“Dirty Dancing” star
Jennifer Grey: Her mother advised her to have the serious nose job
Jennifer Gray rose to fame in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing alongside Patrick Swayze.
© Picture Alliance
Her trademark was her prominent nose until she went under the knife. Today Jennifer Gray regrets the procedure – and blames her mother for it.
“It was the summer of ’63, everyone called me Baby”. With these words begins one of the most famous films of the 1980s. “Dirty Dancing” was a global hit and made Jennifer Gray an overnight star.
The then 27-year-old played every baby, and there were two qualities in particular that made her enchanted: her shy look and her distinctive nose.
Grey, who herself comes from a family of actors, had a great career ahead of her. But it didn’t really come to that. Because the daughter of Joel Gray (“Cabaret”) decided on a cosmetic surgery – and had an operation on her nose, of all things. “I went into the operating room as a celebrity – and came out as a stranger,” she later said of her momentous decision. “It was like being in a witness protection program or being invisible.”
Hardly anyone recognized Jennifer Grey
Jennifer Gray had robbed herself of her unique selling point, after a total of two operations she had an average face. Even Michael Douglas didn’t recognize her on the red carpet back then, Gray says. Now the 62-year-old looks back on her life. Her memoirs, titled “Out of the Corner” – an allusion to the famous “Dirty Dancing” quote: “Nobody puts baby in a corner” – will be published in May.
This is how she looks today: Jennifer Gray in October 2021
© Image Press Agency/ / Picture Alliance
In the book, she takes a critical look at the cosmetic procedures. Her mother gave the impetus for this. She repeatedly persuaded her that a new nose would boost her career. “If you don’t want to be an actress, okay. But if you want to be an actress …” – that’s how her mother drove her to the surgery, she said in an interview with “People” magazine.
Ultimately, Gray was able to continue her career without her distinctive nose. But she was never able to celebrate a success like “Dirty Dancing” again. Nevertheless, since then she has appeared in films and countless television series. Among other things, she had a permanent role in the three seasons of the Amazon series “Red Oaks”.
So the actress can draw a positive conclusion at the age of 62: it could have been worse.
Source used: “People.com”