Francine Joy "Fran" Drescher (born September 30, 1957) (Hebrew: פראן דרשר) is an Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominated American film and television actress, comedian, and activist.

Early life and career

Drescher was raised in Kew Gardens, New York to an Ashkenazi Jewish family of Eastern Europe origin (her great-grandmother was born in Focşani, Romania).[1][2] Her parents are Sylvia and Morty Drescher and she has an elder sister, Nadine.

She was a first runner-up for "Miss New York Teenager" in 1973, as revealed in her interview on William Shatner's Raw Nerve which first aired on January 27, 2009.

Drescher attended Hillcrest High School in Jamaica, Queens, where she met her future husband, Peter Marc Jacobson, whom she married in 1978, aged 21. [3] Jacobson was Drescher's constant supporter in her show-business career, and he wrote, directed, and produced her signature television series, The Nanny.

Early career and film roles

Her first break was a small role in the blockbuster movie Saturday Night Fever (1977) in which she delivered the memorable line to John Travolta, "Are you as good in bed as you are on the dance floor?" A year later, she began to gain more attention in films such as American Hot Wax (1978), and Wes Craven's Summer of Fear (1978). She also took on a rare dramatic role in the Milos Forman 1981 film, Ragtime.

During the 1980s, Drescher found moderate success as a character actress with memorable roles in films such as The Hollywood Knights, Doctor Detroit, The Big Picture, UHF, Cadillac Man, and most notably, a signature, scene-stealing role as Bobbi Flekman in Rob Reiner's This is Spinal Tap.

The Nanny and later film roles

In the 1990s she and Jacobson finally created her own television show, The Nanny in 1993. 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, and Drescher became an instant star. In this sitcom, she played a charming and bubbly woman named Fran Fine who casually became the 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).

Drescher's voice is a combination of a high nasal pitch and what is viewed as a stereotypical "New Yawk" accent. In her autobiography, Drescher discussed the fact that this is basically her real voice — even though it is played up a little on-camera — and discusses the many voice lessons she 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 is appropriately and humorously titled Enter Whining.

Drescher appeared in 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.

Rape

In January 1985, two armed robbers broke into Drescher's and Jacobson's Los Angeles apartment. While one ransacked their home, the other raped Fran at gunpoint. Jacobson was also physically attacked, tied up, and forced to witness the entire ordeal. It took Fran many years to overcome, 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.[4]

Divorce

After separating in 1996, Drescher and Jacobson divorced in 1999. Their union was childless. She later dated a man sixteen years younger than she.[citation needed] Drescher has since moved back to her native New York City.

Cancer battle

Drescher was admitted to Los Angeles's Cedars Sinai Hospital on June 21, 2000, after doctors diagnosed her with uterine cancer. She had to undergo an immediate radical hysterectomy to treat the disease. Since then, Drescher was 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 marked 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."[5] 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, a guy half her age and not much older than her son. Former Nanny costar Charles Shaughnessy appeared 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 Law & Order: Criminal Intent; the episode, "The War at Home", aired on US television on November 14, 2006.[6] In the same year, she also gave her voice to the role of a 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.

Politics

In September 2008, Drescher was appointed as a U.S. diplomat by the U.S. State Department. Her official title is Public Diplomacy Envoy for Women's Health Issues. By traveling throughout the world, she will support U.S. public diplomacy efforts, including working with health organizations and women's groups to raise awareness of women’s health issues, cancer awareness and detection, and patient empowerment and advocacy. Her first trip was in late September and included stops in Romania, Hungary, Kosovo and Poland.[citation needed]

In 2008, Drescher supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. She attended a Super Democrat rally for Clinton. Drescher claimed to have been considering a run for Congress in 2010 to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton, but Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed by New York State's Governor David Paterson to succed Clinton after Clinton was confirmed as Secretary of State."'Nanny' state? Drescher eyes Clinton's Senate seat".

Filmography

    * Film
          o Saturday Night Fever (1977)
          o American Hot Wax (1978)
          o Gorp (1980)
          o The Hollywood Knights (1980)
          o Ragtime (1981)
          o Doctor Detroit (1983)
          o The Rosebud Beach Hotel (1984)
          o This is Spinal Tap (1984)
          o The Big Picture (1989)
          o UHF (1989)
          o Wedding Band (1990)
          o Cadillac Man (1990)
          o We're Talking Serious Money (1992)
          o Car 54, Where Are You? (1994)
          o Jack (1996)
          o The Beautician and the Beast (1997) (also executive producer)
          o Kid Quick (2000) (short subject)
          o Picking Up the Pieces (2000)
          o Beautiful Girl (2003)
          o Santa's Slay (2005)
          o Shark Bait (2007)   

    * Television
          o Summer Of Fear aka "Stranger In Our House" (1978)
          o Fame (1982 TV series) (1 episode, Metamorphosis) (1982)
          o Charmed Lives (1986) (canceled after 4 months)
          o Rock 'n' Roll Mom (1988)
          o What's Alan Watching? (1989)
          o Love and Betrayal (1989)
          o Princesses (1991) (canceled after 7 episodes)
          o Without Warning: Terror in the Towers (1993)
          o The Nanny as Fran Fine ,Writer (8 episodes),executive producer (1 episode),Director (Call Me Fran 1998)(1993-1999)
          o The Nanny Christmas Special: Oy to the World (1995) (voice)
          o Strong Medicine as Irene Slater (1 episode, 'Cinderella in Scrubs' ,2004),Director ('Like Cures Like', 2004)
          o Living with Fran as Fran Reeves and also executive producer (2005-2006)
          o What I Like About You as her Living with Fran character, Fran Reeves (1 episode, 2005)
          o The Simpsons (1 episode, Treehouse of Horror XVII) (2006)
          o Law & Order: Criminal Intent (1 episode, "The War at Home") (2006)
          o Thank God You're Here (US version) (2007)
          o Entourage (2008)

Izvor: Wikipedia