Penelope Ann Miller

Penelope Ann Miller (birthname: Penelope Andrea Miller) is a veteran actor who began her career on the Broadway stage but quickly built a solid big-screen career, starting with her film debut in Hotshot (1987), soon followed by a small role in Adventures in Babysitting (1987), while Miller’s first truly noticeable role was under the direction of Mike Nichols in the big-screen revival of her stage performance in Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues (1988), starring Matthew Broderick and Christopher Walken, grossing $51.7 million for Universal Pictures. Miller’s next significant role marked her reunion with Broderick in director/writer Andrew Bergman’s crime comedy, The Freshman (1990), starring Marlon Brando, Bruno Kirby, and Maximilian Schell.

Miller joined the stellar cast of Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, John Heard, Julie Kavner, and Max von Sydow in Steve Zaillian’s screen adaptation of Oliver Sack’s 1973 memoir, Awakenings (1990), directed by Penny Marshall, nominated for three Oscars, and grossing $109 million (against $29 million costs) for Columbia Pictures. Miller then co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in director/producer Ivan Reitman’s hit comedy for Imagine Entertainment/Universal Pictures, Kindergarten Cop (1990), with Pamela Reed, Linda Hunt, Richard Tyson, and Carroll Baker.

Penelope Miller co-starred with Danny DeVito, Gregory Peck (in his final major screen performance), and Piper Laurie in the Norman Jewison-directed drama-comedy, Other People’s Money (1991), adapted by screenwriter Alvin Sargent from Jerry Sterner’s 1989 play and released by Warner Bros. Miller was cast by veteran British director/producer Richard Attenborough for the somewhat disappointing biopic, Chaplin (1992), starring best actor Oscar-nominated Robert Downey Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine Chaplin, Anthony Hopkins, Milla Jovovich, Kevin Kline, and Diane Lane, and released to poor returns by TriStar Pictures.

Miller co-starred with Tim Daly in the romantic comedy adventure, Year of the Comet (1992), written by William Goldman (as, according to him, a passion project) and directed by Peter Yates, but dismissed out of hand by critics and audiences. Miller, though, achieved one of her stellar movie turns (and earning her only Globe nomination) opposite Al Pacino in Brian De Palma’s charged crime movie, Carlito’s Way (1993), with Sean Penn, John Leguizamo, and Luis Guzman, delivering $64 million box office for Universal Pictures.

Penelope Ann Miller co-starred in the David Koepp-written superhero movie, The Shadow (1994), starring Alec Baldwin in the title role, with John Lone, Peter Boyle, Ian McKellan, Jonathan Winters, and Tim Curry, but failing at the box office ($48 million on $40 million costs) for Universal Pictures, and then Miller starred in the failed Peter Hyams-directed monster movie for Paramount Pictures, The Relic (1997), with Tom Sizemore, Linda Hunt, and James Whitmore, and taking in $48 million on a $60 million budget.

Miller was cast opposite Morgan Freeman, Monica Potter, Michael Wincott, and Michael Moriarty in Paramount Pictures’ hit version of James Patterson’s 1993 best-seller, Along Came a Spider (2001), directed by Lee Tamahori and produced by David Brown, grossing $105 million worldwide. Miller’s star profile faded during this period, with her acting appearances diminishing, marked by such movies as The Pang Brothers’ successful supernatural horror film, The Messengers (2007), with Dylan McDermott and Kristen Stewart; director/writer/producer Rob Reiner’s little-noticed Flipped (2010), with Madeline Carroll, Callan McAuliffe, and Rebecca De Mornay; and Miller’s last notable movie, director/writer Michel Hazanavicius’s mostly silent Oscar-winning (five, including best picture) period comedy-drama, The Artist (2011), best actor Oscar-winning Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, James Cromwell, Malcolm McDowell, and John Goodman, and premiering at the Cannes Film Festival.

Penelope Ann Miller was cast in a small supporting role in star/filmmaker Nate Parker’s controversial movie about the Nat Turner-led 1831 slave rebellion, The Birth of a Nation (2016), co-starring Armie Hammer, Mark Boone Jr., Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Roger Guenveur Smith, Gabrielle Union, and Jackie Earle Haley, winning both top prizes (Audience, Grand Jury) at the Sundance Film Festival where it premiered, and grossing a mild $17 million for Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Miller subsequently did a supporting turn in writer-director Brian Metcalf’s crime drama, Adverse (2020), with Thomas Nicholas, Lou Diamond Phillips, Sean Astin, and Mickey Rourke; as Nancy Reagan in the White House biopic, Reagan (2024), starring Dennis Quaid (in the title role), Robert Davi, Lesley-Anne Down, Jon Voight under the direction of Sean McNamara; a supporting role in the David Lipper-directed crime drama, Murder at Hollow Creek (2024), starring Jason Patric, Rourke and Caspar Van Dien; more support in director/co-writer Shane Stanley’s music drama, Six Days in Evergreen (2024), with Dawn Olivieri, Johnny Whitworth, Kaitlin Doubleday; and then a co-starring role in the family melodrama, After All (date to be announced), with Zach Gilford and Erika Christensen under Kerstin Karlhuber’s direction.