Molly Ringwald

Biography

An American actress, singer, and author. She was cast in her first major role as Molly in the NBC sitcom The Facts of Life (1979-80) after a casting director saw her playing an orphan in a stage production of the musical Annie.She and several other members of the original Facts of Life cast were let go when the show was reworked by the network.

From the mid- to late ’80s, she was the reigning teen queen of mainstream films. She attracted the attention of screenwriter/aspiring director John Hughes who cast her as the protagonist of Sixteen Candles (1984), his wistful chronicle of suburban teenaged angst. The film was a hit, and so was Ringwald. Hughes would cast her in two more teen films, The Breakfast Club (1985) and Pretty in Pink (1986), both of which were hugely popular with teen audiences.