UMA THURMAN (“The Bride”/”Black Mamba”) has proven herself to be one of the most versatile young actresses around, playing a wide variety of compelling characters. The daughter of a psychologist and a college professor, Thurman was raised in Amherst, Massachusetts and Woodstock, New York. She attended a preparatory school in New England, where at fifteen she was discovered by two New York agents. At sixteen she transferred to the Professional Children's School in New York City to pursue an acting career.
Thurman first came forcefully to public attention in 1988, when she segued from Johnny Be Good, opposite Anthony Michael Hall, to an eye-catching cameo as Venus on the half shell in Terry Gillian's epic fantasy The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1998). She went on to receive world-wide critical acclaim in her third movie, for her portrayal of a virginal 18th century convent girl, Cecile de Volanges, coldly seduced by a ruthless John Malkovich in Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons.
Thurman’s career has been defined from the beginning by a bold but highly selective choice of roles and collaborators: no commercial throwaways allowed. The following year she starred for adventurous director Philip Kaufman in Henry & June (1990), playing the neurotic and exotic bisexual spouse of archetypal bohemian novelist Henry Miller (Fred Ward).
In Mad Dog and Glory,1993 she played a barmaid who becomes an indentured servant to Robert De Niro for saving Bill Murray's life. Her most eccentric movie to date is Gus Van Sant's film Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,1994 based upon the Tom Robbins novel, in which she starred as Sissy Hankshaw, a big-thumbed, bisexual hippie hitchhiker.
In 1996, Thurman received an Academy Award nomination for Quentin Tarantino's critically lauded Pulp Fiction, in which she played Mia Wallace, a sexy and comedic mobster's wife. Later that year, she was seen in the period romance A Month by the Lake, with Vanessa Redgrave, and the contemporary romance Beautiful Girls, directed by Ted Demme. Thurman next appeared in The Truth About Cats And Dogs (1996), Batman & Robin (1997), Gattacca (1997), Les Miserables (1998), and The Avengers (1998). In the spring of 1999, she made her stage debut in an updated version of Moliere's The Misanthrope at The Classic Stage Company in New York.
Her most recent films include Woody Allen's Sweet And Lowdown, opposite Sean Penn and Samantha Morton; Vatel, opposite Gerard Depardieu and Tim Roth; the Merchant/Ivory Henry James adaptation The Golden Bowl, with Nick Nolte; and Tape with Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard, for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as Best Supporting Actress.
Thurman recently produced and starred in the HBO film, Hysterical Blindness, directed by Mira Nair, with Juliette Lewis and Gena Rowlands. She won a 2003 Golden Globe for Best Actress for her portrayal of Debby Miller in the film, and was nominated for a SAG Award.
Movie Database
In Theaters
(16 votes)
(1 votes)
(92 votes)
(8 votes)
(132 votes)
(1433 votes)