Actors - Deborah Foreman

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	Actors - Deborah Foreman

Deborah Lynn Foreman (born October 12, 1962 in Montebello, California) is an American actress best known for her starring role in the 1983 movie Valley Girl.

Childhood and early career

Her father was a Marine Corps pilot and she was raised in Arizona and Texas. When she was 13 Foreman's parents enrolled her at Barbizon School of Modeling in Houston to help her overcome shyness. The photogenic teenager received a trophy when she finished the courses. In high school she got high marks and was a cheerleader. While Foreman was still a student, a local photographer hired her for newspaper and catalog ads. A chance meeting with a representative of Wilhelmina Models led to her signing with their California office and modeling assignments for Maybelline cosmetics.

The valley girl

Four weeks after arriving in Los Angeles Foreman earned her SAG card when she appeared in a McDonald’s of England commercial. Resolving to become a serious actress, she took acting lessons from a variety of teachers. Her first acting job was a comedy pilot for NBC Studios (The Grady Nutt Show). More TV work and two supporting film roles soon followed. After a 1983 appearance on the popular sitcom Family Ties her first starring role in a feature film was Valley Girl (1983) with Nicholas Cage, which brought her national fame.

In 1985 she had a small role in Real Genius. In 1986 Foreman was named Most Promising New Star by ShoWest, the largest and most notable film convention in the world. Foreman's Hollywood career may have stalled at least in part because she was subsequently cast in a string of weakly-scripted and directed comedies. She had a starring role in the 1986 comedy My Chauffeur, in which she played a somewhat Madonna-influenced character who gets a job as a driver for a stuffy Brentwood limousine service. However, unlike Valley Girl (or for example, the popular 1980s series of teen movies by John Hughes), this lighthearted tale didn't feature much dramatic teen angst. The film was widely publicised but connected only modestly with teen audiences and critics, even though the movie also featured WKRP's Howard Hesseman.

That same year Foreman played two leading roles with a mostly Canadian cast in the offbeat dark comedy and preppy murder mystery April Fool's Day (1986). Although her acting was praised by reviewers, the movie's thin plot and surprise ending were widely panned, with Vincent Canby commenting for the New York Times, "... the dialogue is mostly composed of rude variations on eek, ugh and I'd like to sleep with you this evening."

During the next five years she appeared in over half a dozen low budget horror movies and independent films.

Cult following

In the early 2000s Foreman acted in two independent films and appeared in commercials for Chevrolet. She enthusiastically participated in retrospective screenings of Valley Girl and in 2005 taped upbeat interviews for nostalgia segments on VH-1, which led to rekindled cult interest in her as the "quintessential 1980s stereotypical female" and new critical appreciation for her acting abilities. Many of her films had already been issued on DVD. Currently, Foreman owns and operates DF Graphics, an online graphics house.

Quotes

When asked by SportsHollywood "What is valley girl Julie Richman doing today?"

:"Julie won a scholarship to Harvard. Graduated with honors and received another scholarship to Boston University Medical School. Julie became a medical doctor, alas, losing her medical license to a terrible addiction to heroin. As an ex-addict, she now manages Autoworld Go Carts in West Covina, California. She has the highest score on PacMan... Go Julie!!!"

"Life is good."

Trivia

An early nickname was Peanut

Friends (and many fans) call her Debby

She enjoys hand painting furniture

She practices yoga

She has consistantly named My Chauffeur as her favourite film project, citing the people involved in it

Filmography

Lunatics: A Love Story (1991)
Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1991)
The Experts (1989)
Friends, Lovers, & Lunatics (1989)
Lobster Man from Mars (1989)
Destroyer (1988)
Waxwork (1988)
Charlie Barnett's Terms of Enrollment (1986)
April Fool's Day
(1986)
My Chauffeur (1986)
Real Genius
(1985)
Valley Girl
(1983)
Love in the Present Tense (1982)
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982) (as Debby Lynn Foreman)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Deborah Foreman ]

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