Birth Name
Naomi Ellen Watts

Nickname
Queen of Remakes

Height
5′ 5″ (1.65 m)

Mini Biography

Naomi Watts was born in Shoreham, England on September 28, 1968 to Peter and Miv Watts. Peter Watts, the road manager to Pink Floyd, died when Naomi was seven and she began to follow her mother and her brother around England until they settled in Australia when she was fourteen. She coaxed her mother into letting her take acting class when they arrived. After bit parts in commercials, she landed her first role in For Love Alone (1986). Naomi met her best friend, Nicole Kidman, when they both auditioned for a bikini commercial and they shared a taxi ride home. In 1991, Naomi starred along Kidman in the sleeper-hit Flirting (1991) directed by John Duigan. Naomi continued her career by starring in the Australian “Brides of Christ” (1991) co-starring Oscar-winners Russell Crowe and Brenda Fricker. In 1993, she worked with John Duigan again in Wide Sargasso Sea (1993) and director George Miller in Gross Misconduct (1993). Tank Girl (1995), in 1995, an adaptation of the comic book was a cult hit, starred Naomi as “Jet Girl”, but it didn’t fare well at the box-office and didn’t do much for her career as a whole. Watts continued to take insignificant parts in movies including the much forgotten film Children of the Corn: The Gathering (1996) (V). It wasn’t until David Lynch cast her in the critically acclaimed film Mulholland Dr. (2001) that she began to become noticed. Her part as an aspiring actress showed her strong acting ability and wide range and earned her much respect, as much as to say by some that she was overlooked for a Oscar nomination that year. Stardom finally came to Naomi in the surprise hit The Ring (2002/I), which grossed over $100,000,000 at the box-office and starred Watts as a investigative reporter hunting down the truth behind several mysterious deaths seemingly caused by a video tape. While the movie did not fare well with the critics, it launched her into the spotlight. In 2003, she starred in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams (2003) which earned her – what some say is a much overdue Oscar nomination and brought others to call her one of the best in her generation of actors. The same year, she was nominated for 21 Grams (2003), Naomi was chosen to play “Ann Darrow” in director Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005) which took her to New Zealand for a five month shoot. Watts completed her first comedy in I Heart Huckabees (2004) for director David O. Russell, playing a superficial spokes model – a break from her usual intense and dramatic roles she is known for. In 2005, she reprized her role as the protective-mother-reporter “Rachel Keller” in The Ring Two (2005). The movie, released in March, opened to $35,000,000 at the box office in the first weekend and established her as a box-office draw. Also in 2005, it was decided that her independent movie Ellie Parker (2001) would be re-released in late 2005 after its success at resurfacing at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie, which Naomi also produced, features her in the title role and is a bit biographical, but yet exaggerated take of the life of a struggling actress as she comes to Hollywood and encounters nightmares of the profession (it also features Watts’ own beat-up Honda which she travels around in). In 2006, she starred with Edward Norton in The Painted Veil (2006). In July of 2007, Naomi gave birth to a boy, Alexander Pete in Los Angeles with Liev Schreiber. Since then her career choices have gathered even more critical acclaim with starring roles roles in German director Michael Haneke’s American remake of his thriller Funny Games U.S. (2007), David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises (2007), and the action-thriller, The International (2009/I), released in February 2009. In mid-2008, Watts announced she was expecting her second child with Schreiber and gave birth to another boy, Samuel Kai in New York on December 13.
IMDb Mini Biography By: ratisfatter@yahoo.com

Trivia

Daughter of Peter Watts, road manager for Pink Floyd until 1974.

Best friends with Nicole Kidman, since a casting call for commercial when they were girls.

Moved to Australia when she was 14.

Is a vegetarian.

She once appeared in an Australian television commercial turning down a date with Tom Cruise for her mum’s lamb roast.

Was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People Magazine in 2002.

Her brother, Ben Watts, is a well-known photographer. He’s been living in the US since 1994.

Featured on the cover of the Australian Empire Magazine March 2003 for Women of the Year 2002.

Voted the 14th Sexiest Female Movie Star in the Australian Empire Magazine September 2002.

When her cell phone sounds, it plays Pink Floyd’s “Money”.

Her father died when she was seven.

Accepted the role for 21 Grams (2003) without reading the script first.

She met Heath Ledger on the set of the new historical epic movie Ned Kelly (2003), and the pair dated until May 2004. He was eleven years younger than her.

She has a Yorkshire terrier named Bob.

Her favorite actresses are Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster and Julianne Moore. For music, her favorite artists/bands are Fiona Apple, Coldplay, Björk, Radiohead, Cat Stevens and Pink Floyd.

Moved in with best friend Nicole Kidman after Kidman spilt up from husband Tom Cruise.

Director David Lynch asked her to be in the movie Mulholland Dr. (2001) after picking out her headshot from a stack of actors.

Claims she wanted to become an actor after seeing the movie Fame (1980).

Spent some of her early childhood in Anglesey, Wales, where her mother is from.

Starred in and produced 2001′s Ellie Parker (2001), which was made into a kind of cult classic about a struggling actress in Hollywood and the nightmares she encountered. The movie resurfaced in 2005 at the SunDance Film Festival and is set to be re-released in December of 2005.

Ranked #76 on Forbes 2005 Power in Entertainment List.

Had an horrific fall on the New Zealand set of King Kong (2005). She fell from a height into a ditch, to the shock of the cast and crew. She thanked her rigorous practice of yoga for saving her from any permanent damage.

Parents: Peter Watts and Myfanwy (Miv) Watts.

Grandparents: Hugh & Nikki Roberts

Her parents divorced when she was four.

When she was 20 years old, she was an assistant editor at “Follow Me” magazine in Australia. After a friend begged her to try acting, she quit her job instead and never looked back.

Was accompanied by her boyfriend Liev Schreiber to the King Kong (2005) US-premiere. It was their first public appearance together.

Model for David Yurman [2006]

When she was 18, she tried her hand at modeling and was hired by an agency in Japan.

Was among the guests at Nicole Kidman’s and Keith Urban’s wedding

When shooting a movie, uses a specific song to get herself ready for each scene.

Was Fernando Meirelles’s first choice for the role of Tessa Quayle in The Constant Gardener (2005), but she declined due to her commitment to King Kong (2005). Rachel Weisz was then given the role.

Named #99 in FHM magazine’s “100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006″ supplement. (2006).

Was voted #29 on AskMen.com’s Most Desirable Women of 2006.

Named #2 in the French edition of FHM magazine’s “100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006″.

Ranked #2 in the UK FHM’s most eligible women (2006).

Was voted 3rd in Entertainment Weekly’s Entertainers of the Year in December 2005.

Named #4 of Sexiest Women over the age of 35 according to the editors at MSN Lifestyle: Men.

Is good friends with actor Mark Ruffalo and his wife Sunrise Coigney.

Friend of Kate Hudson and Carla Gugino.

At age 39 she gave birth to her first child, a son named Alexander Pete Schreiber, on July 25, 2007, fathered by boyfriend Liev Schreiber. Alexander weighed in at 8 lbs. 4 oz., and is 22-1/2 inches (Alexander is named for his grandfather and Peter is named for her father, Peter Watts).

Played a struggling actress living in L.A. twice: in Mulholland Dr. (2001) and in Ellie Parker (2005).

Engaged to actor Liev Schreiber. [2007]

Her mother Miv Watts is an interior designer.

Turned down the role of “Susan Storm” (Invisible Girl) in Fantastic Four (2005). Jessica Alba later got the part.

Dated director Stephen Hopkins.

Enjoys martial arts and trained Judo for a long time. She participated in amateur Judo championships through the early 90s, from 1989 to 1992. Nowadays, she trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

In 2007, a rumor circulated that she had been cast as Narcissa Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). The day after the rumor appeared, her PR reps claimed it wasn’t true.

Her favorite “scary movie” is Don’t Look Now (1973) (1973).

Considers herself to be both British and Australian.

At age 40, she gave birth to her second child, a boy named Samuel Kai, on December 13, 2008. He weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz.

Is 19 months younger than her brother, Ben.

The maniacal laughter heard in the Pink Floyd song “Money” is her father’s, Peter Watts, the band’s then road manager.

Returned to work two months after giving birth to her son Alexander in order to begin filming The International (2009/I).

Was in contention for the role of Hanna Schmiz in The Reader (2008), along with Marion Cotillard, after Nicole Kidman dropped out due to pregnancy. However due to scheduling conflicts she had to back out and the part was eventually given to Kate Winslet.

Was cast in a King Lear adaptation as Goneril alongside Keira Knightley (as Cordelia), Gwyneth Paltrow (as Regan) and Anthony Hopkins (as King Lear). The movie was shelved.

Worked as a nanny for Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise when she was struggling in Hollywood.

Godmother of Simon Baker and Rebecca Rigg’s son Claude.

Has been in at least seven remakes/revisions: Down (2001), The Ring (2002/I), Ned Kelly (2003), Ellie Parker (2005), King Kong (2005), The Painted Veil (2006) and Funny Games U.S. (2007).

Returned to work one month after giving birth to her son Samuel in order to begin filming Mother and Child (2009).

Before finally accepting a lead role in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010), she was forced to turn down roles by Woody Allen in both Melinda and Melinda (2004) and Cassandra’s Dream (2007) due to scheduling conflicts.

Shot her leading role in Mother and Child (2009) in only 8 days.

Attended North Sydney Girls High School.

It is often assumed that she met fiancé Liev Schreiber on the set of The Painted Veil (2006), but they actually met at the New York Met ball in 2005.

Was three months pregnant with her son Alexander when she completed filming on Eastern Promises (2007).

Owns homes in both Los Angeles and New York City.

Wanted to play Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), but was considered too old for the part, and the 14-years-younger Anne Hathaway was cast instead.

Mother Myfanwy Watts is Welsh.

Her maternal grandmother was Australian.

Spokeswoman for Audi (2011).

Spokeswoman for Pantene haircare (2011).

Model for Ann Taylor (2011).

Good friends with frequent co-star Sean Penn.

Personal Quotes

‘Pain is such an important thing in life. I think that as an artist you have to experience suffering. It’s not enough to have lived it once; you have to relive it. Darkness is not a pejorative thing.”

“There’s a lot of skeletons in my closet, but I know what they’re wearing. I’m not gonna act all ashamed of it” – on her early career.

It was total naivety that got me to Hollywood. I thought it was going to happen straight away. I told myself ‘give it 5 years, there’s no way I’ll be here after that if it doesn’t happen’. Cut to ten years later!

On set is where I feel comfortable. The red carpet stuff, talking about the film, explaining your own life, it doesn’t come naturally. It’s all necessary stuff I suppose but it’s not my strength.

I find myself gravitating towards drama. It interests me. In the books I read, the paintings I like, it’s always the darker stuff.

For the record, I am actually British as well as Australian. People always think I’m Australian but I’m happy for the Brits to claim me back. I’m offering myself up.

Instead of thinking ‘how can I slow the ageing process?’ I think ‘how can I bend the rules?’ Every year you add to your life, you’re going to add a different experience to your face.

Whatever is said about roles drying up, I intend to keep working. Certainly now the roles couldn’t be more interesting – playing mothers, divorcees. I think it’s going to be exciting to play a mother of teenagers. The longer your life, the deeper it gets.

My mum put me in drama classes when I was about 14. I’d been going on about it for some time, so maybe it was a way to shut me up.

“We’re so afraid of death in our culture, but I think if we understand it better, then we’ll appreciate the life we have more.” – in response to 21 Grams (2003).

“I’ve had people who’ve seen 21 Grams (2003) say, ‘Wow, you’re so brave to be looking like that’. This shocks me. I think that’s what an actor’s job is, to lose yourself in a role”.

“You have to make peace with yourself. The key is to find the harmony in what you have.” quoted in the Feb 01, 2005 issue of WOMAN’S WORLD

If I have to produce movies, direct movies, whatever to change the way Hollywood treats older women, I’ll do it. If I have to bend the rules, I will. If I have to break them, I will.

Even during my most intense scenes with Sean Penn (in 21 Grams (2003)), we found ways to have fun. Sure, I have my dark moments, but I’m the girl you’ll see driving down the highway singing to Blondie.

“It’s always nerve-racking to take off your clothes on film. But doing it with a woman felt safer than with a man. You know you can say, ‘Don’t grab me there: That’s where my cellulite is’!” [after being asked if it was hard to do a love scene with a woman (Mulholland Dr. (2001)]

I always love being in the company of women. It’s all about good conversation and great wine.

“The consequences are that you fear and dread being abandoned. You get a little tougher, and it’s more difficult for you to become intimate. The pros are that you can adapt to any situation and that you’re open to new surroundings. A lot of people get stuck in their ways, but I embrace change.” on moving frequently when she was younger.

“The biggest place I look for validation is from my mother. That’s the little girl in me that will never grow up.” – on why not having an Oscar yet doesn’t faze her.

“That ad recently turned up in a magazine in Australia. My head is in my hands as I’m sitting at as desk, thinking, ‘When can I start using tampons?’ I was quite old, but I was supposed to look 12″. – on one of her first gigs

I’m a tomboy now. I always wanted to fit in with my brother’s group, so I climbed trees and played with lead soldiers. But I’m a woman’s woman. I never understood women who don’t have woman friends.

Yeah, I suppose I am ordinarily drawn to the darker stuff. You won’t find me in a romantic comedy. Those movies don’t speak to me. People don’t come to talk to me about those scripts, because they probably think I’m this dark, twisted, miserable person.

“Every time I dress up to go somewhere, I say this is who I am: like, I feel like a Russian hooker tonight. A long time ago, I put on a Stella McCartney top with a huge amount of feathers, and I had really black eye makeup and stringy hair. My mom was like, ‘That top’s not working’. But that’s what I looked like, a Russian hooker”.

I keep saying to myself, Oh, God, I’m sick of playing these dark, harrowing roles. I want a big paycheck, so put me in some dumb romantic comedy any day.

When I had dark hair I definitely felt that I was more anonymous.

I had gotten to a place where I truly believed everything I was called: ‘not sexy,’ ‘not funny,’ ‘too intense,’ desperate.’ All those labels they gave me, I took them because there wasn’t a trace of my true self left. – on the struggles of her early career

To be appreciated or recognized is everything to an artist, but to be placed in a category where judgment occurs is awful, and yet we are all liars if we can’t admit that we haven’t all chased it or dreamed of it, even just a little bit.

Every time I’d think to book a ticket to leave L.A., something would come up-even just a three day job or something. That was enough to keep me invested. I still pinch myself when a certain director calls and says, ‘Would you like to read my script?’ I don’t take any of it for granted because I struggled for so long.

Yes, I’ve had six great years of being in a position where I can pick and choose a bit, but it’s not like I suddenly feel so calm and relaxed about that. Having spent a large portion of my life with a constant struggle and trying to find ways to make it work, that’s what sticks with me.

There’s a set of rules out there somewhere that says it all ends by 40. I hope to be able to defy that because I truly love my work.

I don’t think I’m really the go-to girl for that sort of cheery popcorn movie. I’ve done that little bit of lightness in King Kong, and I Heart Huckabees was definitely goofy, but I just don’t connect that well to romantic comedies because they’re usually so formulaic and not really based in truth.

I’m not this dark, twisted person. Yes, I have my demons and this is my way of exorcising them. It gets them out – and better out than in. Actually, I think that it’s the comedians who are the darkest people on the planet, because they think life’s just bloody hilarious. – on the usual dark roles that she is known for.

To be a producer is not something that I look at as a position of power. I just think that I have these great connections, let’s use them. I believe in it. You believe in it. Let’s do it.

People think of me as the go-to-girl for nervous breakdowns. (On the type of roles she’s offered.)

I’ve done a few remakes now, as you know. And my philosophy is, you see the original film once, and that’s it. You have to do whatever you can to shut it out, because you don’t want your performance to be tainted. You don’t want to fall into the trap of comparisons, basically.

Auditions are just so humiliating and degrading. You get a five-minute time slot for a part you’ve spent six hours or more studying for or thinking about, and you get into these rooms full of people who barely make eye contact. They’re bored and frustrated that they can’t find the right person, energy that is instantly crushing and which makes it hard to shine. Going through that process over and over, you become so wounded and guarded that it’s impossible to give you best stuff away. That’s why I will never forget what David Lynch did for me. When he cast me in Mulholland Dr. (2001), I was literally at the lowest place, and yet he managed to pull away all those masks.

It was quite difficult to turn off during the end of the day. Most people will ask me, ‘Was this scary to make, scary to watch?’ Usually the answer is no, because in most films, you shoot out of sequence so everything’s fragmented. But this film was shot very much in chronological order and it pretty much takes place all on one set. Michael doesn’t cut a lot — one shot is held for endless minutes. So it was hard. The set was at times a very tense place – On filming Funny Games U.S. (2007).

They both had such difficult parts. Michael, particularly, had endless amounts of dialog, and Haneke wanted to shoot long takes without angles, which meant both guys had to be very much on their game. I was so impressed with both of them. They’re very fine actors and although they struggled with it — playing these hideous, psychotic people — I think there was some fun in it, too. Michael Pitt is also someone who works from a very organic place and Haneke had lots of instruction for him. You feel very trapped and confined. And the material is so heavy and it makes you so very tense. – on “Funny Games” co-stars Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet

Since this was a remake, there was the fear that you’re going to be compared to the original actors. The fact that Michael was designing each shot the exact same way as the original meant that you had to do the same blocking and tread the same steps as those actors. And then you think, oh wow, how can I invent this character, how can I find this scene in my own organic way? Michael’s way is so mapped out — I’d go to the sink, go to the fridge, then back to the sink — it became such a heady thing and it’s not like I prefer to work. I like to feel it and surprise myself. – more on “Funny Games” writer/director Michael Haneke

Aside from the endless discussions and imagining various scenarios — the ‘what-ifs’ — I happen to know two people that had been held hostage in their home. To know even two people is scary; it reminds you that this sort of thing really can take place. – on preparing and relating to “Funny Games”

It was the character that drew me to this project. It’s a genre film, and you get all those moments that you get in a genre film, but you get a little bit more. I think it’s more psychological. And the character has her own personal journey to go through, and I particularly liked it for that reason. Rachel starts out as a flawed person and not the greatest mother. She’s not asking the questions, she’s a little bit driven and focused on what she thinks is the right thing to do, which is work, work, work, survive, survive and provide for my child. But it’s only after all the drama and the chaos happens that she realizes that it’s not just about that. It’s about spending time and asking the questions and recognizing what your child needs before he states it. — On what drew her to The Ring (2002/I).

Yes, I did. I saw it once. I read the script and I really liked the script. I got excited about it, and then I managed to get hold of the copy of the Japanese version. It was particularly difficult to find as I was shooting a film in the south of Wales. The video store people looked at me blankly. And when I got hold of it, I was in my hotel room alone and watching it on a very small TV monitor, and I remember being pretty freaked out. I just saw it the once, and that was enough to get me excited about doing it. But then, after that, I didn’t want to look at it too much, because when you’re doing a remake, I think it can be dangerous, because seeing how the other actor played the role could corrupt your own ideas or take you in a direction that’s not exactly where you would have planned to go — On watching “Ringu” before shooting The Ring (2002/I).

I’d have to say when I found out that my son was watching the tape. And then again, when I was totally exasperated at the end. … I really felt like I was touching on melodrama, and you’re just going for it, and you’re just like shrieking, and you’re always afraid that it’s too much, but it really warrants that in the story. It’s really about trusting Gore, because we’ve got to make sure that everything is paced well up to that point so it isn’t melodrama. Obviously, it’s a very, very dramatic situation, and she’s reached that point where she just can’t take it anymore. So you’re doing it on the day and you’re just always concerned how it’s going to play out in the structure of the story. And then also, I’d have to say that the horses on the boat was particularly difficult. I mean, I felt terrible for the horses, but we had the animal people there who were watching very closely and telling us what we could and couldn’t do, and everyone on the set was incredibly quiet and respectful in order not to spook them anymore than they were already being spooked. … But it was great. I think it’s a pretty powerful scene. — on what her most difficult scenes were in The Ring (2002/I).

Well, in Mulholland Dr. (2001), I played these two characters that weren’t based on any reality and they were very extreme people. I felt this character, “Rachel Keller”, was very ordinary even though she’s presented with extraordinary circumstances. She’s a normal person who’s just a mother and to her everything is OK. Life is just dandy. Then this horrible thing comes into her life. She’s forced to question her sanity. It seems completely implausible and then the journalist part of her goes out the window and it becomes about survival for her and for her family. It’s pretty intense — On what attracted her to the role of “Rachel Keller” in The Ring (2002/I).

It’s a bunch of images that are really quite nasty. They don’t exactly correlate but you work out what they mean later on in the story, and that alone is pretty scary — On the videotape in The Ring (2002/I).

I went straight from one movie to another. I had about a week of rehearsal and that was my preparation. It was a huge movie and I had like a billion costume, changes and things like that took precedence over any acting preparation. But really fear is a pretty simple emotion to play. It’s a pretty good driving force, so imagination really was my key — On preparing for The Ring (2002/I).

[on her role in "Fair Game"] I’m probably one of the few people who can say I breastfed my baby while packing a loaded gun.

I’m so not feeling in my best physical shape and there I am having to strip naked — which I’d never even done before [on her role in "Mother and Child."]

I’m incredibly grateful for being in a position where the phone still rings and the calls are still coming in from directors I respect. I feel like my intentions are the same as they have always been. I can’t be seduced into doing (a film) for the wrong reason. The moment I do, I’ll probably fail.

Everyone said I was an overnight success, but it was ten years leading up to that.

Trivia

She grew up in Melbourne, the daughter of film composer Cezary Skubiszewski.

Graduating from Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts with the best actress award.

Birth Name
Emily Olivia Leah Blunt

Height
5′ 7½” (1.71 m)

Mini Biography

Emily Blunt is a British actress best known for her roles in The Young Victoria (2009) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006).

She was born Emily Olivia Leah Blunt on February 23, 1983, in Roehampton, South West London, England, the second of four children in the family of a teacher mother and barrister father. She received a rigorous education at Ibstock Place School, a co-ed private school at Roehampton. However, young Emily Blunt had a stammer, since she was a kid of 8. Her mother took her to relaxation classes, which did not do anything. She reached a turning point at 12, when a teacher cleverly asked her to play a character with a different voice and said, “I really believe in you”. Blunt ended up using a northern accent, and it did the trick, her stammer disappeared.

From 1999 – 2001, Blunt went to Hurtwood House, the top co-ed boarding school where she would excel at sport, cello and singing. She also had two years of drama studies at Hurtwood’s theatre course. In August 2000, she was chosen to perform at the Edinburgh Festival. She was signed up by agent, Ken McReddie, who led her to the West End and the BBC, scoring her roles in several period dramas on stage as well as on TV productions, such as “Foyle’s War”, “Henry VIII”, and “Empire”. In 2001, she appeared as “Gwen Cavendish” opposite Dame Judi Dench in Sir Peter Hall’s production of “The Royal Family” at Haymarket Theatre. For that role, she won the Evening Standard Award for Best Newcomer. In 2002, she played “Juliet” in “Romeo and Juliet” at the prestigious Chichester Festival.

Blunt’s career ascended to international fame after she starred as “Isolda” opposite Alex Kingston in Boudica (2003). A year later, she won critical acclaim for her breakout performance as “Tamsin”, a well-educated, cynical and deceptive 16-year-old beauty in My Summer of Love (2004), a story of two lonely girls from the opposite ends of the social heap. Emily Blunt and her co-star Natalie Press shared an Evening Standard British Film award for Most Promising Newcomer. In 2005, she spent a few months in Australia filming Irresistible (2006) with Susan Sarandon and Sam Neill. Blunt gave an impressive performance as “Mara”, a cunning young destroyer who acts crazy and surreptitiously provokes paranoia in others. She also continued her work on British television, starring as “Natasha” in Stephen Poliakoff’s Gideon’s Daughter (2005) (TV) opposite Bill Nighy, a role that won her a 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role.

She continued the line of playing manipulative characters as Emily, a caustic put-upon assistant to Meryl Streep’s lead in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). Blunt’s performance with a neurotic twist added a dimension of sarcasm to the comedy, and gained her much attention as well as new jobs: in two dramas opposite Tom Hanks, then in the title role in period drama The Young Victoria (2009). Her most recent works include appearances as antiques dealer Gwen Conliffe in The Wolfman (2010) and as ballerina in The Adjustment Bureau (2011).

Emily Blunt is a highly versatile actress and a multifaceted person. Her talents include singing and playing cello; she is also skilled at horseback riding. She was in a relationship with Canadian singer Michael Bublé, whom she met at the Australian Logie Awards in 2005, and again a few months later backstage at his Los Angeles concert. Their relationship ended in 2008. Blunt’s friend, Anne Hathaway, introduced her to John Krasinski, and they have been together since November 2008. On August 28, 2009, Blunt and Krasinski announced their engagement. The couple married On July 10, 2010, at the estate of their friend, George Cloony, on Lake Como in Italy. Emily Blunt and John Krasinsky are living in Los Angeles area, California.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov

Spouse
John Krasinski (10 July 2010 – present)

Trivia

Bought a $2.2 million new house in Vancouver where she lived with her boyfriend at the time, pop singer Michael Bublé.

Co-star Meryl Streep has praised Blunt as the best young actress she’s worked with in some time, perhaps ever.

Named Best Female Scene-Stealer for her performance in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) by Entertainment Weekly.

She was told to lose weight for her role as Emily in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). She revealed this in a 2006 interview with Craig Ferguson. Co-star Anne Hathaway tells a similar story, and reports that she and Emily were always hungry on-set due to being kept on strict diets to maintain the rail-thin “super-model” look.

For her breakout performance in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Emily convinced David Frankel that her character should be British rather than American. Emily also improvised many of her lines and told interviewers that she based the character on people she’s met, but would never want to associate with.

In 2004, Emily shared the prestigious Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer with Natalie Press.

Acting and adopting new accents helped her to overcome a debilitating speech impediment at age 12.

Admits she and her The Devil Wears Prada (2006) co-star Stanley Tucci competed to see who could be more over-the-top in their scenes. Tucci admits his young co-star won “hands down”.

At the 2002 Chichester Festival, Emily earned rave reviews playing Juliet in a production of Romeo and Juliet.

Favourite actresses are: Cate Blanchett, Emma Thompson, Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman.

Made her theatrical debut alongside Dame Judi Dench in The Royal Family. She had only six months of formal acting training before gaining the role of Gwen.

Susan Sarandon asked her to audition for the role of Mara in Irresistible (2006) after seeing My Summer of Love (2004).

Upon filming their first scene together for The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Meryl Streep laughed that Blunt should be given the film carbon copy, rather than steal the movie.

She is not related to singer James Blunt.

She is the great-niece of actor and retired Major-General Tony Richardson.

Grew up in Roehampton, London.

The new face of Max Mara add campaign (2007).

Her ex-boyfriend Michael Bublé wrote the hit single “Everything” for her. She is also on his album “Call Me Irresponsible”, where she sings briefly at the end of the song “Me and Mrs. Jones”.

Was named as one of Screen International’s “Stars of Tomorrow” alongside James McAvoy, Noel Clarke, Michelle Ryan and Rupert Friend.

Attended the 2008 Park City – Kari Feinstein Sundance Style Lounge.

Broke up with longtime boyfriend Michael Bublé in July 2008. They had been together since 2005.

Best friends with actress Anne Hathaway. Emily refers to Anne as “her rock”.

Announced her engagement to actor John Krasinski on August 28, 2009. They have been together since November 2008.

Is a strong alto singer.

Is a grade 8 cellist.

At 16, was offered a record deal after a producer spotted her in the musical ‘Bliss’ at the Edinburgh Festival.

Had a hamster named Tigger.

Was in a relationship with JJ Feild, her “Death on the Nile” costar. [2004]

Was in consideration to replace Katie Holmes in the role of Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight (2008), but Maggie Gyllenhaal was cast instead.

Was in consideration for the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (2012) after Keira Knightley dropped out of the project, but Carey Mulligan was cast instead.

Was in consideration for the role of Madolyn in The Departed (2006), but Vera Farmiga was cast instead.

Was originally cast as Natasha Rushman/Black Widow in Iron Man 2 (2010), but dropped out due to a scheduling clash with Gulliver’s Travels (2010). As a result Scarlett Johansson was cast instead.

Was in consideration for the role of Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), but Hayley Atwell was cast instead.

Niece of Crispin Blunt who is a Member of Parliament (MP) for the British Conservative Party and also holds the post of Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Justice.

Neighbors with Jimmy Kimmel.

She is also the grand-daughter of Major General Peter Blunt CB., MBE., GM., FCIT., and read a piece, beautifully, at his funeral in 2003. He won the George Medal for rescuing a soldier from truck soaked in petrol after an accident in Germany.

Enjoys horseback riding.

Ranked #8 in the ‘Women We’d Love To Love’ by a poll of 4,000 gay women.

Ranked #73 in the 2009 FHM list of “100 Sexiest Women in the World”.

Ranked #53 in the 2010 Ask Men list of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women.

Ranked #58 in the 2009 Ask Men list of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women.

Ranked as having one of the most “Beautiful Famous Faces” by “The Annual Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces From Around the World.” She was ranked #19 in 2010 and #34 in 2009.

Personal Quotes

I’d love to be exciting and say that I was the rebel at school, but sadly I wasn’t.

(On her manipulative character in My Summer of Love (2004)) “Whether they like to admit it or not, everyone’s got a bit of “Tamsin” in them”.

(On being an actress) “You feel very much like a puppet, but it had been what I was accustomed to – so you just get on with it and try to find something that rings true.”

(On why she is often cast as the bad-girl) “I have sly eyes. When I was in school they always said, ‘Emily can never be elected Head Girl because you never know what she’s thinking.”

(On Susan Sarandon) “She’s just a force of nature. Amazing to work with. We just had such a laugh. And, she’s frighteningly smart”.

(On becoming a successful actress) “It was just crazy. It just sort of fell into my lap. It’s an awful story for people who’ve struggled and waited. It’s a horrible thing to hear. It was just incredibly fortunate. And now I can’t believe I was so casual about it, because I really wouldn’t want to do anything else.”

(On her childhood) “My head was occupied all the time. I was confused about what I wanted to do or who I was; I didn’t really feel I had an identity growing up.”

(On performing period-drama dialogue) “I mean, you try to make it as real as possible but when you have lines like ‘The fallen eagle is Caesar; the vulture Octavius, and there is one, yet to be decided, who will betray them all’. And you’re just like, ‘Great, how am I going to make that work?’.”

(On accepting her Golden Globe in 2007 without a written speech) “The Globes night was a frenzy: I hadn’t written anything. I looked down at the audience and Jack Nicholson was staring up at me and I couldn’t even remember what my bloody name was. So I have learnt my lesson!”.

I couldn’t talk as a kid because I stammered all the time, so I would just watch. I’m fascinated by human behavior. People surprise me all the time. And I love being able to morph into different characters.

[on playing her second lesbian character in a film] I’m going to become a gay icon. Have I ever flirted with that side? No, never [but] I do remember girl crushes on other girls in my year group [at school]. There are these girls who are magnetic and beautiful and sooo cool. You just feel yourself shrink in their presence.

[on acting] I guess it’s not really a job, is it? I was speaking to Billy Connolly the other day and we were talking about the work he’s done for Comic Relief and all that he’s done in Africa and I was saying ‘Gosh, sometimes I just wonder if I have a worthwhile job’, and he said: ‘I’m going to stop you there. You have an incredibly important job. You offer people an escape, you offer people a way out and some relief from anything they might be going through and it’s a very important job.’ Because he was so adamant about it and spoke very passionately about why it was an important job, it’s the first time I’ve realised that it might be that.

I wonder if I’ll be alive? God knows. I’m not very good at looking that far ahead. I’d love to not have a walker at 80. I’d love to still be upright. And children and grandchildren, I’d love that. I’d love not to be a cantankerous old bat. I’d love to be a fun-loving nana. — on what will she be like at age 80

Yes. I heard a conversation with a studio head who said that they’re willing to make an Adam Sandler film or a Will Smith film and maybe one $20m film a year and that’s it. That’s quite worrying that the studios are only going to be willing to spend money on films that are no risk, with the big stars that everyone is going to flock to see. So unfortunately there’s a lot of films with a very human heartbeat that aren’t getting seen or made. I think there’s a great sadness in that. — on if she worries about independent, offbeat films will struggle to get made because of the economic climate

I think it’s embarrassing to hear people talk about their process because you always sound a bit wanky. You always imagine people are reading the article going: ‘Oh, get a real job.’

I learned very early on to reel everything in. Sometimes you just shouldn’t do anything because the camera sees everything – like the smallest flick of your eye and it catches it and it reads as something. The performances I enjoy are the ones that are hard to read or ambiguous or left-of-centre because it makes you look closer and that’s what humans are like – quite mysterious creatures, hard to pinpoint.

It’s a film where human behavior is so fascinating that I could watch someone making pancakes with their child all day because of everything that’s going on between them. That little boy – I want to cry thinking about it – he was just magical in it. It’s the best performance by a kid I’ve ever seen — on one of her favorite films, Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).

It’s not like people say, “Oh my Gosh, are you Emily Blunt?” It’s more like “Are you the girl in The Devil Wears Prada?” I’m defined by it and that’s okay.

[on her parents, enthusiastic gardeners]: I’ve never shoveled mud before, but I should.

Birth Name
Elisabeth Judson Shue

Nickname
Lisa

Height
5′ 2″ (1.57 m)

Mini Biography

Being born into a well-established and well-educated family doesn’t necessarily mean much. Despite such family accolades, Shue’s parents divorced while she was in the fourth grade. Owing to the occupational demands of her parents, Shue and her siblings found plenty of time to get into trouble in their suburban neighborhood, but Elisabeth soon enrolled in Wellesley College, an all-female institution which kept her out of trouble.

During her studies, she found a way to make a little extra money by acting in television commercials. Elisabeth became a common sight in ads for Burger King, DeBeers diamonds, and Hellman’s mayonnaise. In 1984, she landed a role in the The Karate Kid (1984) as the on-screen girlfriend of Ralph Macchio and a role as the teenage daughter of a military family in the short-lived series “Call to Glory” (1984). At this time, Shue got herself an acting coach and transferred to Harvard, where she began studying political science.

She continued her acting work with Adventures in Babysitting (1987), Cocktail (1988), Soapdish (1991) and The Marrying Man (1991). Unfortunately, time was catching up with the impressive girl-next-door. Her brother Andrew Shue had almost eclipsed her own fame by landing a starring role in the hit TV series “Melrose Place” (1992). It was at this time that Elisabeth took a chance on a low-budget, high-risk project entitled Leaving Las Vegas (1995), directed by Mike Figgis. Her gutsy portrayal of a prostitute mixed up with a suicidal alcoholic paid off as she was recognized with a Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards that year. This was the turning point of her career. What followed was a barrage of film roles, including The Saint (1997), Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry (1997), Palmetto (1998) and Hollow Man (2000).

Over forty years of age, Elisabeth still continues to impress with a variety of film and television roles that show off her versatility as an actress and not just her good looks and girl-next-door persona.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Ian Hamilton

Spouse
Davis Guggenheim (1994 – present) 3 children

Trivia

Son, Miles William, with Davis Guggenheim was born. [11 November 1997]

Older sister of Andrew Shue.

Got started in commercials as “The Burger King Girl.”.

Was an accomplished high school gymnast with aspirations to the state finals.

Majored in Government at Wellesley College; transferred to Harvard University in 1985; planned to become an attorney.

Graduated from Harvard University 8 June 2000 with a degree in Government. Shue was one semester short of earning her degree when she dropped out to pursue her career 15 years ago. She returned to Harvard in the spring of 2000.

Daughter, Stella Street, was born weighing 6 lbs. 7 oz. [19 March 2001]

Named her son after her late older brother, William Shue, who died in 1988 at the age of 26 from a freak swimming accident while on family vacation.

Auditioned for the Sherilyn Fenn role in Of Mice and Men (1992).

Daughter-in-law of Charles Guggenheim and Marion Guggenheim.

Sister-in-law of Jonathan Guggenheim and Grace Guggenheim.

She has played 2 characters that have the last name McKay: Linda McKay in Hollow Man (2000) and Molly McKay in Molly (1999).

Was cast as the female lead in the Jim Carrey movie The Number 23 (2007) but had to drop out just weeks before shooting because of her pregnancy. Shue was replaced by Virginia Madsen.

Elisabeth and Davis became the parents of their third child, a daughter named Agnes Charles Guggenheim, on June 18, 2006.

She was amongst the final candidates for the female lead in Say Anything… (1989). According to director Cameron Crowe, “Elisabeth Shue did an amazing version of the graduation speech”. Jennifer Connelly was runner-up to Ione Skye, who got the role in the end.

The 2007 film Gracie (2007) is based upon events that occurred in her and her brother Andrew Shue’s lives.

Elisabeth replaced Claudia Wells as Jennifer Parker, Michael J. Fox’ girlfriend, in the two sequels to Back to the Future (1985). Claudia’s mother was dying from cancer, requiring the re-casting.

Sister-in-law of Amy Robach.

Personal Quotes

On Cocktail (1988): “If I’d known that it was just going to be about these guys throwing drinks around, then I might have had some second thoughts . . .”

I may look like the girl next door, but you wouldn’t want to live next door to me.

[on acting] The darker, more complex and emotional the part is, the easier it is for me. But I don’t take any of that stuff home with me at the end of the day.

Birth Name
Kelly Ann Lynch

Height
5′ 9″ (1.75 m)

Mini Biography

Kelly Lynch was born in 1959 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She started her acting career with a small job at the Guthrie Theater. She studied under acting teacher Sanford Meisner and became a model for the famous Elite Modeling Agency. She first gained acclaim for acting in the Gus Van Sant film Drugstore Cowboy (1989). Lynch earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her role in The Beans of Egypt, Maine (1994). She recently finished filming the 20th-Century Fox film Homegrown (1998), co-starring Hank Azaria and Billy Bob Thornton.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Matt Dicker

Spouse
Mitch Glazer (1992 – present)

Trivia

Mother of Shane Lynch (born 1986).

Turned down the Sharon Stone role in Basic Instinct (1992).

Former John Casablancas model who was discovered on an elevator.

Attended the Guthrie Theater Drama School, at the world renowned Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Niece-in-law of Sidney Glazier and Tom Glazer.

Best friends with Sheryl Crow

Worked briefly as an airline stewardess prior to becoming a model.

Daughter of Barbara Jean Dingmann and Robert Edward Lynch.

Birth Name
Sheryl Ann Fenn

Nickname
Sherri

Height
5′ 4″ (1.63 m)

Mini Biography

Her childhood was filled with change. Sheryl Ann (later “Sherilyn”) was the youngest of 3 kids. She and her two older brothers were raised by their musician mom, Arlene Quatro, who moved the family around Michigan. She and her mom went to L.A. when Sherilyn was 17. Within a couple of years, Sherilyn was working in TV and film, with multiple projects every year since 1984. Sherilyn, the petite (5′ 4″) beauty, had a small but memorable part in the gender-bender flick Just One of the Guys (1985). Her biggest claim to fame would come in 1990, when she got the prize role of Audrey in “Twin Peaks” (1990) after reading for all the female leads. Sherilyn made a memorable impression as the cherry stem-twisting siren. This was her breakout role; even now she says of her “Twin Peaks” (1990) experience: “It still makes me feel kind of proud and special to be part of something like that”. Her most over-the-top movie role was as the armless, legless star of Boxing Helena (1993) (a role which Kim Basinger backed out of). Back on TV, Sherilyn plays the juicy part of Billie Frank, a former soap actress confronting alcohol and other demons in “Rude Awakening” (1998) on Showtime. A frequent visitor on the set is her son, Myles. On the set, Sherilyn is noted for having a quirky sense of humor and a joie de vivre. Off-screen, Sherilyn is proud of the friendship she has maintained with her ex-hubby Toulouse Holliday, a musician and film technician. Sherilyn lives with her son, Myles, and two cats: Ophelia and Redmond. Sherilyn practices meditative kundalini yoga, and every room in her house has féng shui elements– crystals in one corner, water in another. Sherilyn enjoys biking, swimming and cooking, and of course being a mom: “After I had my son, I found life much funnier and brighter”.
IMDb Mini Biography By: kdhaisch@aol.com

Mini Biography

The sultry, versatile Sherilyn Fenn was born Sheryl Ann Fenn into a family of musicians of Italian and Hungarian descent on her mother’s side and of Irish and French descent on her father’s. Her mother Arlene Quatro played keyboard in rock bands, her aunt is rock-star Suzi Quatro and her grandfather Art Quatro was a jazz musician. Her father Leo Fenn was the manager of such bands as The Pleasure Seekers (the all-girl band formed by the Quatro sisters), Alice Cooper, and The Billion Dollar Babies. Sherilyn traveled a lot with her divorced mother and two older brothers before the family settled in Los Angeles when she was 17. Fenn, who says herself she’s demure didn’t want to start with a new school again and soon enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

Fenn began her career with a number of B-movies including The Wild Life (1984) (alongside Chris Penn), skater film Thrashin’ (1986) (opposite Josh Brolin) and teen-fantasy movie The Wraith (1986) (opposite Charlie Sheen). She had a memorable part in the cult teen-comedy Just One of the Guys (1985) in which she tries to seduce a teenage girl disguised as a boy, played by Joyce Hyser. Fenn landed her first starring role, as an engaged heiress to an old Southern family experiencing her sexual awakening in Zalman King’s erotic drama film Two Moon Junction (1988), after which she said she wanted to hide for a year.

Fenn won her most outstanding role and made an indelible impression on the public when she was cast by David Lynch and Mark Frost as the tantalizing Audrey Horne, the high-school femme fatale from the critically acclaimed TV series “Twin Peaks” (1990). The series ran from 1990 to 1991, and the character of Audrey was one of the most popular with fans, in particular for her unrequited love for FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan) and her style from the ’50s (with her saddle shoes, plaid skirts and tight sweaters). In the show’s second season, when the idea of pairing Audrey and Cooper was abandoned, Audrey was paired with other characters like Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) and John Justice Wheeler (Billy Zane). Sherilyn hit cult status when Lynch filmed her dancing on Angelo Badalamenti’s music and with another memorable scene in which her character knotted a cherry stem with her tongue.

Shortly after shooting Twin Peaks’ pilot episode, David Lynch gave her a small but impressive part in Wild at Heart (1990), as a girl injured in a car wreck, obsessed by the contents of her purse, opposite Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern.

According to Fenn, the turning point in her career was when she met veteran acting coach Roy London in 1990. She credits him with instilling confidence and newfound enthusiasm.

After two nominations (Emmy and Golden Globe) and covers for Rolling Stone and Playboy magazines, Fenn was propelled to stardom and became a major sex symbol. She was chosen as one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People in the World”, was named one of the “10 Most Beautiful Women in the World” by Us magazine, and one of the “100 Sexiest Women in the World” by FHM magazine. Fenn’s classic looks – with her lily-white skin, vertiginous boomerang eyebrows, beauty mark next to her left eye and topaz eyes – were highlighted by renowned photographers like George Hurrell Sr., Steven Meisel, and Bettina Rheims, and led her to be compared to the ones like Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner.

Fenn has had an eclectic career with a significant body of work following “Twin Peaks” (1990). She chose to focus on widening her range of roles and was determined to avoid typecasting. She turned down the Audrey Horne spin-off series that was offered to her, and unlike most of the cast, chose not to return for the 1992 prequel movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), as she was then shooting Of Mice and Men (1992).

She proved her mettle as an actress with varied roles in neo-noir black comedy Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel (1991) (as a sultry femme fatale, opposite Whip Hubley and David Hewlett), huis-clos Diary of a Hitman (1991) (the directorial debut of her acting coach Roy London, in which she plays a fragile mother who confronts hitman Forest Whitaker), John Mackenzie’s fictionalized biopic Ruby (1992), (as stripper Sheryl Ann DuJean, a Marilyn Monroe look-alike fictional character, who is a composite of several real-life women from Jack Ruby and president John Kennedy’s entourage; opposite ‘Danny Aiello’ and Arliss Howard), romantic comedy Three of Hearts (1993) (as Kelly Lynch and William Baldwin’s love interest), Carl Reiner’s 1940s detective parody Fatal Instinct (1993) (as Armand Assante’s lovesick secretary and Sean Young and Kate Nelligan’s rival) and Showtime’s biblical Slave of Dreams (1995) (TV), directed by Robert M. Young (as Potiphar’s seductive wife Zulaikha, opposite Adrian Pasdar and Edward James Olmos, and produced by Dino De Laurentiis).

A highlight of Fenn’s film career is Gary Sinise’s film adaptation of Of Mice and Men (1992), in which she brought nuance to the role of a seductive and lonely country wife, desperately in need to talk to somebody, opposite Sinise and John Malkovich.

In 1993, Fenn teamed up with David Lynch’s daughter Jennifer Chambers Lynch and starred in her directorial debut Boxing Helena (1993) as a haughty seductress forced to live in a box after her limbs were amputated by love-obsessed surgeon Julian Sands in an effort to possess her. Both Lynch and Fenn were proud of their work in it but the film – which was overshadowed by the lawsuits against Kim Basinger after she dropped out – ultimately was a critical and commercial failure.

Another outstanding performance was in NBC’s miniseries Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story (1995) (TV). During the shooting, Fenn fought to keep integrity in the script. Her priority was to respectfully and accurately portray Taylor, and she supported the original screenwriter’s effort to concentrate on Taylor the person, not the legend. The same year she starred in an episode of “Tales from the Crypt” (1989) directed by Robert Zemeckis, alongside Isabella Rossellini and John Lithgow, as the lover of Humphrey Bogart, who appeared in the episode via CGI special effects.

She went on to star in independent films that have been well received on the festival circuit like Jon Harmon Feldman’s Lovelife (1997) (as a low self-esteemed waitress, along with Bruce Davison, Jon Tenney, Carla Gugino and Saffron Burrows), romantic comedy Just Write (1997) (as the dream actress of Hollywood tour bus driver Jeremy Piven, who mistakes him for a famous screenwriter) and Adrian Pasdar’s neo-noir directorial debut Cement (2000), a contemporary re-telling of “Othello”, in which she played a tempting but imprudent femme fatale, alongside Chris Penn, Jeffrey Wright and Henry Czerny.

Tired of Hollywood, Fenn contemplated starting a European career when she starred opposite Ray Winstone in the British psychological drama and huis-clos Darkness Falls (1999) (as a wealthy, neglected wife, sequestered with her husband by a man determined to understand the events that led to his wife ending up in a coma).

She eventually decided to return to the United-States and gained newfound enthusiasm with the lead role in Showtime’s dark comedy “Rude Awakening” (1998) as Billie Frank, an alcoholic ex-soap actress who struggles with her self-destructive habits. Based upon creator/executive producer Claudia Lonow’s experience, the series ran from 1998 to 2001 and co-starred Lynn Redgrave, Jonathan Penner and Mario Van Peebles.

Following “Rude Awakening” (1998), Fenn’s film and television credits have included Showtime’s family comedy Off Season (2001) (TV), directed by Bruce Davison (along with Hume Cronyn, Rory Culkin, Adam Arkin and Davison; as a singer who takes care of her orphaned nephew), Matthew Ryan Hoge’s The United States of Leland (2003) (as a woman who represents happiness and joie de vivre to Ryan Gosling), Showtime’s Cavedweller (2004) (2004, along with Kyra Sedgwick and directed by Lisa Cholodenko), Geretta Geretta’s Whitepaddy (2006) (opposite Lisa Bonet and Hill Harper, as a woman who struggles with her dysfunctional family after she reluctantly returned home and tries to fit in with her new neighborhood that has become predominantly black), Emily Skopov’s Novel Romance (2006) (as a pregnancy shop owner, opposite Traci Lords and Paul Johansson), psychological thriller Presumed Dead (2006) (TV) (as a female detective working on a missing person case, who has to outwit crime novelist Duncan Regehr in order to get to the truth), and The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2007) (TV) (as a flirtatious version of Lulu Hogg).

Fenn has appeared along with Rob Estes and Milo Ventimiglia in a 2003 episode of Amy Sherman’s “Gilmore Girls” (2000), which was the pilot for a California-set spin-off, eventually dropped by the network. Sherman-Palladino brought her back in the series with a different part as Scott Patterson’s ex-girlfriend and protective mother to his daughter (2006-2007). Fenn had previously had recurring parts on “Dawson’s Creek” (1998), (2002, as Joshua Jackson’s seductive boss) and “Boston Public” (2000) (2003-2004, as a porn star turned tutor). Other notable guest appearances have included “21 Jump Street” (1987) (opposite her then-fiancé Johnny Depp), “Friends” (1994) (1997, as Matthew Perry’s wooden-legged girlfriend), “The Outer Limits” (1995) (2001, as a duplicated scientist), “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (1999) (2002, as a manipulative actress), and “The 4400″ (2004) (2005, as Jean DeLynn Baker, a 4400 who has the ability to grow deadly toxin-emitting spores on her hands).

Fenn’s interest in directing and children led her to step behind the camera to direct in 2006 a documentary film about child enrichment program CosmiKids. She subsequently joined its executive team as executive director of the film and television division.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Qylecoop

Spouse
Toulouse Holliday (4 December 1994 – 1997) (divorced) 1 child

Trade Mark

Classic beauty of the old Hollywood film stars that led her to be compared to such actresses as Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Vivien Leigh.

Arched eyebrows, beauty mark next to her left eye and porcelain skin

Trivia

Was engaged to Johnny Depp, whom she met on the set of the 1985 short student film “Dummies”. Their relationship lasted three years and a half.

Rumored to have dated Kiefer Sutherland

Niece of 1970s pop singer Suzi Quatro and musicians Patti Quatro, Michael Quatro and Nancy Quatro.

Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world. [1991]

Studied at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.

Sherilyn’s name is scrawled across Johnny Depp’s helmet in the movie Platoon (1986).

Her son Myles Maximillian, with ex-husband Toulouse Holliday, was born. [December 15, 1993]

Worked for 2 months as a Playboy bunny in LA when she was 19.

Was originally cast as Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn for the WB show “Birds of Prey” (2002) in its pilot episode, but was replaced for the rest of the season by Mia Sara. Fenn dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.

Measurements: 36C-25-35 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).

Daughter of Arlene Quatro.

Chosen by FHM magazine as one of the “100 Sexiest Women in the World” (ranked #10). [1995]

Chose her then-boyfriend photographer Barry Hollywood to photograph her in the December 1990 issue of Playboy magazine.

Director David Lynch described Sherilyn as “Five feet of heaven in a ponytail” and said she makes him think of a porcelain doll.

Made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, along with Mädchen Amick and Lara Flynn Boyle while promoting “Twin Peaks” (1990). [October 1990]

Starred in Adrian Pasdar’s debut feature as director Cement (2000) alongside Chris Penn. Fenn and Pasdar had previously co-starred in Slave of Dreams (1995) (TV) and Penn and Fenn had previously co-starred in The Wild Life (1984).

Practices Kundalini yoga.

Wished to portray silent-screen star Clara Bow.

Is part Italian and Hungarian on her mother’s side (her mother’s name Quatro is short for Quatrocchio), and part Irish and French on her father’s side.

Her grandfather, Art Quatro, was a jazz band musician. His band was the ‘Art Quatro Trio’.

Guest-starred opposite her then-fiancé Johnny Depp in an episode of “21 Jump Street” (1987).

Her favorite Elizabeth Taylor movies are Illusie van het geluk (1951), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and The Sandpiper (1965).

Daughter of keyboard player Arlene Quatro who played in the Suzi Quatro band, that Sherilyn’s father managed.

Made the cover of Playboy magazine in December 1990.

Although actress Elizabeth Taylor fought the unauthorized biography Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story (1995) (TV), she found that Fenn aptly portrayed her.

Her car accident scene in Wild at Heart (1990) came from director David Lynch’s impression of Fenn as a porcelain doll, and from the idea of seeing a porcelain doll breaking. He kept telling her about that, and that’s how the scene was born. Lynch said of the scene, “I just pictured her being able to do this. She’s like a broken china doll”. Lynch got the same inspiration for the car accident scene in Mulholland Dr. (2001). His direction to actress Laura Harring was to act like a broken porcelain doll.

There were plans to spin her “Twin Peaks” (1990) character Audrey Horne off into her own series, that didn’t come off. Apparently, Fenn’s character inspired David Lynch for Laura Harring’s character in Mulholland Dr. (2001), as Fenn said in an interview in 1997, “David was talking about ‘Mulholland Drive’, he talked about like ‘Audrey goes to Hollywood’. She’s driving along Mulholland in this convertible car… But it didn’t end up happening.”

While filming NBC’s Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story (1995) (TV), Fenn fought daily to keep integrity in the script. Fenn’s priority was to respectfully and accurately portray Elizabeth Taylor.

Wears Chanel no.5

Likes cold and rainy weather.

Shares with friend/former boyfriend Prince a great interest in silent- screen star Clara Bow, whom Fenn wished to portray.

Her acting coach was Roy London who directed the movie Diary of a Hitman (1991), starring Fenn and Forest Whitaker.

During the shooting of Darkness Falls (1999) in the UK, contemplated moving to London, being tired of Hollywood. Co-star Ray Winstone encouraged her to come to England. So did British director Mike Figgis, who said it would be very positive for her to do that, as England is quite different from Hollywood. He told her she has a great body of work and she could work all the time in Europe. [1997]

Inspired Norwegian hard rock band ‘Audrey Horne’, named after Fenn’s character in “Twin Peaks” (1990).

One of her favorite roles in a movie is Jessica Lange in Frances (1982).

Starred in an episode of “Tales from the Crypt” (1989) along with Isabella Rossellini, John Lithgow and “Humphrey Bogart”. Director Robert Zemeckis used footage of Bogart he included in the episode. Sherilyn plays Bogart’s lover. Fenn and Rossellini had already co- starred in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (1990) and both guest-starred in the third season of “Friends” (1994).

Of Mice and Men (1992) co-star John Malkovich is to her one of the best actors.

Chosen by Batman fans as a perfect Selina Kyle/Catwoman in a Batman dream cast.

Chosen by US magazine as one of the 10 Most Beautiful Women in the world. [1990]

Chosen by Femme Fatales magazine as one of the 50 sexiest sci-fi actresses. [1996]

Played two different characters (with different hair colors) on “Gilmore Girls” (2000): Sasha, the girlfriend of Jess’s estranged father in California, and Anna Nardini, the mother of Luke’s teen-aged daughter, April.

In 1992 photographer George Hurrell Sr. took a series of photographs of Sherilyn Fenn, Sharon Stone, Julian Sands, Raquel Welch, Eric Roberts and Sean Penn. In these portraits he recreated his style of the 1930s, with the actors posing in costumes, hairstyle and makeup of the period.

When asked why she did cast Fenn for two different roles on “Gilmore Girls” (2000), creator Amy Sherman said: “I love Sherilyn so much and I don’t care. One thing about the show is I just want the best people. I’ve just been looking constantly for a time to work with Sherilyn, and I’m getting very old and I could just get hit by a truck at any minute. I just simply can’t put it off that long, so I’d just rather get her in and have her part of my world.”

Became close friends with Jennifer Chambers Lynch while working together in Boxing Helena (1993).

Grew up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

Her father Leo Fenn was the personal manager of Alice Cooper for 13 years. He also managed “The Billion Dollar Babies” and Suzi Quatro’s “The Pleasure Seekers”.

Involved along with George Katt in the 2003 film project “Gin and the Rumble Within”. The film was to be directed by George Katt, who guest-starred opposite Sherilyn Fenn in “Rude Awakening” (1998), and would have starred Fenn and Katt.

Posed for photographer Steven Meisel for the autumn-winter 1991-1992 Dolce & Gabbana campaign.

Was originally cast as the female lead in ABC’s show “Prey” (1998), but was replaced by Debra Messing. Fenn starred in the unaired pilot episode.

Singer and composer Screamin’ Jay Hawkins wrote and recorded in 1993 a song entitled “Sherilyn Fenn”, featured on his album “Stone Crazy”. The song is an ode to Fenn, who worked with Hawkins in Two Moon Junction (1988).

Was originally cast as the female lead in ABC’s show “Three Moons Over Milford” (2005), but was replaced by Elizabeth McGovern. Fenn starred in the unaired pilot episode that also featured Jill Shackner as Lydia Davis and a guest appearance by Majandra Delfino.

Rumored to be considered for the title role in Roger Vadim’s remake of his own film Barbarella (1968). [1993]

Sherilyn is mentioned in the 1995 song “Razor Burn” by the punk band Lagwagon on their 3rd full length album entitled “Hoss”.

Chosen by Australian men magazine Zoo weekly as one of the “Top 50 Hottest Babes Ever”. [March 2006]

Chosen by The Daily Mirror as one of the World’s 100 Most Beautiful Women. [October 1996]

Auditioned for the Robin Wright role in The Princess Bride (1987).

Described by writer/director Emily Skopov as an “indie goddess”.

Inspired writer Sherilyn Connelly who took from Fenn the first name she goes under.

Joined the executive team of child enrichment program CosmiKids as executive director of the film and television division. [2007]

Was originally considered for the role of the femme fatale Lola, eventually played by Sean Young, in Fatal Instinct (1993). Fenn opted for the role of ‘Armand Assante”s lovesick secretary Laura and suggested director Carl Reiner cast Young as Lola.

Chosen by men magazine Maxim as one of ‘Maxim’s Most Wanted Women’. [October 1997]

Her second son Christian James was born. Father is boyfriend Dylan Stewart, a professional freelance Macintosh consultant and son of writer/director Douglas Day Stewart. [August 6, 2007]

Attended the 3rd Annual “Night With The Friends of El Faro” Benefit. [May 13, 2005]

Made the cover of In Fashion magazine alongside Billy Idol. [Winter 1990-1991]

Her name is translated in Chinese as “Xuelin Fen”, which means “Snow Jade”.

Cousin of Kristen Glass and drummer Michael Glass (of Overscene).

Directed an unfinished documentary film about child enrichment program CosmiKids and its founder Judy Julin. [2006]

Chosen by Wizard magazine as one of the “25 Sexiest Women of TV” (ranked #22). [March 2008]

Chosen by FHM magazine as one of the “100 Sexiest Women in the World” (ranked #62). [1996]

Chosen by FHM-Australia as one of the “100 Sexiest Women”. [1998]

Ranked #32 in AOL’s “50 Sexiest Women on TV of All Time” list. [November 2007]

Starred in a season three episode of “Gilmore Girls” (2000), which was the backdoor pilot for a California-set spin-off titled “Windward Circle”, that was to have starred Milo Ventimiglia, Rob Estes and Fenn. The network dropped the project citing cost issues due to filming on location in Venice, California. “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman wanted to work with Sherilyn Fenn again and wrote the character of Anna Nardini with Fenn in mind, in order to bring her back in the series. The character of Anna was originally to have a strong enough presence to be a potential threat to the character of Lorelai. However, after Sherman-Palladino left the show, the producers changed the direction originally intended for the character, as they decided to make her a villain in a custody battle.

Involved, along with Kate Winslet, Rufus Sewell, Miranda Richardson and Paul McGann in the 1998 film project “Johnny Hit and Run Pauline”. The film was to be executive produced by Emma Thompson, and written and directed by Fay Efrosini Lellios. The shooting was set to start in June 1998 in New Hampshire. The film was canceled due to financial withdrawal. [1998]

Her “Twin Peaks” (1990) character Audrey Horne was chosen by UGO.com as one of the “50 Best TV Character of All Time” (ranked #24). [2008]

Two of her co-stars, Adrian Pasdar (in Slave of Dreams (1995) (TV)) and Bruce Davison (in Lovelife (1997)), later cast her in their feature film directorial debuts, Cement (2000) and Off Season (2001) (TV).

After starring alongside Jeremy Piven (in Just Write (1997)), Mark Harmon (in Dillinger (1991) (TV)), and Virginia Madsen (in Zombie High (1987)), she guest-starred on their TV series “Cupid” (1998), “NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service” (2003), and “Smith” (2006).

Took the part of Lulu Hogg in The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2007) (TV) in order to work with director Robert Berlinger again. He had previously directed her on “Rude Awakening” (1998).

In an episode of VH1′s “The List” (1999) hosted by Johnny Rzeznik, she chose Tommy (1975), Purple Rain (1984) and Spice World (1997) as her top three best rock n’ roll films. [December 1999]

At the beginning of the shooting of the second season of “Twin Peaks” (1990), came down with a bad case of pneumonia, making headlines that the shooting of the series might be affected or that she might have to leave the show. As writer/producer Harley Peyton said in an interview: “It looked like it could give us some really serious problems. It turned out all right. She was tremendous and recovered rather quickly and came back sooner than she had to. We had different directors shooting each day and two directors shooting in a single day and, in fact, got all of her scenes done”.

Originally set to guest star in the episode of “Frasier” (1993) “The First Temptation of Daphne” but was unavailable when the episode was rescheduled. [2001]

According to Fenn, her acting coach Roy London played a pivotal role in her development as an actress.

Appeared as one of the celebrity models in a charity fashion show staged by Thierry Mugler to benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles. [April 1992]

Attended the 8th Annual Independent Spirit Awards. [March 27, 1993]

Director David Lynch said of her: “She’s a mysterious girl and I think that actresses like her who have a mystery – where there’s something hiding beneath the surface – are the really interesting ones”.

Created a blog called “Postcards from the Ledge”. [January 2009]

Co-starred in The Wild Life (1984) along with then-boyfriend Chris Penn.

Began filming “Tales from the Crypt: You, Murderer (#6.15)” (1995) the day after her wedding.

Dita Von Teese said Fenn’s Playboy pictorial was the original inspiration for dying her hair from blonde to black.

Posed for photographer Douglas Kirkland for the July 1990 issue of New York magazine, where she graced the cover with an American flag draping her nude body.

Attended the 2010 Twin Peaks Festival. [August 2010]

Attended the 2010 Fall Hollywood Show in Burbank, California, which held a “Twin Peaks” (1990) reunion. [October 2010]

Attended the 2011 Twin Peaks Festival. [August 2011]

Personal Quotes

[in "Orange Coast", 1/99, on the subtext that attracted her to the role of Helena in Boxing Helena (1993)] Women do feel like they’re in a box. Society, Hollywood, some men . . . they want to wrap women up in a neat little package.

[in "Orange Coast", 1/99] I’ve never wanted to do the same thing twice. If a script doesn’t surprise me in some way, I simply can’t commit to the project.

[in "Orange Coast", 1/99] I’m honest. I say what I feel. I try to be tactful, but I can’t not say what I feel. I have a really big problem with that.

[interviewed by M.J. Simpson, 10/1/97, on portraying Elizabeth Taylor in Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story (1995) (TV)] I fought to keep the integrity of the story because the producer was bringing in a writer that was making it very soapy. They wanted many scenes of her when she was very overweight. I said, “I’m not doing that. I’ll do one. That’s not this woman’s life”. For me it was just, I didn’t want to make an impression. I just tried to play the truth of the woman. Not the legend, not the stories that we hear about her. Because even when she was a child, you were seeing a version of her that was manipulated by the studios, so you didn’t really see her. I thought the closest she ever came to revealing herself was Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and she lost herself in that role. It was cathartic for her to do that in a lot of ways, to let herself be that wild.

[in "Orange Coast", 1/99] When I was a kid I saw Kansas City Bomber (1972), and I remembered thinking how beautiful and how strong Raquel Welch’s character was. So I went home and dressed up my Barbie like her character. I borrowed one of my brother’s little toy plastic football helmets and I made Barbie a “Kansas City Bomber” outfit.

[in "Orange Coast", 1/99] My acting has always been about doing things that I can grow from, that say something, or should be heard.

[[interviewed by M.J. Simpson, 10/1/97, on director David Lynch] I’m sure you’ve heard that description, “Jimmy Stewart from Mars”. Yes. Because a part of him is really so sweet and pure and innocent. He’d tell me my take was “Jim-dandy”, or “Doggone it, Sherilyn, that was cool”. His direction is abstract. He doesn’t ever say “Go do this” or “Go do that”. He’ll just tell you some weird story, or when I did Wild at Heart (1990) David’s direction was, “Only think of this: bobby pins, lipstick, wallet, comb, that’s it”. He’s very creative and unafraid of taking chances. We’d sit down and, “Oh, I don’t like this scene”. In “Twin Peaks” (1990) he rewrote this entire scene and had me dance in the middle of the room for like three minutes. “Just groove, honey. Just keeeep moving”. I was like, “Oh, okay. I feel like an idiot. What am I doing? Okay”. Then you see it and with the music, he’s set this whole world up, this whole mood. I really respect him, he’s wonderful.

[on silent-era star Clara Bow] Clara Bow’s an interesting actress because back then she was real honest. She was this Brooklyn girl who didn’t have a whole lot of class, she’d come right out and say what she wanted. And she ended up leaving Hollywood when she was 26 because all of that had transpired. She was fun, she was just who she was and she got badly criticized for that. When she arrived out here she was like the Madonna of the Twenties: people started dressing like her and doing their hair like her and the whole bit. But then the studios did what they do even now, they started making formula movies – the It (1927) girl pictures – and never allowed her to do anything else.

[in "Orange Coast", 1/99] I was told once that I didn’t play the Hollywood game, and that’s why I wasn’t a big star. What they meant when they said that was that I don’t go to parties, and when I go to an audition and I don’t like the script, they know it. I don’t flirt and I don’t play the people that I’m meeting with. In the next breath, this person said to me, “When you’re passionate about a role, there’s nobody that can touch you, but you have to learn to do this also . . . ” But I don’t know how to sit there and pretend I love something when I don’t!

I got into acting by a complete fluke. I was 17 and it was like, “I don’t wanna go to high school, what will I do? I don’t know. Let’s see . . . I’ll act!” So I was doing films before I had even taken an acting class.

[interview in "Playboy", 12/90, about playing Audrey Horne in "Twin Peaks" (1990)] Audrey’s been great for me. She has brought out a side of me that’s more mischievous and fun that I had suppressed, trying to be an adult. She has made it okay to use the power one has as a woman to be manipulative, to be precocious. She goes after what she wants vehemently and she takes it. I think that’s really admirable. I love that about her.

[in "The Face", 12/90, on posing for "Playboy" magazine] Everyone was a little concerned when I announced I was going to do it. But the people who’ve seen the pictures have said, “That’s it?!”, as if they were expecting something horrible. It’s an actor pictorial; people who want to see girls spreading their legs and doing kind of crude things are gonna go to the centerfold, they’re not gonna look at an actor’s pictorial. Well, they can look but they’re not gonna get what they want. The pictures are really beautiful, but they just make people look at you in a certain way.

[in "The Face", 12/90, on playing Audrey Horne in "Twin Peaks" (1990)] I think David Lynch really adored the Fifties – the simplicity, the conservative attitude – and I think the show, though it has a timeless feeling, is kind of Fifties also. The saddle shoes are part of that – Audrey knows she can be daddy’s little girl in her saddle shoes, and she puts on her red pumps, smokes cigarettes and sashays down the hall. Maybe it’s not her personality so much as the need not to be daddy’s little girl.

[in "Sky" magazine, 6/92, on playing Candy Cane in Ruby (1992)] I always thought it would be fun to play [Marilyn Monroe]. But who could play her, you know? You can’t do it right out, you can’t do her story without letting yourself in for all kinds of criticism. Candy Cane is like a lot of women were in the ’60s when Monroe was a star and a role model. She comes from a small town, she’s in a bad relationship, but she’s fighting to get out of it, to change, and she enters this fantasy land. She has the bleached blond hair like many women had at that time and she thinks it would be fun to be like Monroe. So she follows the fantasy in her own small way and she finds out, guess what, that glamorous life stinks! She sets herself up to be abused and destroyed like Monroe was.

[[interviewed by M.J. Simpson, 10/1/97, on the differences between working with David Lynch and Jennifer Chambers Lynch] Man, woman. Night, day. It’s a really huge difference. It’s completely different to work with a woman that is my age, maybe younger. David’s encouraged her, through his example of exploring dark places within oneself, but she’s less abstract. I was blown away by the script of Boxing Helena (1993). I had heard all the stories and I didn’t want to read it. Then my agent said, “It’s a dream. Just read it. It’s pretty interesting”. I was shocked that a 19-year-old girl had that perspective on relationships, that understanding. Then I met with her and we just clicked. Because we didn’t really meet – just one or twice, very briefly – on the set of “Twin Peaks” (1990).

[in "Orange Coast", 1/99. on playing Billie Frank in "Rude Awakening" (1998)] I liked the hardcore truth of “Rude Awakening”. But when I first read it, I was scared of it. Part of me was, like, “It’s so unattractive! Does she have to vomit on herself? Does she then have to fall in it? God, what’s going on here?!” But I liked that it didn’t glamorize alcohol. And what’s admirable about Billie is that she’s a straight shooter. She doesn’t have a lot of pretense. It’s like, “Take me as I am. You like me, fine! You don’t, I don’t give a damn!” There’s something quite empowering about somebody who doesn’t care what other people think. Billie is learning about herself. She’s recognized that she has a problem with drugs and alcohol, and she’s trying to straighten it out.

[[interviewed by M.J. Simpson, 10/1/97, on playing Curley's wife in Of Mice and Men (1992)] I’d never read the book in school or anything. So when I read the screenplay I just cried my eyes out. I couldn’t believe – it was just a beautiful story. When I met with Gary Sinise, he just said, “You know, she’s always played – and she was written – as this horrible vamp”. And he didn’t want her to be that way. He said, “I see her as a sad angel, and lonely”. She just wants attention, she wants to be loved, she wants people to talk to her: “What’s the matter with you? Why can’t you talk to me?” So I was glad that he wanted to do that. He actually added a scene that was never written where she’s crying because Curley broke all her records. The only thing she has in life is her little records. So that was a wonderful experience for me, making something like that.

[on her Playboy bunny experience] I worked there for two months when I was 19. I needed rent money and they were paying more to stand at the gift shop than I’d have got working at a clothing store. And I thought the costumes were cute.

[in "Orange Coast", 1/99] I wanted to be a marine biologist, then I wanted to be a stewardess. Then I met this lady that was really neat, and she cut my hair once; so then I wanted to cut hair! But by far my biggest dream when I was young was to have the perfect home and the picket fence, and babies crawling around, and I’d be cooking food in the kitchen.

[[interviewed by M.J. Simpson, 10/1/97] My grandpa [jazz musician Art Quatro] would always ask, “What instrument do you hear when you listen to music?” I’m like, “All of it!” He’s like, “Well, then you’re a singer!” And I love to dance. But I don’t like being up in front of tons of people. I didn’t have that in me to do it, the desire to be performing in front of a lot of people. If there’s a lot of people on a set, I get nervous. So music just wasn’t something I ever seriously considered.

[on her movie debut] I remember blowing my first scene. I said ‘Cut!’ I didn’t know the director was supposed to say that.

[in "Orange Coast", 1/99] I think there’s an anxiety in life when we automatically tend to look to the next thing or we’re complaining about the past; like somebody recently said to me, d”Well, is your show ["Rude Awakening" (1998)] going to get picked up? Aren’t you concerned about that?” I said, “I don’t care. I don’t want to worry about that because worrying is not going to make it happen or not happen”. I want to trust that if it does, then that’s what’s supposed to happen and if it doesn’t get picked up, then that’s okay, too. It’s just a more peaceful way to live. Right now, in my life, I’m really striving for peace and more of a calm outlook.

[[interviewed by M.J. Simpson, 10/1/97, on guest-starring in "Friends" (1994)] Matthew Perry was darling and very funny. All my scenes were with Matthew, basically, so it was fun. I like the show. I was happy to be a part of it.

[[interviewed by M.J. Simpson, 10/1/97, on Boxing Helena (1993)] I liked “Boxing Helena”. I think it was an almost impossible story to tell. Although it has some flaws, I think it’s neat. I think it’s a really neat story; it’s a beautiful story.

[[interviewed by M.J. Simpson, 10/1/97, on starring in Darkness Falls (1999)] I loved the script when I read it; it’s a wonderful character piece. I saw [Ray Winstone's] work, like Nil by Mouth (1997), and I saw [Tim Dutton's] work, and I just was really excited to be a part of it.

[[interviewed by M.J. Simpson, 10/1/97, on "Twin Peaks" (1990)] I think it’s just basically that on the surface things seem all one way, this nice little small town. But underneath there’s a lot of dirt and a lot of sadness and deprivation. Two girls in plaid skirts and sweaters, smoking cigarettes and talking about murder in the girl’s bathroom! That’s my kind of movie; I loved it!

[in "Sky" magazine, 7/92] The world has certain rules – Hollywood has certain rules – but it doesn’t mean you have to play by them, and I don’t, or I’d be a miserable person.

[in "Detour" magazine, 5/95] I don’t know why people see the things that they do. I wouldn’t pay to see them, they don’t touch me or move me in any way.

[in "Exposure" magazine, 9/90] I try to keep myself centered. I don’t go to parties and all that. I don’t think being seen or being in the right place is going to make me a better actress. I care about my work and try to do what’s right in my heart.

People who think they know me would be surprised that my whole life doesn’t revolve around sex. [The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 21, 1995]

[interviw in "The Boston Herald", 4/25/93] I see people giving me looks because I’m so opinionated. That hurts my feelings, but at the end of the day I have to live with me and respect myself. And I’ve done enough things in my life where I was confused and didn’t respect myself that I will not do it any more.

[in "Democrat & Chronicle", 10/29/92, on Kyle MacLachlan's decision to end the Audrey/Cooper romance in "Twin Peaks" (1990)] Kyle didn’t want it to continue. He thought Audrey was too young for Dale; and then they brought in an even younger girl! I think Kyle blew it, because Dale and Audrey were so great together. When I complained, David Lynch asked me if I was falling in love with Kyle. I said, “No! Of course not! But Audrey’s in love with Dale Cooper!”

[in "The Boston Herald, 8/1/98, on being categorized] People think, “She’s not funny. She’s a sex kitten”. And they don’t sit with you in a room. I spent a lot of time being sort of angry and bitter about that, and now I feel it’s people’s loss. It’s sad. You’d think in a business with so much creativity, people would go beyond what they’ve heard or what they think they know about somebody, and meet with them. But if they don’t, it’s not meant to be, in a way. The doors that are open are the doors we walk through.

[in "Haircut & Style", 3/91, on her role in Wild at Heart (1990)] David [David Lynch] told me, “I envisioned this broken China doll, all bloody, and ranting and raving, and it was you”.

Birth Name
Denise Lee Richards

Nickname
Fluffy Girl

Height
5′ 6″ (1.68 m)

Mini Biography

Elder of 2 daughters born to Irv and Joni Richards. She grew up in the Chicago area, until the family relocated to Oceanside, CA when Denise was 15. She began working as a model, and moved to L.A. after she graduated from high school. She landed parts in both TV and movies, and gave breakthrough performances in Starship Troopers (1997) with Casper Van Dien, Wild Things (1998) and The World Is Not Enough (1999), in which she plays a Bond Girl. She also was in Undercover Brother (2002) with Eddie Griffin and appeared in Scary Movie 3 (2003) with her now ex-husband, Charlie Sheen.
IMDb Mini Biography By: dolphins_fanatic

Spouse
Charlie Sheen (15 June 2002 – 30 November 2006) (divorced) 2 children

Trivia

Enjoys kickboxing.

Attended El Camino High School in Oceanside, California located 25 miles north of San Diego, California.

Graduated from high school in Oceanside (1989).

Former model.

Moved from Downer’s Grove, Illinois to Oceanside, California when she was 15.

Loving animals, she has several cats and dogs.

Born to Irv Richards, a telephone engineer, and his wife, Joni Richards. Has an older sister, Michelle Richards.

Her parents now own a coffeehouse named “Jitters” in San Diego.

Auditioned for the role of Beth in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995).

Was a high school cheerleader.

Attended Downers Grove North High School in Illinois for her freshman year.

Attended Herrick Junior High School in Illinois until she completed the eighth grade.

Engaged to Charlie Sheen (January 2002).

Was ranked 9th of the 100 Sexiest Women by FHM Taiwan (2001).

Gave birth to her daughter Sam Sheen, weighing 7 pounds, 3 ounces, on 9 March 2004 at 10:57 p.m in Los Angeles.

Her mother, Joni Richards, died from cancer (30 November 2007).

Ranked #21 in Stuff magazine’s “102 Sexiest Women in the World” (2002).

Guest-starred in the “Two and a Half Men: Yes, Monsignor (#2.9)” (2004) as a former girlfriend of husband Charlie Sheen’s character, who now has a baby girl. The baby was played by the pair’s daughter, Sam Sheen.

Ex-daughter-in-law of Martin Sheen and Janet Sheen.

Ex-sister-in-law of Ramon Estevez, Renée Estevez and Emilio Estevez.

Once worked as a grocery clerk.

Filed for divorce from husband Charlie Sheen after less than three years.

She and Charlie Sheen both had very small roles in Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) (they do not share on-screen time), years before they met and fell in love on the set of Good Advice (2001).

Gave birth to her daughter Lola Rose Sheen, weighing 6 pounds, 10 ounces, on 1 June 2005.

She and her ex-husband Charlie Sheen have both guest-starred on “Friends” (1994), though not in the same episode.

Drives a Mercedes-Benz S55 AMG.

Ex-stepmother of Charlie Sheen’s daughter Cassandra.

One of her first acting roles was in an episode of “Doogie Howser, M.D.: Doogstruck (#3.8)” (1991), which starred Neil Patrick Harris, in which Richards played a girl being interviewed by Doogie as a potential girlfriend candidate. Several years later, she and Harris co-starred in Starship Troopers (1997) and again in Undercover Brother (2002).

Is of Welsh and Croatian heritage.

Ranked as #82 in FHM’s “100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005″ special supplement. (2005)

Bust size 34C.

Named #89 in FHM magazine’s “100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006″ supplement. (2006).

After a court battle against Charlie Sheen, claiming that he had physically and verbally abused and threatened to kill her, she received a restraining order against him.

Voted the “Worst Bond Girl of All Time” by the readers of British newspaper Daily Mail for her performance in The World Is Not Enough (1999) (February 2008).

Has admitted to suffering from emetophobia, or the fear of vomiting.

Charlie Sheen surrendered custody of their daughters Sam Sheen and Lola Rose Sheen to Denise. She sought full custody after Sheen and his wife Brooke Mueller had a domestic dispute over Christmas 2009. [May 2010].

Split with Charlie Sheen while being pregnant with their daughter Lola Rose Sheen. Despite their split, Sheen was present during Lola’s birth.

Adopted a daughter named Eloise Joni Richards.

Good friends with Lisa Rinna, Ali Landry and Alison Sweeney.

Personal Quotes

Doing love scenes is always awkward. I mean, it’s just not a normal thing to go to work and lay in bed with your co-worker.

I found out early I could make more money modeling than I could waitressing and scooping Häagen-Dazs. But I always wanted to be an actress.

I’m spontaneous. I love going from one thing to something else and not knowing what I’m going to do next.

Height
5′ 10″ (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

When Elizabeth was 5, her parents enrolled her at Detroit Dance Company. Loving dance, young Elizabeth began to take part in several ballets, including “Swan Lake” and, in 1983, she starred in some musicals (sometimes singing in Italian). Her screen debut was a role in the TV movie Frog (1987) (TV). She then got work as an extra in some TV series: “TV 101″ (1988), “Day by Day” (1988), etc. In the summer of 1989, she was in L.A. and auditioned for a role on “Saved by the Bell” (1989). She got the role and became a TV star. After 4 seasons, she left the show to try to break into cinema. In 1994, she filmed 4 movies, including Showgirls (1995), and continued to guest star in very popular TV shows, like “Diagnosis Murder” (1993). At the same time, she was studying English Literature at a college in California. After Showgirls (1995), she signed with United Talent Agency and then filmed some Hollywood films with small roles (The First Wives Club (1996) and Any Given Sunday (1999)) and starred in some indies (Taxman (1999/II), Last Call (1999/II), The Real Blonde (1997). In 1999, Elizabeth performed on stage in London as Honey in “Lenny”. Her performances in Roger Dodger (2002) and Moving Malcolm (2003), two independent movies released in 2002 and 2003, impressed the critics. She made her Broadway debut in “Sly Fox”, in February 2004, three months after her marriage with New York artist Greg Lauren. She then returned to The Great White Way in the terrific Off-Broadway production “Hurlyburly” directed by Scott Elliott and co-starring Ethan Hawke, Parker Posey and Wallace Shawn. She received some of the best reviews of her acting career for her impressive performance as Bonnie.
IMDb Mini Biography By: myself-1983

Spouse
Greg Lauren (1 November 2003 – present)

Trade Mark

Long curly hair

Trivia

Has different color eyes: right eye is half green and half brown and left eye is green.

The producers of “Saved by the Bell” (1989) created the role of Jessie for her when they could not choose between her and Tiffani Thiessen for the role of Kelly.

Once sat next to a man on an international flight who watched Showgirls (1995) on his in-seat video screen and never recognized her.

1997: Donned a $600 form-fitting gown made entirely of collard greens for the “Lettuce Be Lean” campaign sponsored by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. According to “People Weekly”, a source claims “she had to be misted every 20 minutes, like a produce section”.

Has an older brother, Jason.

Is a vegetarian.

1997-99: Dated actor Roger Wilson.

Auditioned for the film Annie (1982), but was turned down because she was too tall.

Attended Warner Middle School in Farmington Hills, MI. This is also the junior high school where actors Sam Logan Khaleghi and Brandon T. Jackson attended, although years later.

Measurements: 34B-23-36 (during Showgirls (1995)) (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).

Her husband, Greg Lauren, is a successful and professional nude painter. Elizabeth and Greg met each other in a dance class in 2000.

Married Greg Lauren in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, at the Esperanza Hotel. Ralph Lauren (Greg’s uncle) designed Elizabeth’s dress–a silk sheath with pearled spaghetti straps–and Greg wore a white tuxedo jacket and black bow tie.

In the early 1990s a 12-inch doll was made of her as her character, Jessie Spano, from “Saved by the Bell” (1989). The same was done for the other cast members.

Good friends with Jennifer Beals. They each appeared in a Joe Eszterhas-written film (Berkley: Showgirls (1995); Beals: Flashdance (1983)), and they appeared together in Roger Dodger (2002).

Was advised by her manager not to do Roger Dodger (2002). She ignored him and decided to do the film because she loved the script.

After Showgirls (1995), she got a degree in English Literature from UCLA and entered into the United Talent Agency.

Attended the prestigious Cranbrook-Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, at the same time as actress Selma Blair. Another former student was Jaime Ray Newman.

Good friends with Lauren Bush.

Her first book, entitled Ask Elizabeth: Real Answers to Everything You Secretly Wanted to Ask About Love, Friends, Your Body… and Life in General, will be released on March 22nd, 2011. It ties in with the self help program she founded in 2006.

In 2006, she founded a self help group for young girls called Ask Elizabeth, in which she helps girls discuss problems and ask questions to each other which they would usually feel uncomfortable sharing with others.

Personal Quotes

Ever since those reviews for Showgirls (1995), it’s like I was that woman in “The Scarlet Letter”. Except that instead of having to wear the letter “A” for adulteress, I was condemned to wear an “S” for “showgirl”.

[on making Roger Dodger (2002)] I really loved it. On the set, it was like being part of a real family. Everybody was there because they wanted to be and not because of some paycheck – there were no dressing rooms or big trailers; you’d get ready in a bathroom. Here’s this $2-million movie that could have gone nowhere or everywhere. But it’s one of the most special experiences that I’ve ever had. I want more similar experiences. I’m not “Showgirl” – that’s the point!

The First Wives Club (1996) gave me a certain level of confidence. Because I was working with these three women – Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton – who as women have been through every high and low. Goldie especially took me under her wing and was really supportive. She told me, “I don’t like the way you were directed in that movie [Showgirls (1995)], but there’s something there that you can’t deny. So you just keep doing what you’re doing and someone will get it, and someone will show the real you, and not just some idea of you”.

[on working with high-profile directors] I’m very grateful, because a lot of actors would kill to work with any one of them. It’s been a very conscious choice on my part to work with the best – even if it was taking a small supporting role. After Showgirls (1995), I really wanted to surround myself with the best people. I wanted to build it that way instead of doing flashy roles just like “Showgirls”, which would have hurt me.

[11/23/05] The first thing I want to say is that I think that “Threshold” (2005) is one of the best new shows out there, which is one of the reasons I wanted to join this amazing cast. Barbara Nance, the writer of this episode, created an incredible, strong female character who I knew I would have a lot of fun playing. There are fight scenes, there is glamor, and there’s this fun cat-and-mouse game between me and Brian Van Holt, who plays Cavennaugh. All the dynamics were in place. But what was fun was when Carla called me not knowing that they had offered it, and even though we only have a couple of scenes together, we were both so excited. Across the board, the cast is amazing. The only other guest spots I’ve done in the last couple of years were on shows that were already established, like “Without a Trace” (2002) and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (2000) and “NYPD Blue” (1993), so it was fun to be a part of something from the beginning.

[about Lauren Hutton, in "Style Makeover", Volume 13, Number 9, Fall 2006] Women shine when they are at their most natural, and Lauren Hutton has a certain timelessness I admire. She knows what works for her.

Birth Name
Natasha T. Henstridge

Height
5′ 10″ (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

Natasha Henstridge was born in Springdale, Newfoundland, Canada and raised in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. At the age of 14, she left home to begin her modeling career in the highly-competitive Paris fashion world. She landed her first cover on French Cosmopolitan when she was only 15 and has since graced the covers of many international fashion magazines. She also appeared in commercials for such products as Lady Stetson, Oil of Olay and Old Spice.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Spouse
Darius Campbell (14 February 2011 – present)
Damian Chapa (26 August 1995 – 1996) (divorced)

Trivia

Son, with fiancee Liam Waite, Tristan River Waite, born. [12 October 1998]

#1 of Sci-Fi’s Sexy 50, by Femme Fatales magazine [1997]

Natasha was raised in a trailer park in Alberta, Canada. Her father was a biker/contractor. Her mother was a housewife. She left her home at age 14 to go to Paris to become a model.

Measurements: 36-25-36. (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Was asked to play the role of Jill Valentine in Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), but could not accept due to other work commitments.

Ranked #85 in Stuff magazine’s “102 Sexiest Women In The World” (2002)

Became legally emancipated from her parents at age 14 so that she could move to Paris to be a model.

Son, with fiancee Liam Waite, Asher Sky Waite, born. [September 2001.]

Revealed in an interview with movie magazine “Empire” in 1998 that she is not very good at judging the scripts that are offered to her. She turned down both Independence Day (1996) and Men in Black (1997), thinking “What is this shit?” while reading the screenplays.

Engaged to British “Pop Idol” (2001) runner-up Darius Campbell.

Natasha and fiancé Darius Campbell called off their three year engagement (January 2010).

Personal Quotes

“I was about 12 years old when I started getting boobs. I never tried to hide them because I started to realize the power I had with them.”

Birth Name
Lisa Michelle Boney

Height
5′ 2″ (1.57 m)

Mini Biography

Lisa Bonet was born in San Francisco but has lived most of her life in New York and Los Angeles, where she attended Reseda High School and Celluloid Actor’s Studio. Lisa is the child of a Jewish mother and a black father who was a music teacher. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she began acting in commercials at the age of 11. At age 16, she landed the role of Denise Huxtable in the hit comedy series “The Cosby Show” (1984). The show made her a popular actress. In the mid ’80s, she met Lenny Kravitz at a New Edition concert in Los Angeles. At the time, Lenny was a struggling, unknown musician who went by the name Romeo Blue. It wasn’t long after they started dating that Lisa and Lenny’s relationship was all over the tabloids. The two lovers were said to be soulmates, as they both shared a neo-hippie persona and biracial background (Lenny is also half-black, half-Jewish). In 1987 Lisa and Lenny got married (they went to Las Vegas and eloped), and they had a daughter named Zoe in 1988. By 1989, Lenny had landed a record deal and recorded his first album, “Let Love Rule.” Lisa co-wrote a couple of songs on the album and was said to be the inspiration for most of the album. Lisa even directed Lenny’s first video for “Let Love Rule.” But Lisa and Lenny’s relationship was full of problems from the start, including intense scrutiny from the media and Lenny’s reported infidelities. It was around this time that Lisa made a deliberate attempt to shed her “goody-two-shoes” Cosby daughter image by making the controversial movie Angel Heart (1987), wherein she had racy nude and sex scenes. The backlash from making Angel Heart (1987) is rumored to have prompted Lisa’s exit from “The Cosby Show” (1984). But with Bill Cosby’s help, Lisa landed on another comedy series, “A Different World” (1987), in which she starred as a student at a historically black university. But perhaps because of her personal problems, Lisa began showing up late for work (or sometimes not at all), and she was fired from the series. She and Lenny separated in a bitter breakup and eventually divorced in 1993. Lenny’s second album, “Mama Said,” filled with songs about heartache, is said to be mostly about Lisa. After her divorce from Lenny, Lisa faded from the high-profile stardom she had experienced when she was in a relationship with him, while Lenny became more famous than his ex-wife. No longer an in-demand actress, Lisa occasionally made B-movies, many of which went straight to video. In 1992, Lisa started dating yoga instructor Bryan Kest. They began living together and it was around this time that Lisa legally changed her name to Lilakoi Moon, although she still uses the name Lisa Bonet for her entertainment career. Lisa has said that she has deliberately cut back on acting so that she could spend more time with her family. However, she did make a brief return to the spotlight in 1998 by co-starring with Will Smith in the big-budget hit movie Enemy of the State (1998) and had an important role in High Fidelity (2000). Lisa has since become friends with her ex-husband Lenny again. And in an “aren’t we all just one big happy family” situation, her best friend is Cree Summer, a former co-star on “A Different World” (1987) who released an album produced by her long-time friend Lenny Kravitz. It was Lisa who suggested that Lenny produce the album, and Lisa directed a promotional video for the album. As of 2007, Lisa lives in the Los Angeles area with her children.

Spouse
Lenny Kravitz (16 November 1987 – 12 April 1993) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

Shed her ‘girl next door’ image by posing suggestively for the cover of the May 19, 1988, issue of “Rolling Stone” magazine.

Is a vegetarian.

Had her name legally changed to Lilakoi Moon in 1995.

Has had a hip hop album tribute to her by the duo “Felt” (Slug of Atmosphere and Murs of Living Legends) entitled “Felt 2: A tribute to Lisa Bonet.” The first was entitled “Felt: A Tribute to Christina Ricci”.

Daughter (with singer Lenny Kravitz) Zoë Kravitz born 1 December 1988.

The Lenny Kravitz song “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over” was written about her.

Gave birth on July 23, 2007, to her second child, a girl named Lola Iolani Momoa with Jason Momoa of “Stargate: Atlantis” (2004). Their son is named Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa was born on December 15, 2008. Namakaeha is Jason’s middle name. He researched his son’s first middle name: Mana(strength/spirit) kaua(rain) Po(dark). Nakoa means “warrior”.

Former “A Different World” (1987) co-star Marisa Tomei is godmother of her daughter Zoë Kravitz.

Was mentioned in the 2003 song “Bob” by ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’ — which uses palindromic lyrics to parody the 1965 song “Subterranean Homesick Blues” by Bob Dylan: “Lisa Bonet ate no basil”.

Birth Name
Susan Abigail Tomalin

Height
5′ 7″ (1.70 m)

Mini Biography

It was after the 1968 Democratic convention and there was a casting call for a film with several roles for the kind of young people who had disrupted the convention. Two recent graduates of Catholic University in Washington DC, went to the audition in New York for Joe (1969). Chris Sarandon, who had studied to be an actor, was passed over. His wife Susan got a major role.

That role was as “Susan Compton”, the daughter of ad executive “Bill Compton” (Dennis Patrick). In the movie, “Dad Bill” kills Susan’s drug dealer boyfriend and next befriends “Joe” (Peter Boyle), a bigot who works on an assembly line and who collects guns.

In 1975, Sarandon made the film where fans of cult classics have come to know her as “Janet”, who gets entangled with transvestite “Dr. Frank ‘n’ Furter” in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Shortly after that, the Sarandons separated and subsequently divorced in 1979 after twelve years of marriage.

Nearly 20 years after beginning her career, Sarandon, at last, actively campaigned for a great role, “Annie” in Bull Durham (1988), flying at her own expense from Rome to Los Angeles. “It was such a wonderful script … and did away with a lot of myths and challenged the American definition of success”, she said. “When I got there, I spent some time with Kevin Costner, kissed some ass at the studio and got back on a plane”. Her romance with the twelve-years-younger Bull Durham (1988) supporting actor, Tim Robbins, produced two sons and put Sarandon in the position of being offered roles roles that really challenged her. The result was four Academy Award nominations in the 1990s and best actress for Dead Man Walking (1995). Her first Academy Award nomination was for Louis Malle’s Atlantic City (1980).
IMDb Mini Biography By: Dale O’Connor

Spouse
Chris Sarandon (16 September 1967 – 20 September 1979) (divorced)

Trivia

Former partner of Tim Robbins. They had been together from 1986 until 2009.

Ranked #35 in Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time” list. [October 1997]

Attended Catholic University of America Drama School, 1964-1968. Met and married Chris Sarandon there (by priest who was head of Dept.).

Former “Ford” Model.

Daughter from her relationship with director Franco Amurri is named Eva Amurri.

Sons from her relationship with actor Tim Robbins are named Jack Henry Robbins and Miles Robbins.

Chosen by People (USA) magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful in the world. [1996]

Landed her first Hollywood role when her then-husband, Chris Sarandon, took her along on one of his auditions.

As co-presenters of the Academy Awards in 1993, Susan and her former partner, Tim Robbins, seized a chance to bring public attention to the plight of a few hundred Haitians with Aids who had been interned in Guantanamo Bay.

Is a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

Supported Ralph Nader during his 2000 Presidential Election campaign.

Was arrested for disorderly conduct during a protest in New York over the unarmed shooting of African immigrant Amadou Diallo by four policemen (30 March 1999).

Is of Italian and Welsh heritage.

Graduated from Edison High School in Edison, New Jersey where she was a cheerleader.

She keeps her Oscar in the bathroom.

Sang in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975); recorded a duet with Eddie Vedder which played over the end credits of Cradle Will Rock (1999).

Was involved in the effort to have Laura Schlessinger’s television show taken off the air in 2000, because of her disagreement with Schlessinger’s conservative views. The effort was successful in leading many sponsors to drop their support of the show, which was ultimately cancelled less than a year after its premiere.

Measurements: 37C-26-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).

For the past ten years she has been involved with Heifer International, an organization that donates farm animals to needy families who need the animals for work.

Is one of two actresses who won an Oscar for playing a nun. The first was Jennifer Jones in Het lied van Bernadette (1943).

Is listed along with Geena Davis on the 24th place in AFI’s Hero Top 50.

Caught pneumonia after they shot the pool scene in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).

One of eight women, also among them Sophia Loren and author Isabel Allende, carrying the Olympic flag at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games’ opening ceremony in Turin (10 February 2006). She and Loren co-starred 35 years earlier in the film La mortadella (1972).

Her grandmother had her mother when she was 13 years old. Her mother grew up in the care of nuns in an institute, abandoned at two.

Father was Philip Leslie Tomalin (of English, Irish, and Welsh ancestry). Mother was Lenora Marie Criscione (who was born in Ragusa, Sicily).

Parents separated in 1982, after 40 years of marriage.

Eldest of nine children.

In 1916, her grandfather Giuseppe Criscione emigrated to the USA from Ragusa, Sicily, where he was born in 1901. Now she is honorary citizen of Ragusa and the city gave her the “Ragusani nel Mondo” award.

Received the “World Lifetime Achievement Award” at the 2006 Women’s World Award in New York.

Was listed as a potential nominee on the 2008 Razzie Award nominating ballot. She was suggested in the Worst Supporting Actress category for her performance in the film Mr. Woodcock (2007). She failed to receive a nomination however.

Has a dog named Penny, a Pomeranian Maltese. The dog appears in the movie, Bernard and Doris (2006), playing a pet of Doris, the character she portrayed.

In 1992, the National Society of Film Critics named her as their runner-up for best actress for her performance in Lorenzo’s Oil (1992).

In 1991 and 1992 she was the New York Film Critics Circle’s runner-up pick for their annual best actress of the year prize. In 1991, she was chosen the runner-up for her landmark performance as half of the now-iconic duo in director Ridley Scott’s modern-day western “Thelma & Louise”. In 1992, she was the group’s runner-up for her heartbreaking turn in director George Miller’s fact-based drama “Lorenzo’s Oil”.

Received a 1982 Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as a victimized woman who rallies and turns the tables on her would-be attacker in the hit Off-Broadway play “Extremities”, by playwright William Mastrosimone.

Received a 1979 Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play for her Off-Broadway debut opposite Eileen Brennan in playwright John Ford Noonan’s two-character piece, “A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking.”.

In 2005, she and the rest of the chief creative team behind the 11-part radio documentary, “Leonard Bernstein: An American Life,” a chronicle of the legendary American musical giant’s life and career, were recipients of the (George Foster) Peabody Award bestowed by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia at the 64th presentation of the honor. The Peabody is the premiere international prize given for electronic (i.e. television and radio) media.

Launched a table tennis bar called “Spin New York” in June, 2009.

She tried to have children during her first marriage, but doctors told her she was unable to reproduce. She eventually gave birth to three children after her divorce, the last at the age of 46.

She was inducted into the 2010 New Jersey Hall of Fame for her services and contributions to Arts and Entertainment.

She was born at 2:25 PM (EST).

Received “Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2009.

Revealed in December 2009 that she and partner Tim Robbins had broken up during the summer of that year.

Turned down the lead female role in Tightrope (1984) because she objected to the violence against women in the story. The part went to Geneviève Bujold.

Along with Gerard Butler, Demi Moore, Ben Stiller and director Paul Haggis, she visited a camp for internally displaced persons managed by Sean Penn and his “Jenkins-Penn Humanitarian Relief Organization” in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. [April 2010]

In 2011, bought a penthouse “bachelorette” pad atop townhouse on West 9th St., Manhattan, just blocks from the W. 15th St. duplex she had shared for many years with Tim Robbins.

Personal Quotes

I choose projects I can talk about for days because now you do publicity for as long as it took you to shoot the movie.

I feel I’ve always been on the outside and always on the edge of an abyss. The women I portray, and the woman I am, are ordinary but maybe find themselves in extra-ordinary circumstances, and what they do is at great cost.

Sexuality … is something that develops and becomes stronger and stronger the older you get… If you can continue to say yes to life and to maintain a certain generosity of spirit, you become more and more of who you are.

I think the only reason I remain an actor is that you can never quite get it right. So there is a challenge to it.

If I were 22 and trying to build a career, I don’t know who’d be watching the kids as happily as I do. It takes so much to get me to break out of domestic paradise. There’s hardly anything that interests me as much as my family.

On Thelma & Louise (1991) after her nomination for best actress, 1992, “I was surprised that the film struck such a primal nerve. I knew when we were filming that it would be different, unusual and hopefully entertaining. But shocking? I guess giving women the option of violence was hard for a lot of people to accept”.

People will like you for the wrong reasons your entire life, even if you don’t have parents who are celebrities. They will like you because you have a car or you have money or your breasts are big.

You’re so lucky in Ireland, England and Spain. Everyone there already knows what it’s like to have inexplicable terrorist violence.

The thing that’s bad about breasts is that you have to choose between having a mind and having breasts. It’d be nice if you could have both. Anyway, I think my breasts have been highly overrated.

The largest party in the United States is the 50 percent who don’t vote.

It’s always so painful to watch yourself. That never changes. I still sit there and think, ‘Oh, that scene is missing? Wasn’t I good? What happened there?’

I haven’t yet had any plastic surgery, but I won’t knock it. I think women have the right to do anything they want to their bodies that makes them feel good about themselves. It’s hard to be in this business and be viewed on a screen that’s huge. You can see every single line. But I think it’s an aesthetic choice for the individual. I don’t like it when surgeons take a perfectly interesting looking woman and she ends up looking like a female impersonator with these gigantic breasts. It’s just so extreme and that worries me. I think everyone is looking the same.

My children were embarrassed at my Lincoln Center Tribute. I forgot they would show film clips and my children hadn’t seen anything. Every time something a little racy would come on like The Hunger (1983), I’d look at my 13-year-old, who was shielding his eyes.

I’m certainly not an expert, but Tim and I just celebrated 17 years together, which in Hollywood years I think is 45. I think the key is just focusing on this one person and not keeping one eye on the door to see who might be better.

I never think about humiliating myself. I keep focusing on wanting to do a good job.

I remember going to great lengths to celebrate disappointments like not getting a job. I’d take whatever little cash I had and go out to dinner. I saw loss as an opportunity to change direction.

It’s still not easy to find roles that offer more complex images of women. I do a lot of smaller parts that I find interesting – as opposed to the big, splashy movies that you get paid more money for.

I didn’t realize that everything was supposed to fall apart at 40. So I just slid past 40 and 50. When you’re an outsider and not paying attention to the rules the hurdles are a little lower.

I think the good news and the bad news is Hollywood’s not political. The only thing they punish you for is getting old and fat.

I think one of the reasons I haven’t married Tim is that I hate that couples assumption – that once you’re committed to someone you stop treating each other as individuals. I like getting up knowing I am choosing to be with that person.

“I look forward to being older, when looks become less of an issue and who you are is the point.” Family Circle, 4-18-06

You have to be careful not to be upstaged by your breasts. I’ve gotten curvier as I’ve gotten older. Directors cast the men they want to be and the women they want to have.

I think I’ve survived because I’ve gone through a number of incarnations. Sometimes they need somebody sexy. Sometimes they need somebody smart. I’ve managed to be able to morph myself into parts.

People probably think of me as Debbie Downer. I have become kind of a joke in terms of activism for some people. But it is like worrying if your slip is showing when you’re fleeing a burning building. You have to prioritize.

I thought the whole point of feminism is that you’re not supposed to be defined by gender. I don’t understand the reasoning behind that, because I wouldn’t vote for Condoleezza Rice, and I hated Margaret Thatcher.

Despite the statistics, nothing is hopeless, nothing is futile. We can do so much to protect children with awareness, knowledge, and a lot of love.

[on Thelma & Louise (1991)] The thing that separates this from a revenge movie with two males, for instance, is that there is a moral price to be paid by me for losing it, as you learn later, because I had been raped. I go into some kind of little trance there and just overreact. But I think the whole rest of the movie from that point on operates under the knowledge for this character that she is going to have to pay a price, and that there is no joy, really, in that revenge. it was important for me, as the movie went on, to try and figure out why these things keep happening, not to make it about getting even. So we tried in all the rest of the scenes to ask questions, or to make it clear, that she’s on some kind of search for an understanding of this moment. When I take off all my jewelry and my watch, I think I’m preparing to go into a zone where she feels she had to pay some kind of a price. That was very much in my mind from that moment on in the film.

On mothering: Children can reinvent your world for you.

[About people criticizing Thelma & Louise (1991) for its violence and "anti-male" attitude] It shows what a straight, white male world movies traditionally occupy. This kind of scrutiny does not happen to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) or that Schwarzenegger thing [Total Recall (1990)] where he shoots a woman in the head and says, “Consider that a divorce”.

[on her sex scene with Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger (1983) and the general opinion men have about lesbians] They felt I [her character, Sarah Roberts] should be really drunk, so that was their way of taking away her choice in a sense, and I insisted that it not be that way, that certainly, you know, you wouldn’t have to get drunk to bed Catherine Deneuve, I don’t care what your sexual history to that point had been, and that it was much more interesting that she went voluntarily. I don’t think, for better or worse, that women are taken very seriously in this area. I think the feeling is when two women are together, then it’s probably experimental or some kind of phase and you know, if the right guy came along that would all change. So it’s actually something that straight men can watch and not be threatened by. And straight men are the ones that are propelling the industry forward, so I don’t think it’s taken that seriously.

(1995, on relationships) I think the concept that there’s one person who’s gonna make you whole, this Gibran kind of thinking, is so detrimental. I don’t think it’s the other person’s responsibility to make you whole at all. It’s the other person’s responsibility to make you laugh, to give you a dance now and then, to read the newspaper and tell you about things you don’t have time to read about, to introduce you to music you don’t know, to tell you when you’re full of shit, to fight fair, to be good in bed, to say, “Come on, let’s go have an adventure” when you’ve become a little bit of a stick in the mud. But it’s not their job to make you whole. The test for me of a great romantic relationship is how productive you are during the relationship. You don’t need somebody who’s gonna keep you up till four in the morning and you don’t even know why you’re fighting. You don’t need somebody who you’re gonna go to a party and you’re worried about that they’re gonna get jealous, laid, drunk, stoned, or turn up missing. I like to go to a party and go my way and let somebody else go their way, and you meet up or you don’t meet up and then you go home together and nobody feels bad about it. That’s the perfect description of life, too- the party of life. I’ve been very lucky to find someone. We’ve been incredibly productive since we’ve been together.

(1995, on having to do movie re-shoots) White Palace. We shot the ending that was in the book, which is: she sits down, they look at each other, and you don’t know what’s gonna happen between them. But Pretty Woman had just come out, and they were thinking, “If we could only get him to marry her and they could have a big laugh.” Jimmy [Spader] and I, we fought and fought, trying to keep our characters intact, but we did two re-shoots on that. On Sweet Hearts Dance, that was a different problem, in that Don Johnson kind of threw the script out. So what happened was we had to do a month of re-shoots at two different times to put back things that had been taken out…The real mistake with that movie was that I thought it was about one thing, and they decided it was about these two guys who were never gonna grow up, a male-bonding thing. And who cares about that?

(1995, on being the oldest of nine children) I was the mother of everybody. And it took me a long time to understand that I didn’t have to mother every guy I was with. When I stopped doing that, things got better. When I became a mother, all of these things I had been practicing with grown men made sense, because this was the right time to do it.

I didn’t get any stretch marks from my pregnancies, probably because I was so old when I had my kids there was nothing left to stretch.

[In 1978, after her separation from Chris Sarandon] I no longer believe in marriage. I believe in love and trust and commitment, but not in marriage. Marriage may do something for lawyers and mothers, but not for husbands and wives. I deal with reality, with the feelings I have at the moment. And then I go on from there.