Cynthia Rhodes

Biography

Cynthia Rhodes is an American actress, dancer and singer. 

She is popular for her dance themed movies like- Staying Alive (1983) (directed by Sylvester Stallone starring John Travolta, Finola Hughes), Flashdance(1983) (romantic drama directed by Adrian Lyne starring Jennifer Beals, Michael Nouri), Dirty Dancing (1987) (Directed by Emile Ardolino, starring Patrick Swayze,  Jennifer Grey)

Childhood- Family

She was born on 21st November 1956 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Education

• Glencliff High School: She studied at the public high school located in Nashville, Tennessee; she attended the school in 1970s. While she was studying at the high school, she also started her show business as a singer and dancer at Opryland USA, where she worked for 5 years [2]

Marriage

Richard Marx

Cynthia Rhodes & Richard Marx met in 1983 when Richard joined the music department of the movie 'Staying Alive', she was already working in the movie.

The two became friendly but it wasn't romantic until two years later when they met again, but this time it was romantic. They started seeing each other.

Richard's album 'Repeat Offender' had a great romantic hit titled 'Right here waiting'. Cynthia was the inspiration behind the song, she was away in South Africa when he wrote that, they were together and weren't married, they had been away for a while, his Visa application was rejected and the song was his actual love letter to her. He apparently wrote that in 20 minutes, and mailed the letter to her. It became a song only later, after his friends found the lines very moving.

They got  married on January 8, 1989. She is 7 years older than him. Cynthia appeared in Richard's music video 'Don't Mean Nothing'.

The couple have three sons together. 

1. Brandon Caleb Marx (born in 1990)
2. Lucas Connor Marx (born in 1992)
3. Jesse Taylor Marx (born in 1994)

She took voluntary break from the industry to take care of her sons. the couple separated in July 2013 and divorced on 4th April 2014. The two remain friends and talk regularly.

Image: Cynthia Rhodes Family: Husband & Sons

Career

Movies/ Series

Cynthia appeared in the musical TV series "Music Hall America" in an episode of 1976 as Even Dozen.

Cynthia Rhodes's career in movies started with Xanadu (1980)- a romantic musical fantasy by Robert Greenwald starring Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, Michael Beck. She apepared as a dancer.

She appeared as Tina Tech in Romantic musical drama Flashdance(1983) which also starred Jennifer Beals, Michael Nouri. 

Staying Alive(1983)

[Cynthia Rhodes and John Travolta in Staying Alive(1983)]

She appeared in Sylvester Stallone's dance film Staying Alive(1983) opposite John Travolta and Finola Hughes. It was a sequel to 1977 hit film Saturday Night Fever.

Cynthia plays Jackie, a dancer and a rock singer. Tony, her boyfriend is an immature former disco dancer, he battles with losing fame, his disregard for his dedicated girlfriend, his attraction towards other females... he battles his deomns to finally realize how awesome his girlfriend had always been and reconciles with her

In the fantasy family series 'Fantasy Island', she appeared as Merlise in the episode 'Goin' on Home/Ambitious Lady'

Runaway(1984)

Her next role was as Officer Karen Thompson in the movie Runaway(1984), a science fiction action thriller directed by Michael Crichton, starring- Tom Selleck, Gene Simmons.

She plays Thompson, a new partner of Sgt. Jack Ramsay a veteran fighting his past demons. Eventually officer Thompson and Sgt,. Jack Ramsay become romantically involved.

She is believed to have acted in the romantic sports drama Teenage Dream/ Flying(1986) in an uncredited role.

In the 1985 adventure comedy film Pee-wee's Big Adventure directed by Tim Burton, she appears in an uncredited role as Jamie

Dirty Dancing(1987)

[Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze & Cynthia Rhodes from Dirty Dancing (1987)]

Later came her biggest role as Penny Johnson in romantic dance drama- Dirty Dancing(1987), a super hit movie of the generation with Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Jerry Orbach in the cast.

Penny Johnson is Johnny Castle's(Patrick Swayze) dancing partner, she gets pregnant by Robbie Gould (Max Cantor), a womanizer; She goes through a botched up abortion and her life is at stake, everyone assume it is Johnny's fault. Relationship between protagonist Baby and her father sours from the misunderstanding, eventually truth comes out and everyone dances happily to the song "(I've Had) The Time of My Life".

The rehersals were so rigoorous that it is said she contemplated giving up dancing, sometimes she would have 10 hours danving practice with Patrick Swayze

Curse of the Crystal Eye(1991)

She appeared in Curse of the Crystal Eye(1991) as Vickie Phillips, It was an adventure film directed by Joe Tornatore and cast Jameson Parker, Mike Lane in the lead.

She has worked as an assitant director on the show "Say Yes"

Music Career

In the 1982 'The Tubes' video, she appeared as a dancer; it was directed by Russell Mulcahy with Fee Waybill and Bill Spooner in the video along with 'The Tubes'. The 52 minute video had hit songs such as "Talk to You Later", "Sushi Girl", "Sports Fans" and "Mondo Bondage".

Toto: Rosanna

She appeared in the titular role of the music video Rosanna by the band TOTO. The video directed by Steve Barron had Bobby Kimball, Steve Lukather appearing alongside TOTO. the video had band members performing around the walking Cynthia.

In the music video 'The Woman in You' by Bee Gees, she appears on the screen as a woman walking.

Finding Out The Hard Way (1983)

She performed in the music video Finding Out The Hard Way.

Don't Mean Nothing(1987)

She was featured in Richard Marx's (her then boyfriend & future husband) triple platinum 1987 eponymous album. It ranked #1 on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart and #3 on Hot 100

Animotion

In 1989, she appeared intwo of Animotion's videos: Room to Move and Calling It Love. She was the lead singer for the band in 1980s.

Performer: She has also performed in soundtracks like 'Let The Love Begin' (Hot Splash-1988), 'Love Theme' (The Devil Wears White- 1986), 'Hope We Never Change' and others (Staying Alive-1983)

Song Writer: In 2002 she co-wrote the jazz track- Perfect Day with her husband Richard Marx

She appeared in her then husband Richard Marx's Christmas album- Christmas Spirit (2012)

Filmography

Movies

Series

Music Video

Interesting Facts

• Cynthia started her career as a singer & dancer at quite an young age, she was studying high school at that time, she was 17 at the time of beginning of her professional career.
• As a kid she always wanted to be a performer- A singer, dancer and an actor. She was inspired by Shirley Temple [2]
• She was training to be a gymnast in her youth, she would train for about 6 hours a day. She has won over 30 medals in the state level gymnastic competitions.
• She was raised in a religious family, she has refused roles which involved nudity. Her parents lived together for 65 years, their value system has had deep impression on Cynthia. In times of difficulty she would ask herself- 'What would my parents want me to do'
• She rejected an offer to pose for playboy magazine. She has been discussed in some of the articles of playboy though.
• She was a presenter at the 45th Annual Golden Globe Awards.
• Her former husband Richard and three sons wrote and sang a song dedicated to her, 'Thank you Mama'
• In late 2014 Richard Marx released album titled- 'Beautiful Goodbye', some speculated it could be about his divorce with Cynthia, the album was about Love and seduction.
• Sylvester Stallone on Cynthia- 'She would rather retire than do things that embarrass her parents'.
• Her former husband Richard Marx on her- 'There's not a finer human being than her. I'm very grateful that we were together all these years to share her company'
• she chose to be a full time mom, she has zero regrets about quitting acting.
• Olympics training: In the 1989 chat show 'Camp Midnite' she revealed the she was training for 8 hours a day for years, as she was preparing for the Olympics in Gymnastics [2]

 Quotes

• I have moral values that I want to live up to
• Kill bad people with kindness
• Do not look at negatives at difficult times, look at what positives take us out of difficulties.
• I feel very fortunate to be in films that are dancing (Themed) [2]
• I Love to dance, but if I never did it again, I wouldn't be sorry. [2]

Sources

1. Cynthia Rhodes on wikipedia
2. The list coverage
3.