female icons
The series ‘Luz de Luna’, where she played the private detective Maddie Hayes, partner of Bruce Willis, was her lifeline in the eighties
Cybill Shepherd was born in Memphis (Tennessee) on February 18, 1950. She always wanted to be an actress and after starting out working as a youth model, even achieving covers in fashion magazines, she made her debut on the big screen at the age of 20 in ‘The Last Movie’ (1971 ), by Peter Bogdanovich, a recently deceased filmmaker who made her his muse and lover. The feature film was based on the homonymous novel written by Larry McMurtry and published in 1966. She shot it when she was 20 years old, but on screen she played a 15-year-old girl. For her performance, she was nominated for a Golden Globe as New Star of the Year.
In 1972, the actress participated in the black comedy ‘The Heartbreaker’, directed by Elaine May and with a script by Neil Simon. Two years later, she returns to work with Peter Bogdanovich, who directs her in ‘A Wild Lady’, where she is the main character. Her performance receives mostly negative reviews, but Bogdanovich makes her his lover.
In 1975 she starred in ‘Finally, the great love’, again with Bogdanovich and in 1976 ‘Taxi Driver’, by Martin Scorsese, along with Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, which made her a sexual symbol of the time. However, with his participation in ‘Special Mail’, a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic ‘Alarm on the Express’, he has not yet managed to bring him back to the front row of film stardom. Once broken his romance with Bogdanovich, Shepherd begins a courtship with businessman David Ford. They married in 1978 and have a daughter, Clementine Ford, born in 1980. The marriage lasted two years.
In the second half of the 1980s, television came to her aid: she was selected for the television series ‘Luz de Luna’, where she played the private detective Maddie Hayes, partner of Bruce Willis, with whom she maintains a relationship on screen. great sexual tension. The character consolidates her as a comedy actress, and the series is a huge success that reaches five seasons and wins two Golden Globes for her performance. ‘Luz de Luna’, mixing intrigue, humor and excellent chemistry between its two protagonists, was one of the great television hits of the 80s.
In 1987, she married chiropractor Bruce Oppenheim again. From the union were born the twins Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim and Zack Shepherd-Oppenheim, but Shepherd and Oppenheim divorced in 1990. After ‘Luz de Luna’, he persists on the small screen with different tv-movies. and in 1989, he starred in the romantic comedy ‘El cielo se mistakeo’, directed by Emile Ardolino. Later, Bogdanovich, who has not forgotten her, asks her for ‘Texasville’, (a continuation, 20 years later, of ‘The Last Movie’), and plays supporting roles in ‘Alice’, ‘Married to It’, ‘Only the murderer is missing’ and ‘While justice sleeps’. Shepherd returns to television in 1995 with a new comedy, ‘Cybill’, as a declining actress having trouble getting jobs in Hollywood due to her age. For his performance he won the Golden Globe again.
Shepherd goes on to become a political activist and in 2003, she is chosen to play the businesswoman and presenter Martha Stewart in a biographical series entitled ‘Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart’, where Stewart’s origins, her beginnings on television and in the business world, to then star in the tv-movies ‘Mrs. Washington goes to university’, ‘Alone in the face of danger’ or ‘Eastwick’. In 2014 she was called again by Bogdanovich, who still hasn’t forgotten her, for ‘Lío en Broadway’, and he brought her back for his documentary ‘El gran Buster’.
Cybil Shepherd has released her autobiography (for which she received a million-dollar advance), ‘Cybill Disobedience: How I Survived Beauty Pageants, Elvis, Sex, Bruce Willis, Lies, Marriages, Motherhood, Hollywood, and the Impulse irrepressible to say what I think?’, in which he admitted having had love affairs, in addition to Peter Bogdanovich, with Don Johnson and a very long list of lovers, including Elvis Presley himself.
Today Shepherd is a supporter of abortion and gay rights, and her daughter Clementine, a lesbian, was Linda Perry’s partner. The last film work of the actress has been directed by Eleanor Coppola in ‘Love Is Love Is Love’, three stories that analyze love, dedication and loyalty between friends. He is currently working on the series ‘Guilty Party’.
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