Kristy Swanson (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Kristen Nöel "Kristy" Swanson (born December 19, 1969) is an American actress. She is best known for playing Buffy Summers in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She also played Catherine "Cathy" Dollanganger in the movie version of the V.C. Andrews book Flowers in the Attic.

Early life

Swanson was born in Mission Viejo, California, the daughter of physical education teachers Robert and Rosemary Swanson.

Career

Swanson started her career at The Actors Workshop with R.J. Adams and promptly moved into TV advertising roles and several one-off appearances in TV series such as Cagney and Lacey and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1986, she debuted on the big screen in two John Hughes films: Pretty In Pink, in a non-speaking role, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off as a character who announces a convoluted excuse for Ferris' absence in class. Her first starring role was later in 1986, in Wes Craven's Deadly Friend as Samantha"the girl next door". The next year she played Cathy in the adaptation of V. C. Andrews' best-seller Flowers in the Attic.

By 1990, Swanson had made many television appearances, including multiple appearances in Knots Landing (1987"1988), Nightingales (1989), her first starring role in a TV series, although it only lasted a season, and a short-lived Burt Reynolds television series called B.L. Stryker (1989).

Throughout the 1990s, she centered mostly in films. She played the title role in the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was a box office bomb but had a profitable rental life. She appeared in both starring and supporting roles in movies such as Hot Shots!, The Program, The Chase, or her most critically acclaimed role as Kristen Connor, a student discovering her sexuality, in John Singleton's Higher Learning. She also appeared in the film adaptation of the comic-book The Phantom and the dark comedy 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag with Joe Pesci. Most of these films failed at the box office, and she reverted to TV work in the late 1990s.

In the 1998"99 season of Early Edition, Swanson played Erica Paget, a love interest of the main character, Gary Hobson. In 1999, Swanson played Vanessa, the girlfriend of Adam Sandler in the movie Big Daddy. In 2000, she returned to a television series, as the star of Grapevine, a revamp of a 1992 TV series that was cancelled after 5 episodes.

Swanson posed nude for Playboy magazine in November 2002 in a cover-featured pictorial. She appeared in and won the 2006 Fox television program Skating with Celebrities, partnered with Lloyd Eisler.

On May 8, 2007, Swanson appeared in the Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode "Bombshell", playing a fictionalized variation on Anna Nicole Smith.

In 2007, she became a spokesperson of the Medifast diet. In the following year, she guest-starred in 3 episodes of the lesbian web series 3Way.

In July 2009, she filmed What If..., co-starring Kevin Sorbo and Debby Ryan, released on August 20, 2010. It was her first theatrical film in 10 years.

Swanson made a cameo appearance in the "Don't You Forget About Me" episode of One Tree Hill, which aired on February 1, 2010. The episode was a homage to John Hughes; Swanson appeared in two films produced by him in the 1980s.

Personal life

Swanson began a relationship with her Skating with Celebrities partner Lloyd Eisler during the show's run, while Eisler was still married to his then pregnant wife, Marcie. Swanson gave birth to a son named Magnus Hart Swanson Eisler on February 16, 2007, just one month after Lloyd's divorce from Marcia O'Brien was finalized. Swanson married Eisler on February 7, 2009 in San Luis Obispo, California. They currently live in Santa Clarita, California.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	Operation Cupcake	Janet Carson	TV movie
2011	A Christmas Wish	Martha Evans	TV movie
2011	Chick Magnet	Herself
2011	Swamp Shark	Rachel Broussard	TV movie
2010	What If...	Wendy Walker
2009	The Closer	Kaitlyn	Short film
2006	Living Death	Elizabeth Harris
2006	The Black Hole	Shannon Muir	TV movie
2005	Six Months Later	Linda	Short film
2005	Forbidden Secrets	Alexandra Kent Lambeth	TV
2005	Bound by Lies	Laura Cross
2003	The Silence	Julia Craig
2003	Red Water	Kelli Raymond	TV movie
2001	Zebra Lounge	Louise Bauer
2001	Soul Assassin	Tessa Jansen
2000	Dude, Where's My Car?	Christie Boner
2000	Meeting Daddy	Laurel Lee
1999	Big Daddy	Vanessa
1999	Supreme Sanction	Jenna	TV movie
1998	Pleasantville	Concerned "Colored" Girl	Uncredited
1998	Ground Control	Julie Albrecht
1997	Bad to the Bone	Francesca Wells	TV movie
1997	Tinseltown	Nikki Randall
1997	Lover Girl	Darlene Ferrari
1997	8 Heads in a Duffel Bag	Laurie Bennett
1996	Marshal Law	Lilly Nelson	TV movie
1996	The Phantom	Diana Palmer
1995	Higher Learning	Kristen Connor
1994	Getting In	Kirby Watts
1994	The Chase	Natalie Voss
1993	The Program	Camille Shafer
1993	The Chili Con Carne Club	Julie	Short film
1992	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Buffy Summers
1992	Highway to Hell	Rachel Clark
1991	Hot Shots!	Kowalski
1991	Mannequin Two: On the Move	Jessie
1990	Diving In	Terry Hopkins
1990	Dream Trap	Sue Halloran
1989	Not Quite Human II	Erin Jeffries	TV movie
1987	Flowers in the Attic	Cathy Dollanganger
1987	Not Quite Human	Erin Jeffries	TV movie
1987	Juarez	Cathy Dodge	TV movie
1986	Deadly Friend	Samantha Pringle
1986	Ferris Bueller's Day Off	Simone Adamley
1986	Mr. Boogedy	Jennifer Davis	TV movie
1986	Miracle of the Heart: A Boy's Town Story	Stephanie Gamble	TV movie
1986	Pretty in Pink	Duckette

Television series

Year	Series	Role	Episodes
2011-Present	Psych	Marlowe Viccellio	"This Episode Sucks" "Let's Doo-Wop It Again"
2010	One Tree Hill	Woman in car	"Don't You Forget About Me"
2008	3Way	Leslie Lapdalulu	3 episodes
2007	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Lorelei Mailer	"Bombshell"
2004	CSI: Miami	Roxanne Price	"Complications"
2003	Just Shoot Me!	Allison Cavanaugh	"There's Something About Allison"
2000	Grapevine	Susan Crawford	5 episodes
1998-99	Early Edition	Erica Paget	20 episodes
1989	B.L. Stryker	Lynn Ellingsworth	2 episodes
1989	Nightingales	Becky Granger	13 episodes
1987-88	Knots Landing	Jody Campbell	8 episodes
1987	Growing Pains	Rhonda	"Thank God It's Friday"
1986	Valerie	Linda Perkins	"The Big Fix-Up"
1986	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Female Student #2	"The Gloating Place"
1985	Cagney & Lacey	Stephanie Brandon	"On The Street"
1985	Call to Glory	Sally	2 episodes
1984	It's Your Move	Laura	"Love Letters"

Awards and nominations

Wins

1989: Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress in a Horror or Mystery Motion PictureFlowers In The Attic

Nominations

1988: Young Artist Award for Best Young Female Superstar in Motion PicturesDeadly Friend
1987: Young Artist Award for Exceptional Young Actress Starring in a Television Special or Movie of the WeekMr. Boogedy
1986: Young Artist Award for Best Young ActressGuest in a Television SeriesCagney & Lacey episode "On The Street"

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