Whitney Houston and 'The Bodyguard'

The tragic death of music legend Whitney Houston, ironically, coincides with the 20th anniversary of her movie debut The Bodyguard (1992).

In that film, she played Rachel Marron, a singer/actress who, after being nominated for an Academy Award for her acting, begins receiving death threats. This leads to former Secret Service agent Frank Farmer (played by Kevin Costner) being assigned to protect her as Oscar night approaches. The two begin to fall in love with each other as Frank’s efforts to protect Rachel increase.

Costner was on a winning streak at the time. His two previous films, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) and JFK (1991), were successful, and his Oscar-winning triumph with Dances With Wolves (1990), put him at the top of the Hollywood ladder (at least for a while). His work as Farmer is fine, and when viewed today, makes one sad that most of his subsequent movies haven’t scored as well with audiences.

But it was Houston who made the film memorable. Like Saturday Night Fever (1977), this film’s success was due to its soundtrack and Houston is the one who made that soundtrack the smash it was.

The only reason "I Will Always Love You" did not get the Oscar for Best Original Song is because Dolly Parton had written it years earlier. However, the movie’s other songs, such as "I’m Every Woman," "I Have Nothing" and "Run to You," are equally great (the latter two were nominated for Best Song, but would lose to ‘A Whole New World’ from Aladdin).

Whitney would only appear in five more films, with her final one, Sparkle, set for release in August. The Bodyguard showed the world that she had as much charisma on the big screen as she did on the stage.