Cybill Shepherd - Fact Sheet

Profession: Actress

Shepherd's debut in "The Last Picture Show" was memorable, as was her next film, Neil Simon's "The Heartbreak Kid," on which director Elaine May encouraged her to improvise. Shepherd, still only 22-years old, might have flourished under the old studio system if she had been brought along gently, up through the ranks. But she had fallen in love with her "Picture Show" director, Peter Bogdanovich, and he had other plans for her. Blinded by love, he thought the tyro actress had the makings of a star. Though Shepherd had taken singing lessons since the age of sixteen with the coach of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, neither Shepherd nor her co-star Burt Reynolds did justice to the Porter songs. This was despite the fact that Shepherd had earlier recorded an album of Porter songs produced by Bogdanovich. Bogdanovich had made the disastrous decision to record the music live as he filmed rather than to let his performers lip-synch to playback, which had been the industry standard for over 40 years. He also would not allow over-dubs, with the result that the presentation of the music, the heart of any "musical," suffered, and suffered badly. Cybill has continued to thrive in the fourth decade of her acting career, appearing in TV movies such as "Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart" (2003), and touring with a musical act based on her well-received autobiography "Cybill Disobedience." Her recovery from the depths of a shattered career after an auspicious start is remarkable and unique in the industry and gives lie to F. Scott Fitzgerald's dictum that "There are no second acts in American lives. 

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Cybill Shepherd Photo Galleries	# of Pictures
Candid	1
Candid	21
Glamour + Candid	8
Glamour + Candid + Screen Capture	25
Glamour + Candid + Screen Capture	25
Glamour + Candid + Screen Capture	25