Jennifer Jason Leigh Born: February 5, 1962
Known for: Building her career on playing mistreated women, the second-best nude scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
G-d bless Cameron Crowe and his 1980s rite de passage movies. If it hadn't been for Fast Times at Ridgemont High, we wouldn't have Sean Penn, Forest Whitaker or an eternal, hard-wired mental image of what uber-sexy Jewesses Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason Leigh look like naked. The daughter of two veteran Hollywood Jews, Leigh's well-regarded turn as a vulnerable freshman in the 1982 high school slice-of-life classic set the stage for a much-vaunted career of playing used and abused female characters, including at least three prostitutes (Last Exit to Brooklyn, Miami Blues, The Machinist), a strung-out policewoman (Rush), a strung-out rock singer (Georgia), a kidnapper (Kansas City) and, uh, Dorothy Parker (Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle). Hey, nude scenes may be hot by definition, but when they're inextricably linked to powerful, fiercely Method performances, they're hot and classy. Just like Jennifer herself.
G-d bless Cameron Crowe and his 1980s rite de passage movies. If it hadn't been for Fast Times at Ridgemont High, we wouldn't have Sean Penn, Forest Whitaker or an eternal, hard-wired mental image of what uber-sexy Jewesses Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason Leigh look like naked. The daughter of two veteran Hollywood Jews, Leigh's well-regarded turn as a vulnerable freshman in the 1982 high school slice-of-life classic set the stage for a much-vaunted career of playing used and abused female characters, including at least three prostitutes (Last Exit to Brooklyn, Miami Blues, The Machinist), a strung-out policewoman (Rush), a strung-out rock singer (Georgia), a kidnapper (Kansas City) and, uh, Dorothy Parker (Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle). Hey, nude scenes may be hot by definition, but when they're inextricably linked to powerful, fiercely Method performances, they're hot and classy. Just like Jennifer herself.
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