Jennifer Beals Biography

Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963) is an American actress and a former teen model. She played the role of Alexandra "Alex" Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance, and appeared as Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word. She earned an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for the former. She has appeared in more than 50 films.

Early life

Beals was born on the South Side of Chicago, the daughter of Jeanne (née Anderson), an elementary school teacher, and Alfred Beals, who owned grocery stores. She is multiracial; her father was African American, and her mother is Irish American. She has two brothers, Bobby and Gregory. Her father died when Beals was nine years old, and her mother married Edward Cohen in 1981. Beals has said her biracial heritage had some effect on her, as she "always lived sort of on the outside", with an idea "of being the other in society". She got her first job at age 13 at an ice cream store, using her height at the time (she is now nearly ), to convince her boss she was 16.

Beals was inspired to become an actress by two events: doing a high school production of Fiddler on the Roof and seeing Balm in Gilead with Joan Allen while volunteer-ushering at the Steppenwolf Theatre.

Beals graduated from the progressive Francis W. Parker School. She also was chosen to attend the elite Goodman Theatre Young People's Drama Workshop. Beals attended Yale University, receiving a B.A. in American literature in 1987; she deferred a term so she could film Flashdance. While at Yale, Beals was a resident of Morse College.

Career

Film

Beals had a minor role in the 1980 film My Bodyguard, then came to fame with her starring part in Flashdance. The third-highest grossing U.S. film of 1983, Flashdance is the story of 18-year-old Alex, a welder by day and exotic dancer by night, whose dream is to be accepted someday at an illustrious school of dance. Beals was cast for this key role while still a student at Yale. She was nominated for a Golden Globe and the film received an Academy Award for Best Song. Many of Beals' elaborate dance moves were actually performed by stunt double Marine Jahan.

After she filmed Flashdance, Beals resumed her studies, making only one film during that time: playing the titular character The Bride with singer-actor Sting, a gothic horror film loosely based on the 1935 classic Bride of Frankenstein, shot during her summer break. She also appeared in the "Cinderella" episode of Faerie Tale Theatre. Beals was asked by Joel Schumacher to do St. Elmo's Fire but turned it down, preferring to stay at Yale.

Starring opposite Nicolas Cage, the actress portrays a lusty and thirsty vampire in 1989's Vampire's Kiss.

In 1995, Beals and Denzel Washington co-starred in Devil in a Blue Dress, a period film based on a Walter Mosley novel featuring L.A. private detective, Easy Rawlins. Beals plays a biracial woman passing for white. That same year she appeared with Tim Roth in two segments of the four-story anthology Four Rooms, one of which was directed by her then-husband, Alexandre Rockwell.

Rockwell had previously directed her in the 1992 independent film In the Soup, which was a Grand Prize winner at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2003, she played one of the sequestered jury members in the film adaptation of Runaway Jury.

She had a leading role in 2006's The Grudge 2, sequel to the hit horror film of two years earlier. In 2010, Beals reunited with Denzel Washington in the post-Apocalyptic action drama, The Book of Eli, where she played a blind woman who is the mother of Mila Kunis' character and a servant of Gary Oldman's.

Television

In 1992, she appeared in 2000 Malibu Road as attorney Perry Quinn. It was her first ongoing television series; she said she had been leery as she previously had not "found a character I wanted to live with for several years".

In 2004, Beals made a brief cameo in the final episode of Frasier. In 2007, she appeared in the small TV drama My Name Is Sarah, in which she plays Sarah Winston, a sober woman who joins Alcoholics Anonymous to conduct research for her book but finds herself falling in love with a recovering alcoholic and - as a result - having to deal with her original deception in joining the group.

Beals starred in Showtime Network's The L Word, wherein she played Bette Porter, an Ivy League-educated lesbian. At Beals' request, Bette was made biracial, enabling Pam Grier's Kit Porter character to become Bette's half-sister. Beals' initial research for the part focused more on the woman's profession as an art museum director than on her life as a lesbian; "I was much more obsessed by the work that Bette did, because she was so obsessed by the work that she did." The series ran for six seasons and ended in March 2009.

She also appears alongside Tim Roth in Lie to Me, as Cal Lightman's ex-wife, Zoe Landau.

Beals is the female lead in Fox's TV drama The Chicago Code. Her character Teresa Colvin is Chicago's first female police superintendent. The series was canceled after its first season.

Beals turned down an offer to appear on Dancing with the Stars, saying: "I am not a dancer. They asked me and I said 'no.' You could back up a truck to my door filled with cash and I wouldn't do it."

In 2013, Beals signed on for the main role of the ABC drama pilot Westside produced by McG and developed by Ilene Chaiken.

Web series

Beals is also well known for her support of women's rights and for her strong feminist character. In August 2012, she appeared alongside Troian Bellisario in the web series Lauren on the YouTube channel, WIGS. Its first season is a three episode arc featuring the stories of women in the army being abused, predominantly by more powerful superior. The stories focused on the frequently reported cases on sexual abuse and how and why most of the cases went unreported or unsettled. Beals has also appeared in two interviews, discussing her views in relation to Lauren.

In January 2013, Troian Bellisario confirmed on her twitter and instagram, that she and Beals were filming more Lauren web episodes. Lauren returned on May 3, 2013 and with a second season of 12 episodes.

Personal life

Beals was married to Alexandre Rockwell from 1986 to 1996. In 1998, she married Ken Dixon, a Canadian entrepreneur. On October 18, 2005, Beals gave birth to their daughter. Her husband also has two children from a previous marriage.

Beals has described herself as a "spiritual person". She has expressed interest in the Holy Bible and Catholicism, and is a practicing Buddhist.

She has been a vocal advocate for gay rights saying, "I think after playing Bette Porter on The L Word for six years I felt like an honorary member of the community." Beals was a Celebrity Grand Marshal at the 2006 San Francisco Pride Parade. In October 2012, she received the Human Rights Campaign's Ally For Equality Award, in recognition of her outstanding support to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Beals is a photographer, who has had shows of her work under her married name, Dixon. She has a book about her time on The L Word featuring her own photographs. In 1989, she spent some time in Haiti photographing the elections.

She is also a triathlete.

In 2010, Beals served as the Grand Marshal of the McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade in Chicago, during which she spoke of the two charities important to her, the Matthew Shepard Foundation and The Pablove Foundation.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	My Bodyguard	Clifford's Friend
1983	Flashdance	Alex Owens
1985	The Bride	Eva
1988	The Gamble	Lady Olivia Candioni	aka La Partita
1988	Split Decisions	Barbara Uribe
1989	Vampire's Kiss	Rachel
1989	Sons	Transvestite
1990	Dr. M	Sonja Vogler
1991	Blood and Concrete	Mona
1992	In the Soup	Angelica Pena
1992	Day of Atonement	Joyce
1992	Indecency	Ellie Shaw	TV film
1992	Terror Stalks the Class Reunion	Virginia	TV film
1993	Caro diario	Herself
1993	The Princess and the Cobbler	Princess YumYum	voice
1993	Night Owl	Julia	TV film
1994	Dead on Sight	Rebecca Darcy
1994	Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle	Gertrude Benchley
1994	The Search for One-eye Jimmy	Ellen
1995	Four Rooms	Angela
1995	Let It Be Me	Emily Taylor
1995	Devil in a Blue Dress	Daphne Monet
1995	Arabian Knight	Princess YumYum	voice
1997	Wishful Thinking	Elizabeth
1997	The Twilight of the Golds	Suzanne Stein
1998	Body and Soul	Gina
1998	The Prophecy II	Valerie Rosales
1998	The Last Days of Disco	Nina
1998	The Spree	Xinia Kelly	TV film
1999	Something More	Lisa
1999	Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying	Jessica
2000	Militia	Julie Sanders
2000	Without Malice	Samantha Wilkes	TV film
2000	A House Divided	Amanda Dickson	TV film
2001	Out of Line	Parole Officer Jenny Capitanas
2001	The Anniversary Party	Gina Taylor
2001	The Big House	Lorraine Brewster	TV film
2001	After the Storm	Mrs. Gavotte	TV film
2001	The Feast of All Saints	Dolly Rose	TV film
2002	13 Moons	Suzi
2002	Roger Dodger	Sophie
2002	They Shoot Divas, Don't They?	Sloan McBride	TV film
2003	Runaway Jury	Vanessa Lembeck
2004	Catch That Kid	Molly
2005	Break a Leg	Juliet
2005	Desolation Sound	Elizabeth Storey
2006	The Grudge 2	Trish
2006	Troubled Waters	Special Agent Jennifer Beck
2007	My Name Is Sarah	Sarah Winston	TV film
2009	Queen to Play	L'Américaine
2010	The Book of Eli	Claudia
2010	A Night for Dying Tigers	Melanie
2010	The Night Before the Night Before Christmas	Angela Fox	TV film
2013	Cinemanovels

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Faerie Tale Theatre	Cinderella	Episode: "Cinderella"
1990	Tinikling ou 'La madonne et le dragon	Patty Meredith
1992	2000 Malibu Road	Perry Quinn	6 episodes
1997	The Outer Limits	Robin Dysart	Episode: "Bodies of Evidence"
1997"1998	Nothing Sacred	Justine Madsen Judd	2 episodes
1999	The Hunger	Jane	Episode: "And She Laughed"
2001	The Feast of All Saints	Dolly Rose
2004"2009	The L Word	Bette Porter	Main role, 70 episodes
2004	Frasier	Dr. Anne Ranberg	2 episodes
2007	Law & Order	Sofia Archer	Episode: "Charity Case"
2009"2011	Lie to Me	Zoe Landau	Recurring role, 6 episodes
2011	The Chicago Code	Teresa Colvin	Main role, 13 episodes
2012	Castle	CIA Agent Sophia Turner	2 episodes
2012	Lauren	Major Jo Stone	Web series
2012	The Mob Doctor	Celeste LaPree	4 episodes
2013	Westside	Lisa Carver	Unsold TV pilot