Lara Flynn Boyle

Lara Flynn Boyle (born March 24, 1970) is an American actress. She is best known for her performances as Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks and Assistant District Attorney Helen Gamble in The Practice. She has also appeared in films such as Happiness and Men in Black II.

Early life

Boyle was born in Davenport, Iowa, the daughter of Sally, a clerical worker, assistant, and manager, and Michael L. Boyle.^[1][2] Her paternal grandfather was U.S. Representative Charles A. Boyle.^[3] She has German, Irish, and Italian ancestry.^[4] She is named after a character in Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago.^[5] She was raised in Chicago, Illinois and Wisconsin. She graduated from The Chicago Academy for the Arts.

Career

Boyle's first film role was a bit part in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), which earned her a SAG card, though her scenes were deleted from the final cut of the film. She then appeared in the mini-series Amerika (1987) and feature film Poltergeist III (1988). Although she was cast in Dead Poets Society (1989), her scenes were deleted. Her first major role was as Donna Hayward in the critically acclaimed television series Twin Peaks. When the series ended in 1991, creator David Lynch produced a movie, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, but Boyle did not return due to mounting animosity from the Twin Peaks fan base, stemming from her role in persuading ABC to have the plot altered. Moira Kelly took over the role of Donna for the film.

Some of Boyle's most notable roles during the 1990s:

• Stacy in Wayne's World (1992)
• Heather in Where The Day Takes You (1992)
• Kris Bolin in The Temp (1993)
• Suzanne of Red Rock West (1993)
• Alex in the comedy Threesome (1994)
• Marianne Byron in Afterglow (1997)
• Helen Jordan in Happiness (1998)

In 1997, Boyle auditioned for the title role in David E. Kelley's Ally McBeal. Although she lost out to Calista Flockhart, the actress impressed Kelley enough to create the role of Assistant District Attorney Helen Gamble in his other 1997 series, The Practice, specifically for her. She starred on that show until 2003, when, in a dramatic attempt to revamp the show and cut costs, she was dismissed along with most of the cast. For her performance as Helen Gamble, she received an Emmy nomination as well as several Screen Actors Guild ensemble cast nominations. Boyle also made a crossover appearance in the role of Helen Gamble in an episode of Ally McBeal, and an uncredited guest appearance on the same show in its final season.

In 2002, Boyle played a lead role in the blockbuster feature film Men in Black II as the villainous shapeshifting alien Serleena. She also guest-starred on one of the last episodes of Ally McBeal, this time as Tally Cupp. Recently, she had a recurring role on several episodes of Huff, playing Melody Coatar, an unstable patient with borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder.

In 2005, Boyle joined the cast of Las Vegas for a seven-episode stint as Monica Mancuso, a new hotel owner. She played Barbara Amiel in the TV true story Shades of Black, about Amiel's controversial husband, Lord Conrad Black. Boyle also guest-starred as an ambitious reporter involved with the suspects in a possible murder in the Law & Order 2008 episode "Submission".^[6]

Personal life

Boyle was in a two-year relationship with Twin Peaks partner Kyle MacLachlan. She also dated comedian David Spade. Then Boyle dated Jack Nicholson. They went public with their romance at the 1999 Emmys, and remained together until the end of 2000.^[7]

Boyle has been married twice. Her first husband was John Patrick Dee III, whom she married on August 11, 1996, and divorced two years later.^[8] Her current husband is Donald Ray Thomas II, a real-estate investor, whom she married on December 18, 2006, in San Antonio, Texas.^[9]

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lara Flynn Boyle.

• Lara Flynn Boyle at the Internet Movie Database
• Lara Flynn Boyle at AllMovie