Fairuza 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 Craft,
The Island of Dr. Moreau,
American History X,
The Waterboy, and
Three Portraits.
Early life
Balk was born as
Fairuza Alejandra Feldthouse in Point Reyes, California.
[California Birth Index 1905?1995.] Her first name is Persian for "turquoise". 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 young woman 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.
Her father, Solomon Feldthouse, was one of the founding members of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Kaleidoscope, and is also a traveling folk musician.
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.
Balk claims Romani and Cherokee ancestry through her father.
Career
While in London, Balk was cast by Walt Disney Productions to star as Dorothy Gale in
Return to Oz, the unofficial 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 Milo? 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. In 1996 she co-starred in
The Island of Dr Moreau with Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer and David Thewlis. In 1998 she gave an intense performance as a neo-Nazi goth-punk opposite Edward Norton in his Academy Award-nominated performance in
American History X, and was featured in
The Waterboy, alongside Adam Sandler. 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
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.
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. She also creates and sells candles, including a line produced with wax from Neil Gaiman's bees. 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.Religion
At the time of filming
The Craft, she was a practicing Pagan. Her current spirituality is unknown.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable sortable"|+Film|-! Year! Title! Role! class="unsortable" | Notes|-|1985|
Return to Oz|Dorothy Gale||-|1986|
The Worst Witch|Mildred Hubble||-|1986|
Discovery|Molly||-|1988|
|Celia Brzjinski||-|1989|
Valmont|Cecile||-|1992|
Gas Food Lodging|Shade||-|1994|
Imaginary Crimes|Sonya Weiler||-|1994|
Tollbooth|Doris||-|1995|
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead|Lucinda||-|1996|
|Nancy Downs||-|1996|
|Aissa||-|1997|
American Perfekt|Alice Thomas||-|1997|
|Bella Sotto||-|1998|
Life in the Fast Lane|Mona||-|1998|
American History X|Stacey||-|1998|
|Vicki Vallencourt||-|2000|
Red Letters|Gretchen Van Buren||-|2000|
Almost Famous|Sapphire||-|2002|
Three Portraits|Paula||-|2002|
Deuces Wild|Annie||-|2005|
What It Is?|Screaming Snail / Insect / Monkey Girl (voice)||-|2005|
Don't Come Knocking|Amber||-|2005|
|Lola||-|2006|
Wild Tigers I Have Known|Logan's Mom||-|2008|
Humboldt County|Bogart||-|2008|
Grindstone Road|Hannah||-|2009|
|Heidi||-|2010|
Shit Year|Message Voice||-|2012|
Dose of Reality|Rose|Completed|-|2012|
Thicker|Lonely|Pre-production|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"|+Television|-! Year! Title! Role! class="unsortable" | Notes|-|1983|
|Beth Bradley|TV movie|-|1985|
Deceptions|Penny Roberts|TV movie|-|1986|
|Mildred Hubble|TV movie|-|1987|
The Barbara Hutton Story|Barbara - Age 12|TV movie|-|1991|
Deadly Intentions... Again?|Stacey|TV movie|-|1992|
Shame|Lizzie Curtis|TV movie|-|1992|
|Lisa|TV movie|-|1993|
Murder in the Heartland|Caril Ann Fugate|TV movie|-|1994|
ZZ Top: Breakaway|Vampire Girl|TV movie|-|1995|
Shadow of a Doubt|Angel Harwell|TV movie|-|1999|
Family Guy|Connie D'Amico (voice)|Episode: "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater"|-|2000|
Family Guy|Connie D'Amico (voice)|Episode: "Let's Go to the Hop"|-|2002|
Vice City|Mercedes Cortez (voice)|Video game|-|2003|
Justice League|Penny Dee (voice)|Episode: "Only a Dream"|-|2003|
Lords of EverQuest|Lady T'Lak (voice)|Video game|-|2006|
Orpheus|Karen|TV movie|-|2006|
Masters of Horror|Stacia|Episode: "Pick Me Up"|}
References
{{Reflist| refs =
[{{cite web| url = http://www.filmreference.com/film/50/Fairuza-Balk.html| title = Fairuza Balk Biography (1974-)| work = FilmReference.com| year = 2010 update| publisher =| accessdate = 2010-08-12}}][{{cite web| url = http://www.askmen.com/celebs/women/actress_250/263_fairuza_balk.html| title = Fairuza Balk Photos, Gossip, Bio & Reviews| work = AskMen.com| year = 2010 update| publisher = IGN Entertainment, Inc| accessdate = 2010-08-12}}][{{cite web| url= http://www.pulsatingdream.com/kaleidoscope_history_part_one.html| title = The Rise and Fall of the Neoprene Lizards ? the Kaleidoscope Story, p. 1| work = PulsatingDream.com| year = 2006 update| accessdate = 2010-08-12}}]}}
External links
{{Persondata| NAME = Balk, Fairuza| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Feldthouse, Fairuza Alejandra| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Actress| DATE OF BIRTH = May 21, 1974| PLACE OF BIRTH = Point Reyes, California, U.S.| DATE OF DEATH =| PLACE OF DEATH =}}American people of Cherokee descentPeople of Blackfoot descentAmerican expatriates in CanadaAmerican expatriates in FranceAmerican expatriates in the United KingdomAmerican people of Native American descentAmerican people of Romani descentAmerican child actressesAmerican film actressesAmerican voice actressesActresses from the San Francisco Bay Area1974 birthsLiving people20th-century American actresses21st-century American actressesIndependent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead winners
Source:
Wikipedia
:
modifier le texte
