Kristen Nöel "Kristy" Swanson (born December 19, 1969 in Mission Viejo, California) is an American actress. She began her career appearing in several teen films, including Pretty in Pink (1986) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). She is best known for playing Buffy Summers in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Catherine "Cathy" Dollanganger in the 1987 film version of the V. C. Andrews book Flowers in the Attic.
Works with pages on TV Tropes:
- Pretty in Pink (1986)
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
- Deadly Friend (1986)
- Flowers in the Attic (1987) (1987)
- Knots Landing (1987–1988, 8 episodes)
- Mannequin Two: On the Move (1991)
- Hot Shots! (1991)
- Highway to Hell (1992)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
- The Program (1993)
- The Chase (1994)
- Higher Learning (1995)
- The Phantom (1996)
- 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997)
- Big Daddy (1999)
- Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)
- CSI: Miami (2004, episode "Complications")
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2007, episode "Bombshell")
- Psych (2011–2014, 6 episodes)
Tropes associated with her works include:
- Leg Focus: In the 2000 comedy Meeting Daddy,note her character is introduced from the feet upwards while wearing a red miniskirt.
- Psychopathic Manchild: In the web series 3 Way, Swanson's Psycho Lesbian character stalked her ex obsessively despite having been served with a restraining order in the past. She befriended the ex's mother behind her back and later snuck into her house and played a mean prank disturbingly similar to one of the most heinous deeds of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. She also sleeps with a Big Bird doll.
- Race Lift: Plays a very WASP-y seductress in the 1997 made-for-TV movie Bad to the Bone. The story was Ripped from the Headlines, and Swanson's character was based on the Korean-American murderess Catherine Suh.
- Real-Life Relative: Starred alongside her niece Amanda Swanson in the film Storm Rider.
- What Could Have Been:
- Swanson was cast as the lead in the Made-for-TV Movie Blowing Smoke. But financing fell through and when the project got picked up again, Estella Warren was cast instead.
- Swanson claims she and Louise Fletcher were sent scripts for a Petals on the Wind adaptation that never got made. It would have focused on Cathy's various affairs with older men. Swanson claims she didn't find the script very good, calling it "a real sexfest". She was later offered to play the older version of Cathy in Lifetime's adaptations of If There Be Thorns and Seeds of Yesterday but she had a scheduling conflict.
