8. Fran Drescher
Aired: 2/20/1999
Viewers will learn that there's more to actress and author Fran Drescher than her nasal Queens accent when you see Intimate Portrait: Fran Drescher. The film documents Drescher's rise to stardom with roles in Saturday Night Fever and This is Spinal Tap, and discusses the creation of The Nanny, the television series that she and husband Peter Marc Jacobson produced. Her parents, manager, high school drama teacher, and good friend Dan Aykroyd, praise her as an ambitious woman who followed her dreams and came out on top. A poignant moment in the film is Drescher's candid account of being raped at gunpoint in 1985--the horrific experience that sent her to live with Aykroyd and his wife, Donna Dixon, who narrates this Intimate Portrait tribute. Read more about the comedienne's life in her 1996 autobiography, Enter Whining.