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A Southern belle who’s seemingly pure, virtuous, farm-girl sexy and city-woman sophisticated all at the same time, Andie MacDowell has persevered in an industry that wanted to write her off from the start. The model-turned-actress made her feature debut as Jane in “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” (1984), suffering the indignity of having her inappropriate Southern accent dubbed over by Glenn Close. Writers like critic John Simon, who labeled her “that horse-faced pseudo-sultry jeans model . . . who cannot act and cannot even read lines”, had a field day, but MacDowell dug in rather than quit. Using her own voice for Joel Schumacher’s brat-pack flick “St. Elmo’s Fire” (1985), she began demonstrating that some models were more than just skin deep. Her dead-on portrayal of the sexually repressed wife of Peter Gallagher in the acclaimed “sex, lies and videotape” (1989), winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes that year, earned her several Best Actress prizes but no Oscar nomination, an oversight deemed “incomprehensible” by The New York Times.

In the 1990s, MacDowell hit her stride in light, entertaining fare, giving touching performances with her patented down-home charm in “Green Card” (1990), opposite Gerard Depardieu, and “The Object of Beauty” (1991), in which she played a spoiled socialite more in love with her Henry Moore statue than boyfriend John Malkovich. MacDowell’s considerable charisma also enabled her to escape unscathed from the notorious bomb “Hudson Hawk” (1991). That same year, she delivered a tour-de-force performance in a segment of HBO’s “Women and Men II” entitled “A Domestic Dilemma”, playing the embittered alcoholic wife of Ray Liotta, a part that was radically different from her preceding nice-girl roles. Similarly, her distraught mother of a hospitalized little boy was one of the highlights of Robert Altman’s panoramic “Short Cuts” (1993). The perfect foil for Bill Murray’s smug TV weatherman in the popular romantic-comedy “Groundhog Day” (1993), MacDowell enjoyed another whimsical success opposite Hugh Grant in the surprise blockbusting English import “Four Weddings and a Funeral” (1994), though many underestimated her as “window dressing” on both and gave all the credit to her co-stars.

“Bad Girls (1994), a quasi-feminist but shallow revisionist Western (1994) was a troubled project she admittedly took for the money and one that did not add a degree of toughness to McDowell’s airy charm, but she was luminous as an adored mother stricken with cancer in Diane Keaton’s comedy-drama “Unstrung Heroes” (1995) and as Michael Keaton’s confused wife in “Multiplicity” (1996), a project which rejoined her with “Groundhog Day” director Harold Ramis. She fared less well as a mysterious but sassy woman claiming to be an “angel expert” in “Michael” (also 1996) and as Bill Pullman’s unhappy wife in Wim Wenders’ “The End of the Violence” (1997). Although “Shadrach” seemed a perfect opportunity to stretch playing Southern white trash, the weak script and slack helming by first-time director Susanna Styron (adapting her father William’s story) only offered her as unglamorous, and a problematic script also doomed her debut as executive producer of “Just the Ticket” (both 1998), in which she co-starred opposite producer Andy Garcia but failed to exhibit the charm and charisma of her best work.

MacDowell realized her dream of acting with Miss Piggy in “Muppets from Space” and was the supportive, eagerly accommodating Hollywood wife of blocked screenwriter Albert Brooks in Brooks’ comedy “The Muse” (both 1999). “Town & Country” (2000), which rejoined her with Diane Keaton (this time as an actor), again signaled a change from the glowingly gentle, sweet women she has played best. She assessed what makes the role so juicy for Biography Magazine, (March 2000): “I lie a lot. I get to wear amazing clothes, and I sleep with Warren Beatty.” MacDowell also acted in “Harrison’s Flowers” (lensed 1999-2000), about a woman who travels to Yugoslavia to find her husband, a photojournalist who’s been reported dead. She then appeared in the oft-delayed and over-budgeted flop, “Town & Country” (2001), as the beautiful daughter of an Idaho gun lover (Charlton Heston) who has an illicit affair with a down-and-out New York architect (Warren Beatty). In “Crush”, MacDowell played an American expatriate in charge of a British private school who carries on with a former student fifteen years her junior. She then played one of the loyal clients of Gina Norris (Queen Latifah), who introduces her cutting-edge hairstyles from Chicago to Atlanta in “Beauty Shop” (2005), a spin-off of the popular “Barbershop” franchise.

• Also Credited As:
  Rosalie Anderson MacDowall
• Born:
  on 04/21/1958 in Gaffney, South Carolina
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Model, Producer, Fast food employee

Family

• Daughter: Rainey Qualley. born in March 1989
• Daughter: Sarah Margaret Qualley. born c. 1995
• Father: Marion MacDowall. retired; walked out on the family when MacDowell was six (c. 1964); remarried
• Mother: Pauline MacDowell. divorced MacDowell’s father c. 1964; struggled with alcoholism and died of a heart attack when MacDowell was 23 (c. 1981)
• Sister: Babs Rogers Richard. older
• Sister: Beverly MacDowell. older
• Sister: Julia MacDowell. older
• Son: Justin Qualley. born c. 1986

Significant Others

• Companion: Kevin Geagan. engaged December 2005; married twice before; has three daughters from his previous marriages
• Husband: Paul Qualley. born c. 1958; met on a Gap fashion shoot c. 1985; married in 1986; separated in 1999; divorced
• Husband: Rhett Hartzog. born c. 1958; from Atlanta, Georgia; had attended high school together in Gaffney, South Carolina; became engaged in July 2001; married on November 10, 2001
• Companion: Dennis Quaid. were reportedly involved when they were shooting the HBO film “Dinner With Friends”
• Companion: Olivier Chandon. linked romantically with the champagne heir during the early 1980s

Education

• Winthrop College, Rock Hill, South Carolina

Milestones

• 1978 Dropped out of college at age 20
• 1978 Moved to New York City
• 1978 Signed by Elite Model Managment
• 1984 Feature acting debut, “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes”; played Jane; her natural Southern accent proved a problem and her dialogue was later dubbed by Glenn Close
• 1985 Feature acting debut with her own voice, “St. Elmo’s Fire”
• 1989 Had breakthrough screen role in “sex, lies and videotape”
• 1990 Starred with Gerard Depardieu in the romantic comedy “Green Card”
• 1991 Played opposite Bruce Willis in the box-office bomb “Hudson Hawk”
• 1991 TV acting debut, “A Domestic Dilemma”, a segment of HBO’s “Women and Men II”
• 1993 Featured in the ensemble of Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts”
• 1993 Played leading lady to Bill Murray in Harold Ramis’ “Groundhog Day”
• 1994 Co-starred opposite Hugh Grant in the Oscar-nominated Best Picture “Four Weddings and a Funeral”
• 1995 Headlined Diane Keaton’s “Unstrung Heroes” as a dying mother
• 1996 Appeared as a skeptical reporter who becomes romantically involved with William Hurt in “Michael”
• 1996 Portrayed Michael Keaton’s wife in Ramis’ “Multiplicity”
• 1997 Played Bill Pullman’s wife in “The End of the Violence”
• 1998 Starred in “Shadrach” with Harvey Keitel
• 1999 Executive produced and co-starred with Andy Garcia in the comedy “Just the Ticket”
• 1999 Played the wife of blocked screenwriter Albert Brooks in Brooks’ “The Muse”
• 1999 Profiled in Lifetime’s “Intimate Portrait: Andie MacDowell”
• 1999 Realized her dream of acting with Miss Piggy in “Muppets from Space”
• 2001 Co-starred in the HBO adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning play “Dinner With Friends”
• 2001 Had featured role as Warren Beatty’s vivacious paramour in “Town & Country”, which also reteamed her with Keaton
• 2005 Appeared in the comedy “Beauty Shop” starring Queen Latifah
• 2005 Co-starred with Rosie O’Donnell in the CBS movie “Riding the Bus With My Sister,” based on the book about her characters challenging relationship with her developmentally disabled sibling; directed by Anjelica Huston
• Moved to Paris to work as an Elite model
• Worked at McDonald’s while in high school