1964, “The Danny Thomas TV Family Reunion,” (considered the first ever reunion show on television) in 1965, a couple of specials, and one season of “Make Room for Granddaddy,” in 1970. For those readers who may not remember Danny Thomas or his show, he is also famous for being the father of Marlo Thomas, who rose to fame in her own sit-com, “That Girl,” from 1966 to 1971. Marlo is now married to one of my favorite people, former television host Phil Donahue, and also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which was founded by her father Danny.
Little is known of Anne’s early years as she is dark and mysterious. Perhaps she’ll read this and fill us in with a comment. Many have.
We do know that she attended and earned a degree in Theater Arts at Claremont McKenna College, in Claremont California (34°6′36″N 117°43′11″W), "The City of Trees and PhDs," because it is famous for it’s trees and the Claremont colleges there. It’s about 32.5 miles from where I’m writing this. It’s also been rated the fifth best place to live in the United States, and the first in California.
Eat that Beverly Hills!
I don’t know if Anne actually lived in Claremont. She may have driven home to Sixth and Broadway here downtown each day for all I know.
Having that degree in Theater Arts and all, it was perfectly appropriate for her to seek work in the television and film industry, which is also situated right here in L.A. (also for all we know Anne has never ever left Los Angeles and it’s surrounding communities in her entire life. Many haven’t).
She started work in television guest roles on shows like “Men at Law,” (with Robert Foxworth) “Hawaii Five-O,” “Mod Squad,” “Ironside,” (with “Godzilla” frontman Raymond Bur. A show I delivered booze to once on their sound stage from my dad’s liquor store which was right across the street. I have the distinct honor of hearing Raymond exclaim “Shit!” after blowing a line), and “Alias Smith and Jones” (which was a ripoff of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and starred Ben Murphy and Peter Duel. I remember once delivering booze to a wrap party on a set where Mr. Duel wanted to help me carry whatever it was I was delivering (at the time I was a small child). “I can do it,” I told him. “I know you can,” he said to me. Sometime after that, apparently depressed due to his alcoholism, he would fatally shoot himself in the head on the last day of 1971).
In August of 1969 Anne married William Davis, with whom she had one son, Tommy. The couple divorced in 1977.
In 1971 Anne was given the honor of becoming Miss Golden Globe, an annual title awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The honoree, traditionally the daughter (or son) of a celebrity, assists in the Association's presentation of the Golden Globe Awards.
For instance this year Miss Golden Globe is Francesca Eastwood, daughter of Clint Eastwood and the actress Frances Fisher.
Other past Miss Golden Globe’s include Laura Dern (“Blue Velvet,” “Jurassic Park”), Melanie Griffith (“Working Girl” “Body Double”), and like my third favorite Playboy Playmate ever, Rosanne Katon (“The Swinging Cheerleaders”).
Once at least the honor was handed down a generation. In 2006 Dakota Johnson (no relation to Fanning) became Miss Golden Globe. Dakota is the daughter of “Miami Vice” star Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.
There’s some contention as to which was Anne’s first appearance in a feature film. The Internet Movie Data Base lists “The Honkers,” starring James Coburn as her first film role in 1972 (Wikipedia also lists this as her first). In the Internet Movie data Base’s bio of Anne it proclaims “All American Boy,” starring Jon Voight as her first, as does her website. It also states that movie was released in 1973. 1972... 1973... by golly, they’re so close together it doesn’t matter I guess.
Also in 73, Anne won the Natalie Wood role in the television adaptation of the film “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” which lasted for 12 episodes, the point being she was getting bigger and better jobs, which gave her larger and greater recognition.
More television work, then in 1976 she got her first female lead in a feature. “Lifeguard,” opposite Sam Elliott.
At the end of 1978 she married sports and entertainment producer Terry Jastrow, with whom she is still married today, and with whom she had another son, Jeffrey Tucker Jastrow in 1984.
She auditioned for the role of Lois Lane for 1978's “Superman,” but lost out to Margot Kidder.
Anne helped Jason Robards “Raise the Titanic,” in 1980. She helped Ryan O’Neal find “Green Ice,” (not to be confused with Yellow Snow) in 1981. In 1985 she appeared in 22 episodes of the prime time soap opera “Falcon Crest” (reuniting with Robert Foxworth).
Then in 1987 she gained an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of aggrieved wife Beth Gallagher, in “Fatal Attraction,” which also starred the lovely Glenn Close (who was nominated for Best Actress) and Michael Douglas (who won the honor of staring at Sharon Stone’s cooter in “Basic Instinct”)
She played Cathy Ryan, eye surgeon and Harrison Ford’s wife in 1992‘s “Patriot Games,” and the producers and audience liked her so much they asked her to do it again in “Clear and Present Danger,” two years later.
But the year before that she went back to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, this time as an accomplished actress, and won a Golden Globe Award for Ensemble Acting (the ensemble including Matthew Modine, Julianne Moore, Fred Ward, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Lemmon, Andie MacDowell, Buck Henry, Lily Tomlin, our friend Madeleine Stowe, and musicians Huey Lewis and Tom Waits) in Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts.” The year... 1993.
To put a little icing on the cake she was voted the 62nd Sexiest Star in the entire history of film by Empire magazine in 1995.
I don’t know about the ranking but she certainly belongs on the list.
Anne has worked consistently since. She may be working at this very moment in movies like 2000‘s “Rules of Engagement,” with Tommy Lee Jones, and TV shows like “Boston Public,” and as a raging lesbian in “The L Word” (I’ll have to check that out). In 2005 she got freaking married to Tommy Lee in “Man of the House.”
She played Danny DeVito’s estranged wife on “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and Jennifer Love Hewitt’s mother on “Ghost Whisperer.”
She could whisper to ghosts too, but just didn’t want to.
I for one don’t blame her.
Her work on the stage includes the world premiere of "The Poison Tree" at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum, the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" in Massachusetts and the starring role in the London West End production of "The Graduate", for which she received rave reviews as a raging Mrs. Robinson. She began theater in New York debuting as "Maude Mix" in the celebrated Off-Broadway production of John Ford Noonan's "A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking".
In 2011 she starred in the Los Angeles stage production of “Jane Fonda, In The Court of Public Opinion” written and directed by her husband Terry Jastrow. The play will be produced in the West End in London in early 2014 I’m told.
Between 1982 and 1986 Anne was a spokeswoman for Applied Scholastics, the literacy training organization sponsored by the Church of Scientology, of which she is a member.
She’s got good company in being a member... Tom Cruise and John Travolta, etc. A lot people think the church’s ideology is crazy, and it’s just a big scheme to separate people from their money. Well I say in that, the Church of Scientology is little different than any other church.
I’m not exactly sure when it was exactly that I became cognizant of Anne and her work, she was like always there for me. I do know that she is one of those rare actors or actresses who always make a film or show better by simply by being in it.
All of us here at Joyce’s Take love Anne and wish her and her family continued good health and fortune, and of course, a very happy birthday!
Happy birthday Anne!
Here’s a link to her web site.
Pretty sure the 4th pic is Kathleen Quinlan.
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