Madonna
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Bay City, Michigan
Possessing one of the most distinctive voices in pop music and one of the most distressing résumés on the big screen, Madonna has proven that whatever the role -- screwball seductress, martyred Argentinian first lady, embittered single mom-cum-yoga instructrix -- her abilities as a performer will manage to undermine any production whose credits bear her name. Like Elvis before her, Madonna has proven that no matter how sterling a pop reputation an artist may have, success on the Billboard Top 100 does not translate into similar plaudits at the box office.Born Madonna Ciccone in Bay City, MI, in 1958, Madonna was raised in a strict Roman Catholic household. She attended the University of Michigan as a dance student for a brief period before dropping out to move to New York City in 1977. There, she quickly became a habitué of various downtown gay discos; spurred on by her dance teacher and her deejay pals, she embarked on a singing career. Before releasing her debut album, however, she made a debut of another kind in an all-but-forgotten, micro-budgeted date-rape melodrama entitled A Certain Sacrifice (1979). In an omen of things to come, Madonna later tried to halt the theatrical release of the film after her musical career took off.The artist's proper screen debut came courtesy of Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan. The 1985 release featured Madonna in a supporting role as a funky girl/object of desire around which the film's screwball plot revolved. Her rising star helped to make Susan a minor hit; aided by Seidelman, she was able to capitalize on her effervescent comic charm and her kooky, uber-Soho, Material Girl persona.Unfortunately, Madonna's relationship with volatile young actor Sean Penn led her to accept a role opposite him, both in real life as well as onscreen in Shanghai Surprise (1986). The retro-styled, George Harrison-produced debacle endured a brief and mercilessly lambasted life at the box office; Madonna's marriage to Penn didn't last much longer. Next up for the indefatigable entertainer was Who's That Girl? (1987), a stillborn, flimsy imitation of the Melanie Griffith/Jeff Daniels vehicle Something Wild, released just one year prior. Notable only for its hit title track, the ostensible homage to Howard Hawks starred a pained Griffin Dunne opposite a bubbly, impetuous Madonna, apparently performing in the style of her semi-controversial "Open Your Heart" video. Needless to say, their chemistry did little to ignite box-office fireworks.Madonna's next vehicle was undoubtedly her most high profile to date; cast opposite Warren Beatty in Dick Tracy (1990), she received lavish amounts of pre-film hype, particularly as she was involved at the time with long-in-the-tooth, alpha-stud Beatty. However, the much-anticipated feature failed to make good on the promise that surrounded its production, and Madonna herself came away with only a few choice Steven Sondheim production numbers to her credit. However, the "inspired by the motion picture" soundtrack album did help spark one of the singer's most enduring cause celebres -- "voguing."It took director Alex Keshishian to (literally) strip some of the veneer from the Madonna mystique with his tell-all documentary Truth or Dare the following year. The feature's risqué subject matter -- including the songstress' unabashed fellating of an Evian bottle -- created a ratings stink with the MPAA and revealed some previously unexposed dimensions of Madonna's relationship with Beatty, such as his incessant ridicule of her.Madonna next courted the best reviews of her film career to date playing a feisty baseball player in the 1992 A League of Their Own, in which she starred amongst a talented ensemble cast that included Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and offscreen gal-pal Rosie O'Donnell. Those favorable reviews were soon overshadowed, however, by the maelstrom of negative publicity just a few months later, when she formed a troika of artistic shame with her starring role in t
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert |
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— | 2020 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: Sticky & Sweet Tour |
|
— | 2018 |
No Score Yet | Docufilms: Locos por Madonna |
|
— | 2018 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: Rebel Heart Tour |
|
— | 2016 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: The MDNA Tour |
|
— | 2013 |
12% | W.E. |
|
$0.6M | 2012 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: Goddess of Pop |
|
— | 2011 |
25% | Filth and Wisdom |
|
— | 2008 |
No Score Yet | I Am Because We Are |
|
— | 2008 |
68% | The Universe of Keith Haring |
|
— | 2008 |
22% | Arthur and the Invisibles (Arthur and the Minimoys) |
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$15.1M | 2007 |
No Score Yet | Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis |
|
— | 2007 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: Performance Review |
|
— | 2007 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: Virgin: Interviews |
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— | 2007 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: The Confessions Tour |
|
— | 2006 |
No Score Yet | I'm Going to Tell You a Secret |
|
— | 2005 |
14% | Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London |
|
$23.3M | 2004 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: Sex Bomb - Unauthorized |
|
— | 2004 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: Music Video Box Documentary |
|
— | 2004 |
No Score Yet | The Work of Director Chris Cunningham |
|
— | 2003 |
38% | Agent Cody Banks |
|
$47.3M | 2003 |
No Score Yet | Party On Karaoke! - Ladies of Pop |
|
— | 2003 |
56% | Die Another Day |
|
$160.3M | 2002 |
5% | Swept Away |
|
$0.6M | 2002 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: The Drowned World Tour 2001 |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | Star |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | Star (The Hire) |
|
— | 2001 |
19% | The Next Best Thing |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's |
|
— | 1997 |
13% | Four Rooms |
|
— | 1996 |
63% | Evita |
|
— | 1996 |
33% | Girl 6 |
|
— | 1996 |
41% | Blue in the Face |
|
— | 1995 |
80% | Unzipped |
|
— | 1995 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: The Girlie Show Live Down Under 1994 |
|
— | 1993 |
31% | Dangerous Game |
|
— | 1993 |
78% | A League of Their Own |
|
— | 1992 |
8% | Body of Evidence |
|
— | 1992 |
52% | Shadows and Fog |
|
— | 1992 |
87% | Madonna: Truth or Dare |
|
— | 1991 |
63% | Dick Tracy |
|
— | 1990 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: The Real Story |
|
— | 1990 |
No Score Yet | Madonna: Blonde Ambition |
|
— | 1990 |
No Score Yet | Bloodhounds of Broadway |
|
— | 1989 |
No Score Yet | Stars of the Century |
|
— | 1988 |
38% | Who's That Girl? |
|
— | 1987 |
13% | Shanghai Surprise |
|
— | 1986 |
57% | Vision Quest |
|
— | 1985 |
83% | Desperately Seeking Susan |
|
$27.4M | 1985 |
No Score Yet | A Certain Sacrifice |
|
— | 1980 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet |
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Sunday Morning
2011-2018
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Late Late Show With James Corden
2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
2003
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
20/20
1978-2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Children's Hospital
2010-2016
|
|
|
83% |
Rock Center With Brian Williams
2011-2013
|
|
|
68% |
American Idol
2002-2016
|
|
|
33% |
The Marriage Ref
2010-2011
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Dateline NBC
1992
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Will & Grace
1998-2006
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Saturday Night Live
1975
|
|
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Quotes from Madonna's Characters
Lips Manlis: | That was beautiful as always. |
Breathless Mahoney: | I'm so happy you liked it. You mind if I leave? |
Lips Manlis: | Why? |
Breathless Mahoney: | I get sick when you eat. |
Lips Manlis: | You didn't used to. |
Breathless Mahoney: | You didn't used to be a zeppelin. |
Big Boy Caprice: | If a woman don't wear mink, she don't wear nothin'. |
Breathless Mahoney: | Well, I look good both ways. |
Herself: | Madonna: [voiceover, as Madonna visits her mother's grave] What I remember most about her was that she was - she was very kind and very gentle and very feminine. I don't know, I guess she seemed like an angel to me, but I suppose everybody thinks their mother's an angel when they're five. I also know she was really religious, so I never really understood why she was taken away from us. It seemed so unfair. I never thought that she had done something wrong, so oftentimes I wondered what I had done wrong. |
Madonna: | [voiceover, as Madonna visits her mother's grave] What I remember most about her was that she was - she was very kind and very gentle and very feminine. I don't know, I guess she seemed like an angel to me, but I suppose everybody thinks their mother's an angel when they're five. I also know she was really religious, so I never really understood why she was taken away from us. It seemed so unfair. I never thought that she had done something wrong, so oftentimes I wondered what I had done wrong. |
Herself: | Madonna: [makes gagging noises] "Neat"? Anybody who says my show is "neat" has to go. |
Madonna: | [makes gagging noises] 'Neat'? Anybody who says my show is 'neat' has to go. |
Himself: | Kevin Costner: Thanks for having us. It was really generous. |
Kevin Costner: | Thanks for having us. It was really generous. |
Herself: | Madonna: Thanks for coming. |
Madonna: | Thanks for coming. |
Himself: | Kevin Costner: We thought it was "neat". |
Kevin Costner: | We thought it was 'neat'. |
Herself: | Madonna: "Neat"? |
Madonna: | 'Neat'? |
Himself: | Kevin Costner: Really neat. |
Kevin Costner: | Really neat. |
Herself: | Madonna: No one's ever described it as that. |
Madonna: | No one's ever described it as that. |
Eva Peron: | They actually called me a whore... |
Mae Mordabito: | Evelyn! Evelyn! I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to kill your son! |