Mini Biography
The remarkable hyper ambitious, Material Girl who never stops re-inventing herself has sold tens of millions of CDs to adoring fans world wide, however her film career has consistently drawn scathing or laughable reviews from film critics, and her films have generally often only experienced tepid success at the box office. Born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone on August 1958 in Bay City, Michigan she moved to New York in the late 1970s and studied with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey, joined up with the Patrick Hernandez Revue, formed a pop/dance band called "Breakfast Club" and then began working with then boyfriend Stephen Bray on recording several disco oriented songs. NY producer / DJ Mark Kamins passed her demo tapes onto Sire Records in early 1982......and the rest, as they say, is history. The 1980s was Madonna's boom decade, and she dominated the music charts with a succession of multi-million selling albums, plus her musical and fashion influence on young women was felt right around the globe.
Madonna first appeared on screen in two low budget films marketed to a teenage audience titled A Certain Sacrifice (1985) and Vision Quest (1985). However, she scored a minor cult hit with Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) starring alongside spunky Rosanna Arquette. Madonna's next effort with then husband & fellow actor Sean Penn titled Shanghai Surprise (1986) was wholly savaged by the critics, although the resilient actress managed to improve critical reception with her next two films, the off beat Who's That Girl? (1987) and the quirky Damon Runyon inspired Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989). The big budget and star filled Dick Tracy (1990) had Madonna portray bad girl "Breathless Mahoney" flirting with Warren Beatty, but it failed to fire at the box office. Taking a much more earthy role, Madonna was much more entertaining alongside Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in the highly enjoyable A League of Their Own (1992) about female baseball players during WWII, but then she drew the critics's wrath once again with the boring whodunit Body of Evidence (1993), that was an obvious attempt to cash in on the success of the sexy Sharon Stone thriller Basic Instinct (1992).
Several other minor screen roles followed, then Madonna starred as Eva Peron in the fairly well received screen adaptation of the hugely successful musical Evita (1996). The Material Girl stayed away from being in front of the cameras for several years, until she returned to co-star in the lukewarm romantic comedy The Next Best Thing (2000), followed by the woefully bad Swept Away (2002), and then Madonna was totally miscast as a vampish fencing instructor in the 007 adventure Die Another Day (2002).
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Full Name: Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone