Geena Davis

Geena Davis
Davis at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	Virginia Elizabeth Davis January 21, 1956 (1956-01-21) (age 55) Wareham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, producer, writer, athlete, model
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Richard Emmolo (1982–1983) Jeff Goldblum (1987–1990) Renny Harlin (1993–1998) Reza Jarrahy (2001–present, 3 children)

Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist.^[1]

Early life

Davis was born in Wareham, Massachusetts, the daughter of Lucille, a teacher's assistant, and William Davis, a civil engineer; she has a brother named Dan.^[2] At an early age, she became interested in music. She learned piano and flute and played organ well enough as a teenager to serve as an organist at her church in Wareham. Davis attended Wareham High School and while an exchange student in Sandviken, Sweden, she became fluent in Swedish. Enrolling at New England College, Davis eventually graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from Boston University in 1979.

Career

Davis at the 1989 Academy Awards.

After graduating, Davis served as a window mannequin for Ann Taylor until signing with New York's Zoli modeling agency in 1979.^[3] Davis auditioned for roles in many popular movies, including The Terminator’s Sarah Connor, which went to Linda Hamilton.^[4] She was working as a model when director Sydney Pollack spotted her and cast her in Tootsie (1982) as a soap opera actress. She followed this up with the part of Wendy Killain in the short-lived television series Buffalo Bill^[5], which aired from June, 1983, to March, 1984. She also wrote the Buffalo Bill episode entitled "Miss WBFL."^[6] During the run of Buffalo Bill, in 1983, Geena also appeared as Grace Fallon in an episode of Knight Rider entitled "K.I.T.T the Cat". Her television credits from the mid-1980s also include one episode of Riptide, two episodes of Family Ties, and an episode of Remington Steele. This was followed up by a series of her own, Sara, which lasted thirteen episodes.

After roles in Fletch, The Fly, and Beetlejuice, Davis received an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Accidental Tourist (1988), and a Best Actress nomination for her role in Thelma and Louise (1991). Davis replaced Debra Winger in the role of Dottie in A League of Their Own (1992) and received a Best Actress Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance.^[7] She then co-starred in Hero alongside Dustin Hoffman and Andy Garcia. Following this, Davis teamed up with then-husband Renny Harlin for the films Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight. She and Harlin co-produced the films. Davis was nominated for Saturn Awards for her performances as Samantha/Charlie in The Long Kiss Goodnight,^[8] and as Eleanor Little in Stuart Little, a role she reprised in 2002, and again in 2005.^[9]

In 2000–2001, Davis starred in the short-lived sitcom The Geena Davis Show. In early 2004, she guest-starred as Grace Adler's sister, Janet, on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. She most recently starred in the ABC television series Commander in Chief as the first female President of the United States.^[10] This role garnered her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 2006, and she also was nominated for an Emmy Award and a SAG Award for Outstanding Female Actor in a Drama Series.

She made a comeback starring in the Australian produced, American set Accidents Happen, which was released in April 2010.

Personal life

Reza Jarrahy and Davis in 2009.

Davis was married to Richard Emmolo (March 25, 1982 – February 26, 1983); actor Jeff Goldblum, with whom she co-starred in three films, Transylvania 6-5000, The Fly and Earth Girls Are Easy (1987 – 1990); and Renny Harlin, who directed her in Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight (1993 – 1998). On September 1, 2001, Davis married Iranian American plastic surgeon Reza Jarrahy. They have three children: daughter Alizeh Keshvar (born April 10, 2002) and fraternal twin boys Kian William Jarrahy and Kaiis Steven Jarrahy on May 6, 2004.

Davis is 6 feet (1.83 m) tall and is a member of American Mensa, the society of persons with IQs in the statistical top 2%,^[11] with an IQ of 140.

Activism

The handprints of Geena Davis in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

Davis is fronting the Women's Sports Foundation campaign Geena Takes Aim in support of Title IX — an Act of Congress focusing on equality in sports opportunities, now expanded to prohibit gender discrimination in United States' educational institutions.

In 2004, while watching children’s television programs and videos with her daughter, Davis noticed what she thought was an imbalance in the ratio of male to female characters. From that starting point, Davis went on to sponsor the largest research project ever undertaken on gender in children’s entertainment (resulting in 4 discrete studies, including one on children’s television) at the Annenberg School for Communication of University of Southern California. The study, directed by Dr. Stacy Smith, shows that there are nearly 3 males to every 1 female character in the nearly 400 G, PG, PG-13, and R-Rated movies the undergraduate team of Annenberg students coded.

In 2005, Davis teamed up with the non-profit group Dads and Daughters to launch a venture dedicated to balancing the number of male and female characters in children's TV and movie programming.

Davis launched The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2007. The Institute’s first focus is an on-the ground program that works collaboratively with the entertainment industry to dramatically increase the presence of female characters in media aimed at children and to reduce stereotyping of females by the male-dominated industry.

For her work in this field she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Bates College in May 2009.^[12]

Geena Davis speaking at Bates College on May 31, 2009.

Sports

Davis states that she was not an athlete growing up,^[13] and that her introduction to archery was in 1997, two years prior to her tryouts.

Geena Davis was one of 300 women in July 1999,^[1] vying for a semifinals berth in the US Olympic archery team, to participate in the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. She placed 24th of 300 and did not qualify for the team, but participated as a wild-card entry in the Sydney International Golden Arrow competition.^[14]

Filmography

Television work

References

External links

• Geena Davis at the Internet Movie Database
• Geena Davis at the Notable Names Database
• Geena Davis at TV.com