Rossie O'Donnell born March 21, 1962, in Commack, Long Island. Her father designed cameras for spy satellites, her mother was a homemaker.
When Rosie was 10 years old, her mother died of pancreatic and liver cancer, leaving Rosie & her 4 brothers & sisters to fend for themselves emotionally. Rosie found idols & role models in Lucille Ball, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Carol Burnett.
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Rosie caught the acting bug when she imitated Gilda Radner's character "Roseanne Rosannadanna" for a high school skit-inciting praise, then a conviction to pursue an acting career through comedy. By watching & imitating other comics, such as Jerry Seinfeld, O'Donnell eventually came up with her own material & honed her magnetic presence for the stage.
After graduating from high school, Rossie embarked on a grand tour of the United States, appearing in 49 states over a five-year period. It was a difficult & enlightening time for O'Donnell. She realized the unhealthy lifestyle & the sexist climate revolving around the comedy world. She told Robert Hoffler of Buzz, "Everybody was doing drugs and drinking, & I was just this little girl on the road, scared in her room."
Rossie O'Donnell studied at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania & Boston University & made 5 winning appearances on Star Search before moving to LA in 1984.
She landed a part of NBC's popular sitcom Gimme a Break before cable music video channel, VH-1, snatched her up as a veejay. When the station decided to stop using veejays, Rossie O'Donnell convinced them both to create a showcase for comedians, Stand-Up Spotlight, & keep her on as its host. Stand-Up Spotlight became the VH-1's most popular show, and O'Donnell hosted for four years.
In 1992, after appearing in several television specials, O'Donnell made a much-desired & anticipated move to film when Penny Marshall cast her as Madonna's loveable sidekick in A League of Their Own. O'Donnell forged many connections & friendships during filming, which served to enhance her career, including an enduring relationship with co-star Madonna. Her role spurned a string of "best-friend" roles including "Becky," Meg Ryan's closest pal in 1993's Sleepless in Seattle. She played assistant district attorney, Gina Garrett, in John Badham's Another Stakeout alongside Emilio Estevez and Richard Dreyfuss, and made a cameo in Carl Reiner's Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct spoof, Fatal Instinct. She also appeared as a wise-cracking hairdresser in Beautiful Girls. O'Donnell began a trend of making performances in less than extraordinary films.
In 1994, Rossie O'Donnell's dream of performing live on stage materialized when she was cast as Rizzo in Tommy Tune's Broadway revival of Grease!. However, both the production and O'Donnell's performance met lukewarm reviews. O'Donnell expressed concern about the message of the play, with its sexist premise about a girl who must transform herself into a tightly-clad tramp to gain acceptance by her boyfriend and his friends. Following her Broadway debut, O'Donnell appeared in Lesli Linka Glatter's coming of age film, Now and Then alongside and Melanie Griffith and Demi Moore made a cameo on the TV sitcom Bless This House. In February 1995, after a two-year hiatus, O'Donnell returned briefly to stand-up in order to prepare for an HBO comedy special.
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