Jessica Harper

Acting

Jessica Harper

Born 1949-10-03 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

Jessica Randolph Harper (born October 3, 1949) is an American actress and singer. Harper began her feature film career with a starring role in Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (1974), and subsequently featured in films including Love and Death (1975), Inserts (1975), and My Favorite Year (1982). She is best known for her portrayal of Suzy Bannion, the protagonist of Dario Argento's cult classic Suspiria (1977), and appeared in a supporting role in Luca Guadagnino's 2018 remake. Her other films include Stardust Memories (1980), Shock Treatment (1981) (the followup to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in which she replaced Susan Sarandon as Janet Weiss), Pennies from Heaven (1981), The Blue Iguana (1988), Safe (1995), Minority Report (2002), Bones and All (2022) and Nightbitch (2024). In addition to acting, Harper is also an author of children's music and books. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jessica Harper, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Minority Report poster
7.4

John Anderton is a top 'Precrime' cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they're committed. But Anderton becomes the quarry when another investigator targets him for a murder charge.

Minority Report

2002

Suspiria poster
7.5

An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.

Suspiria

1977

Bones and All poster
7.0

Abandoned by her father, a young woman embarks on a thousand-mile odyssey through the backroads of America where she meets a disenfranchised drifter. But despite their best efforts, all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and to a final stand that will determine whether their love can survive their otherness.

Bones and All

2022

Nightbitch poster
5.7

A woman, thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a dog.

Nightbitch

2024

Suspiria poster
6.9

A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.

Suspiria

2018

Phantom of the Paradise poster
7.5

Singer-songwriter Winslow Leach seeks revenge on the nefarious music producer Swan, who steals both Winslow's music and his favorite singer for the grand opening of Swan's new rock palace, the Paradise.

Phantom of the Paradise

1974

Memory poster
7.0

Sylvia is a social worker who leads a simple and structured life: her daughter, her job, her AA meetings. This is blown open when Saul follows her home from their high school reunion. Their surprise encounter will profoundly impact both of them as they open the door to the past.

Memory

2023

Love and Death poster
7.5

In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.

Love and Death

1975

Safe poster
6.9

Carol White, a Los Angeles housewife in the late 1980s, comes down with a debilitating illness with no clear diagnosis.

Safe

1995

Kill Me poster
7.3

Jimmy wakes up in a bathtub after having tried to kill himself. Or, at least, that’s what it looks like to his friends and family. Jimmy is pretty sure he didn’t do it… maybe. Together with Margot, the 911 operator who took his call, Jimmy sets out on a mission to solve a vitally important whodunit: did someone try to kill him, or are they chasing the spectre of depression?

Kill Me

2026

Stardust Memories poster
6.9

While attending a retrospect of his work, a filmmaker recalls his life and his loves: the inspirations for his films.

Stardust Memories

1980

House Broken poster
5.1

In order to enjoy his retirement, a father takes drastic measures to get his twentysomething, slacker sons to move out and fend for themselves.

House Broken

2009

Inserts poster
5.7

A young, once-great Hollywood film director refuses to accept changing times during the early 1930s, and confines himself to his decaying mansion to make silent porn flicks.

Inserts

1975

Fantasy Life poster
6.2

An anxious New York law school dropout stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist's three granddaughters and falls for the girls' mother, an actress in a rocky marriage.

Fantasy Life

2026

Pennies from Heaven poster
6.1

During the Great Depression, a sheet music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent schoolteacher.

Pennies from Heaven

1981

Boys poster
5.4

Fed up with boarding school and frustrated with the way others have planned his life, John Baker Jr. wants a change -- anything to shake up his staid routine. The moment arrives when he stumbles upon a woman, Patty Vare, unconscious in a field. Deciding to risk it, John takes her to his dorm to look after her, much to the disapproval of his friends. John's decision proves fateful as he and Patty grow close to one another. However, she may be keeping secrets from him.

Boys

1996

My Favorite Year poster
6.6

Fledgling comic Benjy Stone can't believe his luck when his childhood hero, the swashbuckling matinee idol Alan Swann, gets booked to appear on the variety show he writes for. But when Swann arrives, he fails to live up to his silver screen image. Instead, he's a drunken womanizer who suffers from stage fright. Benjy is assigned to look after him before the show, and it's all he can do to keep his former idol from going completely off the rails.

My Favorite Year

1982

Mr. Wonderful poster
5.6

Electrician Gus gets the chance to fulfil a childhood dream by buying an old bowling-alley with some of his friends, but first he must find his ex-wife a new husband so he can stop paying alimony.

Mr. Wonderful

1993

Shock Treatment poster
5.9

Brad and Janet Majors find their strained marriage put to the test on popular Denton TV show Marriage Maze. Poor Brad is heavily sedated and institutionalised, whilst Janet is given a radical makeover and primed for stardom. But what are the real motivations behind the kooky DTV crew and their enigmatic head-honcho, Farley Flavors?

Shock Treatment

1981

Taking Off poster
6.9

Unable to deal with her parents, Jeannie Tyne runs away from home. Larry and Lynn Tyne search for her, and in the process meet other people whose children ran away. With their children gone, the parents are now free to rediscover/enjoy life.

Taking Off

1971

The Evictors poster
6.4

A nice young couple move into an eerie house located in a small Louisiana town, unaware of its violent history.

The Evictors

1979

Carousel poster
NR

A divorced doctor’s carefully constructed life in Cleveland is upended when his daughter’s debate aspirations and the unexpected return of a past love force him to confront his own choices and embrace a second chance.

Carousel

2026

Big Man on Campus poster
6.2

In this version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", a hunchback is found living in the bell tower of UCLA. He discovers life as two students bring him out of the tower and into society.

Big Man on Campus

1989

Eat a Bowl of Tea poster
5.6

An American-Chinese man brings over his wife from China to America, but the challenges of making a living and adjusting to a new life, plus the attentions of a gambler threaten their marriage.

Eat a Bowl of Tea

1989