Thursday, April 16, 2009

Who's That Lady? - It's Jane Lynch!

And the beat goes on! Yesterday I featured Jennifer Coolidge as my latest Who's That Lady? inductee. Like I mentioned then, Blog Cabins's post Familiar Faces - Unknown Names, where Fletch catalogs the careers of That Guys, is the older brother to my little baby. Who's That Lady? spins the gender, focusing on those That Gals we love whenever they appear onscreen.

Now it's on to the second lady from the film Best in Show, which I recently reviewed as part of Film for the Soul's series, Counting Down the Zeroes. Ibetolis's ambitious project chronicles a decade's worth of cinema: the noughties.

If you've seen Best in Show, you may have found yourself asking:

Who's That Lady?
Jane Lynch



Jane Lynch was born south of Chicago in Dolton, Illinois. She has a master's degree in theater from Cornell University and used her education as member of The Second City comedy troupe. She's also an award-winning playwright, having penned the play Oh Sister, My Sister. Who knew, right? She also has over one hundred and twenty credits over at IMDB! You've got to wonder if this lady ever slows down, but I don't know if we could survive without her wacky characters.


3 Unforgettable Roles
Best in Show -
The role of dog handler Christy Cummings helped Lynch break into the mainstream. She's so garishly overconfident as to be annoying, but you still can't help but love her.

The 40 Year Old Virgin - As Paula, the manager of Smart Tech, Jane left me in tears (of laughter). Her shameless advances towards Carell's Andy are priceless, especially the nonsensical Spanish serenade. If you have the DVD, you gotta watch her outtakes!

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby - As Ricky's momma Lucy, she gives a surprisingly serious turn; well, as serious as one can expect in a Will Ferrell film. Lucy snatches a knot in her grandkids, her son and deadbeat husband while still managing to put dinner on the table!


Honorable Mentions: As Gayle Sweeney, Ms. Lynch had Danny and Wheeler walking the chalk line like they were lines of coke as they worked off their community service in Role Models. Her brief appearance as the reporter in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story was one of the more enjoyable moments of that flick. I don't even have the space to begin discussing all the great television appearances she has had over the years.


Saw it, but even I don't remember her in it!
It's hard to believe she was appearing in television and film for nearly twelve years before she really stepped out of the shadows! Let's review a few of those credits where she may have escaped notice.

Films: The Fugitive, Collateral Damage, TV: Arrested Development, TV: Veronica Mars, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Smiley Face


Jane Lynch is at her best when she plays a quarter-turn away from being completely unhinged. Even so, she can totally flip the script and play unflichingly serious with equal ease. A good comparison would be to watch her in Role Models with a chaser of A Mighty Wind. If you want to know more about her career, be sure to check out her IMDB and Wikipedia
pages.

She has four upcoming productions, but I can hardly wait to see which hat she's wearing in Julie & Julia. Now that I found out she'll be in the new show Glee, I may have to give that show a fighting chance that it otherwise wouldn't have in my house.

Large Association of Movie Blogs

4 comments:

  1. Wow - she was in The Fugitive loooong before she was ever on my radar, but once I saw the film listed, I immediately recalled her role. How funny.

    But how could you forget her in Arrested Development!?

    By the way - though I really appreciate the respect, you don't have to keep referencing FF-UN in these posts. You've more than done your part there.

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  2. I'm just totally drawing a blank on her Arrested appearance. Shameful, I know.

    I'll be sure and update my template next installment. It's funny how easy it is to just drop it in and keep on truckin'.

    We still need to do a 'That Persons' team up. I started to ask you for Best in Show but thought it was too last minute. Got any great That Guys coming up?

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  3. I can't remember exactly who she played, but I believe she was a reporter or author or someone like that that was doing a story on Jeffrey Tambor. She would visit him in prison and she tried to *seduce* him, more or less.

    My FF-UNs are more or less done on a whim. I'll watch a movie, see something I think worthy and try to keep it in my mind for a few days until I post it.

    But yes, we should definitely think of something we could tag-team on. (Poor double entendre intended.)

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  4. The prison seduction rings a bell. Now I'm going to have to watch AD all over again! Not that I'm complaining.

    I normally jot down the name when one comes to me and try to fit it into whatever's happening on the site. When I get a chance I'll pass it along, maybe it'll spark an idea.

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