Jennifer Tilly (born September 16, 1958)[1] is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee, and a World Series of Poker Ladies' Event bracelet winner.
Personal life
Tilly was born Jennifer E. Chan in Harbor City, Los Angeles, California. She is the second of four children of Harry Chan, a Chinese American used car salesman, and Patricia Tilly, a schoolteacher and former stage actress.[2] Following her parents' divorce when she was five, she was raised by her mother and stepfather, John Ward, on rural Texada Island, British Columbia, Canada. Her mother divorced again when Tilly was a teenager, and moved to Victoria, where Tilly attended Belmont High School. Her sister is actress Meg Tilly. Jennifer Tilly began her acting career in her teenage years through a theatre program at Stephens College in Missouri. Tilly married Sam Simon in 1984, but they divorced in 1991. She has been dating poker professional Phil Laak since 2005.[3]
Acting
Tilly had small roles in TV shows and movies beginning in 1983. She had a recurring guest role on Hill Street Blues as Gina Srignoli, a mobster's widow who becomes romantically involved with detective Henry Goldblume. She appeared as Garry's girlfriend on It's Garry Shandling's Show, which aired on Showtime. She was also cast as a high end prostitute in the short lived comedy, Key West, alongside Fisher Stevens. Tilly's breakthrough film role was as a singing waitress in The Fabulous Baker Boys in a part that was specially written for her by Steve Kloves. That same year, she played a small part in the cult classic horse racing movie, Let it Ride with Richard Dreyfuss and Teri Garr, that Tilly later said "should have done better."
She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a hopelessly bad actress in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994). In 1994, she also had a small role in The Getaway with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger.
Tilly starred in Bound, which portrays a lesbian relationship her character has with Gina Gershon. She played Samantha Cole in the Jim Carrey hit Liar Liar. In 2000's Dancing at the Blue Iguana she played a stripper and part-time dominatrix. She portrayed gossip columnist Louella Parsons in the 2001 Peter Bogdanovich film The Cat's Meow.
Tilly gained some additional popularity in recent years for providing voice-over work as killer doll Tiffany for the Child's Play series of movies. In the most recent installment, Seed of Chucky, she plays a dual role, providing the voice for Tiffany and also playing an exaggerated version of herself.
Tilly is a semi-regular cast member on Family Guy, voicing the Griffin family's recently unpregnant neighbor, Bonnie Swanson. She has also done vocal work for the films Monsters, Inc., Stuart Little, and Home on the Range, as well as the children's series Hey Arnold, In Disney's The Haunted Mansion, she does the voice-over for Madame Leota. She has been active in the theatre, winning a Theater World Award for her performance in the off-Broadway play One Shoe Off. Tilly had a starring role in the US television comedy Out of Practice starring Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing. The cancellation of that series was announced in May 2006.
Poker
On June 27, 2005, Tilly won a World Series of Poker bracelet (and $158,625) in the Ladies' No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em event, outlasting 600 other players. She followed up this accomplishment on September 1, 2005, by also winning the third World Poker Tour Ladies Invitational Tournament held at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. Tilly has appeared in the GSN Poker Royale series. She appeared in the third season of Poker Superstars but was eliminated in the preliminary round. Tilly played in the Celebrity Poker Showdown which aired June 14, 2006, on Bravo. Tilly was knocked out in third place by Bravo’s online poker champion Ida Siconolfi (the first non-celebrity to appear on the show) when her A♣ K♥ failed to improve against Ida's starting hand of K♣ K♠. Tilly appears as a celebrity, rather than a poker pro, in ESPN's Pro-Am Poker Equalizer.
In a television interview, Tilly stated that at this point in her career she is more interested in pursuing poker than acting.[4] As of 2008, her live tournament winnings exceed $450,000. Tilly also appears in the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions 2007 Edition video game (along with current boyfriend, Phil Laak) that was released in 2007 by Activision. As of December 2008, Tilly retired from the pursuit of poker as a career.[5] In the December, 2008, edition of Bluff Magazine she says: "I love poker but greatness in poker is an elusive dream. There are too many variants. Trying to find validation in poker is like trying to find a virgin in a whorehouse. I’m not giving up poker entirely — gambling is an addiction after all. I’m just going to treat it more like a hobby and less like a career."
Filmography
Awards and nominations
Awards
- Theater World Award, Most Promising Newcomer - One Shoe Off
- Dramalogue Award - Vaniti
- Gemini Award For Best Actress - Heads
- Fanta Festival Best Actress - Bride Of Chucky
- Fantasporto International Fantasy Film Award Best Actress - Bound
- Golden Gate Award - GLAAD Media Award for media professionals who increase the understanding of the LGBT community
Nominations
- MTV Movie Award Best Frightened Performance - Seed of Chucky
- Academy Award for Best Actress In Supporting Role - Bullets Over Broadway
- Academy Of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films USA Best Actress - Bride Of Chucky
- Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, Favourite Supporting Comedy Actress
- Academy Of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films USA Best Supporting Actress - Bound
- MTV Movie Award Best Kiss (With Gina Gershon) - Bound
References
External links
Media related to 
