Dolly Parton has found a way to appeal to people of all different backgrounds, political views,
and musical preferences, and a lot of that comes from her charming and winning roles as an actress.
Here are some of Dolly Parton's best movie and TV appearances.
9 to 5 is a female empowerment comedy cult classic that still holds resonance
in today's conversation about gender politics in the workplace. A young Dolly Parton made
her film debut and proved her acting chops along with her singing talents in this role:
she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original song for "9 to 5" in 1981, and she also received
her first three Golden Globe nominations, for Best Actress, Best Song, and New Star of the Year.
Dolly plays a secretary named Doralee, who endures harassment from her boss, Mr. Hart.
She and fellow female coworkers Judy (played by Jane Fonda) and Violet (played by Lily
Tomlin) get together one night over drinks and spin revenge fantasies about their boss.
Pretty soon, the trio are putting their ideas into action,
and the hijinks lead to kidnapping, as they take over the office in his name.
"What the hell is going on, who authorized this?"
"You did, Mr. Hart, it's your signature."
"That’s very funny."
There was talk of a sequel for decades,
but according to Entertainment Weekly, that was officially scrapped in 2019.
That doesn't stop Dolly, Jane, and Lily from still making appearances together once in a while,
like at the 2019 Primetime Emmys, where they received a standing ovation.
Starring alongside Burt Reynolds in this musical comedy based on a Broadway play of the same name,
Dolly Parton shines as singer/actress in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,
playing Mona, a madam of a local brothel. Believe it or not, the story is based on a real place,
the Texas Chicken Ranch in La Grange, Texas, which closed in 1973. The Chicken Ranch had
been in operation since 1915, and during the Great Depression the madam in charge at the time would
take chickens as payment, according to Wide Open Country. Truth is truly stranger than fiction.
In the film, Burt Reynolds played local sheriff Ed Earl Dodd, who fights to keep the brothel
open after a reporter questions its legality. Dolly insisted on singing some of her original
songs in the film, including a rendition of her hit song "I Will Always Love You."
She and Reynolds also sang the famous duet "Sneakin' Around." Parton received
a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) in 1983.
Parton certainly gets paired with some strange love interests. In Rhinestone,
Parton plays Jake Farris, whose mission is to make New York cab driver Nick — played by Sylvester
Stallone — into a country singer overnight in order to nab a contract with a club manager.
The film was based on the hit Glen Campbell song "Rhinestone Cowboy."
The result was, well, kind of embarrassing, especially for Stallone,
who actually sings. And it's not a hidden talent of his,
if you were wondering. He doesn't even look like he enjoys singing onscreen, which makes
the performance all the more agonizing. Dolly, though, is all charm and smiles, of course.
Stallone turned down lead roles in Romancing the Stone and Beverly Hills Cop to make Rhinestone,
and it's no secret that he regretted his choice. Of course, Dolly sings. She even garnered two top
10 country singles for her songs "Tennessee Homesick Blues" and "God Won't Get You."
The film... wasn't exactly a success. It even got a few Razzie Award nominations,
including Razzie wins for Worst Actor and Worst Original Song for Dolly's "Drinkenstein." We can
go ahead and blame that one on Stallone, too, who drunkenly groans through the number. But
true-blue Dolly fans enjoy the film for its musical performances and fun, campy acting.
Dolly stars in the sweet family tale “A Smoky Mountain Christmas” as country
music star Lorna Davis, who finds refuge from her chaotic life in Los Angeles in the - yep
you guessed it - Smoky Mountains at a friend's cabin right around… right you are… Christmas.
She then runs into some strange and lovable characters, including a witch and seven seriously
adorable orphan children on her journey. Her first made-for-TV Christmas film was,
and still is, a wholesome classic tradition for many Dolly fans during the holidays.
Does the story sound familiar? That's because Dolly basically becomes the Smoky Mountains
version of Snow White with the children acting as her "seven dwarves." The witch tries to
poison Lorna with an apple pie, but all's well that ends well in this Christmas gem.
Did we mention there's also a lot of singing? Dolly performs nearly a dozen Christmas tunes,
including the classic "Here Comes Santa Claus" and her own song, "Country Memories."
If Hallmark Channel had been around in 1986, this would have definitely been on it.
A classic film and a certified tear-jerker, Steel Magnolias has an all-star cast
including Dolly Parton as hair stylist and beauty shop owner Truvy Jones. Based on the book and play
by Robert Harling, the story touches on some very dark family topics, including diabetic pregnancy.
Shelby, played by a young Julia Roberts, decides to get pregnant despite the life-and-death medical
risks involved with her type 1 diabetes diagnosis. According to The Atlantic,
the touching storyline is based on Harling's sister's experience with the disease, which is
possibly why it comes across as so real and personable. Over the course of the film,
Shelby decides to go against the medical advice she receives to become a mom, and the film's cast
of close-knit women find ways to support her in her journey, even if they don't all agree with it.
Steel Magnolias has been praised as a celebration of women. It is rare for
a film's stars to be all women, while the male characters take a back seat.
Dolly's character Truvy was created for Harling's friend, Margo Martindale,
who played the character off-Broadway. Apparently, the film's director, Herb Ross,
was not a huge fan of Parton. The cast of ladies have discussed Ross years later, divulging that he
was not only harsh on Roberts but said to Dolly, quote, "Why don't you take some acting lessons?"
to which Sally Field exclaimed, quote, "You don't say that to Dolly Parton!"
To this day, the film's cult audience couldn't imagine the movie without her.
This one is almost like watching a warped B-movie set to music. The made-for-television film,
co-starring Gary Busey of all people, features Dolly as an aspiring country singer, Thiola
Rayfield, who isn't having the best luck with her career. While singing in nightclubs on the road,
she meets Justice Parker — that's Busey — the owner of a Texas club, and they fall in love.
But it turns out that Justice is an alcoholic with mental health issues who
physically abuses Thiola. When he's murdered, she becomes one of the suspects.
Wild Texas Wind gets a lot of criticism for not handling domestic violence the right way,
but it generally received positive reviews. Plus, it co-stars Willie Nelson, so it has
that going for it. A sequel and studio album were both discussed, but neither ever materialized.
Another oddball film featuring an unexpected love interest for Dolly is Straight Talk. This
time her paramour is played by James Woods, while Dolly plays a lovable Southern failed
dance instructor named Shirlee who leaves her boyfriend and moves to Chicago to start anew
as a modern career woman. Shirlee quickly finds herself working for
a sleeper hit psychiatric radio show and becomes an accidental radio psychologist.
It's also a romantic musical comedy. Sound strange?
It is. But it's worth it to see Parton's charismatic performance.
She was easily hailed as the best part of the film and quite possibly its only saving grace,
as Woods was savaged by critics. Empire wrote that Woods, quote, "[looks] terrible
[and] is less happily employed with quite the most excruciatingly corny lines of his career." Ouch.
The late great critic Roger Ebert gave Straight Talk only two stars,
but while he panned the film in general,
he did single out Dolly for praise. Now there's a critic who knew what he was talking about!
In this lighthearted feel-good story, Dolly plays a narcissistic singer named
Ruby Diamond who dies suddenly by crashing her car after avoiding a deer on a country road.
Ruby enters Heaven and discovers that because she was willing to risk her life for a deer,
she has a chance to stick around. However, she has to pay her dues first. Angel-in-charge Peter
tasks Ruby with helping a dysfunctional family come together after the death of
the matriarch in time for Christmas. Ruby accepts the challenge and becomes the family's new nanny,
even singing and playing guitar for the forlorn youngins.
Dolly composed original songs for Unlikely Angel with help from Velton Ray Bunch. The
film follows the classic Christmas Carol tropes, with Parton essentially playing Ebenezer Scrooge,
and even has a little Sound of Music thrown in, because why not. Hey, they said it was unlikely!
In Blue Valley Songbird - a made-for-television flick that aired on Lifetime,
Dolly plays Nashville singer Leanna Taylor,
who channels music as a kind of therapeutic method in order to face her troubled childhood.
Parton was inspired to make the movie after writing the song
"Blue Valley Songbird." According to her official website, Dolly said,
"As soon as I wrote the song, I had full intentions of making
a movie from it [...] In my mind, I thought, 'This is like a screenplay.'"
Dolly executive-produced the film and was very involved throughout the process. She said,
"I felt it was very important to find Southern people to write this script [...] The writers
we chose were both from the South, so they had an understanding of it."
Dolly Parton paired up with fellow powerhouse performer Queen Latifah for this film,
which celebrates the church choir with a lively rock-gospel musical. Latifah plays Vi
Rose Hill opposite Parton as G.G. Sparrow, two friendly rivals in a church choir.
A young Keke Palmer is cast as the choir's young starlet and Queen Latifah's daughter,
Olivia. Parton and Latifah enjoy playing off of each other as polar opposites:
Vi Rose is pious, humble, and god-fearing, whereas G.G. is loud, gaudy, and audacious.
"Who gives a rat's ass
if I've had a few nips and tucks? God didn't make plastic surgeons so they could starve!"
Parton wrote and performed two new original songs for the film, though most of the music
is dominated by covers of well-known favorites from various genres. The film's raucous finale
is a Glee-like mashup of songs by Usher, Sly Stone, and Stevie Wonder, among others.
While some critics panned Joyful Noise for being embarrassingly cheesy,
others lovingly refer to it as the unofficial Sister Act 3.
Everyone loves a good Christmas movie — especially if it stars a country music
legend who sings Christmas songs about her own life. Yes, it's true: Christmas of Many Colors:
Circle of Love is a Dolly Parton biopic and acts as a sequel to her film Coat of Many Colors.
The story focuses on Dolly's childhood growing up poor in the Smoky Mountains.
Dolly narrates, giving the audience some background as the story unfolds,
and of course, her songs supply the musical backdrop.
Deeply personal songs like "Nickels and Dimes" make for a heartfelt experience,
while Ricky Schroder and Jennifer Nettles give moving performances as Dolly's parents.
It's safe to say that making Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love
was a true labor of love for Dolly.
Maybe the most unusual appearance Dolly Parton has ever made in a movie
is in the Netflix film Dumplin' - because technically, she doesn't actually appear in it!
However, she was the driving force and guiding light behind the film.
And though Dolly herself doesn't show up on screen, her music is used throughout, especially
in some key sequences featuring Drag Queens performing Dolly hits in a burlesque medley.
The story follows teen Willowdean Dickson, played by Danielle Macdonald,
whose mother — played by Jennifer Aniston — is a former pageant queen in small-town Texas.
When mom puts on a pageant, Willowdean decides to enter as a protest against the imposition
of mainstream beauty standards, with the Dolly impersonators providing full support.
Screenwriter Kristin Hahn, who adapted the story from
the bestselling young-adult novel by Julie Murphy, said about Dolly,
"She ended up being, essentially, a fairy godmother to the movie."
Dolly's manager was a fan of the script and approached Dolly enthusiastically about the
project. It turned out that Dolly had a copy of the book already sitting on her bookshelf!
So not only did Dolly help the film get made, but she paired up with Linda Perry to curate
the soundtrack, which features original versions of Dolly classics "Dumb Blonde" and "Jolene."
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