Cynthia Rhodes
| Cynthia Rhodes | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 21, 1956 Nashville, Tennessee, United States |
| Occupation | Actress, singer, dancer |
| Years active | 1970–1991 |
| Spouse(s) | Richard Marx (1989–2014; divorced) |
| Children | 3 |
Cynthia Rhodes (born November 21, 1956) is an American retired actress, singer and dancer. Her film roles include Tina Tech in Flashdance (1983), Jackie in Staying Alive (1983) and Penny in Dirty Dancing (1987).
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Rhodes began her brief show business career working at Opryland USA as a singer and dancer while attending Glencliff High School in Nashville during the 1970s. Raised in a Baptist family, Rhodes tried to maintain a clean-cut image in her acting roles and in the media, turning down scripts that required nudity and refusing offers to pose for pictorials in Playboy magazine. Sylvester Stallone, the director of Staying Alive, reinforced these facts by stating that Rhodes "would sooner quit the business before doing anything to embarrass her parents."
Rhodes played a small role in the fantasy musical Xanadu (1980). Following a minor part as Tina Tech in the musical film Flashdance, Rhodes played the role of Jackie, an ensemble dancer, bar band singer, and character Tony Manero's (John Travolta) love interest in Sylvester Stallone's film Staying Alive, the poorly reviewed, but commercially successful, sequel to the hit film Saturday Night Fever.
Rhodes garnered her first non-dance related role in Michael Crichton's science fiction thriller Runaway with Tom Selleck, Kirstie Alley and Gene Simmons. Her most notable role was as dance instructor Penny Johnson in the hit 1987 motion picture Dirty Dancing with Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze. Rhodes' final motion picture role was the character of Vickie Phillips opposite actor Jameson Parker in the sleeper action/adventure movie Curse of the Crystal Eye.
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