Thursday, August 9-------Veteran actress Michelle Pfeiffer became an official Hollywood legend this week, when she (finally) received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Academy Award nominated star was all smiles at ceremonies held in Los Angeles on Monday. She thanked her mother and father for supporting her decision to become an actress. "My mother taught me that I could do anything and that I should have a career before I get married,” Pfeiffer was quoted as saying.  "My father taught me that you can make something of yourself if you work hard.”

SCARFACEPfeiffer is a true California girl who grew up in Santa Ana, California with her two sisters and brother. After one year of college, she realized that what she wanted to do was act. She dropped out of school and, on the advice of her hairdresser, she decided that the best way to break into acting was by becoming a model. Her strategy paid off after she won a number of beauty pageants and caught the eye of Hollywood talent scouts. She eventually found an agent and was quickly cast in bit parts on commecials and television series. She got her first big notices playing the part of the gorgeous but bad girl in GREASE 2, the sequel to the highly successful musical comedy. Although the film was generally panned, Pfeiffer was not, and that led to her next role, where she wowed both the public and the critics. As Al Pacino's mistress in the Brian de Palma film SCARFACE (1983), the young actress was able to mine the grit and depth that showed she was not just another pretty face.

She had high profile roles in other 1980s films including starring opposite Cher, Susan Sarandon and Jack Nicholson in THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (1987); the gum-chewing ex-Mob moll in Jonathan Demme's winning comedy, MARRIED TO THE MOB (1988) and pairing with hearthrob Mel Gibson in the stylish thriller TEQUILA SUNRISE (1988). She surprised the industry by going against type, playing a virginal innocent in the screen adaptation of DANGEROUS LIAISONS (1988), a role that won her a Best Supporting Actress nod from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (she did not win the Oscar). The following year, she was back with a Best Actress Oscar nod for her saucy performance as a sexy chanteuse in THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS, where she got to sing in a husky singing voice that showed impressive lung power.

HAIRSPRAYAfter starring again opposite Al Pacino in the film adaptation of the Broadway hit FRANKIE AND JOHNNY (1992), she won her third Oscar nomination for her starring role as a Dallas housewife at the time of the assassination of President Kennedy in LOVE FIELD (1992). The following year, she gave what many believe to be her best performance (strangely not recognized by the Academy) in Martin Scorsese's adaptation of THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, as a scandalous divorcee in Gilded Age New York City. For the past ten years, her film work has been more spotty, as she took more time to raise her family with television producer David E. Kelly. However, Pfeiffer is making a mini-comeback this year with two high profile roles. She plays the unctuous Velma Von Tussle, the obnoxious and bigoted television manager in the screen adaptation of the Broadway musical hit HAIRSPRAY (an Oscar nomination could be in the offing). She plays another villianess in the supernatural fantasy STARDUST, which opens in theaters tomorrow. Michelle is back, and has her Hollywood star to prove it.

Sandy Mandelberger, Awards Watch