Madonna Biography

Possessing one of the most distinctive voices in pop music and one of the most distressing résumés on the big screen, Madonna has proven that no matter what the role -- screwball seductress, martyred Argentinian first lady, embittered single mom-cum-yoga instructrix -- her abilities as a performer will manage to undermine any production whose credits bear her name. Like Elvis before her, Madonna has proven that no matter how sterling a pop reputation an artist may have, success on the Billboard Top 100 does not translate into similar plaudits at the box office. Born Madonna Ciccone in Bay City, MI, in 1958, Madonna was raised in a strict Roman Catholic household. She attended the University of Michigan as a dance student for a brief period before dropping out to move to New York City in 1977. There, she quickly became a habitué of various downtown gay discos; spurred on by her dance teacher and her deejay pals, she embarked on a singing career. Before releasing her debut album, however, she made a debut of another kind in an all-but-forgotten, micro-budgeted date-rape melodrama entitled A Certain Sacrifice (1979). In an omen of things to come, Madonna later tried to halt the theatrical release of the film after her musical career took off. The artist's proper screen debut came courtesy of Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan. The 1985 release featured Madonna in a supporting role as a funky girl/object of desire around which the film's screwball plot revolved. Her rising star helped to make Susan a minor hit; aided by Seidelman, she was able to capitalize on her effervescent comic charm and her kooky, uber-Soho, Material Girl persona. Unfortunately, Madonna's relationship with volatile young actor Sean Penn led her to accept a role opposite him, both in real life as well as onscreen in Shanghai Surprise (1986). The retro-styled, George Harrison-produced debacle endured a brief and mercilessly lambasted life at the box office; Madonna's marriage to Penn didn't last much longer. Next up for the indefatigable entertainer was Who's That Girl? (1987), a stillborn, flimsy imitation of the Melanie Griffith/Jeff Daniels vehicle Something Wild, released just one year prior. Notable only for its hit title track, the ostensible homage to Howard Hawks starred a pained Griffin Dunne opposite a bubbly, impetuous Madonna, apparently performing in the style of her semi-controversial "Open Your Heart" video. Needless to say, their chemistry did little to ignite box-office fireworks. Madonna's next vehicle was undoubtedly her most high profile to date; cast opposite Warren Beatty in Dick Tracy (1990), she received lavish amounts of pre-film hype, particularly as she was involved at the time with long-in-the-tooth, alpha-stud Beatty. However, the much-anticipated feature failed to make good on the promise that surrounded its production, and Madonna herself came away with only a few choice Steven Sondheim production numbers to her credit. However, the "inspired by the motion picture" soundtrack album did help spark one of the singer's most enduring cause celebres -- "voguing." It took director Alex Keshishian to (literally) strip some of the veneer from the Madonna mystique with his tell-all documentary Truth or Dare the following year. The feature's risqué subject matter -- including the songstress' unabashed fellating of an Evian bottle -- created an ratings stink with the MPAA and revealed some previously unexposed dimensions of Madonna's relationship with Beatty, such as his incessant ridiculing of her. Madonna next courted the best reviews of her film career to date playing a feisty baseball player in the 1992 A League of Their Own, in which she starred amongst a talented ensemble cast that included Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and offscreen gal-pal Rosie O'Donnell. Those favorable reviews were soon overshadowed, however, by the maelstrom of negative publicity just a few months later, when she formed a troika of artistic shame with her starring role in the pseudo-S&M thriller Body of Evidence (1993), her show-and-tell photo book Sex, and her subpar dance album Erotica. Madonna kept a relatively low profile during the next three years, popping up occasionally for cameos in Blue in the Face and Four Rooms as well as a leading part in Abel Ferrera's barely-released Dangerous Game, co-starring Harvey Keitel. Instead, she spent much of her free time hounding director Alan Parker to cast her in the title role of the long-gestating film version of Andrew Lloyd Weber's Evita. Madonna's efforts eventually paid off when she won the part in the Christmas 1996 release; although critics responded with mixed opinions, the singer/actress managed to garner a Golden Globe for her performance. Just when it seemed the actress had written off Hollywood for good, fate came calling in the form of boy-toy gal pal Rupert Everett and his script idea titled The Next Best Thing. Billed as a romantic comedy, the John Schlesinger-helmed vehicle was in actuality an uneasy melange of The Object of My Affection, My Best Friend's Wedding, and, improbably, Kramer vs. Kramer. Critics responded to the film with primal screams of derision, many of which were aimed at Madonna's balsa wood-inspired and deeply schizophrenic performance. Around this time, insult was indeed added to injury when, in early 2000, the erstwhile thespian was dubbed the Worst Actress of the Century at the Razzie Awards, beating out such notables as Bo Derek, Pia Zadora, and Elizabeth Berkley. The stage was set for another of the actress' many career reinventions, and it seemed as though she might do just that with her marriage to film director Guy Ritchie, the father of her second child, Rocco. Though she had not yet appeared in one of the Brit's testosterone-laden heist films (including 1998's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and 2000's Snatch) she did play a starring role in their lavish Scottish Highlands' nuptials in December of 2000. It wouldn't be long before Madonna collaborated artistically with her new beau. Subscribing to the age-old Hollywood dictum that a couple can't truly be in love without an accompanying vanity project, the Material Girl and Ritchie dusted off Italian director Lina Wertmuller's 1974 post-feminist chestnut Swept Away... By an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August for a lavish remake, albeit one without the original film's rape scene and communist subtext. Though many reviewers pointed out Madonna's natural adeptness at portraying a spoiled, shrewish heiress who engages in dominant/submissive sex games with a lusty Italian seaman, they were less convinced of the positive emotional "transformation" her character underwent over the course of the film. True to form, audiences avoided Swept Away like the plague, as it struggled to crack seven digits at the box office, making it one of the least-profitable films of 2002. ~ Phineas Topollino, All Movie Guide Here is her Filmography 1. Tulse Luper Suitcases, The (2003) 2. Die Another Day (2002) .... Verity... aka D.A.D. (2002) (USA: promotional abbreviation) 3. Swept Away (2002) .... Amber Leighton 4. Whole Warhol, The (2002) (TV) .... Herself 5. Madonna Live: Drowned World Tour 2001 (2001) (TV) .... Herself 6. There's Only One Madonna (2001) (TV)(archive footage) .... Herself 7. Star (2001)(uncredited) .... Star 8. What It Feels Like for a Girl (2001) (V) .... The Chick 9. 43rd Annual Grammy Awards, The (2001) (TV) .... Performer... aka 2001 Grammy Awards (2001) (TV) (New Zealand: cut version English title) 10. New Royals, The (2001) (TV) .... Herself 11. Music (2000) (V) .... Herself 12. Next Best Thing, The (2000) .... Abbie Reynolds 13. Jarl & Madonna (1999) (TV) .... Herself 14. MTV Video Music Awards 1999 (1999) (TV) .... Herself 15. Madonna: The Video Collection 93:99 (1999) (V) .... Herself 16. Saturday Night Live: The Best of Mike Myers (1998) (V)(uncredited) .... Liz Rosenberg 17. Kids Are Punny (1998) (TV)(voice) ... aka Rosie O'Donnell's Kids Are Punny (1998) (TV) (USA: complete title) 18. Junket Whore (1998) .... Herself 19. Madonna Rising (1998) (TV) .... Herself 20. Happy Birthday Elizabeth: A Celebration of Life (1997) (TV) .... Herself 21. Evita (1996) .... Eva 'Evita' Duarte de Perón... aka Evita (1996) (Argentina) 22. Girl 6 (1996) .... Boss #3 23. History of Rock 'N' Roll, Vol. 10, The (1995) (TV) .... Herself... aka Up From the Underground (1995) (TV) 24. Television's Greatest Performances (1995) (TV)(archive footage) .... Herself 25. Four Rooms (1995) .... Elspeth (segment "The Missing Ingredient") 26. Blue in the Face (1995) .... Singing Telegram 27. Madonna: The Girlie Show - Live Down Under (1993) (TV) .... Herself 28. Dangerous Game (1993) .... Sarah Jennings 29. Madonna: Exposed (1993) (TV)(archive footage) .... Herself 30. Body of Evidence (1993) .... Rebecca Carlson... aka Deadly Evidence (1993) 31. "Fame in the Twentieth Century" (1993) TV Series(uncredited) (archive footage) .... Herself 32. Oscar's Greatest Moments: 1971 to 1991 (1992) (V) .... Herself 33. League of Their Own, A (1992) .... Mae 'All-The-Way-Mae' Mordabito - CF 34. Shadows and Fog (1992) .... Marie 35. Everybody Dance Now (1991) (TV)(archive footage) .... Herself 36. Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) .... Herself... aka In Bed with Madonna (1991) (UK) ... aka Truth or Dare (1991) 37. Madonna: The Immaculate Collection (1990) (V) .... Herself 38. MTV Video Music Awards 1990 (1990) (TV) .... Herself 39. Madonna: Blond Ambition World Tour Live (1990) (TV) .... Herself 40. Madonna: Blond Ambition - Japan Tour 90 (1990) (V) .... Herself 41. Dick Tracy (1990) .... Breathless Mahoney 42. Dick Tracy: Behind the Badge, Behind the Scenes (1990) (TV) 43. Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989) .... Hortense Hathaway 44. Madonna: Ciao Italia - Live from Italy (1988) (V) .... Herself 45. Madonna: Who's That Girl - Live in Japan (1987) (V) .... Herself 46. Rolling Stone Presents Twenty Years of Rock & Roll (1987)(archive footage) .... Herself... aka Rolling Stone: The First Twenty Years (1987) 47. Who's That Girl? (1987) .... Nicole 'Nikki' Finn 48. Shanghai Surprise (1986) .... Gloria Tatlock 49. Certain Sacrifice, A (1985)(as Madonna Ciccone) .... Bruna 50. Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour (1985) (V) .... Herself 51. Live Aid (1985) (TV) .... Herself (JFK Stadium) 52. Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) .... Susan 53. Vision Quest (1985) .... Singer at Club... aka Crazy for You (1985) 54. Madonna (1984) (V) .... Herself 55. MTV 1st Annual Video Music Awards (1984) (TV) .... Performer But here are the movies that are revealing 1. The Next Best Thing (2000) 2. Body of Evidence (1993) 3. Dangerous Game (1993) 4. Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991) 5. Dick Tracy (1990) 6. A Certain Sacrifice (1985) 7. Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) 8. Papa Don't Preach (Music Video) 9. Swept Away (2002)