- Born
- Birth nameMartha Campbell Plimpton
- Height5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
- She has show biz in her blood. Martha Plimpton was born November 16, 1970, in New York City to two actors: Keith Carradine and Shelley Plimpton. Martha began her career at age 8, when her mom had a friend of hers, composer Elizabeth Swados, enroll her in an actors' workshop. At age 10, she got a small part in Rollover (1981), and also made a series of Calvin Klein commercials.
Her first substantial film role was as a tomboy in The River Rat (1984); the following year, Steven Spielberg cast her in The Goonies (1985). Martha met River Phoenix while they were both filming The Mosquito Coast (1986), but since she was only 15 at the time, she did not go out with him. Even though she had a small part in the movie, it established her as a serious actress. Martha appeared in movies such as the screwball comedy Stars and Bars (1988) and, that same year, she was paired again with Phoenix in Running on Empty (1988). They dated for a while and then broke up. For a while, she was engaged to actor Jon Patrick Walker.
As if making movies didn't keep her busy enough, Martha frequently worked at theaters and made her Chicago debut with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company Ensemble in "The Libertine" in 1996. As a member of that ensemble, she received a National Medal of Arts award in the autumn of 1998. As for movies, Colin Fitz Lives! (1997) and Eye of God (1997) in which she plays the starring role, have been run at the Sundance Film Festival. Although some recent movies have had low box office (Pecker (1998) $2.1 million, and 200 Cigarettes (1999) $6.8 million), Martha's performances shine and she often rises above her material.
Perhaps recalling how important acting lessons were to her as a child, she donates her time and efforts to the "52nd Street Project" which is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to matching the inner-city children with professional theater artists to create original theater, by writing, directing and performing their own plays. Perhaps one of the inner-city kids she is coaching will be the next famous actress in Hollywood.- IMDb Mini Biography By: kdhaisch@aol.com
- Parents
- RelativesEver Carradine(Cousin)John Carradine(Grandparent)Calista Carradine(Cousin)Tom Carradine(Cousin)Sorel Carradine(Half Sibling)Robert Carradine(Aunt or Uncle)Michael Bowen(Aunt or Uncle)David Carradine(Aunt or Uncle)Kansas Carradine(Cousin)
- Often plays rebellious tomboys
- During the filming of The Goonies (1985), she made a bet with director Richard Donner that she would stop biting her nails. Donner paid up several years later, while they were doing the film's DVD audio commentary.
- Was conceived while her unmarried parents Keith Carradine and Shelley Plimpton were performing together in the Broadway production of "Hair" (1970).
- On the DVD audio commentary for The Goonies (1985), she says that she was once playing the title role in Henrik Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" on stage when an audience member shouted "Gooooonies!" from his seat.
- Became a vegetarian as a teen after her boyfriend, the late River Phoenix, introduced her to the lifestyle.
- I realized as I got older that I could choose to be an actor to a certain extent, but movie stardom is not something you choose. It chooses you. You have very little control over that. So I stopped considering that an option.
- On River Phoenix: Once when we were fifteen, River and I went out for this fancy dinner in Manhattan and I ordered soft-shell crabs. He left the restaurant and walked around on Park Avenue, crying. I went out and said, "I love you so much. Why?". He had such a pain that I was eating an animal, that he hadn't impressed on me what was right. I loved him for that. For his dramatic desire that we share every belief, that I be with him all the way. (Cosmopolitan magazine, April 1995)
- Don't go to Hollywood right away unless you're, like, ridiculously hot and only marginally talented. In which case, go straight to Hollywood and make all the money you can. Just take the money and run!
- I like to try new things. I like to go new places and I like to work with new people. That's sort of the definition of my job. As an actor, you just go where the work is, right?
- The '80s to me, more than anything else, represents a real time of criminal activity in the office of the president: an incredibly disparate economy in terms of the class distinctions and whatnot, and a tremendous shallowness - a lot of sort of bank robbery by executives. This is the '80s to me. and a lot of synthesizer music. And, of course, Madonna and the beginning of MTV.
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