Death Becomes Her (1992) is an American dark comedy fantasy film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, and Bruce Willis. The film focuses on a childish pair of rivals who drink a magic potion that promises eternal youth.

However, after they kill each other in their battle for the love of a neurotic plastic surgeon-turned-mortician, the potion revives them as the undead; and they are forced to maintain their deteriorating bodies forever. Death Becomes Her won the Academy Award for Visual Effects. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a commercial success.

Plot[link]

In 1978 on Broadway in New York City, the narcissistic, manipulative actress Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep) performs in "Songbird", an ill-conceived musical version of Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams. Madeline's long-time rival Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn), an aspiring writer, is taking in the show with her fiancé, plastic surgeon Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis), who is the only person in the audience enjoying himself. Helen and Ernest are invited backstage, where Madeline shows an interest in Ernest. One night while Ernest is prepping for surgery, Madeline invites him to dinner. Although Ernest assures Helen his dinner date with Madeline was just business and he has no interest in Madeline, he soon dumps Helen and marries Madeline.

Seven years later, Helen is obese, depressed, and still fixated on Madeline. After being arrested for refusing to obey an order of eviction, Helen is committed to a psychiatric hospital, where she drives the other patients and the doctors crazy with her constant talk about Madeline. Helen pretends she is rehabilitated and is released, all the while plotting revenge on Madeline.

Seven more years later, Madeline's career is all but over; but she is still living well in Beverly Hills with husband Ernest, now a miserable alcoholic reduced to working only as a reconstructive mortician. At a spa where she receives extensive facial treatments, Madeline is given the business card of a woman who specializes in beauty and youth rejuvenation, though she is dismissive. Madeline and Ernest attend the book-signing party for Helen's novel Forever Young and see Helen, who is now thin and youthful looking. Dumbfounded and depressed by Helen's new appearance, Madeline goes to see her young lover but discovers he has been two-timing her—with a woman his own age, of course. Now even more depressed, driving home, Madeline retrieves the business card and drives to the home of the mysterious Lisle Von Rhoman (Isabella Rossellini), a wealthy socialite who appears to be in her thirties. When she says she is actually seventy-one, Madeline buys the rejuvenating potion and reverts to her youthful form. Lisle warns Madeline to take very good care of her new body.

Meanwhile, Helen has seduced Ernest and convinced him to kill Madeline; but, before he can carry out Helen's plan, he and Madeline argue. Her vicious taunts drive Ernest to push Madeline down the stairs, breaking her neck. Believing she's dead, Ernest phones Helen for advice, not noticing as Madeline slowly stands and approaches him with her head now twisted backwards. In the E.R., Madeline causes quite a stir—no pulse, body temperature below 80°, two shattered vertebrae, wrist fractured in three places, and a bone protrusion on her neck. As Madeline hears the doctor's conclusion, she faints. Thinking that she is dead, the doctors transport her to the morgue. Ernest thinks that her resurrection is a miracle, a sign they are meant to be together; and he uses all his skills to repair the damage to Madeline's body.

When Helen arrives at her mansion, Madeline shoots Helen with a double-barreled shotgun and then blackmails Ernest into helping her dispose of the body. To their shock, however, Helen gets up with a basketball-sized hole gaping through her stomach. Madeline realizes Helen is also a client of Lisle's. The two rivals fight but fail to do any real damage to each other and reconcile. Ernest decides he cannot tolerate their bickering and plans to leave. Madeline and Helen beg him to repair their damaged bodies. Ernest agrees on the condition that, after the work is done, they will never see him again nor search for him.

Although repaired, Madeline and Helen realize his repairs will only be temporary; they will need him to perform routine maintenance to their bodies forever. To solve the problem, they conspire to make Ernest drink the potion as well, first offering him a cocktail laced with Rohypnol. When Ernest declines the beverage, they knock him unconscious and take him to Lisle. Although Lisle makes an impassioned argument for immortality and offers to give him the potion free of charge, he refuses—a life lived forever, knowing that everyone else will continue to age and die, is worthless to him. He puts the bottle in his pocket and attempts to flee.

Ernest climbs across the roof of Lisle's mansion but slips and his suspenders become caught on a rain gutter, dangling him above the ground. Madeline and Helen beg him to drink the potion so he will survive the fall. Knowing how unpleasant immortality would be in their company, he drops the potion, then falls after it when his suspenders break. After crashing through a skylight, he lands in Lisle's swimming pool and escapes. The two women realize they will have to take care of one another for the rest of their "lives".

Thirty-seven years later, Madeline and Helen are attending Ernest's funeral, where he is eulogized as having lived an adventurous and fulfilling life. Helen and Madeline realize Ernest accomplished much more during his life than they are likely to do in immortality. While wiping her eyes, Helen smears paint on her skin. She asks Madeline for a can of spray paint, and the two bicker when they realize it is missing.

Outside the church, the two raise their veils to reveal their faces caked with smeared makeup and peeling layers of hardware paint over their gray, rotted skin. Still bickering with Madeline, Helen steps on the missing can of spray paint and begins to lose her balance. When Madeline deliberately hesitates in helping her back up, the impatient Helen grabs her and the two women tumble to the bottom of the steps, shattering their bodies. Madeline's tottering, decapitated head is asked by Helen's head, "Do you remember where you parked the car?"

Cast[link]

• Goldie Hawn as Helen Sharp
• Meryl Streep as Madeline Ashton
• Bruce Willis as Dr. Ernest Menville
• Isabella Rossellini as Lisle von Rhoman
• Ian Ogilvy as Chagall
• Adam Storke as Dakota
• Nancy Fish as Rose
• Alaina Reed Hall as Psychologist
• Michelle Johnson as Anna
• Mary Ellen Trainor as Vivian Adams
• William Frankfather as Mr. Franklin
• John Ingle as Eulogist
• Debra Jo Rupp as Patient
• Fabio as Lisle's bodyguard
• Sydney Pollack as Emergency Department Doctor (Uncredited)

Reception[link]

The film received mixed reviews.^[2][3] It currently holds a 45% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 20 reviews (9 positive, 11 negative).^[4] Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave the film a 'thumbs down', commenting that while the film had great special effects, it lacked any real substance or character depth.^[5]

Despite the lackluster reception, it won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Meryl Streep was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. The film opened at #1 at the box office with $12,110,355 upon the also opening weekends of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Bebe's Kids.^[6] It went on to earn over $149 million worldwide.

Awards and nominations[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Special effects[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2011)

Death Becomes Her was a technically complex movie to make, and the production had a fair number of mishaps. For example, in a scene where Helen Sharp and Madeline Ashton are battling with shovels, Meryl Streep accidentally cut Goldie Hawn's face, leaving a faint scar. Despite the film winning an Academy Award for its effects, Streep admitted that she disliked working on a project that focused so heavily on special effects, saying:

My first, my last, my only. I think it's tedious. Whatever concentration you can apply to that kind of comedy is just shredded. You stand there like a piece of machinery — they should get machinery to do it. I loved how it turned out. But it's not fun to act to a lampstand. "Pretend this is Goldie, right here! Uh, no, I'm sorry, Bob, she went off the mark by five centimeters, and now her head won't match her neck!" It was like being at the dentist.^[7]

Computer generated imagery (CGI) software was used to create the skin effects, such as Madeline's twisted neck and stretching skin, and the shotgun hole through Helen's abdomen.

Soundtrack[link]

The score was composed by American film composer Alan Silvestri who also composed most of Zemeckis' other films.^[8]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Death Becomes Her

• Death Becomes Her at the Internet Movie Database
• Death Becomes Her at the TCM Movie Database
• Movie stills

Seth Green
Seth Green in July 2011.
Born	Seth Benjamin Gesshel-Green (1974-02-08) February 8, 1974 (age 38) Overbrook Park, West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian, voice actor, writer, producer, television director
Years active	1983–present
Spouse	Clare Grant (2010–present)
Website
www.sethgreenonline.com

Seth Benjamin Green (born February 8, 1974) is an American actor, comedian, voice actor, television producer and screenwriter. He is well known for his role as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Dr. Evil's son Scott in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, Mitch Miller in That '70s Show, and the voice of Chris Griffin on Family Guy. He also voices Lieutenant Gibbs in Titan Maximum and Jeff "Joker" Moreau in the Mass Effect video game series. Green is one of the creators and producers of the stop motion comedy series Robot Chicken, in which he also voices several characters. He has appeared in many other movies, such as Rat Race, The Italian Job, Can't Hardly Wait, Without a Paddle, as a child in Woody Allen's Radio Days, and in the horror films Stephen King's It and Idle Hands.

Early life[link]

Green was born and raised in Overbrook Park, West Philadelphia, a section of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents are Barbara (née Gesshel), an artist, and Herbert Green, a math teacher.^[1] After his parents' divorce, he has stated that camp was a place where he could reinvent himself and be good at anything he wanted.^[2] This camp was called URJ Camp Harlam^[3] in Kunkletown, Pennsylvania. After a camp production of Hello, Dolly!, Green decided that he wanted to be an actor.

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Green's first movie-role was in the 1984 film Billions for Boris. At eight, Green landed his first film assignment, a co-starring role in the 1984 film The Hotel New Hampshire with Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe. He appeared in the 1987 film Can't Buy Me Love, playing the part of Patrick Dempsey's character's little brother, Chuckie Miller. He also starred in Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987) as Joe, a 1940s boy, and appeared in Big Business (1988) and, in the same year, in My Stepmother Is an Alien, which also starred Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star Alyson Hannigan.

In 1991 Green rose to fame in a Rally's "Cha Ching" commercial, which earned him an appearance at the 1991 Super Bowl. Green was given a key to New Orleans in honor of his role in the popular commercial.^[4]

Green appeared in the miniseries It (as Richie Tozier, age 12), Infested (aka Ticks - 1993), all three Austin Powers movies as Dr. Evil's son, Scott, and Enemy of the State and The Italian Job as a computer specialist. He was also in the films Can't Hardly Wait, Rat Race, Without a Paddle, Idle Hands and Sex Drive. Green also had a role in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the scene he was in was subsequently cut.

In 1994, he starred alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt in the short-lived series The Byrds of Paradise. He worked with Hewitt again in 1998's Can't Hardly Wait, which also featured Paige Moss, who would later play with him in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Amber Benson (Tara Maclay, Buffy) was also in this film, but her scenes were cut in order to get a PG-13 rating.

Green appeared as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne, a werewolf, in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer during the second through fourth seasons, and one episode in the first season of the spinoff Angel. Seth is not related to Bruce Seth Green, who directed some episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On occasion, some sources confuse the two and have credited Seth as the director.

Green has also been featured in roles on Greg the Bunny, Tucker, The X-Files, That '70s Show, Will & Grace, MADtv, Reno 911!, Entourage, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes and My Name Is Earl. Also voiced the character Joker in the game trilogy Mass Effect.

[edit] Family Guy

Seth Green at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International for Family Guy.

Green went in to the casting of an animated television sitcom called Family Guy, created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the dysfunctional Griffin family and stars MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis and Mike Henry. Green primarily voices Chris Griffin, the teenage son, who is overweight, unintelligent and, in many respects, a younger version of his father, Peter Griffin; and Neil Goldman, a geeky and annoying neighbor.^[5] Green admittedly did an impression of the Buffalo Bill character from the thriller film The Silence of the Lambs during his audition.^[6] His main inspiration for Chris' voice came from envisioning how "Buffalo Bill" would sound if he were speaking through a PA system at a McDonald's.^[7]

After two episodes of the second season, Family Guy was taken off the network's permanent schedule and shown irregularly thereafter. The show returned in March 2000 to finish airing the second season which contained 21 episodes, all the cast came back for the series return. The third season contained 21 episodes and began airing from July 11, 2001 to February 14, 2002. During its second and third-season runs, Fox publicly announced that the show had been canceled at the end of the second season in 2002.^[8] In spite of the announced cancellation, in 2003 Fox decided to make the third season.^[9] During the third season, Fox announced that the show was canceled for good.^[10][11] The series was renewed later in 2005 for its fourth season due to strong DVD sales and its syndication on basic-cable networks.^[12][13] Once again Green and the rest of the cast came back for their voice works.

Neil Goldman is Mort's stereotypical nerdy son, who has an unrequited crush on Meg Griffin. He is the editor of the school newspaper and is part of the A/V Club. He is more confident than his father, so much so that he does not seem to realize that Meg has nothing but contempt for him. At one point in the series, both Neil and Meg become interns at Channel 5, and they share a kiss. Neil speaks with a lisp when he wears his retainer, but when he removes it, he speaks with a deep, smooth bass (cf. the apocryphal story that Demosthenes improved his elocutionary skills by holding stones in his mouth during everyday speech). Seth MacFarlane does his voice until Neil puts his retainer back in. He has made few appearances in the series in recent years, being absent entirely in the fifth and eighth seasons, and only making a silent cameo appearance during the ninth. "Peter's Daughter," "Stew-Roids" and "You Can't Do That on Television, Peter" are to date the only episodes since the fourth season where he has spoken (and in the latter, he only spoke one line).

Chris Griffin is the second child. He is fat, dim-witted, blond, and emotionally effusive. A recurring gag was that an evil monkey lives in his closet, which he found out was not evil in the episode Hannah Banana. He also tries to fit in with his peers but clearly doesn't, because he has the brains of his father.

Later work[link]

Green is a co-creator and producer of the stop motion TV series Robot Chicken, for which he does many voices and has even appeared in animated form. Green is friends with the band Fall Out Boy, making a cameo in their music video, "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race", and the band returned the favor with an appearance in Green's film Sex Drive. He also appeared in "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White & Nerdy" music video. He made two appearances on The Soup in 2007 and 2008, using his first appearance to lampoon Internet celebrity Chris Crocker.^[14] He voiced the character Jeff "Joker" Moreau, pilot of the SSV Normandy and later the Normandy SR2, in the video games Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3.^[15][16] He is a producer of The 1 Second Film and appears in the "making of" documentary that accompanies its feature-length credits. Green is also the co-creator (with Hugh Sterbakov) of the comic Freshmen, published by Top Cow Productions.

Green, along with Robot Chicken co-producer Breckin Meyer, appeared in the NBC show Heroes during the 2008–09 season.^[17] In January 2009, Green worked with David Faustino (Bud Bundy from Married with Children) for an episode of Faustino's show Star-ving – Faustino is often mistaken for Green.^[18]

On July 13, World Wrestling Entertainment's official website announced Green as the special guest host for the July 13 episode of WWE Raw, and on that night, Green competed in the main event, a six-man tag team match, which his team won by disqualification.^[19][20] He was also in attendance for WWE's biggest event of the year, WrestleMania XXVI on March 28, 2010.

Personal life[link]

Green and Clare Grant at the 2009 American Music Awards

Green married actress Clare Grant on May 1, 2010; the couple lives in Los Angeles.^[21] They worked together on Robot Chicken, Warren the Ape, and her "Geek and Gamer Girls Song" viral video.^[22][23]

Green filed papers at Los Angeles County Superior Court in August 2011 asking a judge to legally shorten his name to Seth Benjamin Green "to reflect my professional stage name."^[24] The change became official on October 20, 2011.^[25]

Seth Green has stated that his Scottish ancestry accounts for his ginger hair.

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Video games[link]

Awards and nomination[link]

Annie Awards

• 2008: Won, "Best Directing in an Animated Television Production" – Robot Chicken: Star Wars
• 2009: Won, "Best Writing in an Animated Television Production" – Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II

Chlotrudis Awards

• 2004: Nominated, "Best Supporting Actor" – Party Monster

Emmy Awards^[26]

• 2007, 2008, 2009: Nominated, "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)" – Robot Chicken (shared w/producers & writers)
• 2009, 2010, 2011: Nominated, Outstanding Voice-Over Performance – "Robot Chicken"
• 2010: Won, Outstanding Short-Format Animated Program - "Robot Chicken" (Shared w/producers, writers & directors)

Teen Choice Awards

• 2000: Nominated, "Choice TV Actor" – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• 2002: Nominated, "Choice Comedic TV Actor" – Greg the Bunny
• 2005: Nominated, "Choice Movie Dance Scene" – Be Cool

Young Artist Awards

• 1989: Won, "Best Young Actor Guest Starring in a Syndicated Comedy, Drama or Special" – The Facts of Life
• 1992: Nominated, "Outstanding Young Comedian in a Television Series" – Good & Evil

Slammy Awards

• 2009: Nominated, "Best Raw Guest Host"

See also[link]

• List of recurring That '70s Show characters
• List of celebrities who have been the subject of pranks on Punk'd

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Seth Green

• Official website
• Seth Green at the Internet Movie Database
• Seth Green Producer Profile for The 1 Second Film
• Robot Chicken page on AdultSwim.com
• Seth Green at Emmys.com