Biography
A dramatic actress of stage, screen, and television, Martha Plimpton has specialized in playing rebellious, eccentric young women. The daughter of actress Shelley Plimpton and actor
Keith Carradine (the two never married and split up before she was born), Plimpton was raised by her mother on New York's Upper West Side. She made her acting debut at age eight and her film debut two years later with a bit part in
Rollover (1981).
When she was 11, Plimpton appeared in a series of Calvin Klein commercials, but her real break didn't come until
Tom Rickman cast her as
Tommy Lee Jones' daughter in
The River Rat (1984). No sooner had she finished that then she was co-starring in
Steven Spielberg's cult classic
The Goonies (1985) and the following year in
Peter Weir's
The Mosquito Coast, which featured
River Phoenix among its impressive cast. Though her role in the latter film was relatively small, it went some way toward establishing Plimpton as a serious actress to be watched.
The Mosquito Coast also played a vital role in her developing relationship with Phoenix; for a time the two dated seriously, and they remained close friends until the actor's death in 1993.
Plimpton subsequently appeared in numerous dramas, including
Sidney Lumet's
Running on Empty (1988), in which she re-teamed with Phoenix,
Woody Allen's
Another Woman (1988),
Parenthood (1989) -- in which she gave a hilarious performance as
Dianne Wiest's rebellious, pregnant teenage daughter -- and
Stanley and Iris (1990), which featured her as
Jane Fonda's pregnant teenage daughter. Plimpton continued to work steadily throughout the '90s in a series of films that often featured her in eccentric roles. She did particularly memorable work in
Beautiful Girls (1996), playing
Michael Rapaport's exasperated girlfriend;
I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), which featured her as a lesbian prostitute;
John Waters'
Pecker (1998), which cast her as the protagonist's sister, a go-go boy recruiter for the local gay bar; and
200 Cigarettes (1998), an ensemble drama in which Plimpton starred as a young woman equally obsessed with
Elvis Costello and throwing a successful New Year's Eve party. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide