Actress and singer best known for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 film Fame. Her song, "Flashdance... What a Feeling," became an international hit and won an Academy Award for "Best Original Song."
She was a finalist in the Little Miss America Pageant at the age of three.
Her first starring role was in the 1976 film Sparkle. The film was a box office bomb.
She married Conrad Pamisano in 1986. The couple divorced in 1991.
She found her first success with the 1980 movie Fame, which was directed by Alan Parker.
