Celebrity Nooz: Lori Singer

Lori Singer (Actress) Footloose

Updated: 7/07/20

Name: Lori Singer

Birth Name: Lori Jacqueline Singer

Born: November 6, 1957 in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

Claim To Fame: Lori Singer is an American actress, cellist, and former model that's best known for lead role of Ariel Moore in the musical drama film Footloose (1984).

Family Life: Singer was married to Richard Emery from 1981 until their divorce in 1998. They have one son, Jacques Rio Emery.

Info: She's the daughter of Jacques Singer, a famous Symphony conductor, and Leslie Singer, a concert pianist.

She has a fraternal twin brother, Gregory, a violinist; and two older brothers: actor Marc (The Beastmaster) and Claude.

Her cousin is director Bryan Singer (X-Men).

She attended Lincoln High School in Portland.

Singer was a musical prodigy, making her debut as a cellist with the Oregon Symphony at thirteen, and was subsequently accepted to the Juilliard School, where she became the institution's youngest graduate.

After graduating from Juilliard, Singer performed with the Western Washington University Symphony Orchestra.

Performed as a concert soloist, and in 1980 won the Bergen Philharmonic Competition.

In the early 1980s, she signed with Elite Model Management before shifting her focus to acting.

Her son, Jacques Rio Emery (born in March of 1991), is named after Lori's father...as is Lori herself (her middle name is "Jacqueline").

Trivia: In the summer of 1971, Singer and brother Gregory attended a summer music camp in New York led by famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Singer is often mistaken for actress Daryl Hannah.

She also won Newcomer of the Year at ShoWest for her role in the TV movie Born Beautiful (1982).

Her role in the television series Fame, Julie Miller, a shy teenage dancer and cellist, was written specifically for her.

In 1983, she and a number of other cast members - under the group name the Kids from "Fame" - performed a live concert at Royal Albert Hall, which was recorded and released as a live album.

She was just 14 years younger than John Lithgow and 9 years younger than Dianne Wiest, who played her parents in Footloose (1984).

Her role in Trouble in Mind (1985) led to her nomination for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.

Robert Altman's cast of Short Cuts (1993) won awards for best ensemble at the 50th Venice International Film Festival and the 51st Golden Globe Awards.

Her character in television series VR.5 (1995) was originally written for a male.

Dated Warren Beatty.

In 2013, Singer executive produced with Sheila Nevins, HBO, and Jessica Kingdon the documentary Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, directed by Alex Gibney. The film won the Grierson Award at the London Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival's award, Best Feature Documentary at the Irish Film and Television Awards, and was awarded a Peabody Award. It was also nominated for five prime-time Emmy awards; it won three: "Exceptional Merit in Documentary Film Making", "Outstanding Writing", and "Best Editor".

Where Are They Now: Singer's last film role was back in 2017. Hopefully, she'll be back on the big or small screen very soon. Maybe another Footloose reboot is around the corner? I'm thinking Netflix series. It would be lovely to see her again. Keep your fingers crossed.

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