Jennifer Tilly Biography

Jennifer Tilly (born September 16, 1958) is a Canadian-American actress and poker player. She is an Academy Award nominee, and a World Series of Poker Ladies' Event bracelet winner. She is the older sister of actress Meg Tilly.

Early life and education

Tilly was born Jennifer E. Chan in Harbor City, Los Angeles. She is the first child of Harry Chan, a used car salesman, and Patricia (née Tilly), a Canadian schoolteacher and former stage actress. Her father was of Chinese descent and her mother was of Irish, Finnish, and Native-American ancestry.

Following her parents' divorce when she was five, Tilly was raised by her mother and stepfather, John Ward, on rural Texada Island, British Columbia. Her mother divorced again when Tilly was 16, and moved to Victoria, where Tilly attended Belmont High School.

Tilly holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater from Stephens College in Missouri.

Career

Acting

In 1983, Tilly had small roles and had a recurring guest role on Hill Street Blues as Gina Srignoli, a mobster's widow who becomes romantically involved with detective Henry Goldblume. She played Frasier Crane's seductive-but-ditzy date on an episode of the fourth season of Cheers and appeared as a similar character on the eleventh season of Frasier.

She appeared as Garry's girlfriend on It's Garry Shandling's Show, which aired on Showtime. She was also cast as a high end prostitute in the short lived comedy Key West, alongside Fisher Stevens. Tilly's breakthrough film role was as a singing waitress in The Fabulous Baker Boys in a part that was specially written for her by Steve Kloves. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a hopelessly bad actress in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994). In 1994, she also had a small role in The Getaway with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger.

Tilly starred in 1996's Bound, directed by The Wachowskis, which portrays a lesbian relationship her character has with Gina Gershon. She played Samantha Cole in the 1997 Jim Carrey hit Liar Liar. In 2000's Dancing at the Blue Iguana, she played a stripper and part-time dominatrix. She portrayed gossip columnist Louella Parsons in the 2001 Peter Bogdanovich film The Cat's Meow. She gained some additional popularity in recent years for her portrayal of serial killer Tiffany Ray for three of the six Child's Play films. The character was first introduced in the fourth installment of the franchise, Bride of Chucky and subsequently appeared in Seed of Chucky and the most recent film, Curse of Chucky. In Seed, however, she plays a dual role providing the voice for Tiffany and also playing an exaggerated version of herself.

She is a semi-regular cast member on Family Guy, voicing the Griffin family's neighbor, Bonnie Swanson. She has also done voice-over work for the films Monsters, Inc., Stuart Little and Home on the Range, as well as the children's series Hey Arnold. In Disney's The Haunted Mansion, she portrays Madame Leota (a head in a crystal ball). She has been active in the theatre, winning a Theater World Award for her performance in the off-Broadway play One Shoe Off.

She had a starring role in the series Out of Practice, which starred Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing. The series was cancelled in May 2006. About this time, Tilly started dividing her time between her film career and professional poker. By the end of 2008, she returned to her film and television career. In 2009, Tilly made her Chinese film debut in the Christina Yao-directed Empire of Silver playing Mrs. Landdeck.

Poker

On June 27, 2005, Tilly won a World Series of Poker bracelet (and $158,625) in the Ladies' No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em event, beating 600 other players. She followed up this accomplishment on September 1, 2005, by winning the third World Poker Tour Ladies Invitational Tournament held at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. Tilly has appeared in the GSN Poker Royale series. Tilly played in the Celebrity Poker Showdown which aired June 14, 2006, on Bravo. She was knocked out in third place by Bravo's online poker champion Ida Siconolfi when her failed to improve against Ida's starting hand of . She often wears low-cut tops with push-up bras that expose lots of cleavage while playing poker, to distract less serious players, saying "the thing is, if people are ­really playing poker, they don't care. Nothing looks better to them than a pair of aces. They're not looking at your pair. They're looking at their pair." Tilly also appears in the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions 2007 Edition video game (along with boyfriend, Phil Laak) that was released in 2007 by Activision.

In a television interview in 2005, Tilly stated that at that point in her career she was more interested in pursuing poker than acting. By December 2008, Tilly announced her retirement from poker as a career. In her monthly column in Bluff Magazine she said: "I love poker but greatness in poker is an elusive dream. There are too many variants. Trying to find validation in poker is like trying to find a virgin in a whorehouse. I'm not giving up poker entirely " gambling is an addiction after all. I'm just going to treat it more like a hobby and less like a career."

In January 2010, she resumed her poker career, and in July 2012, Tilly's live tournament winnings exceed $590,000.

Personal life

From 1984 until 1991, Tilly was married to Sam Simon, developer and producer of The Simpsons. She has an older brother, Steve, and two younger sisters, Meg and Rebecca.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	No Small Affair	Mona
1985	Moving Violations	Amy Hopkins
1987	Inside Out	Amy
1987	He's My Girl	Lisa
1988	Johnny Be Good	Connie Hisler
1988	Remote Control	Allegra James
1988	Rented Lips	Mona Lisa
1988	High Spirits	Miranda
1989	Far from Home	Amy
1989	Let It Ride	Vicki
1989	'	Monica Moran
1991	'	Okie Girl	Uncredited
1991	Scorchers	Talbot
1992	Shadow of the Wolf	Igiyook
1993	Made in America	Stacy
1994	Double Cross	Melissa
1994	Bullets Over Broadway	Olive Neal
1994	Embrace of the Vampire	Marika
1994	'	Fran Carvey
1995	Bird of Prey	Kily Griffith
1995	Man with a Gun	Rena Rushton/Kathy Payne
1996	'	Tarzaan
1996	House Arrest	Cindy Figler
1996	Bound	Violet
1996	American Strays	Patty Mae
1997	Liar Liar	Samantha Cole
1997	Edie & Pen	Edie Piper
1997	'	Lynn Holden
1998	Relax...It's Just Sex	Tara Ricotto
1998	Hoods	Mary Crippa
1998	Bride of Chucky	Tiffany
1998	Music From Another Room	Nina
1999	'	Herself
1999	Goosed	Charlene
1999	Do Not Disturb	Cathryn
1999	Bartok the Magnificent	Piloff	Voice only
1999	Stuart Little	Mrs. Camille Stout	Voice only
1999	Play It to the Bone	Ringside Fan
2000	Cord	Helen
2000	Bruno	Dolores
2000	Dancing at the Blue Iguana	Jo
2000	'	Ferris 'aka Maureen' Lowenstein
2001	Dirt	Hooker
2001	Fast Sofa	Ginger Quail
2001	Monsters, Inc.	Celia Mae	Voice only
2001	Ball in the House	Dot
2001	'	Louella Parsons
2003	Hollywood North	Gillian Stevens
2003	'	Madame Leota
2003	Happy End	Edna
2003	Jericho Mansions	Donna Cherry
2004	Second Best	Carole
2004	Perfect Opposites	Elyse Steinberg
2004	Home on the Range	Grace	Voice only
2004	El Padrino	Sebeva
2004	Saint Ralph	Nurse Alice
2004	Love on the Side	Alma Kerns
2004	Seed of Chucky	Tiffany/Herself
2005	Bailey's Billion$	Dolores Pennington
2005	Lil' Pimp	Miss De La Croix	Voice only
2005	'	Dr. O'Shannon
2005	Tideland	Queen Gunhilda
2006	'	Herself
2007	Intervention
2008	Deal	Karen 'Razor' Jones
2008	'	Miss Perry
2008	Bart Got a Room	Melinda
2008	Inconceivable	Salome 'Sally' Marsh
2009	An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong	Mrs. Rundell
2009	Imps
2009	Made in Romania	Herself
2009	Empire of Silver	Mrs. Landdeck
2010	'	Amber
2010	'	Ms. Stewart
2012	30 Beats	Erika
2013	Curse of Chucky	Tiffany Ray	Cameo, Direct-to-video
2014	Return to Babylon	Clara Bow

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	Remington Steele	Blitzen / Eva Wilson	Episode: "Dancer, Prancer, Donner and Steele "
1986	Cheers	Candi Pearson	Episode: "Second Time Around"
1989	Moonlighting	Nurse Saundra	Episode: "Plastic Fantastic Lovers"
1993	'	Miranda Webber	TV film
1993	Key West	Savannah Sumner/Savannah Sumners	13 episodes
1993	Heads	Tina Abbot	TV film
1997	Bella Mafia	Moyra Luciano	TV film
2000	Hey Arnold!	Lola
1999-2002, 2005"present	Family Guy	Bonnie Swanson	Voice only
2001	'	Waitress
2001	Sister Mary Explains It All	Philomena Rostovich	TV film
2002	'	Fanny Minafer	TV film
2004	Frasier	Kim	Episode: "Miss Right Now"
2005"2006	Out of Practice	Crystal	14 episodes
2006	'	Dr. Eugenia Hunter	TV film
2010	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Terpsie Pratt	Episode: "Take My Life, Please!"
2011	Drop Dead Diva	Ginny	Episode: "Dream Big"
2011	Modern Family	Darlene	Episode: "Treehouse"
2012	RuPaul's Drag Race	Herself - Guest Judge	Episode "Frenemies"
2012	The Simpsons	Herself	Episode "Gone Abie Gone"

Awards and nominations

Acting awards

• Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress " Bullets over Broadway
• Theater World Award, Most Promising Newcomer " One Shoe Off
• Dramalogue Award " Vaniti
• Gemini Award For Best Actress " Heads
• Fanta Festival Best Actress " Bride of Chucky
• Fantasporto International Fantasy Film Award Best Actress " Bound
• Golden Gate Award " GLAAD Media Award for media professionals who increase the understanding of the LGBT community
• Florida Film Festival Award Artistic Achievement Award
• DVD exclusive Award Best Actress (in a DVD Premiere Movie)
• Eyegore Award Eyegore
• San Diego Film Festival Award Achievement in Acting

Poker awards

• World Series of Poker Bracelet: In 2005, Tilly won the $1,000 Ladies' No Limit Hold'em; the prize was $158,335.