Dolly appeared as herself in the made-for-television mini-series "Naomi & Wynonna: Love can Build a Bridge," the true life story of Naomi and Wynonna Judd. The mini-series which originally aired May 14-15, 1995, on NBC, tells the story of the Judds as single mother Naomi turned to music as a way to deal with her increasingly rebellious teen daughter Wynonna and follows them as they make the leap from singing at home through Nashville to national celebrity.
The series is narrated by Naomi’s second daughter Ashley Judd and features a short cameo appearance by Dolly. Variety’s review found Naomi and Wynonna to be, "above average for the genre."
The made-for-television movie about the late singer was nominated for two primetime Emmy Awards (cinematography and hairstyling). The movie which originally aired on CBS on, Jan. 22, 1995, depicts West’s childhood, the start of her career, her highest successes (in particular her duets with Kenny Rogers) and her fatal 1991 car crash.
Dolly appeared as herself in the big screen adaptation of the classic television series, 'The Beverly Hillbillies.' The movie starred Jim Varney as the family patriarch Jed Clampett who strikes oil and decides to move to Beverly Hills. Dolly appears in the film to sing Happy Birthday to the Jed Clampett character. The movie is also a reunion of sorts as it reunites Dolly, Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman.
Dolly wrote and performed "If You Ain’t Got Love" for the film’s soundtrack.
Dolly topped the country charts twice with "I Will Always Love You," in 1974 and 1982. When it was picked as a last-minute replacement for "The Bodyguard" soundtrack it became one of the best love songs ever recorded. David Foster produced Whitney’s signature version and called it, "The love song of the century."
Houston’s version of "I Will Always Love" went on to be one of the most successful singles in music history. It spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts; it reached No. 9 on the New Musical Express list of the Greatest Number One Hits in History and No. 49 on Billboard’s Greatest Songs of All Time.
Dolly starred in the 1992 Hollywood Pictures movie "Straight Talk" as Shirlee Kenyon a small town girl who ditches her boyfriend, moves to Chicago, and through wacky hijinks ends up successfully hosting a successful talk radio program. The movie co-starred James Woods and included a cast of other notables such as Spalding Gray, Teri Hatcher, John Sayles and Jerry Orbach.
Dolly contributed 10 original songs to the soundtrack. She wanted to infuse as much of her own personality into the advice given by her character that she went back to her basics,
"We Dollyized it as much as we possibly could... I drug up every old country saying I'd ever heard. I was callin' up relatives sayin', `Gimme some of them good old sayins....'"
The movie opened at number four and earned over $20 million.
