Biography
After studying at the Rhode Island School of Design and N.Y.U., filmmaker Martha Coolidge worked in Canadian television while making short films and documentaries. In 1975, she wrote, directed, and produced her first feature film,
Not a Pretty Picture, focusing on the issue of high school date rape. It wasn't until 1983 that she would find her niche in comedies with the teen classic
Valley Girl, starring a young
Nicolas Cage. She stayed with teen movies for her next three projects: National Lampoon's Joy of Sex,
Real Genius, and
Plain Clothes. For the rest of the '80s, Coolidge directed several TV shows (including a few episodes of
The Twilight Zone) and made-for-TV movies before making a comeback in 1991 with the coming-of-age drama
Rambling Rose, winning her Best Director at the Independent Spirit Awards. In 1992, she made the TNT movie
Crazy in Love, featuring an all-star cast with
Holly Hunter,
Gena Rowlands, and
Frances McDormand. She stayed with comedy dramas for her next two efforts:
Neil Simon's
Lost in Yonkers and
Angie, starring
Geena Davis. The rest of the '90s she made several little-seen features, including the
Jack Lemmon/
Walter Matthau comedy
Out to Sea. Her television work was more successful, with an Emmy nomination for her biopic
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and a Director's Guild award for a segment of the anthology
If These Walls Could Talk 2 (the other segments were directed by Jane Anderson and
Anne Heche). A longtime associate of the DGA, Coolidge became the group's first woman president in 2002. The next year, she made the romantic drama Aurora Island, starring
Joaquin Phoenix and
Kim Basinger. In 2004 Coolidge release The Prince & Me, a romance starring
Julia Stiles as a young woman who falls in love with a royal. Two years later Coolidge directed the Duff sisters, Hilary and Haylie as spoiled sisters who lose their fortune, in
Material Girls. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide