Ricki Lake
German autograph card by Kino, 1990.
American actress Ricki Lake (1968) is best known for her lead role as Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray (1988). She is also known for her talk show which was broadcast internationally between 1993 and 2004.
Ricki Pamela Lake was born in 1968 in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, to a secular Jewish family. Her parents are Jill, a homemaker, and Barry Lake, a pharmacist, though Lake was largely brought up by her paternal grandmother, Sylvia Lake, until Sylvia's death in 1978. Ricki attended Hastings Elementary as a child, went on to Farragut Middle, and then attended Hastings High, for two years. At the end of her sophomore year, she transferred to the Professional Children's School, in New York, to study acting. Ricki began singing professionally at the age of nine, in cabarets and clubs. After finishing high school, she attended Ithaca College for one year. Ricki made her film debut as Tracy Turnblad, the lead character in John Waters's cult classic Hairspray (1988), with Divine as her mother. Lake also starred in other Waters films including Cry-Baby (John Waters, 1990) with Johnny Depp and Susan Tyrrell, Serial Mom (John Waters, 1994), featuring Kathleen Turner, and Cecil B. Demented (John Waters, 2000) with Melanie Griffith and Stephen Dorff. She also appeared in Last Exit to Brooklyn (Uli Edel, 1989) with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Inside Monkey Zetterland (Steve Antin, 1992), and co-starred in Mrs. Winterbourne (Richard Benjamin, 1996) with Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser. On TV, she joined the cast of the Vietnam War drama series China Beach (1988) as a Red Cross volunteer, Holly "the Donut Dolly" Pelegrino, for the show's third season. She later also had a recurring role on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens (2000-2001) as Doug's sister Stephanie. She starred in the TV movie Baby Cakes (Paul Schneider, 1989) with Craig Sheffer, had a voice role on King of the Hill (2006), and guest-starred on such TV series as Drop Dead Diva (2010). In 2007, she had a cameo appearance in the remake of Hairspray (Adam Shankman, 2007) as a William Morris talent agent. She also teamed up with star Nikki Blonsky, who played Tracy Turnblad in the remake, and Marissa Jaret Winokur, who played Tracy Turnblad in the Broadway musical based on the original 1988 film, to record 'Mama I'm a Big Girl Now'. The song is played during the film's end credits. She later reunited with original Hairspray co-star Deborah Harry for the film Hotel Gramercy Park (Douglas Keeve, 2008).
In 1993, Ricki Lake was Lake's first daytime talk show and at 24, she was the youngest person at the time to host one. The show specialised in topics involving invited guests and incorporated questions and comments from a studio audience. For the show she went on a deit and lost 57 kilos. The show debuted in syndication in 1993, and ended first-run episodes in 2004. Although Sony Pictures Television had many stations contracted through the 2004–2005 season, Lake decided to end the show in August 2004, citing a desire to spend time with her family. Lake returned to the talk show platform when she hosted a second talk show which premiered in September 2012 and was cancelled after one season. lake also hosted the TV series Gameshow Marathon (2006), which re-created classic game shows with celebrity contestants. The Business of Being Born (Abby Epstein, 2008), Lake's documentary about home birth and midwifery, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Lake also jointly with Epstein and Jacques Moritz, wrote a book on the world of natural childbirth and birthing options, Your Best Birth (2009). Lake returned to television in 2009, succeeding Sharon Osbourne as host for the third season of Charm School. Lake competed on the 13th season of Dancing with the Stars and achieved tremendous success, consistently achieving high scores. She ended third. The Ricki Lake Show premiered in September 2012. The new program had a more Oprah-like format as compared to her earlier talk show. It was cancelled after one season, but Lake won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 2013. Afterwards she made the documentaries Sweetening the Pill on hormonal birth control (with director Abby Epstein) and Weed the People (2018), examining the use of cannabis as medicine in the treatment of pediatric cancer. She also appeared in the mystery thriller Gemini (Aaron Katz, 2017), which received mostly favorable reviews. In February 2019, she was revealed to be The Raven in the TV series The Masked Singer, and in October 2019, she began competing in The X Factor: Celebrity. Lake met political illustrator Rob Sussman on Halloween 1993. The two married in Las Vegas in 1994. They have two sons: Milo Sebastian Sussman (1997), and Owen Tyler Sussman (2001), whose actual water birth was shown in The Business of Being Born, which Lake also produced. The couple divorced in 2005. She married jewelry designer Christian Evans in 2012. They divorced in 2015.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Ricki Lake
German autograph card by Kino, 1990.
American actress Ricki Lake (1968) is best known for her lead role as Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray (1988). She is also known for her talk show which was broadcast internationally between 1993 and 2004.
Ricki Pamela Lake was born in 1968 in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, to a secular Jewish family. Her parents are Jill, a homemaker, and Barry Lake, a pharmacist, though Lake was largely brought up by her paternal grandmother, Sylvia Lake, until Sylvia's death in 1978. Ricki attended Hastings Elementary as a child, went on to Farragut Middle, and then attended Hastings High, for two years. At the end of her sophomore year, she transferred to the Professional Children's School, in New York, to study acting. Ricki began singing professionally at the age of nine, in cabarets and clubs. After finishing high school, she attended Ithaca College for one year. Ricki made her film debut as Tracy Turnblad, the lead character in John Waters's cult classic Hairspray (1988), with Divine as her mother. Lake also starred in other Waters films including Cry-Baby (John Waters, 1990) with Johnny Depp and Susan Tyrrell, Serial Mom (John Waters, 1994), featuring Kathleen Turner, and Cecil B. Demented (John Waters, 2000) with Melanie Griffith and Stephen Dorff. She also appeared in Last Exit to Brooklyn (Uli Edel, 1989) with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Inside Monkey Zetterland (Steve Antin, 1992), and co-starred in Mrs. Winterbourne (Richard Benjamin, 1996) with Shirley MacLaine and Brendan Fraser. On TV, she joined the cast of the Vietnam War drama series China Beach (1988) as a Red Cross volunteer, Holly "the Donut Dolly" Pelegrino, for the show's third season. She later also had a recurring role on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens (2000-2001) as Doug's sister Stephanie. She starred in the TV movie Baby Cakes (Paul Schneider, 1989) with Craig Sheffer, had a voice role on King of the Hill (2006), and guest-starred on such TV series as Drop Dead Diva (2010). In 2007, she had a cameo appearance in the remake of Hairspray (Adam Shankman, 2007) as a William Morris talent agent. She also teamed up with star Nikki Blonsky, who played Tracy Turnblad in the remake, and Marissa Jaret Winokur, who played Tracy Turnblad in the Broadway musical based on the original 1988 film, to record 'Mama I'm a Big Girl Now'. The song is played during the film's end credits. She later reunited with original Hairspray co-star Deborah Harry for the film Hotel Gramercy Park (Douglas Keeve, 2008).
In 1993, Ricki Lake was Lake's first daytime talk show and at 24, she was the youngest person at the time to host one. The show specialised in topics involving invited guests and incorporated questions and comments from a studio audience. For the show she went on a deit and lost 57 kilos. The show debuted in syndication in 1993, and ended first-run episodes in 2004. Although Sony Pictures Television had many stations contracted through the 2004–2005 season, Lake decided to end the show in August 2004, citing a desire to spend time with her family. Lake returned to the talk show platform when she hosted a second talk show which premiered in September 2012 and was cancelled after one season. lake also hosted the TV series Gameshow Marathon (2006), which re-created classic game shows with celebrity contestants. The Business of Being Born (Abby Epstein, 2008), Lake's documentary about home birth and midwifery, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Lake also jointly with Epstein and Jacques Moritz, wrote a book on the world of natural childbirth and birthing options, Your Best Birth (2009). Lake returned to television in 2009, succeeding Sharon Osbourne as host for the third season of Charm School. Lake competed on the 13th season of Dancing with the Stars and achieved tremendous success, consistently achieving high scores. She ended third. The Ricki Lake Show premiered in September 2012. The new program had a more Oprah-like format as compared to her earlier talk show. It was cancelled after one season, but Lake won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 2013. Afterwards she made the documentaries Sweetening the Pill on hormonal birth control (with director Abby Epstein) and Weed the People (2018), examining the use of cannabis as medicine in the treatment of pediatric cancer. She also appeared in the mystery thriller Gemini (Aaron Katz, 2017), which received mostly favorable reviews. In February 2019, she was revealed to be The Raven in the TV series The Masked Singer, and in October 2019, she began competing in The X Factor: Celebrity. Lake met political illustrator Rob Sussman on Halloween 1993. The two married in Las Vegas in 1994. They have two sons: Milo Sebastian Sussman (1997), and Owen Tyler Sussman (2001), whose actual water birth was shown in The Business of Being Born, which Lake also produced. The couple divorced in 2005. She married jewelry designer Christian Evans in 2012. They divorced in 2015.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.