Happy Birthday, Joan Cusack! You Make Every Movie Better by Being in It

Every actor starts somewhere. One of Joan Cusack's first roles was Shelley in the Matt Dillon movie My Bodyguard (1980). How cute is she? It wasn't a big role, but she does show up in the trailer; here is Matt Dillon's Melvin Moody being mean to Joan's Shelley. Dude! So not cool. Okay, it's just a movie. But still.

We've waxed rhapsodic about Pretty in Pink, but we also love Sixteen Candles, another John Hughes classic starring Molly Ringwald. A very young Joan Cusack may not have been given an actual name for her Candles character, but that didn't stop Geek Girl #1 from stealing every scene she was in. Want proof? Watch this montage of Cusack's scenes from Sixteen Candles. We'll bet you a box of floppy disks that you'll totally agree with us.

Long before Aaron Sorkin took us inside The Newsroom, James L. Brooks brought audiences behind the scenes in Broadcast News (1987). Joan shows off her physical comedy chops in this scene, "Pushing," in which Cusack's Blair Litton dodges everything from file cabinets to toddlers, only to be temporarily thwarted by a water fountain. "Why do you do this to me?" she asks Jane (Holly Hunter). "Is it because I won an award?" (Note: You may need a Hulu.com account to watch the clip.  We'd apologize but it's not our fault.)

Working Girl earned Joan Cusack another Oscar nomination. Her hair should have gotten a special nod for being so... well, look at it. It's almost another person. Cusack plays Cynthia, a.k.a. Cyn, a friend of Melanie Griffith's character Tess. Pretty much everything Cusack does in this movie is great (Oscar nomination, remember?) but this 11-second clip includes a classic line, a perfect Staten Island accent, and that enormous, wonderful hair.

If you've never seen Addams Family Values and don't want the ending spoiled, don't watch this clip of Cusack as Debbie Jellinsky. If you have already enjoyed Joan's hilarious turn as a sort of addition to the Addams clan from back in 1993, then watching it won't spoil anything, so go ahead, because it's funny. Here is a not-safe-for-work clip of Debbie seducing Fester that showcases Joan's sexy side and isn't so such of a spoiler. We're serious, though, it's not work-safe. But it is funny and Joan looks great.

Joan Cusack received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of poor put-upon Emily Montgomery, the woman who is engaged to Kevin Kline's character Howard Brackett, who happens to be... oh, we don't want to spoil it for you if you've never seen it. This short scene of Joan (as Emily) working out to a Richard Simmons video doesn't give away anything plot-related and still shows why Ms. Cusack got Oscar's attention in 1997, as well as attention of of a different sort from YouTubers today. Check out the first few comments and you'll see what we mean.

"I'm Peggy Flemming. Not the ice skater." C'mon, how many performers are there who could deliver a line like that and pull it off? How about this one: "Have you heard my husband's morning show, 'Wake Up With Flem?'" Runaway Bride reteamed Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in an effort to, well, make another movie as popular as Pretty Woman. They didn't quite get there (to be fair, Pretty Woman is pretty darn popular), but they came close, in part because the filmmakers had the good sense to cast Joan Cusack as Roberts' BFF.

Joan Cusack often shares the screen with her brother John. We assume that their real-life relationship is chummier than that of their characters in High Fidelity (2000), where Joan's Liz offers a few, shall we say, choice words for John's Rob. We found a clip of a few of those not-safe-for-work words. Ready? Here you go. The message? Do not mess with Liz. Also, everything is better with Joan Cusack.

If you ever find yourself playing "Six Degrees of Joan Cusack" (which is not actually a game but should be—no disrespect to Kevin Bacon), you can use either High Fidelity or School of Rock to get to Jack Black. School is clearly Mr. Black's movie, but Ms. Cusack steals this scene by declaring her devotion to the great Stevie Nicks. Watch Joan's face as she recognizes what song is coming out of the jukebox. That, dear readers, is what great acting looks like.

On the Showtime series Shameless, Joan Cusack plays Sheila Jackson, a woman suffering from agoraphobia and an attraction to William H. Macy's Frank Gallagher. Shameless isn't a belly-laugh type of show, largely due to the subject matter—alcoholic dad, poor family. Not the typical recipe for hilarity. It is funny, but also sad. (We're avoiding the word "dramedy" for personal reasons.) Call it whatever you want, Joan's performance is brilliant, as always. Here she is discussing Shameless and her role. Make sure to watch the whole clip to hear what Joan considers ironic. We say she's right.