| BIOGRAPHY
Blessed with a rare combination of beauty, brains, and talent,
actress Ashley Judd spent the 1990s gaining critical acclaim,
industry respect, and a broad fan base that made her one of the
most in-demand actresses of the latter half of the decade.
The daughter of country-music superstar Naomi Judd and the younger
half-sister of singer Wynonna Judd, Judd was born in Los Angeles,
on April 19, 1968. A single parent, her mother supported Judd
and her sister by taking odd jobs in California and Kentucky.
The actress spent her first 13 years shuttling between the two
states and attended 12 different schools, often living in poverty
in remote areas of Kentucky. With no external sources of entertainment,
Judd read books and amused herself by pretending to be various
characters while her sister and mother whiled away the time singing.
Their singing paid off; after Naomi and Wynonna Judd became country-music
sensations, the family was finally able to leave their financial
hardship in the past. Judd went on to attend the University of
Kentucky, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1990 with a degree in French.
At her sister's encouragement, Judd, blessed with an outgoing,
forthright nature, was able to secure an agent on her first try
and, in 1987, won a part on the television series Star Trek: The
Next Generation. She went on to do more TV, landing a recurring
role as Swoosie Kurtz's daughter on Sisters in 1991 (she stayed
with the show until 1994). The following year, she made her film
debut with a small part in Kuffs (1992). She was originally meant
to have a larger part, but rejected it when she learned of a nude
scene.
The actress' first major film role was in the hit independent
drama Ruby in Paradise (1993). She garnered considerable acclaim
for her subtle, realistic portrayal of a spoiled Tennessee heiress
who runs away to sell tourist trinkets in a ramshackle resort,
winning Best Actress at the 1994 Independent Spirit Awards.
After filming Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, only to have
her scenes end up on the cutting-room floor, Judd next found acclaim
with her turn in the 1995 film Smoke, in which she played the
pregnant, drug-addicted daughter of Harvey Keitel and Stockard
Channing. The same year, she appeared in the much-lauded Heat,
then went on to star with Mira Sorvino in the 1996 made-for-TV
Marilyn Monroe biopic Norma Jean and Marilyn.
Following a substantial role as Matthew McConaughey's wife in
Joel Schumacher's adaptation of John Grisham's A Time to Kill
in 1996, and a lead in the crime film A Normal Life (also 1996),
Judd starred in the 1997 thriller Kiss the Girls.
The film received mixed reviews but did decent business at the
box office, further increasing Judd's glowing star wattage. She
landed another lead role the following year, in the well-received
drama Simon Birch and, in 1999, could be seen starring in Bruce
Beresford's Double Jeopardy as an ex-convict planning revenge
on those who framed her for a crime she did not commit. The film
was a substantial box-office hit, further cementing Judd's arrival
as a major Hollywood star.
Switching gears in 2000, Judd starred as a friend and mentor
to a pregnant 17-year-old (Natalie Portman) in Where the Heart
Is. This was followed by the 2001 romantic-comedy Someone Like
You and 2002's High Crimes, which saw Judd reteamed with Kiss
the Girls costar Morgan Freeman. While High Crimes failed to make
much money, that same year Judd scored at the box-office with
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and wowed critics with
a supporting role in the Academy Award nominated Frida.
Judd didn't turn up again until 2004's Twisted, a crime thriller
about a female homicide detective who finds herself at the center
of a series of murders. Next up, Judd starred alongside Kevin
Kline in De-Lovely, a musical biography of Cole Porter.
|
FILMOGRAPHY
• De-Lovely (2004)
• Twisted (2004)
• Brown Sugar/Someone Like You 2-Pack (2002)
• Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)
• Frida (2002)
• High Crimes (2002)
• Someone Like You/Where the Heart Is (2002)
• Someone Like You (2001)
• Eye of the Beholder (2000)
• Where the Heart Is (2000)
• Double Jeopardy (1999)
• Simon Birch (1998)
• Kiss the Girls (1997)
• The Locusts (1997)
• Norma Jean and Marilyn (1996)
• Normal Life (1996)
• The Passion of Darkly Noon (1996)
• A Time to Kill (1996)
• Heat (1995)
• Smoke (1995)
• Ruby in Paradise (1993) |
