Jennifer Coolidge is a versatile character actress and experimental comedienne, best known for playing Stifler’s mom in American Pie (1999).She was born on August 28, 1961, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, to Gretchen (Knauff) and Paul Constant Coolidge, a plastics manufacturer. Young Coolidge was dreaming of becoming a singer. She attended Norwell High School and Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, and earned her bachelor’s degree in theatre in 1985. She moved to New York and joined the Gotham City improv group. Then, she headed to Los Angeles where she became a long-running member of “The Groundlings”” comedy troupe. Coolidge made her television debut in a guest role on NBC’s Seinfeld (1989), playing a voluptuous masseuse who won’t offer her professional services to boyfriend Jerry in a 1993 episode. The following year, she had a regular gig on ABC’s short-lived sketch series She TV (1994), then briefly became a cast member and writer on another short-lived sketch comedy series, Fox’s Saturday Night Special (1996) produced by Roseanne Barr.Coolidge made her big screen debut as a nurse in Not of This Earth (1995), then in the courtroom comedy Trial and Error (1997). Then, she appeared in small roles in several more feature films, and also continued her television work. Coolidge had her breakthrough role in American Pie (1999), as a boozed-up and sultry mom who seduces her son’s classmate with the comment that she liked her scotch and men the same way: aged 18 years. She recreated the character in the sequel American Pie 2 (2001). Then, she reprized her role as “”Paulette”” opposite Reese Witherspoon in the “”Legally Blonde”” franchise. Although, she lost the part of “”Lynette Scavo”” on Desperate Housewives (2004) to Felicity Huffman, Coolidge graced several TV comedies as well, with major guest appearances on Frasier (1993) and Sex and the City (1998). Then, she landed a recurring role in the ABC sitcom Joey (2004), as “”Bobbie Morgenstern””, Joey’s agent, appearing in 37 episodes over two seasons.Eventually, Coolidge emerged as a versatile character actress with her no-holds-barred approach to comedy and her vanity-free comfort with playing uninhibited, unappealing characters, and delivering lines with sexual innuendo. Her talent shines in a range of characters, from a gold-digging dog owner in Best in Show (2000), to a scheming wife of an elderly mogul in Down to Earth (2001), to an opportunistic mother in American Dreamz (2006). Coolidge’s gift for altering her appearance and manner, as well as her mastery of timing, shines in her perfectly hideous performance as “”Fiona””, a wicked stepmother in A Cinderella Story (2004) opposite Hilary Duff, for which Coolidge won a 2005 Teen Choice Award. Her lasting collaboration with director Christopher Guest continues in For Your Consideration (2006).She has been sharing her time between her two homes, one is in Hollywood, California, and one in New Orleans, where she bought a historic mansion before the Hurricane Katrina hit the city, and then became involved in its restoration.”
Jennifer Coolidge
Movies
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Michael Newman (Sandler) is a hard working family man, who must please his boss (Hasselhoff), in order to get promoted. Problem is he gets less time with his family, and wishes for a remote in which he can control his life. This soon comes true for Newman, when he meets…
Fun Facts
Yearbook quote: "There is no sacrifice too great for man's art.""
Did improv in New York City before moving to L.A. She was a member of the Groundlings comedy troupe.
Attended Norwell High School (Norwell
Quotes
I read a script and I know immediately whether that role is for me or not.
Girls are supposed to be feminine and demure. Comedy isn't about that, so you just have to unlearn it. Certain women are so pretty, they can't go weird enough to be funny. You have to be willing to be ugly. I'm lucky my face can look so hideous.
I always date younger men. For some reason that's just the way it's gone, because younger guys have always asked me out and I accept.
I have been able to sniff out a phony.
I don't actually go on the Internet that much.
I always find the most depressing stuff most interesting.
Short of spending $10,000, there is nothing you can do to your head to hide the fact that you're going bald.
As young, hot actors living in Hollywood, you get even more attractive.
Hair extensions and wigs are not the same thing. Wigs are for old ladies and drag queens. Extensions are for women who want longer hair. To be safe, never bring it up if you think a woman is wearing either. No good comes of it.
A boyfriend has so much to do with a woman blossoming.
When it's going well, stand-up is the best thing in the world, but when it's not, it feels like all your toes are being pulled off one by one.
People have this view, 'Oh, you're in movies, your life is so glamorous' but it can really suck.
I've made a career of taking roles that other actresses didn't want.
I'm kind of harsher than most people.
I dated a guy who played bad guys in movies all the time, and I think he was just a bad guy.
When you're an actress, there are only a few times you can really get paid. One of them is doing a sequel. They can't fake you or hire another actor to play you.
A man's ability to haggle is never a turn-on. The only thing less romantic than how much you paid is how much you saved. The last thing we want to hear is how you talked the jeweler down on our new earrings.
The genius behind Christopher Guest's stuff is that he has you get so specific [with your character] that, by the time you get to wardrobe, he lets you pick out all your stuff, your hairstyle, everything. Christopher gives you free rein to create, but then it's played within these guidelines. If someone just gives you some broad things-just, "go out there be whoever you want to be right now""-that's much harder."