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Samantha Mathis

 
Actor: Samantha Mathis
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: May 12, 1970 in Brooklyn, New York
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '90s-2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama
  • Career Highlights: Little Women, American Psycho, This Is My Life
  • First Major Screen Credit: Pump up the Volume (1990)

Biography

The daughter of actress Bibi Besch, Samantha Mathis earned respect and popularity for her work in such '90s films as Pump up the Volume (1990), Little Women (1994), and John Woo's Broken Arrow (1996). A native of Brooklyn, where she was born May 12, 1970, Mathis grew up surrounded by show business thanks to her mother's job. She made her professional debut alongside her mother in a TV commercial for baby products and had her first speaking role as Merlin Olsen's daughter in the short-lived 1988 TV series Aaron's Way. It was with her first onscreen starring role in the seminal '90s high school insurrection drama Pump up the Volume that Mathis first earned recognition; following the film's success, she began appearing in lead roles in mainstream and independent films alike. Although she worked fairly steadily throughout the decade, doing particularly strong work in films such as Nora Ephron's This Is My Life (1992), her career was affected by the death of her mother in 1996 and the 1993 fatal drug overdose of then-boyfriend River Phoenix, whom Mathis was with the night he died. She retreated somewhat from the limelight during the mid-'90s, but resurfaced in John Woo's commercially successful Broken Arrow (1996). In 2000, she could be seen as the mistress of a yuppie serial killer (Christian Bale) in Mary Harron's controversial and long-awaited American Psycho. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
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Wikipedia: Samantha Mathis
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Samantha Mathis
Born May 12, 1970 (1970-05-12) (age 39)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actress
Years active 1990–present

Samantha Mathis (born May 12, 1970) is an American actress. The daughter of actress Bibi Besch, Mathis made her film debut in Pump Up the Volume (1990).

Contents

Biography

Early life

Mathis was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, the daughter of actress Bibi Besch,[1] and granddaughter of actress Gusti Huber. Her parents divorced when she was 2 years old, and Mathis was raised by her mother. She relocated to Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California at the age of 5.[2] Mathis' mother discouraged her from pursuing acting, but growing up on locations, in theaters, and in acting classes, Mathis knew she wanted to act.[1] Mathis decided to become an actress at the age of 12.[3]

Career

Mathis began acting professionally at the age of sixteen,[4] her first job was a commercial for "Always Slender Pads - Just For Teens".[1] She co-starred in the television series Aaron's Way and Knightwatch from 1988 to 1989. Her first starring role in a feature film was that of Nora in Pump Up the Volume (1990), opposite Christian Slater, whom she briefly dated at the time.[2] Mathis dyed her natural blonde hair black for the role to change her image from sweet and innocent, to strong willed.[3]

Mathis appeared in the television movies Extreme Close-Up, 83 Hours 'Til Dawn, and To My Daughter in 1990. Mathis and Slater had voice roles in the animated film FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992). She next appeared in the comedy This Is My Life (1992), written and directed by Nora Ephron, playing an insecure teenager.[4] Mathis appeared in the play Fortinbras in New York City in October 1992.[5] Her film Super Mario Bros. (1993), where she played Princess Daisy from the popular Nintendo video game, was a box office bomb.

Mathis met actor River Phoenix on the set of the country music film The Thing Called Love (1993) and the two started a relationship. She was with Phoenix the night he died of a drug overdose after collapsing outside West Hollywood's Viper Room on Halloween, October 31, 1993; he died later at Cedars-Sinai Hospital.[6] She made the film Jack and Sarah (1995), which was shot in London, in order to get out of the country after his death because of the large amount of press coverage.[2]

Mathis appeared in Little Women, the 1994 film version of the novel by Louisa May Alcott, and How to Make an American Quilt (1995), both starring Winona Ryder, an actress she was often compared to early in her career.[7] She then co-starred with Michael Douglas in The American President (1995), playing the assistant to the President of the United States. Mathis co-starred with Christian Slater again, along with John Travolta, in John Woo's Broken Arrow (1996). She took a little over a year off from acting after her mother died in 1996.[8]

She was later in the critically acclaimed film American Psycho (2000), directed by Mary Harron, an adaptation of the 1991 Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name. She starred opposite Gretchen Mol, Tom Everett Scott and Matthew Settle in Attraction (2000), and in The Simian Line (2001), opposite William Hurt, Lynn Redgrave and Harry Connick, Jr. She starred in the TNT television miniseries The Mists of Avalon (2001), with Anjelica Huston, Joan Allen and Julianna Margulies. Mathis later re-united with co-star John Travolta for The Punisher (2004). Mathis has a guest role on the ABC television show Lost as Dharma Initiative teacher Olivia.

Awards and nominations

She was nominated in 1995 for a Young Artist Award at the Young Artist Awards for Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture for This Is My Life (1992) and in 2005 for a Saturn Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for Best Supporting Actress on Television for 'Salem's Lot (2004) (TV).

Filmography

References

  1. ^ a b c Craven, Jonathan (March 1996). "Sam I am". Bikini.
  2. ^ a b c Hensley, Dennis (December 1995). "Elementary Mathis". Detour.
  3. ^ a b Matsumoto, Jon (September 1, 1990). "Acting's in Samantha Mathis' Blood: Mom's and Grandmom's Too". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on August 31, 2009.
  4. ^ a b Malkin, Nina (June 1992). "This is my Life". Seventeen. pp. 4, 82-83.
  5. ^ Gussow, Mel (October 14, 1992). "Theater in Review". The New York Times. Retrieved on April 24, 2008.
  6. ^ Pearce, Garth (June 1996). "Why I Still Grieve For River". OK! Weekly.
  7. ^ Thompson, Bob (October 15, 1995). "Patch in to Mathis". The Toronto Sun.
  8. ^ Sheridan, Patricia (April 30, 2007). "Samantha Mathis". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved on April 24, 2008.

External links


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