At only 27 years old she reached the peak of her popularity as Baby, but after having surgery on her nose her fame faded. "I went into the operating room as a celebrity and came out anonymous," said the actress.
Jennifer Gray went from being a Hollywood promise to disappearing from the film industry. And all for having a nose job. At only 27 years old, the young actress had reached the peak of her popularity with Dirty Dancing (1987) as Baby, the young woman who in the arms of Patrick Swayze discovers dance, love and passion on a summer vacation. With a budget of just five million, the film grossed nearly 215 million worldwide, almost immediately becoming a pop culture icon.
Although Gray had debuted at just 19 years old in an advertisement for the Dr Pepper soft drink, over the next decade she had only achieved a few supporting roles. Apparently, her prominent nose did not conform to the prevailing canons of beauty and she was rejected in all the castings she attended. Among those first titles were Reckless. The Cotton Club and Red Dawn, all three released in 1984 and the last one with Swayze himself. And her Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a 1986 film translated into Spanish as All in One Day where she met Matthew Broderick, an actor with whom she began secretly dating.
Just before the premiere of Dirty Dancing, Gray and Broderick were involved in a car accident while on vacation in Ireland. Broderick, who was driving, occupied the opposite lane, colliding head-on with another vehicle in which a mother and daughter were traveling, both of whom died in the accident. Broderick was convicted of reckless driving and fined $175. And Gray claims she was never the same again.
The aftermath was both emotional and physical. Jennifer Grey opened up to People, revealing, "My body was never the same, my head was never the same, my ambition was never the same," describing the traumatic impact of the experience.
Gray believed that her diminished ambition was the catalyst for her decision to undergo rhinoplasty. Born to the Oscar-winning Cabaret emcee, Joel Gray, and actress-singer Jo Wilder, both of Jewish descent, Gray chose to alter the nose that may have initially hindered her rise to fame but had later become her distinctive feature.
Her initial rhinoplasty occurred in 1989, followed by a second procedure to address complications arising from the first. The transformation was so drastic that even those familiar with her couldn't recognize her anymore.
"I went into the operating room being a celebrity and came out anonymous. It was like entering a witness protection program or being invisible," lamented the actress about the disastrous outcome. While Gray had sought to alter her appearance, she never anticipated it would lead to a point where she became unrecognizable, jeopardizing her career as the iconic figure from Dirty Dancing.
Since then Gray has continued to work as an actress, but she has only landed a few supporting or episodic roles in series such as Friends, House or Grey's Anatomy. Between 1999 and 2000 she starred in the series It's Like, You Know..., a short-lived comedy where her rhinoplasty was a recurring gag. And in 2010 she won Dancing with the Stars, the American version of Look Who's Dancing.
Perhaps Grey's return to the film industry will come with the sequel to Dirty Dancing. Last August, Lionsgate announced that it would produce a new sequel to the famous film where the actress will once again play Baby. Regarding Swayze, who died in 2009 from pancreatic cancer, Gray recently assured that he will not be replaced in the film.
Personally, on July 21, 2001, Gray married actor and director Clark Gregg, with whom she has a daughter, Stella, born on December 3 of the same year. This summer the couple announced that they had separated amicably last January and that they were processing their divorce, which will become effective in 2021. The actress was previously linked to actors Michael J. Fox and Johnny Depp.
