Everything about Fran Drescher totally explained
Francine Joy Drescher (born
September 30,
1957) is an
emmy award and
golden globe award nominated American
film and
television actress and
comedian. She is famous for her nasal voice, laugh, and exaggerated
Queens accent.
Biography
Early life and career
Drescher was born in
Flushing, Queens,
New York City, to an
Ashkenazi Jewish family of
Eastern European origin. She grew up in
Kew Gardens Hills, Queens with her parents Sylvia and Morty Drescher and was a studious girl who was popular in school. Drescher attended
Hillcrest High School in
Jamaica, Queens, where she met her future husband,
Peter Marc Jacobson, marrying him in 1978, at age 21.
Her first break was a bit part in the movie
Saturday Night Fever (1977).
In January 1985, robbers ransacked Drescher's
Los Angeles apartment and
raped her and a friend at gunpoint. It took her many years to overcome this ordeal, and it took her even longer to admit this to the press. She was paraphrased as saying in an interview with
Larry King that although it was a traumatic experience, she found ways to turn it into something positive. In her book
Cancer Schmancer, the actress writes: "My whole life has been about changing negatives into positives." She saw her rapist sent to prison.
The Nanny and film roles
She continued to play small but memorable roles in movies, until she finally created her own show,
The Nanny. She was visiting her friend, model
Twiggy, in England and came up with the plotline. The show aired on
CBS from
1993 to
1999, becoming an instant success, along with Fran herself. In this
sitcom, she played a charming and bubbly woman named
Fran Fine who casually became the pantyhose-clad nanny of three children; with her wit and her charm, she endeared herself to their widower father Maxwell Sheffield, a stuffy, composed, proper British gentleman and a Broadway producer (played by British actor
Charles Shaughnessy).
Her voice is a combination of a high nasal pitch and a New York
accent that people find either annoying, endearing, or humorous (or all three). In her
autobiography, Drescher discusses the fact that this is her real voice — even though it's played up a little on-camera — and the many voice lessons she's had to take to overcome it for movie auditions (only to have it, and her machine-gun titter, end up being her
trademark). Her first book was even titled
Enter Whining.
Fran has also appeared in a number of films, including
This Is Spinal Tap (1984),
UHF (1989) starring "Weird Al" Yankovic,
Jack (1996), directed by
Francis Ford Coppola,
The Beautician and the Beast (1997) (for which she was also executive producer) and
Picking Up the Pieces (2000) co-starring
Woody Allen. In 2007 Fran announced she'd voice the character of Pearl in the animated movie
Shark Bait.
Personal life
After separating in 1996, Fran (who never had children) divorced her husband, Peter Jacobson, in 1999. She then dated a man sixteen years her junior from 1998–2002. Her beloved dog, Chester, who made many appearances in her movies and on
The Nanny, died in 2000 at age eighteen. She now has a chocolate
Pomeranian named Esther and lives in New York.
Drescher is a huge fan of the rock band
Phish, and has been spotted at several of their concerts.
Drescher was admitted to
Los Angeles's
Cedars Sinai Hospital on
June 21,
2000, after doctors diagnosed her with
uterine cancer. But emergency surgery caught it early as it was only at Stage 1 and she didn't have to undergo
chemotherapy. She has been given a clean bill of health and no post-operative treatment has been ordered. She wrote about her experiences in her second book,
Cancer Schmancer.
Cancer Schmancer Movement
On June 21, 2007, the day which marks her 7th anniversary of wellness, Drescher announced the national launch of the Cancer Schmancer Movement, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all women's cancers be diagnosed while in Stage 1, the most curable stage.
Fran says "we need to take control of our bodies, become greater partners with our physicians and galvanize as one to let our legislators know that the collective female vote is louder and more powerful than that of the richest corporate lobbyists." Her goal is to live in a time when women's mortality rates drop as their healthcare improves and early cancer detection increases. More information can be found on her website at
cancerschmancer.org
.
Return to television
In recent years, Drescher has made a return to television both with leading and guest roles. In 2005, she returned to
TV with the sitcom
Living with Fran, in which she played
Fran Reeves, a middle-aged mother of two, living with Riley Martin (
Ryan McPartlin,
Passions), a guy half her age and barely older than her son. Former
Nanny costar
Charles Shaughnessy appears as her philandering ex-husband, Ted.
Living with Fran was cancelled
May 17,
2006, after two seasons.
In 2003, Drescher appeared in episodes of the short lived sitcom,
Good Morning, Miami as Roberta Diaz.
In 2006, Drescher guest starred in an episode of ; the episode, "The War at Home", aired on US television on November 14, 2006 . In the same year, she also gave her voice to the role of the female golem in the
Simpsons episode "
Treehouse of Horror XVII". In 2007, Drescher appeared in the US version of the Australian improvisational comedy series
Thank God You're Here. The program was cancelled after eight episodes.
On
February 23,
2008, on
Rosie O'Donnell's video blog it was announced that Rosie and Fran would be doing a "fun, happy, family comedy" together. No further details were given, as both said they couldn't talk about it further than their announcement.
On
February 29,
2008, Fran went on
Larry King Live to discuss the Obama/Clinton primary.
Filmography
- Film
- Television
- Summer Of Fear aka "Stranger In Our House" (1978)
- Fame (1982 TV series) (1 episode, Metamorphosis) (1982)
- Charmed Lives (1986) (canceled after 4 months)
- Rock 'n' Roll Mom (1988)
- What's Alan Watching? (1989)
- Love and Betrayal (1989)
- Princesses (1991) (canceled after 7 episodes)
- Without Warning: Terror in the Towers (1993)
- The Nanny as Fran Fine,Writer (8 episodes),executive producer (1 episode),Director (Call Me Fran 1998)(1993-1999)
- (1995) (voice)
- Family Guy (1 episode, 'Fifteen Minutes of Shame) (1999) (voice)
- Strong Medicine as Irene Slater (1 episode, 'Cinderella in Scrubs',2004),Director ('Like Cures Like', 2004)
- Living with Fran as Fran Reeves and also executive producer (2005-2006)
- What I Like About You as her Living with Fran character, Fran Reeves (1 episode, 2005)
- The Simpsons (1 episode, Treehouse of Horror XVII) (2006)
- (1 episode, "The War at Home") (2006)
- Thank God You're Here (US version) (2007)
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Fran Drescher'.
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