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Geena Davis

, Actor
Geena Davis
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  • Born: 21 January 1956
  • Birthplace: Wareham, Massachusetts
  • Best Known As: The leggy star of Thelma and Louise

Name at birth: Virginia Davis

Tall and athletic but inclined towards comedy, Geena Davis won an Oscar as best supporting actress for her 1998 film The Accidental Tourist. Davis had a short-lived career as a model before winning a role in 1982's Tootsie (as Dustin Hoffman's dressing room partner). Davis then appeared in the TV sitcom Buffalo Bill before hitting it big in Hollywood with several popular films, including The Fly (1986, with future husband Jeff Goldblum) and Beetlejuice (1988, directed by Tim Burton). Her buddy movie with Susan Sarandon, Thelma and Louise (1991, directed by Ridley Scott), was a box office smash that earned Davis another Oscar nomination. Her other film credits include A League of Their Own (1992, with Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell), The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996, with Samuel L. Jackson) and Stuart Little (1999) and its 2002 sequel Stuart Little 2. Davis has also starred in television series, including The Geena Davis Show (2000, with Mimi Rogers) and Commander-in-Chief (2005, with Donald Sutherland).

Davis is a competitive archer who entered the 2000 Olympic Trials but failed to make the team... She has been married four times: to Richard Emmolo (1981-83), actor Jeff Goldblum (1987-90), director Renny Harlin (1993-98) and surgeon Reza Jarrahy (2001- ). Davis and Jarrahy have a daughter, Alizeh, born in 2001, and twin sons, Kian and Kaiis, born in 2004... Davis is six feet tall... Some sources list her birth year as 1957... According to the Bravo show Inside the Actors Studio, "Davis worked as a model for the Victoria's Secret catalogue where she was spotted by [director] Sydney Pollack and cast in Tootsie"... Davis is a member of the high-IQ club Mensa, but told Sports Illustrated in 2002 that "I haven't ever gone to any Mensa meetings."

 
 
Actor:

Geena Davis

  • Born: Jan 21, 1957 in Wareham, Massachusetts
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '80s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Comedy, Comedy Drama
  • Career Highlights: Thelma & Louise, Tootsie, The Fly
  • First Major Screen Credit: Tootsie (1982)

Biography

Both a former Victoria's Secret model and card-carrying member of MENSA, Geena Davis established herself in Hollywood by playing the quirky protagonist in a wide variety of dramas and romantic comedies, though she has also tested the waters in action films and sci-fi horror. Davis showed an interest in show-business from childhood on, and transferred from New England College to Boston University in order to participate within the university's drama program. After receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts in 1979, she moved to New York City in hopes of being discovered.

Once there, Davis took on several odd jobs; the oddest, perhaps, being her stint as a department store mannequin. A then struggling actress turned in a job performance impressive enough to attract the attention of Zoli Agents, a prominent modeling company. No longer mere window dressing, the six-foot Davis worked as a lingerie model until making her acting debut in the television sitcom Buffalo Bill (1982); she would later write an episode for the same program. Her resume grew slowly but surely, and it wasn't long before she won a recurring role on the long-running Family Ties (1982-1989) as budding entrepreneur Alex P. Keaton's (Michael J. Fox) maid.

Davis made her first feature-film appearance playing a small role in Tootsie (1982). In 1985, she played the title role in Sara, a short-lived NBC sit-com revolving around a single and fiercely independent lawyer trying to make ends meet in San Francisco. That same year, Davis co-starred with Jeff Goldblum in the vampire spoof Transylvania 6-5000. Goldblum, with whom she would later marry, once again was paired with Davis in director David Cronenberg's cult favorite The Fly (1986). The Fly's success officially put Davis on the map, and she would gain further critical notice for her role as a recently deceased housewife in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. The following year she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in The Accidental Tourist (1988), in which she played an eccentric dog-walker, and reteamed with Jeff Goldblum in 1989's sci-fi musical Earth Girls Are Easy.

Davis received a second Oscar nomination for her part in Ridley Scott's groundbreaking Thelma and Louise (1991), which cast her as an oppressed housewife opposite Hollywood veteran Susan Sarandon. With her film career steadily growing, Davis starred alongside Tom Hanks in the role of a whip-smart baseball ingenue in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own (1992), and co-starred in 1992's Speechless with Michael Keaton. She broke away from supporting roles and ensemble films to play the lead role in Martha Coolidge's Angie (1994), which featured Davis in the role of a single mother trying to keep her head above water. She went on to marry director Renny Harlin in 1993, who cast her in 1995's Cutthroat Island as well as the 1996 action-thriller The Long Kiss Good Night. Though playing herself in 2000's The Geena Davis Show proved unfruitful, Davis' role in Rob Minkoff's Stuart Little franchise fared much better. Even still, her most impressive comeback would arrive in the form a role as the President of the United States on the ABC Whitehouse drama Commander in Chief. Davis won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress after the series' first season in 2005 and the show proved to be a major success. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

 
Spotlight: Geena Davis

From our Archives: Today's Highlights, January 21, 2006

Happy birthday to Geena Davis who turns 50 today. Davis, a Mensa member and expert archer, is still best-known for her lead role in Thelma and Louise. She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for playing a dogwalker in the film, The Accidental Tourist. Davis won this year's Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her role as the first female US president, Mackenzie Allen, in the hit show Commander in Chief. Donald Sutherland plays her nemesis, Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton.
 
Quotes By: Geena Davis

Quotes:

"If it isn't a success, that still wouldn't be grounds for divorce. [On her film The Long Kiss Goodnight produced by husband Renny Harlin]"

 
Wikipedia: Geena Davis
Geena Davis
Geena_Davis_(1989).jpg
Davis at the 1989 Academy Awards
Birth name Virginia Elizabeth Davis
Born January 21 1956 (1956--) (age 51)
Flag of the United States Wareham, Massachusetts, United States
Spouse(s) Richard Emmolo, (1982 - 1983, divorced)

Jeff Goldblum (1987 - 1990, divorced)
Renny Harlin (1993 - 1998, divorced)
Dr. Reza Jarrahy (2001 - present)

Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21 1956) is an Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated American actress and former fashion model.

Biography

Early life

Davis was born in Wareham, Massachusetts to Lucille, a teacher's assistant, and William Davis, a civil engineer. One of the first signs of her interest and skill in the performing arts was her budding talent in music. She learned piano, flute and drums. She played organ well enough as a teenager to serve as an organist at her church in Wareham. Enrolling at New England College, Davis eventually graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from Boston University in 1979. While an exchange student in Sandviken, Sweden, Davis became fluent in Swedish.

Career

After graduating, Davis signed with New York's Zoli modelling agency and served as a window mannequin for Ann Taylor. With a height of six feet and a shoe size of 9(US)/43(EUR), Davis was a striking model cast from a different mold. She was working as a model when director Sydney Pollack spotted her and cast her in Tootsie (1982) as a soap opera actress. She followed this up with roles in the short-lived television series Buffalo Bill (1983–1984), for which she also wrote an episode, and Sara (1985). Davis made a breakthrough with The Fly and Beetlejuice. She received an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Accidental Tourist (1988) and a Best Actress nomination for her role in Thelma and Louise (1991). Davis replaced Debra Winger for the lead in A League of Their Own. She then co-starred in Hero alongside Dustin Hoffman and Andy Garcia. Following this, Davis teamed up with then husband Renny Harlin for the films Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight. She and Harlin produced the films.

Davis starred in the short-lived sitcom The Geena Davis Show (2000–2001). In early 2004, she guest-starred as Grace Adler's sister Janet on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. She most recently starred in the ABC television series Commander in Chief as the first female President of the United States. This role garnered her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 2006, and she also was nominated for a SAG Award for Outstanding Female Actor in a Drama Series and an Emmy Award.

Personal life

On September 1, 2001, Davis married Iranian-American Dr. Reza Jarrahy. They have three children: daughter Alizeh Keshvar (born April 10, 2002) and fraternal twins Kian William Jarrahy and Kaiis Steven Jarrahy on May 6, 2004. The marriage is Davis' fourth; she was previously married to Richard Emmolo (25 March 1982 - 26 February 1983); actor Jeff Goldblum, with whom she co-starred in three films, Transylvania 6-5000, The Fly and Earth Girls Are Easy (1987 to 1990); and Renny Harlin, who directed her in Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight (1993 to 1998).

In 1999, Davis was a semi-finalist in trials for the United States' Olympic Archery team. She placed twenty-fourth out of twenty-eight.

Davis is 6 feet tall (1.83 m), and a member of American Mensa, the High IQ Society, [1] with an IQ of 140.

Activism

Davis is fronting the Women's Sports Foundation campaign Geena Takes Aim in support of Title IX — an Act of Congress focusing on equality in sports opportunities, now expanded to prohibit gender discrimination in United States' educational institutions.

Davis is also the founder of SeeJane, a program to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters — and to reduce gender stereotyping — in media made for children eleven and under. SeeJane is a program of the national nonprofit Dads and Daughters, where Davis serves as an honorary Board member. Dads and Daughters works to make the world safer and fairer for daughters.

Filmography


Awards
Preceded by
Olympia Dukakis
for Moonstruck		 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1988
for The Accidental Tourist		 Succeeded by
Brenda Fricker
for My Left Foot

Television work

References

  1. ^ (July 2004) "They're Accomplished, They're Famous, and They're MENSANS". Mensa Bulletin (476): p. 21. American Mensa. ISSN 0025-9543. 

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From Today's Highlights
January 21, 2006

As an Independent, she has no party backing, ... Her being the first Independent president trumps the fact that she's a woman. It causes even more upheaval in Washington than her being female.
- Geena Davis

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