”Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Those wise words from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off ring true for Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. Carrie Bradshaw and Ferris Bueller might be Hollywood’s unlikeliest couple, but Sarah and Matthew are inseparable. Join us as we get to know the power couple, their careers, family, and the secret to their long-lasting marriage.
Matthew’s Childhood
Matthew Broderick was born on March 21st, 1962, in Manhattan’s West Side, New York City. His mother was Patricia, a playwright, actress, and painter, while his dad, James, was an actor and World War II veteran.
He and his two sisters attended the City and Country School in Manhattan before attending high school at Manhattan’s private Walden School. Matthew first caught the acting bug in high school plays and decided to attend the HB Studio, New York’s renowned acting school.
Sarah’s Childhood
Sarah Jessica Parker was born in Nelsonville, Ohio, on March 25th, 1965. Her parents were Barbara Keck, a nursery school teacher, and Stephen Parker, an entrepreneur and journalist. Sarah’s parents divorced when she was three, and her mother married truck-driving account executive Paul Forste. Sarah had seven siblings between the two marriages, including actors Timothy Britten Parker and Pippin Parker.
Her mom and stepdad moved to Dobbs Ferry, New York state, and Sarah studied singing and ballet in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and New York’s School of American Ballet.
Matthew’s Early Career
Matthew’s first major theater role came opposite his father in Horton Foote’s On Valentine’s Day. The young star stated, “Before I knew it, I was like this guy in a hot play. And suddenly, all these doors opened…” Tragically, James Broderick passed away in 1982 before his son became a film star.
Matthew first played a hacker in 1983’s Wargames before starring in 1985’s Ladyhawke. Then, in 1986, Broderick landed his most iconic role. He played the title slacker in John Hughes’ seminal ’80s coming-of-age movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Car Wreck
Matthew dated his Ferris Bueller co-star, Jennifer Grey. On August 5th, 1987, while holidaying in Northern Ireland, he swerved their rented car into the wrong lane and crashed head-on into another car. Tragically, the mother-and-daughter occupants of the other vehicle lost their lives instantly.
Broderick suffered a fractured leg and ribs, a collapsed lung, and a concussion. He was charged with causing fatalities by dangerous driving. But instead of receiving five years in prison, he was convicted of careless driving and fined $175.
Matthew’s Girlfriends
Regarding girlfriends, Matthew’s high school sweetheart was actress and future Mrs. Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick. Oh, and Remember Matthew’s first stage role in Horton Foote’s On Valentine’s Day? Well, while shooting the 1985 film adaptation, he dated the writer, Horton Foote’s actress daughter, Daisy Foote.
Then, in 1987, Matthew starred in Project X, in which he and Helen Hunt free chimpanzees used in secret Air Force projects. Broderick and Hunt dated for about a year after bonding over bonobos.
Sarah’s Early Career
Sarah’s first stage role was appearing with four of her siblings in a St. Louis, Missouri, production of The Sound of Music. She made her Broadway debut aged 11 in the 1976 revival of The Innocents. In 1979, she played Annie; by 1984, she danced with Kevin Bacon in Footloose.
SJP appeared in Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Flight of the Navigator, which should have starred Matthew Broderick but didn’t. In 1991, she starred with Steve Martin in the underrated LA Story.
Sarah’s Boyfriends
Matthew wasn’t the only one who dated fellow Hollywood stars. In 1984, SJP dated Michael J. Fox before he became famous as Back to the Future‘s Marty McFly. Next, she dated Hollywood bad boy Robert Downey Jr. from 1984 to 1991, once saying, ” I believed I was the person holding him together.”
Sarah had a busy 1991, dating John Kennedy Jr., singer-songwriter Joshua Kadison, and Nicolas Cage. But as winter descended on New York, everything was about to change for the better.
