Jennifer Coolidge born August 28, 1961 is an American actress. A character actress with performances across screen and television, primarily in the comedy genre, Coolidge is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2023, Coolidge was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world
Jennifer Coolidge Facts
- Born : August 28, 1961Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
- Education : Emerson College
- American : Academy of Dramatic Arts
- Occupation : Actress
- Years active : 1993–present
Jennifer Coolidge Early life
Coolidge was raised in a small town in Massachusetts. She played the clarinet and went to orchestra camp for three summers as a child. She attended Norwell High School, the Cambridge School of Weston, and pursued university studies at Emerson College in Boston and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. During college, Coolidge wanted to become a dramatic actress like Meryl Streep, but instead became a comedic character actress.
While in New York, Coolidge worked as a waitress in a restaurant alongside another aspiring actress, Sandra Bulloc
Coolidge had supporting roles in the American Pie film series (1999–2012) and the Legally Blonde film series (2001–2003). She has regularly collaborated with Christopher Guest on his mockumentary films, such as Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006), and Mascots (2016). She has also appeared in the films A Cinderella Story (2004), Click (2006), Date Movie (2006), Epic Movie (2007), Promising Young Woman (2020), Single All the Way (2021), and Shotgun Wedding (2022).
Jennifer Coolidge Career
In 1999, Coolidge got her big break playing Jeanine Stifler, or “Stifler’s mom” in American Pie. The film was a box-office hit and grossed $235 million worldwide. In 2001, she reprised her role in American Pie 2. Later in that same year, she had a supporting role in Legally Blonde as Paulette Bonafonté Parcelle the manicurist. Legally Blonde was a box-office hit, grossing US$96 million domestically.The film’s box-office success led to her reprising the role in its 2003 sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, but the movie was not as financially successful as the first film and generated mostly negative reviews.n 2003, she again played Jeanine Stifler in American Wedding.
In 2003, she played the protagonist’s agent Luise in Testosterone filmed in Argentina starring David Sutcliffe as Dean Seagrave and Antonio Sabato, Jr. as Pablo.
In 2004, she had a supporting role in the romantic comedy A Cinderella Story playing Hilary Duff’s character’s vain, self-absorbed stepmother. The film went on to become a moderate box office hit despite negative critical reviews.
Coolidge nearly received the role of Lynette Scavo on Desperate Housewives, but it eventually went to Felicity Huffman. From 2004 to 2006, Coolidge had a role in the NBC comedy series Joey as Joey Tribbiani’s oversexed agent Roberta “Bobbie” Morganstern. During its second season, she went from a recurring character to a more prominent role, appearing in 37 out of 46 episodes in the series. NBC officially canceled the series in May 2006, citing low ratings.She originally starred in an episode of Friends in its final season as Amanda, an obnoxious acquaintance whom Phoebe Buffay and Monica Geller try to shake off. Prior to her Friends appearance she was a regular on She TV, a short-lived sketch comedy that also featured Nick Bakay, Elon Gold, Simbi Khali, and Linda Kash. She also has appeared on According to Jim, playing Roxanne, Jim’s sister and in an episode of Sex and the City, and on Frasier as Frederica, Martin Crane’s new physical therapist. Coolidge also appeared in the children’s comedy Slappy and the Stinkers, and as the voice of Aunt Fanny in the animated feature Robots. The film was accompanied by an original short animated film based on Robots, titled Aunt Fanny’s Tour of Booty, in which she reprised her role.
In late 2005, Coolidge was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.In 2006, she guest starred on an episode of Top Chef, and played as Adam Sandler’s wife’s friend, Janine, in the comedy film Click. From 2000 to 2006 she played comic parts in the improv mockumentaries Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration, all directed by Christopher Guest.
Jennifer Coolidge 2006–2011: Supporting roles in comedies and television work
She appeared in the 2006 film Date Movie as a spoof of Barbra Streisand’s Meet the Fockers character. The film received unfavorable critic reviews and Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film 77th in the 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s, with a rating of 6%. However, Variety did praise Coolidge for providing a few bright moments with a spot-on spoof of Barbra Streisand, albeit otherwise unimpressed describing the film as “padded and repetitious”.
Epic Movie, released in 2007 and made by the same people behind Date Movie, was the first movie in which she received a starring role. In the film she played the “White Bitch” (the White Witch) of Gnarnia (Narnia), a lampoon of the Disney and Walden Media film The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A. O. Scott of The New York Times called the film “irreverent and also appreciative, dragging its satiric prey down to the lowest pop-cultural denominator” and added, “The humor is coarse and occasionally funny. The archly bombastic score … is the only thing you might call witty. But happily, Jennifer Coolidge and Fred Willard show up … to add some easy, demented class.”
During 2007, Coolidge appeared on Thank God You’re Here and The Closer, on TNT. In 2008, she guest starred on The Secret Life of the American Teenager as a call girl.In the second season, she was a frequently recurring character, now playing the fiancé of Ben’s dad and future stepmother of Ben. She also starred in the 2008 Lifetime Television film Living Proof. Coolidge appeared in the 2008 film Soul Men as Rosalee.
In 2009, Coolidge took a dramatic role in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans as Genevieve McDonagh. The film premiered on September 9, 2009, at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, and it opened in general release in the United States on November 20, 2009. Also In 2009, she starred alongside Heather Graham and Amber Heard in ExTerminators, a black comedy about a set of women who form their own “silent revolution”, wreaking havoc on the abusive men in their lives.
In 2010, Coolidge appeared in another film starring Hilary Duff titled Beauty & the Briefcase, an ABC Family television film produced by Image Entertainment that originally aired on April 18, 2010 It was based on the novel Diary of a Working Girl by Daniella Brodsky.The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the US on February 8, 2011.
Jennifer Coolidge Personal life
After having visited New Orleans up to ten times a year over ten years, Coolidge purchased a house there in 2005 Interior scenes from The Beguiled (2017) were filmed in Coolidge’s New Orleans mansion.
Her charitable work and activism includes supporting AIDS assistance and animal rights.
Coolidge is vegan and is passionate about animal rights causes. She was crowned PETA’s “Vegan Queen” in 2023. She has also adopted a dog named Chuy that was rescued from a meat factory in Korea.
Coolidge is an eighth cousin twice removed (in two unique ways) of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge.
Jennifer Coolidge Public image
Coolidge is widely considered a gay icon, often impersonated by drag queens, with Coolidge noting in 2021 that she surrounded herself socially with gay men and women from a young age. Coolidge has also long been vocal about her support for the LGBT+ community.