A petite, soulful-eyed, young actress who went from playing the daughter Erica Kane bore after
a rape on ABC's "All My Children" to being "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (The WB, 1997-2001; UPN,
2001- ), Sarah Michelle Gellar earned a Daytime Emmy Award (for "All My Children") before she
was old enough to legally order the celebratory champagne. Acting from age four, she made her
professional debut as Valerie Harper's daughter in the 1983 CBS TV-movie "An Invasion of Privacy".
The next year, the brunette could be seen in a small role in the big screen "Over the Brooklyn
Bridge", which starred Elliot Gould. Billed as Sarah Gellar, she also appeared in the feature
"High Stakes" (1989). In the early 90s, she was in the pre-Broadway production of Neil Simon's
"Jake's Woman" and played supported Matthew Broderick (then Eric Stoltz) in the Off-Broadway
production of Horton Foote's "The Widow Claire". Her TV career also
began in earnest in the 90s. Gellar played the young Jacqueline Bouvier in the NBC miniseries
"A Woman Named Jackie" in 1991, and was one of the adolescents in a small wealthy suburb on
the short-lived syndicated soap opera "Swan's Crossing" (1992). For two years (1993-1995),
she played the role of the scheming Kendall Hart on ABC's "All My Children". Her character
was supposed to be the child born to Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) after a teen-age rape who arrived
in town determined to make Erica pay dearly for having given her up for adoption at birth.
Gellar was twice-nominated for an Emmy and shortly after winning in 1995, it was announced
she would be leaving the show. Rumors swirled about the young actress and her relationship
with the veteran Lucci. (Gellar was quoted by TV GUIDE as saying "We didn't have a perfect
working relationship.") Relocating to California, Gellar won the
role of Dyan Cannon's spoiled daughter in the Disney ABC TV-movie movie "Beverly Hills Family
Robinson" (1997). She then landed the leading role as Buffy, based on the 1992 feature. Playing
a high school teen who is "the chosen one" of her generation to destroy vampires but who also
would like to have a normal adolescence, Gellar won critical praise for her comic abilities
and her physicality. She also landed a major role alongside rising stars Ryan Phillippe,
future husband-to-be Freddie Prinze Jr and Jennifer Love Hewitt in "I Know What You Did Last
Summer" (1997) and a smaller part as one of Neve Campbell's college chums in "Scream 2" (also
1997), both from the pen of screenwriter Kevin Williamson. While she floundered in the romantic
comedy "Simply Irresistable" (the film wasn't), Gellar shone as a teenage version of the Marquise
de Merteuil in "Cruel Intentions" (both 1997), the surprisingly adept resetting of the French
classic "Les Liaisons Dangereuse" to tony Manhattan. The actress next graced the big screen in
"Harvard Man" (2001), a sexy cheerleader and Mafia princess who seduces the title character.
Geller then reunited with Prinze to co-star in the live-action version of the popular cartoon
"Scooby Doo" (2002), an ironic in-joke as the crimefighters on her TV series were nicknamed
"the Scooby gang".
2004 Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Characters played: Daphne, Daphne Blake
2002 Scooby-Doo
Character played: Daphne
2002 Harvard Man
Character played: Cindy Bandolini
2002 Saturday Night Live: Sarah Michelle Gellar [3]
Character played: Host
2000 Angel: Sanctuary
Character played: Buffy Summers
2000 Angel: Five by Five
Character played: Buffy (uncredited)
1999 Cruel Intentions
Character played: Kathryn Merteuil
1999 Saturday Night Live: Sarah Michelle Gellar [2]
Character played: Host
1998 King of the Hill: They Call It Bobby Love
Character played: Marie
1997 Scream 2
Character played: Cici Cooper
1997 Beverly Hills Family Robinson
1997 I Know What You Did Last Summer
Character played: Helen Shivers
1989 High Stakes
Character played: Karen
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Alyssa Milano
