Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an
American film actress. After making her screen debut in 1978, Hannah starred in a number of
Hollywood films throughout the 1980s, notably
Blade Runner,
Splash,
Wall Street and
Roxanne and in 2003 appeared in
Kill Bill.
Early life
Hannah was born in
Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Susan Wexler, a producer, and Don Hannah, a
tugboat and
barge company owner.
[Daryl Hannah Biography (1960-)] Her parents divorced shortly after her birth and her mother subsequently married
Jerrold Wexler, a
businessman and brother of
Haskell Wexler, a cinematographer. She grew up with siblings Don and Page Hannah, as well as half-sister Tanya Wexler, in Long Grove, Illinois.
Hannah became interested in movies at a young age, partly due to
insomnia. She was very shy and diagnosed as "borderline
autistic."
[Daryl Hannah biography. Allmovie. Retrieved April 28, 2006.] Hannah attended the private
Francis W. Parker School (where she played on the boys
soccer team) and the
Latin School of Chicago before enrolling at the
University of Southern California.
Career
Hannah made her film debut in
1978 with a brief appearance in
Brian De Palma's horror film
The Fury. She turned down many roles early on in her career, including the role of Emmeline Lestrange for
The Blue Lagoon (that ultimately went to
Brooke Shields). Her first notable role came as the acrobatic and violent
replicant Pris in
Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi classic
Blade Runner, in which she performed some of her own gymnastic stunts. That same year she appeared in the summer hit release
Summer Lovers. She then was cast as a beautiful blonde
mermaid in
Ron Howard's
1984 fantasy
Splash, which starred
Tom Hanks and was a major financial success,
[Business data for Splash. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved April 28, 2006.] establishing Hannah as a high-profile film actress.
Hannah's successes in the remainder of the 1980s ranged from
Steel Magnolias and the
Academy Award-winning
Wall Street (the part for which she received her Razzie Award) to the
1986 film version of the best-seller
The Clan of the Cave Bear. She starred in the title role of
Fred Schepisi's 1987 film
Roxanne, a modern retelling of
Edmond Rostand's play
Cyrano de Bergerac, a performance which was described as "sweet" and "gentle" by film critic
Roger Ebert.
[Roger Ebert. Review of Roxanne (1987). June 16, 1987. Retrieved April 28, 2006.]
She also appeared in
The Pope of Greenwich Village with co-stars
Mickey Rourke and
Eric Roberts and played the daughter of
Jack Lemmon's character in both of the
Grumpy Old Men comedies. In 1995, Hannah was chosen by
Empire magazine as #96 of the "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History." That same year she appeared as homicidal sociopath Leann Netherwood in
The Tie That Binds.
Of her most recent roles, the most memorable may be that of the one-eyed assassin Elle Driver in
Kill Bill, directed by
Quentin Tarantino. Her performance in this film, as well as her appearances in
Northfork, Michael Radford's
Dancing at the Blue Iguana, John Sayles'
Casa de los Babys and
Silver City, have been described by some as a comeback.
[Daryl Hannah: Comeback Kill Bill Vol. 1.]
Hannah wrote, directed and produced a short film, "The Last Supper", which won an award at the
Berlin Film Festival. She directed, produced and was cinematographer for the documentary
Strip Notes. It aired on
Channel 4 in the UK and on
HBO and was about the research Hannah did for her role as a stripper in
Dancing at the Blue Iguana. Hannah currently has several projects in post-production, including
Shannon's Rainbow and
A Closed Book.
[www.imdb.com/title/tt1247691/]
Recently she appeared in
Robbie Williams' video for the song "Feel", portraying Williams' love interest.
Awards
- Best Short - The Berlin Film Festival "The Last Supper", 1994
- Best Fight - MTV Movie Awards Kill Bill Vol.2, 2005
- Best Supporting Actress - Saturn Award Kill Bill Vol. 2, 2004
- Best Actress - Saturn Award Splash, 1984
- Influencer Of The Year Award - National Biodiesel Board, 2004
- Ongoing Commitment Award - Environmental Media Award, 2004
- Environmental Activism - Water Quality Awards, 2006
- Environmental Preservation - Artivist Awards, 2006
Personal life
Hannah and actress
Hilary Shepard Turner created two board games, "Love It Or Hate It" and "
LIEbrary", with Hannah previewing the latter on
Ellen DeGeneres' talk show in 2005.
[
Hannah and Paul Watson.jpg|thumb|Daryl Hannah and [[Paul Watson] in front of the
MV Steve Irwin]]
Hannah, a keen
environmentalist, has her own weekly video blog called
DHLoveLife[welcome to dhlovelife.com | home of the dhlovelife show, lovelife goods, and the new knowdummy eco-resource!] on sustainable solutions. She is often the sound recordist, camera person and on-screen host for the blog.
[DHLovelife.com (MOV file). Retrieved April 28, 2006.] Her home runs on
solar power and is built with green materials. She drives a car that runs on
biodiesel.
[Kathryn Gillick. Interview: Daryl Hannah. SASS magazine. Retrieved April 28, 2006.] In late 2006, she volunteered to act as a judge for Treehugger.com's
[TreeHugger] "Convenient Truths" contest.
[Convenient Truth Contest] On December 4, 2008, Hannah joined
Sea Shepherd's crew aboard the
MV Steve Irwin, as part of
Operation Musashi.
[McGuirk, Rob. "Activists vows to protect whales from Japanese", Associated Press, 2008-12-03. Retrieved on 2008-12-05.]
Hannah has never married. She had a long-term relationship with singer
Jackson Browne who had his roadies bring her backstage after a concert during her senior year at Parker -- (she is the female voice on Browne's 1985 hit song with
Clarence Clemons, "
You're a Friend of Mine"). She was with Browne from 1982 through 1992. After Browne, she had a relationship with
John F. Kennedy, Jr. and was romantically linked with actor
Val Kilmer. She is the sister-in-law of music producer
Lou Adler, who is married to Hannah's sister, Page (who met Adler while Daryl was seeing Browne).
On June 13, 2006, Hannah was arrested, along with
Taran Noah Smith, for her involvement with over 350 farmers, their families and supporters, confronting authorities trying to bulldoze the nation's largest urban farm in South Central Los Angeles. She chained herself to a walnut tree at the
South Central Farm for three weeks to protest the farmers' eviction by the property's new owner. The farm had been established in the wake of the
1992 LA riots to allow people in the city to grow food for themselves. However, the land's new owner, who had paid $5 million for it, sought to evict the farmers to build a warehouse. He had asked for $16 million to sell it but turned down the offer when the activists raised that amount. Hannah was interviewed via cell phone shortly before she was arrested, along with 44 other protesters, and said that she and the others are doing the "morally right thing".
[Daryl Hannah arrested after protest | Video - Celebrities - MSNBC.com] She spent some time in jail.
[FOXNews.com - What Can Paris Expect Behind Bars? - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment]
Hannah has also worked to help end sexual slavery and has been traveling around the world to make a documentary.
Daryl Hannah was among 31 people arrested on June 23, 2009 in a protest against
mountaintop removal in southern West Virginia, part of a wider campaign to stop the practice in the region. The protesters, who also included NASA climate scientist James Hansen, were charged with obstructing officers and impeding traffic after they sat in the middle of State Route 3 outside Massey Energy's Goals Coal preparation plant on Tuesday, the
The Charleston Gazette reported.
In a
Democracy Now! phone interview on June 24, 2009, Ms. Hannah spoke briefly on why she went to West Virginia and risked arrest
.
Filmography
