As a singer, Whitney Houston needs no introduction. However, as a Christmas movie star, she can come across as somewhat more obscure. Even so, she found success in that avenue of life as well. Not only did she star in the surprisingly good 1996 Christmas movie The Preacher's Wife, but she did it opposite the great Denzel Washington and earned a lot of money for her efforts.

A remake of the 1947 film The Bishop's Wife (itself based on the 1928 book of the same name), The Preacher's Wife is a fantasy comedy-drama about the stressed-out Henry Biggs (Courtney B. Vance). who goes through a crisis of faith as his church stands in the way of a real estate mogul's (Gregory Hines) construction project. Luckily, an angel named Dudley (Washington) and Biggs' wife Julia (Houston) are there to support the preacher. Unfortunately, it looks like they both fall in love. Of course, it's a Christmas movie, so despite the potential for heartbreak, the ending is happy — much like Huston's bank account since she took the role. In fact, her salary for The Preacher's Wife was an impressive $10 million.

For context, this was back in the day when movie star salaries were skyrocketing across the industry, with Jim Carrey earning as much as $20 million per film. Still, when you consider that the era's top-grossing starlet, Demi Moore, earned $12.5 million for her lead role in Strips , Huston's $10 million paycheck for a relatively low-stakes holiday movie is impressive by all standards.

Whitney Houston was only 48 years old when she tragically passed away in 2012. Thanks to 2022 musical biopic Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody and the same year is clear Netflix's 'Beauty' inspired by Houston, she remained a powerful presence in the film industry even after her death, but The Preacher's Wife was far from her only noteworthy film project during her lifetime.

Huston's most famous film is her acting debut "The Bodyguard". Although Hollywood bigwigs warned Kevin Costner not to cast Houston for the 1992 romantic drama about famed singer-actress Rachel Marron (Houston) and her former Secret Service bodyguard Frank Farmer (Costner), the film's global box office haul of $411 million against a $25 million budget speaks for itself. . In addition to propelling Houston into an even brighter light than before, the music-filled film is full of great tunes that earned it two Oscar nominations. It also gave Houston her signature song, a cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" — though not before Costner had to defend Houston from a blow when her record company didn't like the song's opening.

Apart from The Bodyguard and The Preacher's Wife, Huston's acting career is also remembered for her role as Savannah in Forest Whitaker's 1995 comedy-drama Waiting to Exhale. She also played the Fairy Godmother in the 1997 TV movie Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. Her last film role was in Salim Akil's musical drama Sparkle, which was released in August 2012 - just months after her death.