Martha Coolidge

Born: August 17 1946
Where: New Haven, Connecticut, USA

The award-winning director has been credited with launching the careers of Nicolas Cage and Val Kilmer.

She cast the unknown Cage as the male lead in her 1983 hit Valley Girl and the comedy Real Genius introduced Kilmer.

Coolidge's 1991 drama Rambling Rose also earned Oscar nominations for its stars Laura Dern and Diane Ladd as well as landing three Independent Spirit awards.

The daughter of two architects, Coolidge started making films at Rhode Island School of Design and subsequently enrolled at New York University Institute of Film & Television.

Her directorial debut was the acclaimed high school date rape movie Not a Pretty Picture in 1975.

Coolidge's feature debut was City Girl in 1983, which led to a job directing the modest comedy Valley Girl (which also spawned a hit soundtrack).

The film's unexpected positive reviews won Coolidge major studio assignments, but Joy of Sex in 1984 was barely released, and Real Genius and Plain Clothes failed to fire.

Coolidge found more satisfying work in TV before hitting the target again with Rambing Rose, the story of a free-spirited young woman in a small Southern town.

Subsequent movies included Crazy in Love, with Holly Hunter and Gena Rowlands, and the Neil Simon-scripted Lost in Yonkers with Richard Dreyfuss.

In 1994, Angie starred Geena Davis and Patrick Swayze appeared alongside Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in the drama Three Wishes about a tramp taken into the family home.

In 1998, she directed the successful TV series Sex in the City and stayed with the small screen for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and the lesbian drama If These Walls Could Talk 2.

Outside movies, Coolidge was the first woman president of the Director's Guild of America in 66 years.

Recent work includes the lack-lustre romantic Cinderalla-style romantic comedy The Prince & Me with Julia Stiles.