Once upon a time, she was Hollywood’s “It” Girl. All signs pointed to Penelope Ann Miller being a household name. She was beautiful, talented and sought-after by casting agents. She appeared opposite De Niro, Pacino and Brando. And yet, somehow the A-list eluded her grasp.
What the hell happened?
Penelope Ann Miller started off as a stage actress. She got her big break opposite Matthew Broderick in Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues. Biloxi is the middle chapter in Simon’s “Eugene trilogy”. The play was a big hit. Three years later, Broderick and Miller would reprise their roles for a film adaptation.
Off stage, Miller and Broderick were a couple. Miller described Broderick as her “first love”. She also had a relationship with an understudy, Woody Harrelson.
Miller made the leap to the big screen as Elisabeth Shue’s best friend in Chris Columbus’ 1987 comedy, Adventures in Babysitting.
As you can see from the still above, it wasn’t exactly a glamorous role. Miller was required to freak out in pretty much every scene. But she did it excellently.
In the mid-80’s it was practically a rite of passage for young actresses to guest star on Miami Vice. In 1987, Miller appeared in an episode entitled “Death and the Lady.” She appeared on several other shows as well as she paid her dues.
In 1998, Miller had a couple of high-profile roles. She was reprised her role Matthew Broderick’s fresh-faced love interest in Mike Nichol’s adaptation of Biloxi Blues.
It was a prestigious project, but Miller’s role is pretty small. Biloxi Blues is all about the soldiers.
Off-screen, Miller and Broderick were dating.
The same year, Miller also appeared as Paul Reubens’ fiancée in the follow-up to Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Big Top Pee Wee.
Big Top Pee Wee was nicknamed, Big Flop Pee Wee when it was released. It answered the question: What do you get when you make a Pee Wee Herman movie without Tim Burton?
Later that year, Miller appeared in the drama, Miles from Home. Miles was directed by Gary Sinese and co-starred Richard Gere and Helen Hunt.
In 1989, she starred in Dead Bang with Miami Vice star, Don Johnson.
Dead Bang was a crime drama that tried unsuccessfully to transition Johnson from TV to movies. That probably tells you all you need to know about Dead Bang, but I’ll also mention that it was directed by John Frankenheimer.
Frankenheimer was a successful director in the 60’s with films like the original Manchurian Candidate to his credit. But his career stalled out in the 70s. He continued to try to jump start his career with action films like Dead Bang.
Tragically, that lead him to direct The Island of Dr. Moreau…
Miller had a banner year in 1990. The year started off inauspiciously with the buddy comedy Downtown which featured the classic comedy team of Anthony Edwards and Forest Whitaker.
Today, the idea of Edwards and Whitaker starring in a buddy cop comedy sounds crazy. But it made a certain amount of sense in 1990. Edwards and Whitaker had both appeared in the comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Edwards had starred in the Revenge of the Nerds movies and The Sure Thing. Whitaker had co-starred in Good Morning, Vietnam.
Okay, no, that was still a bad idea.
Later that year, Miller reunited with Matthew Broderick for Andrew Bergman’s Godfather spoof, The Freshmen.
The comedy co-starred film legend (and future Dr. Moreau) Marlon Brando in a send-up of his iconic Godfather role. Miller played his daughter and Broderick played a young film student who gets drawn into their world.
Brando actually called the film “lousy” when it finished shooting. But it got great reviews and was a modest hit. Brando may be a legendary actor, but he was a lousy film critic.
Later that year, Miller brought out Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tender side in Ivan Reitman’s Kindergarten Cop.
Miller played a kindergarten teacher who falls for Schwarzenegger’s unusually large, Austrian under-cover cop. Only in the movies does a former body builder with a thick Austrian accent manage to go under-cover as a kindergarten teacher!
Miller claims she taught Ah-nold how to kiss on-camera:
“If you’re just swallowing each other up, you don’t see anything. I asked him to grab me and hold me and then go in for the kiss. He was like ‘Oh-kay, Puh-nul-uh-pee.’ “
Schwarzenegger had worked with Reitman on the high concept comedy, Twins which was surprisingly successful. Cop was an attempt to make lightning strike twice and for the most part it worked.
Like Twins, Kindergarten Cop got mixed reviews, but cleaned up at the box office.
One day after Kindergarten Cop was released, Awakenings opened in limited release in order to be eligible for Oscar consideration. A couple of weeks later, the Penny Marshall-directed drama opened in wide release.
Awakenings starred Robert DeNiro as a catatonic patient and Robin Williams as his doctor. When DeNiro’s character is “awakened” he begins a romantic relationship with another patient’s daughter played by Penelope Ann Miller.
Awakenings received largely positive reviews, scored three Oscar nominations and did respectable box office.
Despite appearing in four films in one year (three of which were fairly high-profile), Miller was not yet a star. Unfortunately, Miller was never in the spotlight of any of her movies. Audiences went to The Freshman to see Brando and Broderick. They went to see Kindergarten Cop to see Arnold with kids. Awakenings was all about DeNiro and Williams.
Most people (myself excluded) didn’t take a whole lot of notice of Ms. Miller. But she was about to get her chance at starring roles.
In 1991, Miller finally got a starring role opposite Danny DeVito and Gregory Peck in Norman Jewison’s big screen adaptation of the stage play Other People’s Money.
DeVito played a corporate raider attempting a hostile take-over of Peck’s company. Miller played Peck’s daughter who spars with (and amazingly enough flirts with) DeVito.
The movie got mostly negative reviews and was a flop at the box office. I haven’t seen it in 20 years, but I remember liking it. Of course, by this point I was partial to Miller. So, maybe that swayed me.
1992 was another big year for Miller. She appeared in 3 more films. Unfortunately, none of them were very successful.
The first was Year of the Comet co-starring Tim Daly. I think I may be the only person other than Tim Daly’s mom who went to see both Year of the Comet and Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde in the theaters! I guess that qualifies me as a Tim Daly fan even though I saw both movies primarily because of his costars.
Year of the Comet is a lightweight romp about a quest to find the world’s most expensive bottle of wine. But it had a screenplay by the great William Goldman, the writer of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Princess Bride. Year of the Comet didn’t quite live up to his other works.
Miller followed up Year of the Comet with her first real starring role. Unfortunately, it was in the screwball gangster comedy, The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag.
I think I established my Penelope Ann Miller fan-cred when I mentioned I paid money to see Year of the Comet in theaters. Well, even I passed on The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag. Miller was 0 for 2 in 1992.
Miller capped off the year with a turn as one of Robert Downey Jr.’s many love interests in Chaplin.
Sir Richard Attenborough’s biopic got mixed reviews although Downey received universal praise for his performance. The movie tanked at the box office. Even if it had succeeded, I don’t think it would have helped Miller much. Downey was the star of the movie and Miller was just one in a long list of co-stars.
In 1993, Miller bounced back with Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way.
Carlito’s Way is not a direct sequel to De Palma’s Scarface, but if Pacino’s Tony Montana had lived through Scarface he could have turned into a guy a lot like the one Pacino plays in Carlito’s Way.
Pacino played Carlito, a criminal released from prison after serving only five years of a thirty year sentence. Sean Penn played his scuzzy lawyer who gets him out of jail on a technicality. Miller played Carlito’s surprisingly young girl friend.
Miller’s role is small by significant. She plays an aspiring ballet dancer who pays the bills by stripping on the side. The movie includes a striptease which required an actress who could also dance.
Carlito’s Way got mixed reviews and did respectable box office. But it was a big film for Miller. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. It seemed like Miller was on the brink of breaking out.
Rumors swirled that Miller had a torrid affair with her co-star. Pacino was 24 years older than Miller and was in a committed relationship with film director, Lyndall Hobbs. Miller was less than discreet about their relationship.
“Al is a very passionate person, and he brought out a certain womanliness, a sexuality, a passion in me. I think I always knew I had it in me, but he brought out a real fire.It’s not a secret and I’m not ashamed of it.”
Pacino showed up with Hobbs to the Carlito’s Way premiere and avoided Miller entirely. But Miller told reporters the relationship was still going on:
“[The relationship] has certainly continued past the movie. I’ve come to realize that if two people are meant to be together, it shouldn’t be such a struggle. I’ve learned to have more faith, not wear my heart on my sleeve so much. And sometimes to let go.”
Apparently, the relationship ended badly. Rumors have circulated that Pacino wasn’t happy with Miller publicly flaunting their affair. He may have been guilty of some retaliatory career sabotage.
Naturally Miller’s next step was to star in a big summer super hero movie.
Unfortunately, in the 1990’s they only made super hero movies about Batman and pulp characters no one under 70 cared about. So Miller was stuck starring opposite Alec Baldwin in The Shadow.
The Shadow should have been the movie that cemented both Miller and Baldwin as A-list stars. But The Shadow didn’t have a built-in audience like Batman. And the movie wasn’t good enough to bring audiences in on its own merits.
Critics blasted The Shadow, audiences stayed away in droves and the planned sequels never materialized.
From 1994-1997, Miller was absent from TV and movies. She married future Arrested Development star, Will Arnett in 1994 and they divorced in 1995.
In 1997, Miller returned to the screen in Peter Hyams’ horror film, The Relic.
The Relic actually got some pretty good reviews. But it came at a time when audiences were sick of monster movies trying to cash in on the Alien formula. The Mimic starring Mira Sorvino would suffer a similar fate late that same year.
After The Relic, Miller’s career went into hibernation. She would pop up here and there in things like 2001’s Along Came a Spider and 2007’s The Messenger. But she was done as a leading lady in mainstream theatrical movies.
Miller remarried in 2000 and has since had two children. “Honestly, once I started having kids, I really felt like my priorities shifted and I wanted to be a mom. And when you are pregnant, it is hard to work. And I like my downtime,” she said. “I don’t want to work all of the time.”
She still acts regularly on the TV shows like Men of a Certain Age where she played Ray Romano’s ex-wife.
In 2011, Miller popped up again in the Oscar-winning Best Picture, The Artist.
Miller played the put-upon wife of an aging silent film star. Her role is small. I mean, she has no lines. But then, not many people in the movie do.
The Artist was a critically acclaimed movie, Best Picture-winner and a hit at the box office. Miller’s role was basically an extended cameo, so it didn’t exactly relaunch he career. But it was the most high-profile film role she had in a long time.
So, what the hell happened?
Unfortunately, Miller tended to be overshadowed by her co-stars in more prestigious pictures. And her attempts at breaking into mainstream block busters just never clicked with audiences. As her career cooled down, she made the decision to raise a family rather than continuing to pursue A-list stardom.
Great new feature! I have a recommendation, but I don’t know if she falls more under the “What the Hell Happened To” banner, or if she even qualifies for either series. There is definitely a question that needs to be answered though, and that’s: Why did a promising young starlet who starred in several top films suddenly vanish from the limelight? Brooke Adams She co-starred in two of my favorite sci-fi films of yesteryear…Invasion of the Body Snatchers (’77 remake) and The Dead Zone (1983). She was also listed as one of twelve “Promising New Actors of 1978” in John… Read more »
After focusing on so many A-listers who dropped off the face of the earth in “What the Hell Happened” I thought it had taken on a certain cache. Sean Young might disagree, but I consider it high praise to be included. It means people miss you! Rather than dilute the A-list feature, I figured I’d open this up for actors who didn’t have the classic rise and fall. They came close. But they never quite became household names. That throws open the door for a lot of people who don’t necessarily qualify for WTHH. I have some good memories of… Read more »
Yeah, the interesting thing that I found out right away about Brooke is that she actually was expected to become a big star by many in the movie industry. There are quite a few articles from the 70’s where she’s featured as an A-list “star of tomorrow”. And things were going that way until…? That’s where you come in. She’s not well known today, because those movies are 30 years old, and she never attained her goal of becoming an A-lister. It’s an older story than Penelope Ann Miller, but I think it’s interesting.
Yeah, I’m going to definitely dig around. Looking at her filmography, she kind of disappears. I’m wondering if we have another Rick Moranis here. I did find that she is currently married to Tony Shalhoub. She also adopted a kid in 1989. I’ll have to take this one on as a challenge.
Actually, I found a link which has some quick answers. Consider this a sneak preview:
http://www.examiner.com/acting-in-national/acting-101-who-is-actress-brooke-adams-spouse
You might find she’s not interesting enough to cover. The article at that link suggests she temporarily retired in ’95, but that hardly explains what happened to her rise to the top that was already on a downward slope in ’83. She didn’t start a family until ’89 according to the article.
Yeah, that’s what I’ll have to dig into. I figure she likely didn’t pursue her career very seriously, the opportunities never materialized or both.
Does Jude Law qualify yet for “What the Hell Happened to…?” yet? He was huge just 5 years ago.
I think Mr. Law may qualify for a “Fecth” column more so than “What the Hell Happened?” He was always on the cusp of breaking out into the A-list, but never quite made it. His output was impressive. Like you say, 5 years ago he was in every single movie. But almost none of them were hits. And while his output has slows in recent years, he hasn’t exactly disappeared. In fact, thanks to the Sherlock Holmes movies, he has a lucrative franchise going.
One thing you didn’t mention in your story on Penelope Ann Miller is that she actually played the same part in “Biloxi Blues” on Broadway. This might’ve actually been her big break. The show starred Matthew Broderick and for crying out loud, it’s Neil Simon. Woody Harrelson was also an understudy on that production. The show was about as big a hit as Broadway was producing at the time.
Good point. Had it not been for Biloxi, who knows what would have happened. Big Flop Pee Wee wasn’t launching any careers.
Was she and Broderick an item for a couple of years? That’s what the Broadway theater circles reported during the stage and film production on Biloxi…I kind of thought that was true since they also reteamed on The Freshman. I have always loved her acting and thought she complimented every role she played.
I have seen rumors that they were a couple, but nothing substantial. I was obviously a Miller fan back in the day. However, I think she had a problem of looking too young for a lot of her roles. Especially when she was cast opposite much older men like Al Pacino. She is a talented actress and a beauty on the screen, but sometimes I don’t think Hollywood knew what to do with her.
Don’t understand the too young idea, but I’m no expert. She was sexy as all get out in Carlito’s Way. She was very convincing as Pacino’s love interest and made the movie. But, I’m a fan and liked her in Carlito and The Freshman. The scene when she walks in to the class room and announces she is “Carmine Santino’s daughter” is hilarious.
I was a big fan of Millers. But she didn’t seem to have the life experience you would expect from a character who was supposed to be a long-ago flame of the character played by Pacino. He had just gotten out of prison after I don’t remember how many years. Did he start dating her in high school?
Penelope Ann Miller has a supporting role in Oscar favorite “The Artist.”
I saw it last night. Great work by most involved, but it just didn’t enthrall me the way I was expecting it to.
A friend said it has the same plot as “Anchorman.” She’s not entirely wong.
They said the same thing on Roger Ebert’s program. Well done, but not especially engaging. They didn’t have any insights comparing it to the cinematic works of Will Ferrell though. Their loss.
Yay, Penelope Ann Miller! She has been popping up quite a bit of late.
In fairness to Forever Lulu, I didn’t give it the fairest viewing. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I hated it. I watched roughly the first 20 minutes or so. Then, as often happens in a house with little kids, got called away. What I saw in the first 20 minutes didn’t motivate me to put it back on. It seemed heavy on the melodrama. I just wasn’t feeling it. Maybe if I give it another crack somewhere down the line, I’ll get caught up in it. I still haven’t seen The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag. But… Read more »
Superhero Rewind: The Shadow Review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYuS0PeAEkE
Somebody in Penelope Ann Miller’s IMDb message board suggested that she as an actress lacked the emotional depth and charisma that makes a movie star. Somebody else argued that part of Penelope’s problem is that she suffers from what is called “Shirley Temple Syndrome”. This means that she’s not exactly “womanly sexy” as she is “cute” in a high-school or college girl sort of way. This perhaps worked well enough in something like “Adventures in Babysitting” but not in stuff like “Carlito’s Way” or “The Freshman”. At the end of the day, it was arguably hard for her to convincingly… Read more »
I think there may be something to that. However, a lot of people thought she pulled off “womanly sexy” in Carlito’s Way. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for it.
I think another problem with Penelope Ann Miller is that maybe she didn’t have a certain X-factor to make her standout. While Penelope in her prime, was pretty she wasn’t exactly a “knock-out” (a la Michelle Pfeiffer, Kim Basinger, Sharon Stone). And while she was decent, she regardless wasn’t that special of an actress. She just happened to be a perfectly likable actress who during her heyday, starred in a lot of movies opposite actors like Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Matthew Broderick, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert DeNiro, Danny Devito, etc. She’s the classic example of an actress who benefited… Read more »
“The Year of the Comet” is the movie that William Goldman always uses as an example of his maxim “Nobody knows anything.” He talks about how he thought that pursuing a vintage bottle of wine would be a brilliant concept for a movie, and how all down the line everybody thought it was a great script, would be a huge movie, and then it came out and tanked completely. I say this simply because whenever that quote gets mentioned, I laugh and say, “Let me ask you something — do you think that anybody would go see a movie about… Read more »
lol – Good point.
I remember going to see Year of the Comet with no idea what it was about. Had I known, I might have reconsidered.
This is a great WTHT! Course the whole series is great. I knew she was a decent actress but I didn’t know how great, until seeing her in “Carlito’s Way” where she played SMOKING HOT with Al Pacino. As much as I detest most violent films, I loved this one and saw it many times. I’m also not a fan of movie sex scenes, but was blown away by the scene with her and Pacino where she does the striptease just for him and he breaks the chain on the apartment door. Yes, she did benefit by playing opposite him,… Read more »
What happened to Thora Birch?–and other actors that seemed to disappear for no reason…:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15156135&postcount=91
My usual name for these is Penelope Ann Miller who was pretty busy in the early 90’s and then largely dropped off. Looking at her IMDb, she was apparently doing a bunch of TV movies I’d never heard of and actually had a few movie roles in the past couple years including The Artist (which I haven’t seen). So good for her, I guess.
As I understand it, Penelope Ann- Miller had an affair with Al Pacino during Carlito’s Way and went public about it. He was not happy and ” black-balled” her!
Thanks for pointing that out. Looks like this article is getting updated!
It seems like Penelope made a similar mistake that Sean Young made (of course, the downfall of her own career was due to many other factors) in that she shouldn’t have been so boastful and public in regards to her personal life (e.g. whomever she hooked up w/).
Reading the interviews with her from the time of Carlito’s Way was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You could just see Pacino stewing in the background. And Miller was completely oblivious that he wasn’t leaving his girlfriend for her.
Basically, PAM got the “Sandra Locke Treatment”:
http://www.cracked.com/article_20500_6-insane-reasons-formerly-famous-people-dropped-off-map_p2.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage
Assuming that Pacino did torpedo her career. I’m not 100% sold that is what happened. She continued getting work for quite a while after Carlito’s Way. Pacino clearly wasn’t happy about the way she handled the affair. But I’m not convinced he had her blackballed. I’m sure it didn’t help though.
Clash of the Egos: On-Set Drama and Feuds: http://forums.previously.tv/topic/20764-clash-of-the-egos-on-set-drama-and-feuds/page-2#entry752700 I also remember when Penelope Ann Miller was in Carlito’s Way, apparently Al Pacino had an affair with her on set, only to end it when the shoot was over and return to his longtime lade friend Laurel something or other, and it was a little shocking because PAM was kind of the Annie Hathaway of her day, but anyway Miller made a HUGE scene at the films premier, in an I’m not gonna be IGNORED (minus the bunnies) kind of way and I’m still not sure that’s not why her… Read more »
If you haven’t seen Carlito’s Way (Al Pacino, Sean Penn, 1993), get it on Blu Ray. I think it’s as good as Goodfellas and better than Godfather 3. It’s about as good as Scarface. She is in her prime in that movie, and was one of the most beautiful and talented actresses.
I liked Carlito’s Way. I agree it’s better than Godfather 3, but that’s not saying much. It is a spiritual successor to Scarface, but I think that movie is pretty over-rated. I can’t put Carlito’s Way anywhere near Goodfellas. But I love Goodfellas. Carlito’s Way is definitely worth checking out for any fan of the genre. And it’s probably the career high point for Miller.
Agree with you Kirk, that Carlito’s Way is a very good movie. I saw it a number of times and then had to stop watching. Not because of any flaw with the movie, just couldn’t handle the pain anymore. yes, the actors got me that involved. Miller has much to be proud of in that role.
Penelope Ann Miller signs up for ABC’s “American Crime”:
http://www.deadline.com/2014/03/penelope-ann-miller-joins-abcs-american-crime-chris-butler-in-nbcs-lifesaver/
She’ll co-star on the racial drama from the Oscar-winning writer of “12 Years a Slave.”
watching ‘Other Peoples Money” and was wondering what did happen to Penelope. Nothing really. She is still working in all genre’s. as far as “A Listers” is concerned most of those people actually leave me cold as far as their acting talent goes. I mean…Jennifer Aniston is an A Lister. Go figure.
I was a big fan of Miller’s back in the day. But then again, I also like Aniston well enough. I remember really enjoying Other People’s Money, but I haven’t revisited it in years. Did you enjoy it?
u didnt mention her work in a minute with stan hopper it was cancelled after 13 episodes it sunk her career
Norm MacDonald’s Television Endeavors, Ranked: http://uproxx.com/tv/2014/10/norm-macdonalds-television-endeavors-ranked/ A Minute With Stan Hooper (2003) In this show, Norm played a big-city TV reporter who hosts a one-minute weekly segment called… well, you can probably figure that out. He focuses on stories from Small Town America, but fears he’s losing touch by doing the segment from New York. So, he moves back to his hometown with his wife (Penelope Ann Miller), and would have some quaint misadventure every week. Not one of Norm’s finest efforts, and sure enough, it was canceled after just six episodes. If you’re curious about this show, every episode… Read more »
Stars that bucked your expectations:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17860227&postcount=28
I first saw Penelope Ann Miller in a production of Our Town that was on television in the late 80s. I thought she was fantastic and that she would be huge. She was in a couple of movies in the early 90s where she was just ok (I remember Kindergarten Cop and Other People’s Money). I don’t think that she really ever achieved star status.
Retrospective / Review – The Shadow (1994)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohdcFNpV2EY
The Relic (1997):
http://www.agonybooth.com/video1794_The_Relic_1997_Movie_Review.aspx
A look into the atmospheric horror film The Relic.