Christina Applegate

Christina Applegate (born November 25, 1971, Hollywood, California, U.S.) is an American actress who rose to fame as the airheaded teenage character Kelly Bundy on the sitcom Married... with Children (1987–97). Applegate enjoyed a prolific career, starring in a number of movies and TV shows, including Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) and Dead to Me (2019–22).

Early life

Applegate is the daughter of Nancy Priddy, a singer and actress, and Robert Applegate, a record producer and executive. The couple separated soon after Christina Applegate was born. As an infant Applegate made her television debut in a baby bottle commercial. She has said that because her mother could not afford a babysitter, Applegate often appeared in her mother’s plays. By the time she was in kindergarten, Applegate had joined the Screen Actors Guild.

Married… with Children and other early roles

Applegate’s childhood and adolescence were spent onscreen, appearing in such soap operas as Days of Our Lives in 1972 and such sitcoms as Charles in Charge in 1984 and 1985, Silver Spoons in 1986, and Family Ties in 1987, as well as a few movies. At age 15 she landed her breakout role in Married... with Children, playing the daughter in a dysfunctional family headed by Al (Ed O’Neill) and Peggy (Katey Sagal). Applegate has credited O’Neill and Sagal with raising her, saying she spent more time with her TV parents than with her biological parents. During the show’s 11-season run, Applegate also had roles in movies including Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (1991), Across the Moon (1994), Wild Bill (1995), and Mars Attacks! (1996).

Marriage, Anchorman, Friends, and other successes at the turn of the 21st century

After Married... with Children ended in 1997, Applegate starred in the 1998 movies Mafia! and The Big Hit, the latter alongside Mark Wahlberg. She also headed the short-lived sitcom Jesse (1998–2000), playing a single mother attempting to find love again. For her performance she received her first Golden Globe nomination. In 2001 Applegate married actor Johnathon Schaech. Throughout the early 2000s she had a string of hits, playing Cameron Diaz’s best friend in the road-trip rom-com The Sweetest Thing (2002) and Gwyneth Paltrow’s rival in View from the Top (2003). In 2004 she played the love interest and straight person to Will Ferrell’s over-the-top 1970s newsman in the comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004). She was also in the 2013 sequel, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. In between Applegate guest starred in two episodes (2002 and 2003) of Friends as one of Rachel’s shallow sisters. She won an Emmy Award for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series for her first appearance and was nominated for her second. Applegate also starred in the 2005 revival of Sweet Charity on Broadway, garnering a Tony nomination for best actress in a musical.

Samantha Who?, divorce, and breast cancer diagnosis

In 2007 Applegate’s sitcom Samantha Who? premiered on ABC. She starred as a woman suffering from amnesia, allowing her to shed the toxic personality she had before. That year she and her husband also divorced. While filming the series in 2008 Applegate, at the age of 36, was diagnosed with breast cancer and tested positive for the BRCA gene, which increases the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. Applegate decided to have a bilateral mastectomy and explained her decision in an interview with Robin Roberts of Good Morning America, saying, “I didn’t want to go back to the doctors every four months for testing and squishing and everything. I just wanted to kind of get rid of this whole thing for me. This was the choice that I made and it was a tough one.” She continued, “Sometimes, you know, I cry. And sometimes I scream. And I get really angry. And I get really upset, you know, into wallowing in self-pity sometimes. And I think that it’s all part of the healing.”Applegate went on to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research, and in 2017 she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to lessen the risks of developing ovarian cancer. Despite undergoing reconstructive surgery after her mastectomy in 2008, Applegate continued with Samantha Who? until it was canceled in 2009. She was nominated for Emmys and Golden Globes for lead actress for both seasons of the show.

Dead to Me, second marriage, and MS diagnosis

At the turn of the 2010s and throughout that decade Applegate lent her voice to the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies (2009, 2011, and 2015). She also starred alongside Will Arnett in the parenting sitcom Up All Night (2011–12) and had supporting roles in the movies Going the Distance (2010), Bad Moms (2016), and A Bad Moms Christmas (2017). Meanwhile, she welcomed daughter Sadie Grace Applegate LeNoble in 2011 with her fiancé, musician Martyn LeNoble, whom she married in 2013. In 2019 Applegate starred alongside Linda Cardellini in the hit Netflix series Dead to Me. In the dark comedy Applegate played a widowed mother who is befriended by a woman (Cardellini) who is grieving the loss of her fiancé. For her performance, she was nominated for a Golden Globe for the series’ first season and an Emmy for each of the series’ three seasons. In 2021 during filming for the show’s third and final season, Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), a progressive autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that impairs the transmission of nerve impulses. Filming of the show paused for five months, but Applegate insisted on finishing the series. She told The New York Times in 2022 that it was one of the hardest things she has ever done. She said, “It’s not like I came on the other side of [the hiatus], like, ‘Woohoo, I’m totally fine.’ Acceptance? No. I’m never going to accept this. I’m pissed.” On the set she required assistance walking and standing for long periods.

In 2024 Applegate received a standing ovation at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, where she presented the Emmy for supporting actress in a comedy series. Standing with a cane, a tearful Applegate poked fun at herself by telling the audience, “You’re totally shaming me with disability by standing up. It’s fine.” That year she started the podcast MeSsy with actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who was diagnosed with MS at the age of 20. Applegate told Vanity Fair that because of her difficulties with MS she may not work in front of a camera again.