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Jessica Harper
Harper in Little Women (1979)
Born	Jessica Randolph Harper (1949-10-03) October 3, 1949 (age 75) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	Sarah Lawrence College
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1969–present
Spouse	Tom Rothman ​(m. 1989)​
Children	2
Relatives	William Harper (brother) Sam Harper (brother) John Rothman (brother-in-law)

Jessica Randolph Harper (born October 3, 1949) is an American actress and singer. Harper began her feature film career with a starring role in Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (1974), and subsequently featured in films including Love and Death (1975), Inserts (1975) and My Favorite Year (1982). She is best known for her portrayal of Suzy Bannion, the protagonist of Dario Argento's cult classic Suspiria (1977), and appeared in a supporting role in Luca Guadagnino's 2018 remake.

Her other films include Stardust Memories (1980), Shock Treatment (1981) (the follow-up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in which she replaced Susan Sarandon as Janet Weiss), Pennies from Heaven (1981), The Blue Iguana (1988), Safe (1995), Minority Report (2002), Bones and All (2022) and Nightbitch (2024). In addition to acting, Harper is also an award-winning author of children's music and books.

Early life

Harper was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Eleanor (née Emery), a writer, and Paul Church Harper Jr., a painter and the former chairman of the Needham Harper Worldwide advertising agency in New York. She attended the North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, Illinois, and Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She has two sisters—Lindsay Harper duPont, an illustrator, and Diana Harper, a teacher—and three brothers—her twin brother William Harper, a composer; Sam Harper, a screenwriter and director; and Rev. Charles Harper.

Career

Harper has appeared in more than twenty motion pictures, most notably Dario Argento's Suspiria, Brian DePalma's Phantom of the Paradise, and the follow-up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Shock Treatment. She was also in My Favorite Year, alongside Peter O'Toole and Mark Linn-Baker, and costarred with Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters in Pennies from Heaven. Woody Allen featured her in his films Stardust Memories and Love and Death, and she appeared in the fourth season of It's Garry Shandling's Show as well as the Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise film Minority Report. She was seen in a 2005 episode ("Forget Me Not") of the television series Crossing Jordan.

She has written eleven books for children, and made seven albums of songs for children. She was named by Parenting magazine as "Parent of the Month" in 2004. In 2000, she sang background vocals on selected tracks on the Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks album Beatin' the Heat.

In December 2010, Harper released a cookbook titled The Crabby Cook Cookbook: Recipes and Rants. In a January 2011 interview Harper said, "I thought it was high time there was a book that acknowledged that not everybody experiences the joy of cooking, that sometimes cooking for a family on a daily basis can be really irritating! This book, with 135 easy recipes, is for those people, crabby cooks like me! It's a collection of humor, survival tips and recipes, for the kitchen-challenged!" In March 2011, she was on tour promoting her book. Stops included Chicago, where she held a "Lunch and Learn with Jessica Harper".

Personal life

Harper married Tom Rothman, a top executive at Sony Pictures (formerly of 20th Century Fox) on March 11, 1989, in an ecumenical ceremony. She has two daughters, Elizabeth and Nora, who are featured on her children's albums and in her books. Harper resides in Los Angeles, California, and New York City.

In a blog post on her official website in 2017, Harper revealed she had suffered from neovascular macular degeneration for the past 15 years, and that she receives injections in her eye every six weeks to treat the condition.

Recordings

• A Wonderful Life (1994)
• Inside Out! (2001)

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

References

1. "Episode 2: MOM & DAD Transcript". Jessica Harper's Winnetka. Archived from the original on September 21, 2024. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
2. Brown, Nic. "An Interview with Jessica Harper". Rogue Cinema. Archived from the original on February 26, 2018. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
3. Bitran, Tara (November 2, 2018). "Jessica Harper on Early TV Role, Starring in Two Versions of 'Suspiria'". Variety. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
4. Svitek, Patrick (December 15, 2013). "Paul C. Harper Jr., former chairman of Needham Harper Worldwide, 1920–2013". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on November 3, 2018.
5. Jessica Harper Biography at Yahoo! Movies
6. ^ "Jessica Harper, actress, Marries T. E. Rothman". The New York Times. March 12, 1989. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
7. "Dan Hicks Discography". Retrieved January 27, 2017.
8. Mondo-video.com Archived February 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
9. "Jessica Harper's The Crabby Cook Appearances". Thecrabbycook.com. January 16, 2011.
10. "Board of Directors: Jessica Harper". PXE.org. Archived from the original on December 31, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
11. "My Skin in the Game". JessicaHarper.com. 2017. Archived from the original on June 1, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
12. McCormick, Moria (December 24, 1994). "Child's Play". Billboard. p. 69. Probably the most delightful surprise of the year was actress Jessica Harper's debut children's album, "A Wonderful Life," on Alacazam!/Alacazar, label arm of wholesaler Silo Inc. of Waterbury, Vt.
13. "Super Plastic Elastic Goggles". PaleyCenter.org. The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved November 13, 2016. Air date was January 30, 1971.
14. "Hair – Broadway Musical". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved December 30, 2017.

External links

• Official website
• The Crabby Cook
• Jessica Harper's Winnetka personal memoir (podcast)
• Jessica Harper at IMDb

• Biography
• Film
• Chicago
• New York City
• Los Angeles

• 1949 births
• Living people
• 20th-century American actresses
• 21st-century American actresses
• Actresses from Chicago
• Actresses from Los Angeles
• American children's musicians
• American film actresses
• American television actresses
• American women children's writers
• American children's writers
• North Shore Country Day School alumni
• Sarah Lawrence College alumni
• 20th-century American women writers
• 21st-century American women writers
• 20th-century American women singers
• 21st-century American women singers
• American twins
• Singers from Chicago