Fairuza Balk
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| Fairuza Balk | |
|---|---|
 Fairuza Balk, January 2006 |
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| Born | Fairuza Alejandra Feldthouse May 21, 1974 Point Reyes, California, United States |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Website | |
| Fairuza.com | |
Fairuza Alejandra Balk (born May 21, 1974) is an American film actress. She made her theatrical film debut as Dorothy Gale in Disney's Return to Oz. Balk also made notable appearances in Valmont, The Waterboy, The Craft, American History X and Personal Velocity: Three Portraits.
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[edit] Early life
Balk was born as Fairuza Alejandra Feldthouse in Point Reyes, California.[1] Her first name is Persian, meaning "Turquoise, Victory, or Precious One". Until age two, Balk lived in Cloverdale, California with her mother. They then moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where she began acting at age six. They moved from London to Paris for another role. They remained there for six months before returning to Vancouver. Balk moved to Los Angeles as a teenager upon signing to act in The Craft.
Fairuza's mother, Cathryn Balk, has studied, performed, and taught the ethnic and traditional dance forms of many countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Morocco and Spain.[2] Her father, Solomon Feldthouse, was one of the founding members of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Kaleidoscope, and also a traveling folk musician.[3] He was born in Pingree, Idaho and moved to Turkey at age 10, where he lived for six years and learned Greek, Turkish and Persian music.[4] Balk claims Romani and Cherokee through her father.[5]
[edit] Career
While in London, Balk was selected by Walt Disney Productions to star as Dorothy Gale in Return to Oz, the loose sequel to MGM's 1939 musical The Wizard of Oz. It was not her debut role; that role had been in a television movie titled The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, produced in 1983. However, it was the one that brought her attention as an actress. The role led to other, minor roles, including that of Mildred Hubble in The Worst Witch, and in 1988 she moved to Paris to work on Valmont with Miloš Forman. By 1989 she was back in Vancouver, where she attended high school. However, she soon decided to take correspondence courses instead and went back to Hollywood, where she gained increasing notice as an actress. In 1992 she was awarded an Independent Spirit Award as best actress for her performance in the Allison Anders film Gas Food Lodging.
In 1996, she appeared in a lead role in The Craft, in which her character formed a teenage coven with characters portrayed by Neve Campbell, Rachel True and Robin Tunney.
Since The Craft, Balk has continued to find roles, primarily dark ones. She co-starred in The Island of Dr Moreau in 1996. While on the set of The Island of Dr. Moreau she had been contacted by director Joel Schumacher requesting her to play the part of Poison Ivy in Batman & Robin. Frankenheimer didn't want her to leave production on and off to film Batman & Robin, fearing there would be problems with filming schedules for her part of Aissa in his film. So he demanded to the studio's executives and supervisors that Balk stay under contract for his production, till filming was complete. Uma Thurman got the part of Poison Ivy instead. After completion of The Island of Dr Moreau she gave a chillingly intense performance as a neo-Nazi goth-punk opposite Edward Norton in his Academy Award-nominated performance in American History X in 1998, and was featured in The Waterboy, alongside Adam Sandler, in 1998. Since 2000, she has appeared in over half a dozen movies. She has also done voice work for animated films and video games, including Justice League and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The 2007 documentary Return To Oz: The Joy That Got Away was dedicated to her.
In 2010, Balk released the single "Stormwinds" under the artist title Armed Love Militia.
[edit] Personal life
Balk lives in Hollywood, California, and has an apartment in New York City. Outside her career, her interests include writing poetry and fiction, playing guitar and violin, singing, and dancing. Over the years, she has been romantically involved with a number of well-known men, including British actor David Thewlis, who appeared with her in The Island of Dr. Moreau in 1996 and in American Perfekt in 1997, as well as C. M. Talkington, the director and writer of the cult classic Love and a .45.[citation needed]
From 1995 to 2001, Balk owned Panpipes Magickal Marketplace, an occult store, in Hollywood, California, but is no longer associated with the store.[6]
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | The Best Christmas Pageant Ever | Beth Bradley | TV |
| 1985 | Return to Oz | Dorothy Gale | |
| 1986 | Deceptions | Penny Roberts | TV |
| The Worst Witch | Mildred Hubble | TV | |
| Discovery | Molly | ||
| 1987 | Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story | Barbara Hutton at the age of 12 years | TV |
| 1988 | The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick | Celia Brzjinski | |
| 1989 | Valmont | Cecile | |
| 1991 | Deadly Intentions... Again? | Stacey | TV |
| 1992 | Gas Food Lodging | Shade | Winner, Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress |
| Shame | Lizzie Curtis | TV | |
| The Danger of Love | Lisa | TV (concerning the story of Carolyn Warmus) | |
| 1993 | Murder in the Heartland | Caril Ann Fugate | TV |
| 1994 | Imaginary Crimes | Sonya Weiler | |
| Tollbooth | Doris | ||
| 1995 | Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead | Lucinda | |
| Shadow of a Doubt | Angel Harwell | TV | |
| 1996 | The Craft | Nancy Downs | |
| The Island of Dr. Moreau | Aissa | ||
| 1997 | The Maker | Bella Sotto | |
| American Perfekt | Alice Thomas | ||
| 1998 | There's no Fish Food in Heaven | Mona | |
| American History X | Stacey | ||
| The Waterboy | Vicki Vallencourt | ||
| 1999-2001 | Family Guy | Connie D'Amico | TV; voice |
| 2000 | Red Letters | Gretchen Van Buren | |
| Almost Famous | Sapphire | ||
| 2002 | Personal Velocity: Three Portraits | Paula | |
| Deuces Wild | Annie | ||
| Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | Mercedes Cortez | video game; voice | |
| 2003 | Justice League | Penny | 1 episode |
| 2005 | What Is It? | Snail | voice |
| Don't Come Knocking | Amber | ||
| A Year and a Day | Lola | ||
| 2006 | Wild Tigers I Have Known | Logan's Mom | |
| Masters of Horror | Stacia | TV episode "Pick Me Up" | |
| 2008 | Grindstone Road | Hannah Sloan | |
| Humboldt County | Bogart | ||
| 2009 | Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans | Heidi |
[edit] References
- ^ California Birth Index 1905–1995.
- ^ "Fairuza Balk Biography (1974-)". FilmReference.com. 2010 [last update]. http://www.filmreference.com/film/50/Fairuza-Balk.html. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
- ^ "Fairuza Balk Photos, Gossip, Bio & Reviews". AskMen.com. IGN Entertainment, Inc. 2010 [last update]. http://www.askmen.com/celebs/women/actress_250/263_fairuza_balk.html. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
- ^ "The Rise and Fall of the Neoprene Lizards — the Kaleidoscope Story, p. 1". PulsatingDream.com. 2006 [last update]. http://www.pulsatingdream.com/kaleidoscope_history_part_one.html. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
- ^ Balk, Fairuza (2010-09-10). "Persecution of the Roma". Fairuza.com. http://www.fairuza.com/blog/2010/09/persecution-of-the-roma/#more-114. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
- ^ Panpipes Magickal Marketplace History. PanPipes.com.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fairuza Balk |
- Fairuza Balk at the Internet Movie Database
- Fairuza Balk at AllRovi
- The official net-site of Fairuza Balk
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