'''Molly K. Ringwald''' (born February 18, 1968 in Roseville, California) is an American actress. She became popular with teenage audiences in the 1980s, as a result of her starring roles in the John Hughes movies Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.
Biography
Early musical career
Ringwald was born in Roseville, California, the daughter of blind jazz pianist Robert Scott Ringwald and Adele Edith, a housewife; she has two siblings, Elizabeth and Kelly. She started her acting career at age five, starring in a stage production of ''Alice in Wonderland'' as the dormouse. By the time she was six years old, she had recorded a music album of Dixieland jazz with her father; this album has now become highly collectible. At age eleven, Ringwald was cast in a role on the television series, ''
The Facts of Life'' and sang one track on a 1980 Disney Christmas album.
Acting career
175px|thumb|Ringwald in ''
The Breakfast Club''
Ringwald appeared in several episodes of the television series ''Diff'rent Strokes'' in 1979. That year, she became a cast member of the spin-off ''
The Facts of Life'', but her character was written out after the first season. Turning toward motion pictures, her breakout role was ''
Sixteen Candles'' (1984). Ringwald was a member of the so-called ''Brat Pack'' of 1980s teen actors. The term was first coined in 1985, after Ringwald's night out with a reporter for ''New York Magazine'', who published a sensationalist article naming her and fellow actors (Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore and Anthony Michael Hall) as ''The Brat Pack''.
Though she played a high school "princess" in her biggest hit, 1985's ''
The Breakfast Club'', Ringwald specialized in portrayals of moody, awkward, brainy, angst-filled characters. Her performances greatly influenced teen-oriented television and movies that would follow in the 1990s, as previous films with teenage subjects were mostly of the horror or exploitation comedy genres, and did not attempt to realistically portray teenage life.
Among Ringwald's movies are ''
Fresh Horses'', ''The Pick Up Artist'' and ''
Pretty in Pink''. During the mid and late 1980s period when Ringwald was Hollywood's top female teen, she appeared in countless covers of such publications as ''Tiger Beat'', ''Teen'' and many others.
Ringwald reportedly turned down the leading role of Julia Roberts' part in the 1990 box office smash ''Pretty Woman'' and also Demi Moore's leading role in the film Ghost. Her career slowed down in the 1990s, as she appeared mainly in made-for-TV and direct-to-video B-horror films. In 1995, her nude
