Cybill Shepherd

Cybill Lynne Shepherd (born February 18, 1950) is an American actress and former model. Her first film and breakthrough role was as Jacy in Peter Bogdanovich's coming-of-age drama The Last Picture Show (1971) alongside Jeff Bridges and Timothy Bottoms. She also had roles as Kelly in Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Betsy in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), and Nancy in Woody Allen's Alice (1990).

On television, Shepherd played Maddie Hayes on the detective comedy-drama Moonlighting (1985–1989) opposite Bruce Willis, for which she won two Golden Globes for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical TV Series out of three such nominations. She later starred as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill (1995–1998), for which she won her third Golden Globe Award as Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical TV series. Her first major TV role was as Colleen Champion in the one season of the night-time drama The Yellow Rose (1983). Her later television roles included Phyllis Kroll on The L Word (2007–2009), Madeleine Spencer on Psych (2008–2013), Cassie in the television film The Client List (2010), and Linette Montgomery on The Client List (2012–2013).

Shepherd was born February 18, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Patty (née Shobe), a homemaker, and William Jennings Shepherd, who managed a home appliance business. Cybill was named using a name blend that referred to her grandfather Cy and her father Bill. While attending East High School, Shepherd won the "Miss Teenage Memphis" title and represented the city at the 1966 Miss Teenage America pageant at age 16, where she won the congeniality award. She competed at the 1968 "Model of the Year" contest at age 18, making her a fashion star of the 1960s and resulting in fashion model assignments through high school and afterward.

According to Shepherd's autobiography, a 1970 Glamour magazine cover caught the eye of film director Peter Bogdanovich. His then-wife, Polly Platt, claimed that when she saw the cover in a check-out line in a Ralphs grocery store in southern California, he said "That's Jacy," referring to the role Bogdanovich was casting—and ultimately given to Shepherd—in The Last Picture Show (1971).

First experience of fame

Her first film was The Last Picture Show, also starring Jeff Bridges and Timothy Bottoms. The film became a critical and box office hit, earning eight Academy Awards nominations and winning two. Shepherd was nominated for a Golden Globe. Shepherd was cast opposite Charles Grodin in The Heartbreak Kid (1972). She played Kelly, a young woman for whom Grodin's character falls while on his honeymoon in Miami. Directed by Elaine May, it was another critical and box office hit. Also in 1972, Shepherd posed as a Kodak Girl for the camera manufacturer's then-ubiquitous cardboard displays.

In 1974, Shepherd again teamed up with Peter Bogdanovich for the title role in Daisy Miller, based on the Henry James novella. The film—a period piece set in Europe—was a box office failure. That same year, she launched a singing career, releasing a studio album Cybill Does It...To Cole Porter for MCA Records. It was panned by Village Voice critic Robert Christgau, who wrote: "Her voice is surprisingly pleasant, but you'd never know how these songs sparkle. Since Cole didn't like to . . . do it with (or 'to') women very much, maybe the 'do' is as hostile as it sounds."

In 1975, she made her next film, At Long Last Love, a musical that was directed by Bogdanovich, but, like Daisy Miller, it flopped. Shepherd returned with good reviews for her work in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976). According to Shepherd, Scorsese had requested a "Cybill Shepherd type" for the role. She portrayed an ethereal beauty with whom Robert De Niro's character, Travis Bickle, becomes enthralled.

A series of less-successful roles followed, including The Lady Vanishes, a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1938 film of the same name. Already sitting in on an acting class taught by Stella Adler, Shepherd was offered work at a dinner theater in Norfolk, Virginia, and turned to friend Orson Welles for advice. He encouraged her to get experience on stage in front of an audience, anywhere but New York or Los Angeles, away from the harsh big-city critics and so she moved back to her home town of Memphis to work in regional theatre.

Return to Hollywood

In 1982, Shepherd returned to New York and to the stage when she played alongside James MacArthur in a theatre tour of Lunch Hour by Jean Kerr. The following year, Shepherd went back to Los Angeles and was cast as Colleen Champion in the night-time drama The Yellow Rose (1983), opposite Sam Elliott. Although critically acclaimed, the series lasted only one season. A year later, Shepherd was cast as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting (1985–1989), which became the role that defined her career. The producers knew that her role depended on having chemistry with her co-star, and she was involved in the selection of Bruce Willis. A lighthearted combination of mystery and comedy, the series won Shepherd two Golden Globe Awards.

She starred in Chances Are (1989) with Robert Downey Jr. and Ryan O'Neal, receiving excellent reviews. She then reprised her role as Jacy in Texasville (1990), the sequel to The Last Picture Show (1971), as the original cast (and director Peter Bogdanovich) reunited 20 years after filming the original. She appeared in Woody Allen's Alice (1990) and Eugene Levy's Once Upon a Crime (1992), as well as several television films. In 1997, she won her third Golden Globe award for Cybill (1995–1998), a television sitcom in which the title character, Cybill Sheridan, an actress struggling with hammy roles in B movies and bad soap operas, was loosely modeled on herself (including portrayals of her two ex-husbands).

In 2000, Shepherd's bestselling autobiography, Cybill Disobedience: How I Survived Beauty Pageants, Elvis, Sex, Bruce Willis, Lies, Marriage, Motherhood, Hollywood, and the Irrepressible Urge to Say What I Think, written in collaboration with Aimee Lee Ball, was published. That same year, Shepherd hosted a short-lived syndicated talk show version of the book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, but left the show in early 2001. In 2003, she guest-starred on 8 Simple Rules as the sister of Cate Hennessy (portrayed by Katey Sagal). She has played Martha Stewart in two television films: Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart (2003) and Martha: Behind Bars (2005).

From 2007 until it ended, Shepherd appeared on The L Word as Phyllis Kroll for the show's final three seasons. In 2008, she joined the cast of Psych as main character Shawn Spencer's mother, Madeleine Spencer. On November 7, 2008, Shepherd guest-starred in a February episode of the CBS drama Criminal Minds. In 2010 Shepherd appeared in an episode of No Ordinary Family and in November of the same year she guest-starred in an episode of $h*! My Dad Says.

Shepherd appeared alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt in the 2010 television film The Client List and then in the 2012-13 series based on the film.

In July 2012, Shepherd made her Broadway debut in the revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre alongside James Earl Jones, John Stamos, John Larroquette, Kristin Davis, and Elizabeth Ashley to positive reviews.

Shepherd appeared as a mother grieving the death of her daughter in Do You Believe? (2015), a Christian-themed movie produced by Pure Flix Entertainment.

Throughout her career, Shepherd has been an outspoken activist for issues such as gay rights and abortion rights. In 2009, she was honored by the Human Rights Campaign in Atlanta with one of two National Ally for Equality awards. She has been an advocate for same-sex marriage.

She was present at the opening of the National Civil Rights Museum in her hometown of Memphis, to which she lent some financial support.

In her autobiography, Shepherd revealed that she called her mother in 1978, crying and unhappy with the way her life and career were going. Her mother replied, "Cybill, come home." Shepherd went home to Memphis, where she met and began dating David M. Ford, a local auto parts dealer and nightclub entertainer. She became pregnant, and the couple married that year. Their daughter, Clementine Ford, was born in 1979. The marriage ended in divorce in 1982.

In 1987, Shepherd became pregnant by chiropractor Bruce Oppenheim and married him. They had twins, Cyrus Zachariah and Molly Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim, born during the fourth season of Moonlighting. The couple divorced in 1990.

In June 2012, Shepherd became engaged to Andrei Nikolajevic. By 2015, the engagement had been called off.

Religious beliefs

Shepherd has previously described herself as "a goddess-worshipping Christian Pagan Buddhist".

In October 2014, Shepherd said that she had returned to her Christian faith.

Autobiography

Shepherd made the following claims in her autobiography:

• She dated Elvis Presley in the early 1970s and cared for him, but could not handle his dependence on drugs, and ultimately chose film director Peter Bogdanovich over Presley.
• She agreed to a date with actor Jack Nicholson to make Bogdanovich jealous. She later canceled the date, and Nicholson would not speak to her again, except to say "Hi" at a party many years later.
• Robert De Niro asked her out during the filming of Taxi Driver (1976). She turned him down, and he did not speak to her, except in character, for the rest of the filming. She later said she regretted turning him down.
• She had a sexual encounter with co-star Don Johnson during the making of the television miniseries The Long Hot Summer (1985).
• The jazz musician Stan Getz "came on" to her during a recording session for her album, but she declined. He never spoke to her again.
• Shepherd and her Moonlighting co-star Bruce Willis were tempted to become lovers off-screen, but agreed not to since both knew it could hurt the series.

Emmy Awards

Nominations:

• 1986 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series - Moonlighting
• 1995 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series - Cybill
• 1996 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series - Cybill
• 1997 - Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series - Cybill

In her autobiography, Shepherd addressed rumors that she was jealous of her co-stars Bruce Willis and Christine Baranski for winning Emmy awards while she has not: "The grain of truth in this controversy was that of course I was envious. Who doesn't want to win an Emmy?"

Golden Globe Awards

Wins:

• 1985 - Best Actress in a TV series, Comedy/Musical - Moonlighting
• 1986 - Best Actress in a TV series, Comedy/Musical - Moonlighting
• 1995 - Best Actress in a TV series, Comedy/Musical - Cybill

Nominations:

• 1971 - Most Promising Newcomer (Female) - The Last Picture Show
• 1987 - Best Actress in a TV series, Comedy/Musical - Moonlighting
• 1996 - Best Actress in a TV series, Comedy/Musical - Cybill

Film

Television

• Cybill Does It...To Cole Porter (Paramount, 1974)
• Mad About the Boy (Tombstone, 1976)
• Cybill Getz Better (Inner City, 1976)
• Vanilla (Gold Castle, 1979)
• Somewhere Down the Road (Gold Castle, 1990)
• Talk Memphis to Me (Drive Archive, 1997)
• Songs from The Cybill Show (1999)
• Live at the Cinegrill (2001)
• At Home With Cybill (2004)
• Jazz Baby Volumes 1–3 (2005)

Appearances

• At Long Last Love (soundtrack) (1975)
• Moonlighting (soundtrack) (1987)