THAT WAS SO STUPID, GRANDPA HIT HIM WITH THE CAR!

Requiescat in Pace, actress Wendie Jo Sperber, who succumbed to breast cancer on November 29. The news accounts of her passing mostly referenced her role starring opposite Tom Hanks on the television series "Bosom Buddies," but I believe most people under the age of 30 remember her best (if they remember her at all) for her minor role in the "Back to the Future" series as the boy-crazy older sister of Marty McFly. She had a grand total of ten lines in the first film, which made it quite easy for me to Google the script* and memorialize her with those immortal lines:

"Yeah, I think it's a major embarrassment having an uncle in prison."

"Hey Marty, I'm not your answering service, but while you were outside pouting about the car, Jennifer Parker called you twice."

"Oh Mom, there's nothing wrong with calling a boy."

"Then how am I supposed to ever meet anybody?"

"That was so stupid, Grandpa hit him with the car!"

"Yeah, well, I still don't understand what Dad was doing in the middle of the street."

"Yeah Mom, we know, you've told us this story a million times. You felt sorry for him so you decided to go with him to the Fish Under The Sea Dance."

° ° ° ° °
"Oh, if Paul calls me tell him I'm working at the boutique late tonight."

"Now which one was it, Greg or Craig?"

"Good morning, Mom. Oh, Marty, I almost forgot, Jennifer Parker called."

Will she be missed? Heck no! She'll be there every time I watch Robert Zemeckis' 1985 masterpiece (#130 on the IMDb's Top #250, which is too low, if you ask me). And it's easily the movie I've watched the most — over 100 times at least.

Although she occupied one of the film's smaller rolls, it was nevertheless a memorable one, an airhead Rosencrantz to Marc "Dave McFly" McClure's airhead Guildenstern. But let us not forget her roles in lesser classics such as "Used Cars," "Bachelor Party" and "Mr. Payback: An Interactive Movie," even if I don't remember her being in them.

Thanks, Wendie.

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* Lots of weird early scripts out there on the Internets: the first draft, a fake screenplay based on a novelization of the first draft, a relatively late draft, and some guy's transcription of the dialogue as heard in the film. And there's even an English hardcore punk band called Biff Tannen.

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posted by WWB at 2:43 PM |