As far as 1990s dreamgirls go, Heather Graham was at the top of the list for many of us. An ageless beauty who looks the same as she did twenty-five years ago, Graham has one of the most interesting careers of the era. Having started as the love interest in the Corey Haim/Corey Feldman teen cult classic Licence to Drive, she quickly established her serious acting chops in 1989’s Drugstore Cowboy. The movie helped launch her as an indie “It girl,” with her landing memorable roles on Twin Peaks (and the Fire Walk With Me movie), Six Degrees of Separation and more. She had a unique role as the object of Jon Favreau’s affections in Swingers but then hit the big time with her iconic part as Rollergirl in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights.
This movie led to her getting a lot of big roles in the years that followed, with her starring in the big-screen version of Lost in Space and then playing Felicity Shagwell in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. For the rest of the 2000s, she alternated between bigger films like Adam Sandler’s Anger Management and arthouse fare like Chen Kaige’s Killing Me Softly. She also showed up on Scrubs, but outside of a memorable part in The Hangover films, Graham’s roles have been lower-key lately.
However, like many folks we’ve highlighted in this column, things may be on the verge of changing from Graham, with her set to star opposite Dennis Quaid in the Prime Video drama On a Wing and a Prayer and the Apple TV Plus series Extrapolations. In this episode of What Happened to this Celebrity, which is written (with Mathew Plale), narrated and produced by Taylor James Johnson, and edited by Kier Gomes, we look into Graham’s long career and what she’s up to now.
What’s your favorite Heather Graham role? Let us know in the comments.