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ELIZABETH HURLEY |
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PICTURES |
BIOGRAPHY |
FILMOGRAPHY |
AWARDS |
QUOTES |
LINKS |
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ELIZABETH HURLEY BIOGRAPHY |
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Elizabeth Jane Hurley was born on June 10, 1965 in Hampshire,
England, United Kingdom. The daughter of an army officer father
and anelementary schoolteacher mother, Hurley grew up in the
suburb of Basingstoke, England. Her dream as a youth was
tobecome a dancer, so she went to a boarding school for ballet
instruction when she was twelve years old. She soonreturned home,
however. Around the age of sixteen, Hurley became caught up in
the English punk-rock scene and evenwore pink hair and a nose
ring.Hurley parlayed her training at the London Studio Centre
into theatre work and made her screen debut at the age of 21in
Bruce Beresford's movie Aria in 1987. Several roles in
television and the film Remando al viento (1987) with young
actor(and future beau) Hugh Grant soon followed. Continuing her
streak of success, Hurley drew accolades for her portrayal ofthe
title role of Christabel Bielenberg in the BBC mini-serial
Christabel in 1988. Then, in 1992, Hurley made her Hollywoodfilm
debut as a terrorist (she can terrorize me any day) in the
Wesley Snipes action drama Passenger 57. Despite thisappearance,
Hurley was disappointed in the lack of meaty roles she received
after two years of auditioning in Hollywood,so she returned to
England.Unbeknownst to Hurley, her fame was soon to skyrocket
for two reasons. Reason number one was the London premiereof
Four Weddings and a Funeral (Grant's 1994 movie), where Hurley
wowed the crowd by wearing a black Versace dressthat was held
together by nothing more than safety pins. (You can find several
pictures of that dress on this site at thePictures section, FYI.)
Hurley says, ''That dress was a favor from Versace because I
couldn't afford to buy one. Hispeople told me they didn't have
any evening wear, but there was one item left in their press
office. So I tried it on andthat was it.''
Reason number two for Hurley's fame taking off was her becoming
the spokesmodel representing top cosmetics houseEstée Lauder. (Estée
Lauder signed her shortly after the Versace safety-pin dress
outing.) This assignment, along with theHugh Grant/Divine Brown
incident, thrust Hurley squarely into the public eye. Despite
the chaos created by the incident,Hurley and Grant founded
Simian Films (''Simian'' because the two feel that Grant
resembles a monkey) in partnership withCastle Rock Entertainment
in 1994. Soon afterwards, Hurley, Simian's Head of Development,
discovered the script for andproduced the film Extreme Measures(1996),
starring Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman, and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Extreme Measures, a medical mystery thriller, is Simian
Films'first production and a departure from what Hurley and
Grant had planned on doing in their first production -- comedy.
Hurley found outabout Extreme Measures after Simian Films was
established, during her first meeting with executives from
Castle Rock Entertainment.Elizabeth liked the story and read
Tony Gilroy's script eagerly. ''I found the moral intricacies of
the script so complex that even now,nearly two years after
reading the first draft, I still can't decide exactly where I
stand on the ethical issues,'' said Hurley during
aninterview.Since producing Extreme Measures, the well-rounded
Hurley has continued to be very busy with a plethora of projects.
The filmAustin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) was
probably the biggest and and most successful of those projects.
On AustinPowers' impact on her career, Hurley says ''. . .
thanks to Austin Powers, I'm earning more money acting than I
have before and gettingbetter scripts. But that film was not
what I feel comes naturally to me. I'm actually a more
melancholy, more serious actress. I mean, inEngland I got known
for very sad, dramatic, quite heavy emotional BBC dramas.''Hurley
has appeared in several movies since portraying the ''shagadelic''
Vanessa Kensington in Austin Powers: International Manof Mystery.
She had a major role in the film Dangerous Ground in 1997. After
a brief absence from the big screen in 1998, Hurleyreappeared
with a vengeance. She starred in several films that were
released within a year of each other -- Permanent Midnight
(Fall1998), My Favorite Martian (Spring 1999), Ed TV (Spring
1999), and Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me (Summer1999).
In addition to her starring roles in the above movies, Hurley
served as a producer of Simian Film's second film, MickeyBlue-Eyes,
which premiered Fall 1999.
The year 2000 finds Ms. Hurley as busy as ever. Future movie
projects include The Weight of Water with Sean Penn and
CatherineMcCormack and Bedazzled with Brendan Frasier. However,
after a couple of years of speculation (and to the great
disappointment ofmany Hurley fans), it appears that Ms. Hurley
will not portray Lara Croft from the video game Tomb Raider in
the theatrical release.The role, as of this update, belongs to
Angelina Jolie. |
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