Lucy Lawless

Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010.
Born	Lucille Frances Ryan 29 March 1968 (1968-03-29) (age 42) Mount Albert, Auckland, New Zealand
Other names	Lucy Tapert
Occupation	Actress/Singer
Years active	1989–present
Spouse	Garth Lawless (1988–1995) Robert Tapert (1998–present)

Lucy Lawless, MNZM (born Lucille Frances Ryan; 29 March 1968) is a New Zealand actress and singer. She is best known for playing the title character of the internationally successful television series Xena: Warrior Princess which ran from 1995 to 2001. She has also appeared on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series. Most recently she appeared on the television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand as Lucretia, Batiatus' wife.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Acting career 3 Personal life 4 Charity 5 Astronomy 6 Singing career 7 Filmography 7.1 Films 7.2 Television 8 References 9 External links

Early life

Born in the Mount Albert suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, Lucy is the daughter of Julie, a teacher, and Frank Ryan, who was a banker and Mount Albert mayor.^[1] The fifth of seven children, she has five brothers and one sister.

Lawless began acting in secondary school. During her adolescence, Lucy suffered with bulimia, but was able to overcome the illness in college, the Auckland University. There she studied foreign languages for a year, including German, Italian, and French, and she also studied opera for three years. But soon after, after learning that opera required changes in her lifestyle she was not ready to make, she gave up on both and moved herself to a course of violin and jazz.

Acting career

In 1994, Lawless appeared in "Hercules and the Amazon Women," a Pacific Renaissance Pictures made-for-television film that became the television pilot for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. In that episode, she played a man-hating Amazon named Lysia. She went on to play another character, Lyla, in the first season episode "As Darkness Falls." But her key role was given to her when she was asked to play a villainous warrior woman named Xena in the episode "The Warrior Princess," which aired in March 1995. (R. J. Stewart, one of Pacific Renaissance Pictures' in-house writers, had dramatised the teleplay from a story that Robert G. "Rob" Tapert had commissioned John Schulian to write.) Vanessa Angel had originally been cast in the role, but fell ill and was unable to travel to New Zealand for shooting. To differentiate between Xena and the similar Lysia, Lawless' hair, naturally ash blond, was coloured black. Xena subsequently returned in two more episodes of the first season of Hercules, which portrayed her turn from villainess to good character.

The character was popular enough that a spin-off series was created for her. Xena: Warrior Princess debuted on 4 September 1995 (although Lawless appeared as Lyla once again, in the second season Hercules episode "Outcast" – aired in October 1995). Xena: Warrior Princess, like its parent program, was a hit, lasting six seasons, and Lawless became an international celebrity.

Whilst she was taping an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in October 1996, Lawless suffered a fractured pelvis when the horse she was riding lost its footing in the studio parking lot. She made a complete recovery, and her absence from the Xena set ultimately had minimal impact on the show.

In 1997, Lawless was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" by People Weekly Magazine. Days earlier, on 6 May, 1997, Lawless had inadvertently exposed a breast as she concluded a performance of the US national anthem at an NHL hockey game in Anaheim, California between the Mighty Ducks and Detroit Red Wings. Lawless was quoted in Newsweek as saying, "Obviously, I was mortified....It was quite a bit more exposure than I want."^[2]

Lawless first appeared on Broadway in September 1997 in the Grease play remake, as the "bad girl" character, Betty Rizzo. She had wanted to play the lead role of Sandy, and later stated her belief that the producers had typecast her to play "bad girls" following her success as Xena. She said the Sandy character was very similar to her sheltered childhood, growing up in New Zealand with many protective older brothers.^[3]

Lawless has since appeared onstage in the Vagina Monologues and as a television guest star in episodes of The Simpsons, The X-Files, Just Shoot Me!, Veronica Mars, Burn Notice, Less Than Perfect, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and bro'Town. She was also featured in the short-lived television series Tarzan. Lawless has made cameo appearances in the movies EuroTrip, Spider-Man, and Boogeyman (2005), and in the sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm. She returned to television in the TV movie Locusts! and its sequel, Vampire Bats.

Lawless became a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours List, which entitled her to use the postnominal letters, MNZM.

From 2005 to 2009, Lawless had a recurring role in the television series Battlestar Galactica. She so appeared as D'Anna Biers, a reporter with the Fleet News Service who worked on a critical documentary about the crew of the Galactica and was later revealed to be a Cylon (Number Three).

Lawless' appearance in a season 6 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm was as herself. She went on a date with Larry David, only, finally, to walk away after Larry made an inappropriate suggestion about his underwear and the potential for sex between them.

Lawless competed as one of the celebrity singers on the reality TV show Celebrity Duets in 2006, finishing as the runner-up to winner Alfonso Ribeiro. She has also performed as a voice actor in several animated features.

The lesbian community is interested in Lawless, largely because of Xena's ambiguous relationship with traveling companion Gabrielle.^[4] Although Lawless is heterosexual, she has appeared at gay pride events such as the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.^[5] In a 2003 interview with Lesbian News magazine, she said that she had come to see Xena and Gabrielle's relationship as gay after viewing the series finale, though she has also stated on several occasions that she was undecided on the nature of the relationship while playing the role.^[6]

Lawless was to appear as one of the leads in the ensemble cast of the ABC television series, Football Wives, based on the popular British series Footballers' Wives, in 2007. The series did not continue past the pilot episode, though the network did extend the options on its contracts with Lawless and the other actors slated to star in the series (Gabrielle Union, Kiele Sanchez, Ving Rhames and James Van Der Beek), which seemed to indicate the show was still under consideration.^[7][8]

Lawless returned to television on 10 November 2008 in a guest-starring role on the hit CBS television series, CSI: Miami, playing a madame with connections to a murder. She appeared in two episodes of the final season of The L Word, and also had a role in the Adam Sandler movie, Bedtime Stories, released Christmas 2008. Also in 2008, Lucy stars with her former Xena stuntwoman Zoë Bell in Sony (Crackle)'s new web series Angel of Death written by Ed Brubaker set to debut online in early 2009.^[9]

In 2009 Lawless guest-starred on the hit HBO series, Flight of the Conchords as Paula, assistant to the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Lawless co-starred in the Starz original series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The show is based on the life of Spartacus, the famous gladiator, and the slave revolt he led, and is produced by long-time Xena producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. Lawless played the role of Lucretia, the wife of Lentulus Batiatus, who are both the owners of a gladiator ludus.

Lawless provided the voice of Goldmoon for Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, a direct-to-DVD animated movie based on the novel of the same name, as well as Wonder Woman in the direct-to-video animated movie Justice League: The New Frontier.^[10]

Personal life

At 19, Lawless became pregnant with Garth Lawless' child. In 1988, they married in Kalgoorlie, Australia. They returned to New Zealand and had a daughter, Daisy Lawless (born 15 July 1988). The couple divorced in 1995. Lawless married Xena's executive producer, Pacific Renaissance Pictures CEO Robert G. "Rob" Tapert, on 28 March 1998. They have two sons: Julius Robert Bay Tapert (born 16 October 1999) and Judah Miro Tapert (born 7 May 2002), both born in Auckland, New Zealand.

Charity

Lawless is a member of the board of trustees of the StarShip Foundation, the charity arm of the Starship Children's Health (hospital) which is part of the Auckland District Health Board.^[11] It is set up to provide additional equipment, support and help to staff, patients and families.^[12] She devotes much time and energy to fundraising for the organization. She recently sat for the New Zealand television series The Sitting, ^[13] an arts series where celebrity portraits are produced during an interview session with the portraits later auctioned for charity. Lucy attended the auction where her portrait fetched the top price, with the whole event raising $39,000 for Starship. Lawless has often raised money for concerts and events, donates part of her salary in favor of the institution, and has sold some Xena costumes to contribute funds. Friday 21 September is "Lucy Lawless Feel the Love Day."^[14] The day, organised by the Official Lucy Lawless Fan Club, begins a week of charitable acts and donations by fans in honor and support of Lucy.

In May of 2009, Lucy Lawless became a 'climate ambassador' for the Greenpeace 'Sign On' campaign.^[15]

Astronomy

Astronomer Mike Brown nicknamed his newly discovered dwarf planet "Xena" - finding this name more convenient to use than the then-official designation, 2003 UB313. When this object was determined to be larger than Pluto, it gained international attention and forced a year-long debate among astronomers as to the definition of a planet.

The object's nickname "Xena" was used in the press. New Scientist magazine polled the public on their preferred final name for the so-called tenth planet, "Xena" ranked no. 4.^[16] Lawless rang Mike Brown in December 2005 to thank him for his "senseless act of beauty," and claimed that she "never dared hope [the name] would stick."^[17] But eventually, both it and Pluto were deemed not to be planets, and were instead classified as dwarf planets.

Although "Xena" is now officially known as Eris, Brown made an indirect tribute to Lawless by naming Eris' moon Dysnomia after the Greek goddess of lawlessness,^[18] although for a time that particular moon was named "Gabrielle."

Singing career

Lawless has a background in musical theater and she appeared on Broadway in a production of Grease, as the character of Betty Rizzo, in 1997. ^[19] She has continued to pursue a career in singing after being a contestant on Celebrity Duets. She made her onstage debut at the Roxy in Hollywood on 13 January 2007. Lawless had a sold-out crowd for back-to-back concerts.

Concerts

• 13-14 January 2007 - The Roxy Theater; Los Angeles
• 31 May - 2 June 2007 - The Canal Room; New York City
• 5-6 October 2007 - Buddy Guy's Legends; Chicago
• 25-26 January 2008 - The Roxy Theater; Los Angeles
• 3-4 May 2008 - Carling Academy Islington; London

Albums

• Come 2 Me
• Come To Mama: Lucy Lawless In Concert: The Roxy Theater In Hollywood

Concert DVDs

• Come To Mama: Lucy Lawless In Concert: The Roxy Theater In Hollywood
• Gimme Some, Sugar: Lawless, NYC
• Lucy Lawless Live In Chicago: Still Got The Blues

Other songs

• "Little Child" on Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Within the Law	Verity
	A Bitter Song	Nurse 1
1991	The End of the Golden Weather	Joe's Girl
1992	The Rainbow Warrior	Jane Redmond
1993	Typhon's People	Mink Tertius
1994	Hercules and the Amazon Women	Lysia	Made for TV.
1995	Peach	Peach
1997	Hercules & Xena: Wizards of the Screen	Xena
1998	Hercules and Xena - The Animated Movie: The Battle for Mount Olympus	Xena
2000	Ginger Snaps	Announcer on School's PA System
2002	Spider-Man	Punk Rock Girl
2004	EuroTrip	Madame Vandersexxx
2005	Boogeyman	Mary Jensen
	Locusts	Maddy Rierdon	Made for TV.
	Vampire Bats	Maddy Rierdon	Made for TV.
2006	The Darkroom	Cheryl
2007	Football Wives	Tanya Austin	Made for TV.
2008	Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight	Goldmoon
	Justice League: The New Frontier	Wonder Woman	voice
	Bedtime Stories	Aspen
2009	Bitch Slap	Mother Superior
	Angel of Death	Vera

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	Funny Business	Various Characters
1990	Shark in the Park		"Double or Quits"
1991	For the Love of Mike	Helen	Episode 1.06
1992	The Ray Bradbury Theatre	Liddy Barton	6.13 "Fee Fie Foe Fum"
1993	The Black Stallion	Sarah McFee	3.16 "Riding the Volcano"
1994	High Tide	Undercover Policewoman	1.08 "Shanghied"
1995	Hercules: the Legendary Journeys	Lyla	1.06 "As Darkness Falls"; 2.05 "Outcast"
		Xena	6 episodes (1995-1998)
	Xena: Warrior Princess	Xena	Series Lead (1995-2001)
	High Tide	Sharon List	1.17 "Dead in the Water"
2001	Just Shoot Me!	Stacy	5.14 "The Auction"
	The X Files	Shannon McMahon	9.01 & 9.02 "Nothing Important Happened Today Parts 1 & 2"
2003	Tarzan	Kathleen Clayton	7 episodes.
2004	Less Than Perfect	Tracy Fletcher	3.04 "Ignoring Lydia"
2005	Two and a Half Men	Pamela	2.18 "It was Mame, Mom"
	Battlestar Galactica	D'Anna Biers	(2005-2009) 16 episodes
2006	Veronica Mars	Agent Morris	2.11 "Donut Run"
2007	Burn Notice	Evelyn	1.10 "False Flag"
2007	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Herself	6.07 "The TiVo Guy"
2008	CSI: Miami	Audrey Yates	7.07 "Cheating Death"
2009	Flight of the Conchords	Paula	2.08 "NewZealandTown"
	The L Word	Sgt. Marybeth Duffy	6.01 "Long Night's Journey Into Day"; 6.08 "Last Word"
2010	Spartacus: Blood and Sand	Lucretia	All 13 Episodes of Season 1

References

External links

• Lucy Lawless at the Internet Movie Database
• Lucy Lawless at TV.com

Persondata
Name	Lawless, Lucy
Alternative names	Tapert, Lucy; Ryan, Lucille Frances
Short description	New Zealand television and theater actress and singer known best for her role as Xena in the American television series Xena: Warrior Princess.
Date of birth	29 March 1968
Place of birth	Mount Albert, New Zealand
Date of death
Place of death