If you are looking for a cancer survivor and activist, LGBT activist, US comedian, book author, film producer, and actress, Fran Drescher is the person you are most likely to find. The nanny actress has evolved in the industry and has become a powerful voice, especially for cancer awareness advocacy, as she has fought the disease herself and survived.
Fran Drescher has been married twice in her life, but is now single, as both marriages ended in divorce. Here are all the details you want to know about her early personal and professional life.
Fran Drescher Biography (Age)
Francine Joy Drescher – as she was called at her birth – is a Hollywood actress. But she is also a film producer and comedian, born to Sylvia and Morty Drescher on September 30, 1957, in Flushing, Queens. Her father, Morty, worked in the US Navy as a systems analyst, while her mother, Sylvia, worked as a wedding consultant. Fran Drescher has an older sibling, a sister named Nadine.
Drescher discovered at a young age that she had the passion and talent to act and decided to maximize her potential. She later enrolled at Hillcrest High School in Queens, New York, and her determination and desire to develop her acting talent led her to join the school’s drama department.
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She began to participate in school theater performances and soon became known. After winning second place in a beauty contest in 1973 – Miss Teen New York beauty contest – in which she participated, she became more confident in her abilities, and more than ever before she tried to bring roles to the screen.
In high school, she met one of the people who eventually became a special part of her life, both in her personal and professional life. Fran Drescher was a classmate of Peter Marc Jacobson at Hillcrest High and he was a pillar of her professional endeavors. He was the one who wrote the screenplay for the film that made her a star – The Nanny. He was also the producer and director of the television show.
Both Drescher and Jacobson continued their education in college when they enrolled at Queens College in New York. However, since they had already started their way into show business, it was a difficult decision to concentrate in school, so they quit after the first year of college to focus more on their career, which meant that they attended a beauty school that was more focused on their career.
Jacobson’s role in their lives also extended to marital duties, as they entered into marriage three years after graduating from high school, in 1975. The union lasted two decades – 1978 to 1999 – before it ended in divorce.
Career
Today’s married couple, Fran Drescher and Peter Jacobson began their career together. After leaving Queens, they became hairdressers, and then Fran got her very first screen role in Saturday Night Fever (1977), where she played the role of Connie. The project was a success, and American Hot Wax (1978) followed the year after. Fran continued in this vein with appearances in Gorp (1980), Doctor Detroit (1983) and This is Spinal Tap (1984), but although she got the roles, she has yet to break through the crowded entertainment industry.
This will happen in 1993 after an idea for the family and children’s series came to her mind. She developed the project alongside her husband, and in 1993 the successful television series The Nanny was born. Her role as Fran Fine, a loudmouthed nanny for three rich children who had lost their mother, and the series also represented much of her early life. The series was an instant hit and was nominated for several awards, including the Golden Globes in 1994, while she took home an Emmy.
The television series came to a standstill in 1999 after six years of broadcast (six seasons were produced). It also coincided with the official divorce of Drescher and Jacobson, after which she continued to produce other works of her own. Her later sitcoms included Living with Fran (2005) and Happily Divorced (2011).
Fran Drescher Battle With Cancer
On June 21, 2000, Drescher was diagnosed with uterine cancer (stage 1), and thanks to early detection, she underwent a hysterectomy as a curative measure, which was very successful. She described her experiences in her struggle with the disease in her second book entitled Cancer Schmancer (her first book was called Enter Whining and was published in 1996). Her experiences defined a new goal for Fran Drescher as she became an outspoken advocate against cancer.
Not only has she become an anti-cancer activist, but Fran Drescher has also founded a non-profit organization to create an awareness known as the Cancer Schmancer Movement. The movement, which was launched in June 2007, on the seventh anniversary of her cancer operation, aims to ensure early detection of cancer, especially for women.
What is Her Net Worth?
The American actress Fran Drescher is estimated to have a net worth of 25 million dollars since she is not only an actress but also a comedian and film producer. She is a star herself and became a sought-after actress after her appearance in the family series The Nanny – a series in which she was a co-creator alongside her first husband. It was aired on CBS from 1993 to 1999.
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Married Life – Who is Fran Drescher Husband?
Fran Drescher survived cancer and was married twice. Her first marriage was to her high school sweetheart, Peter Marc Jacobson. They were married on November 4, 1978, three years after graduating high school, and their wedding took place in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York.
Although the marriage lasted more than two decades, she never gave birth to a child before it fell apart and they were separated in 1996 before officially signing the divorce papers in 1999. Fran claims that her divorce was due to a midlife crisis and her desire to rediscover herself. Jacobson also turned out to be gay after the end of their marriage.
While they were still together, Drescher and her girlfriend were raped in their house while her husband was tied up and the episode was happening before his eyes. The sad event occurred in 1986 and left the couple standing on the brink of the abyss. However, they managed to navigate through the ugly incident by seeking advice.
Their second marriage was not to be concluded until 2014 (more precisely, September 7), when she married Shiva Ayyadurai – who is credited with inventing the e-mail service – in an informal ceremony at her American residence. They met the year before at an academic event where he had given a speech but were divorced two years after the marriage.
Body Facts – Height
Fran Drescher has a body structure that can be described as an hourglass body structure. At her age, she still turns heads with her still firm curves in the right places. Her body statistic is 34-24-34 inches (chest – waist – hips). Fran is 5 feet (1.65 m) tall and weighs 140 lbs (64 kg).