Illeana Douglas (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Illeana Douglas (b. July 25 1965, Quincy, Massachusetts) is an American actress.

She was born Illeana Hesselberg, and her grandfather was the esteemed actor Melvyn Douglas (né Melvyn Hesselberg). Illeana's mother is an Italian American () and her father was of mostly Russian Jewish ancestry.

Acting since she was a child in Connecticut, Douglas studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York from the age of 10 (see).

She is well known for her part in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991), her role as singer/songwriter Denise Waverly in Allison Anders' Grace of My Heart (1996), and her roles in To Die For (1995) and Ghost World (2001).

At the Walt Disney World Resort in the Disney-MGM Studios theme park, Douglas played the manager for the band Aerosmith in the preshow movie for the Rock 'N' Rollercoaster Starring Aerosmith attraction.

On TV, Douglas starred in the series Action (1999) with Jay Mohr, and has played a public defender on several episodes of Law and Order: SVU in 2002 and 2003. She appeared in several episodes of the critically acclaimed HBO TV-series Six Feet Under, and in 2006 she starred in the Lifetime TV Movie Not Like Everyone Else.

Douglas has tried her hand at writing and directing, with a comedy short The Perfect Woman (1993), the documentary Everybody Just Stay Calm--Stories in Independent Filmmaking (1994), and the satire Boy Crazy, Girl Crazier (1995); and she has been producer for several projects including Illeanarama, a collection of her short films for the Sundance Channel.

Filmography

• Goodfellas (1990)
• Cape Fear (1991)
• Grief (1993)
• Alive: The Miracle of the Andes (1993)
• Quiz Show (1994)
• To Die For (1995)
• Wedding Bell Blues (1996)
• Grace of My Heart (1996)
• Picture Perfect (1997)
• Stir of Echoes (1999)
• Rock 'N' RollercoasterPreshow (1999)
• Ghost World (2001)
• Dummy (2002)
• The New Guy (2002)
• Stories Of Lost Souls (2005)
• Illeanarama (2005)
• Not Like Everyone Else (2006)

External link