Jessica Harper

Actor

About

Birth Place

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Born

October 10, 1949

Biography

Filmography

Suspiria (Remake) (2018)

Mother of Tears (2007)

Minority Report (2002)

On the Edge of Innocence (1997)

Photos & Videos

View All

Suspiria (1977) -- (Movie Clip) Open, Hey Taxi!

Suspiria (1977) -- (Movie Clip) Very Pretty Indeed

Family & Companions

Thomas E Rothman

Husband

Executive. Formerly top executive at Columbia; served as worldwide production chief at Goldwyn; subsequently worked at 20th Century Fox.

Biography

Attractive, bright-eyed, and talented leading lady with a winning smile and a soothingly placid quality. Harper's early roles had her playing nice girls surrounded and eventually impinged on by corruption in several diverse genre films of the 1970s. She sparkled in Brian De Palma's initially underrated rock musical "Phantom of the Paradise" (1974) as Phoenix, an aspiring recording artist who willingly sells out to become a star. After a small part in Woody Allen's "Love and Death" (1975), Harper won positive notices for her performance in the largely reviled erotic period film "Inserts" (1975), as the girlfriend of a porno backer during 1930s Hollywood. She proved a hardy and resourceful heroine in Italian horror meister Dario Argento's "Suspiria" (1976) as a new student at a very odd school for girls.

Harper began appearing in TV-movies and miniseries in the late-70s, notably in period pieces ("Little Women" NBC, 1979 and "Studs Lonigan" NBC, 1979). She continued to appear regularly in features through the early 80s in films including Allen's "Stardust Memories" (1980), as one of his neurotic objects of desire, and "Pennies From Heaven" (1981), a surreal musical set during the Depression, as the unhappy wife of a brutish Steve Martin. "My Favorite Year" (1982) would be her last major film credit for over a decade. Harper received her widest exposure as first the girlfriend and subsequently the wife of comic Garry Shandling on "It's Garry Shandling's Show" (1990). She continued to appear on TV periodically and returned to features with a small role in the underperforming Matt Dillon vehicle "Mr. Wonderful" (1993) and as Lukas Haas' mother in "Boyz" (1996).

Filmography

Life Events

1971

Feature debut, a bit part in Milos Forman's American debut, "Taking Off"

1974

First film lead, "Phantom of the Paradise"

1977

TV miniseries debut, "Aspen"

1979

First TV series, featured as Josephine "Jo" March, "Little Women"

1985

TV-movie debut, "When Dreams Come True"

1990

Appeared as a regular for the final season of the comedy series, "It's Garry Shandling's Show"

Photo Collections

Shock Treatment - Lobby Card Set

Here is a set of Lobby Cards from Shock Treatment (1981). Lobby Cards were 11" x 14" posters that came in sets of 8. As the name implies, they were most often displayed in movie theater lobbies, to advertise current or coming attractions.