Jennifer Lopez
Biography
Jennifer
Lopez whose larger-than-life presence propelled her from television
to film roles, is the highest-paid Latina actress. Lopez was born
in the Bronx, New York on July 24, 1970. The daughter of a computer
specialist and kindergarten teacher, Lopez always knew she wanted
to be a performer.
She started
her professional career by appearing in the chorus of dancer, singer
and choreographer Hinton Battle’s Synchrocinicity musical
in Japan. She had also appeared in Golden Musicals of Broadway on
a European tour, along with regional productions of Oklahoma and
Jesus Christ Superstar. Jennifer Lopez got her shot at acting in
Connie Kaiserman’s My Little Girl where she performed a little
part as Myra.
She was
selected as one of choreographer Rosie Perez’s "Fly Girls",
after she won a national competition of about two thousand contestants.
Lopez, whose hip-hop dance numbers commanded a loyal audience in
Fox’s In Living Color, parlayed her new visibility into roles
on various TV series and movies. In Living Color was the first step
for Lopez. She was still living in New York and had to move to LA
But, she followed the show’s producer Keenan Ivory Wayans’
"You’ll have more money and more experience" advice,
to stick on with the show.While she was shaking her booty during
the commercial intervals on In Living Color, one of her coworkers
whose husband was writing and producing South Central for Fox, suggested
her for a part. She was seen as a recurring character here, where
she portrayed Lucy, who worked in the co-op market.
The show
which was practically over before it started, pave the actress’s
way into a two more short lived series. "Melinda Lopez"
character which Lopez portrayed in CBS’s Second Chances costarring
Connie Selleca and Megan Fallows was so popular that it was continued
on Aaron Spelling's series, Malibu Road. Jennifer refused the development
deal which was offered by CBS, because she wanted a film career.
She effectively brought her television career to end with the heroic
nurse Rosie in Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7 on 1993.
The siren
call of big screen couldn’t be ignored by Jennifer. She appeared
in Gregory Nava’s critically acclaimed Mi Famillia, on 1995
which Nava focusses on the lives of Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles
from the 1930s to the present. Lopez introduced her talent to top
filmmakers with this movie. Following this film, she jumped on Joseph
Ruben’s Money Train. Although senator Bob Dole urged Americans
to boycott the film, and the costars Woody Harrelson and Wesley
Snipes were trashed by critics, Lopez left the train with victory
where she got on as "Grace Santiago."
Later
on, Jennifer costarred as Robin Williams’ latina teacher in
Francis Ford Coppola’s Jack. She beat actresses like Ashley
Judd and Lauren Holly for the part.
Despite
having previously worked in Mi Famillia, Gregory Nava asked Lopez
to audition as a part of nationwide search in Selena, the life of
slain Tejano singer, Selena Quintanilla Perez. No stranger to the
pressures of auditioning, the former dancer came in, nailed her
mark and won the role. Jennifer burst into the spotlight with her
performance in Selena, and increased her Hollywood stock considerably.
The film succeeded, despite some grumbling in the Mexican-American
community that Lopez was of Puerto Rican decent. The similarities
between the actress and singer who was poised for breakout stardom
at the time of her death were unmistakable.
While
Selena costar Edward James Olmos was saying "She has a tremendous
amount of glamor, which I haven't seen in an actress for years,"
the director Nava put it more succinctly: "She’s just
a complete wow!" Lopez drew some lessons from Selena’s
life: "I used her as an example when I was making this movie;
she was very good with her fans. She was always very gracious, and
always took time to talk to them. She realized that her fans were
the most important thing." Selena marked a new beginning for
Jennifer in more than just career terms.
At the
party for Selena in San Antonio, Lopez’s boyfriend Ojani Noa
took the microphone and proposed her on the dance floor. The couple
married in early 1997. They filed for divorce a year later. Lopez
found out for sure that she had achieved stardom, when false rumors
of her divorce were printed in mainstream newspapers after only
two months of marriage.
Jennifer
Lopez ranked 16th on the People Magazine’s 1997’s Fifty
Most Beautiful People list. Lopez ended Jim Carrey’s Liar
Liar's spring box office sovereignty with her movie Anaconda which
she summarizes as "mayhem, madness and snakes". The noir
film Blood & Wine was well-received where she starred opposite
Jack Nicholson as his Cuban mistress. She revisited the same genre
in the fall where she appeared opposite Sean Penn in Oliver Stone’s
U-Turn.
Lopez
beat out a bevy of A-list actresses, to land a role in Out Of Sight,
in which she stars alongside George Clooney as a US Marshall who
was taken hostage by the prison runaways. The only drawback to this
celebrity? She can no longer go to spas for a restorative massage.
"I can’t be naked in public. I would read in the tabloid
about how I have a mole on my back." Lopez says. She solved
the style problem, by hitting LA. boutiques, with her model ex-husband,
Noa.
Most
recently, Jennifer has starred in such films as, The Cell and The
Wedding Planner--playing opposite Matthew McConaughey.
Jennifer Lopez Filmography
American Darlings (2005)
Monster-in-Law (2005)--Charlotte "Charlie" Honeywell
An Unfinished Life (2004)--Jean Gilkyson
Shall We Dance? (2004)--Paulina
Jersey Girl (2004)--Gertrude Steiney
Gigli (2003)--Ricki
Maid in Manhattan (2002)--Marisa Ventura
Enough (2002)--Slim Hiller
Angel Eyes (2001)--Sharon Pogue
The Wedding Planner (2001)--Mary Fiore
The Cell (2000)--Catherine Deane
Antz (1998) (voice)--Azteca
Out of Sight (1998)--Karen Sisco
U Turn (1997)--Grace McKenna
Anaconda (1997)--Terri Flores
Selena (1997)--Selena Quintanilla
Blood and Wine (1997)--Gabriella
Janet Jackson: Design of a Decade 1986/1996 (1996)--Dancer
Jack (1996)--Miss Marquez
Money Train (1995)--Grace Santiago
My Family (1995)--Maria Sanchez
"Hotel Malibu" (1994) TV Series--Melinda Lopez
"Second Chances" (1993) TV Series--Melinda Lopez
Nurses on the Line: The Crash of Flight 7 (1993) (TV)--Rosie
"In Living Color" (1990) TV Series--Fly
Girls My Little Girl (1986)--Myra |
