Jessica Harper (born October 10, 1949) is an American actress and singer. Harper began her feature film career with a starring role in

Brian De Palma Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...

's ''

Phantom of the Paradise ''Phantom of the Paradise'' is a 1974 American rock musical comedy horror film written and directed by Brian De Palma and scored by and starring Paul Williams. In the film, a naïve young singer-songwriter (played by William Finley) is tricked ...

'' (1974), ''

My Favorite Year ''My Favorite Year'' is a 1982 American comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Richard Benjamin and written by Norman Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo from a story written by Palumbo. The film tells the story of a young comedy writ ...

'' (1982), as well as a role in '' Inserts'' (1975). She is best known for her portrayal of Suzy Bannion, the protagonist of Dario Argento's

cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

'' Suspiria'' (1977), and appeared in a supporting role in

Luca Guadagnino Luca Guadagnino (; born 10 August 1971) is an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are often characterized by their emotional complexities, sensuality and sumptuous visuals. He is also known for his frequent collaboration ...

's 2018 remake. Her other films include ''

Stardust Memories ''Stardust Memories'' is a 1980 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Allen, Charlotte Rampling, Jessica Harper and Marie-Christine Barrault. Sharon Stone has a brief role, in her film debut. The film is ab ...

'' (1980), ''

Shock Treatment ''Shock Treatment'' is a 1981 American musical comedy film directed by Jim Sharman, and co-written by Sharman and Richard O'Brien. It is a follow-up to the 1975 film ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show''. While not an outright sequel, the film do ...

'' (1981) (the followup to ''

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'' in which she replaced

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as Janet Weiss), '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1981), '' The Blue Iguana'' (1988), '' Safe'' (1995), and ''

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'' (2002). In addition to acting, Harper is also an author of children's music and books.

Early life

Harper was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Eleanor (née Emery), a writer, and Paul Church Harper Jr., a painter and the former chairman of the Needham Harper Worldwide advertising agency in New York. She attended the

North Shore Country Day School North Shore Country Day School is a selective prep school in Winnetka, Illinois. It took its current form as a coeducational school in 1919 during the Country Day School movement, though it started as the Rugby School for Boys (1893-1900) and Gir ...

Winnetka, Illinois Winnetka () is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, located north of downtown Chicago. The population was 12,316 as of 2019. The village is one of the wealthiest places in the nation in terms of household income. It was the second- ...

, and

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

in New York. She has two sisters, Lindsay Harper duPont an illustrator and Diana Harper a teacher and three brothers: her twin brother William Harper who is a composer;

Sam Harper Sam Harper is an American filmmaker. Career Harper was born into an artistic family with a father who was a painter and a mother who was a writer. After college, he worked as a reporter and associate editor for the advertising industry trade ...

, a screenwriter and director; and Rev. Charles Harper.

Career

Harper has appeared in more than twenty motion pictures, most notably Dario Argento's '' Suspiria'',

Brian DePalma Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...

's ''

'' & the follow-up to ''

'', ''

''. She was also in ''

'', alongside Peter O'Toole and

Mark Linn-Baker Mark Linn-Baker (born June 17, 1954) is an American actor and director who played Benjy Stone in the film ''My Favorite Year'' and Larry Appleton in the television sitcom '' Perfect Strangers''. Early life and education Mark Linn-Baker was bo ...

, and costarred with

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominate ...

and

Bernadette Peters Bernadette Peters ( ''née'' Lazzara; born February 28, 1948) is an American actress, singer, and children's book author. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo co ...

in '' Pennies from Heaven''.

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

featured her in his films ''

'' and ''

Love and Death ''Love and Death'' is a 1975 American comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. It is a satire on Russian literature starring Allen and Diane Keaton as Boris and Sonja, Russians living during the Napoleonic Era who engage in mock-serious ...

'', and she appeared in the fourth season of ''

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'' as well as the Steven Spielberg/

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film ''

''. She was seen in a 2005 episode ("Forget Me Not") of the television series ''

Crossing Jordan ''Crossing Jordan'' is an American crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its dete ...

''. She has written eleven books for children, and made seven albums of songs for children. She was named by ''Parenting'' magazine as "Parent of the Month" in 2004. In 2000, she sang background vocals on selected tracks on the Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks album ''Beatin' the Heat''. In December 2010, Harper released a cookbook titled ''The Crabby Cook Cookbook: Recipes and Rants''. In a January 2011 interview Harper said, "I thought it was high time there was a book that acknowledged that not everybody experiences the joy of cooking, that sometimes cooking for a family on a daily basis can be really irritating! This book, with 135 easy recipes, is for those people, crabby cooks like me! It's a collection of humor, survival tips and recipes, for the kitchen-challenged!" In March 2011, she was on tour promoting her book. Stops included Chicago, where she held a "Lunch and Learn with Jessica Harper".

Personal life

Harper married Thomas Edgar Rothman, a top executive at Sony Pictures (formerly of 20th Century Fox) on March 11, 1989 in an ecumenical ceremony. She has two daughters, Elizabeth and Nora, who are featured on her children's albums and books. Harper resides in Los Angeles, California, and New York City. In a blog post on her official website in 2017, Harper revealed she had suffered from neovascular macular degeneration for the past 15 years, and that she receives injections in her eye every six weeks to treat the condition.

Recordings

*''A Wonderful Life'' (1994)

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

References

External links

*
The Crabby Cook
*
Jessica Harper's Winnetka
' personal memoir (podcast) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, Jessica 1949 births Living people 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses Actresses from Chicago Actresses from Los Angeles American women singers American film actresses American television actresses American women writers North Shore Country Day School alumni Sarah Lawrence College alumni