Mia Farrow
Maria de Lourdes Villiers Farrow is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the prime-time television soap opera Peyton Place and gained further recognition for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra. An early film role, as Rosemary in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, saw her nominated for a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She went on to appear in several films throughout the 1970s, such as Follow Me!, The Great Gatsby, and Death on the Nile. Her younger sister is Prudence Farrow.
Farrow was in a relationship with actor-director Woody Allen from 1980 to 1992 and appeared in thirteen of his films beginning with A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy. She received Golden Globe Award nominations for her roles in Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo, and Alice. She also acted in Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Husbands and Wives. In 1992, Farrow publicly accused Allen of sexually abusing their adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow; Allen, who was not charged with a crime, has denied the allegation.
Since the 2000s, Farrow has made occasional appearances on television, including a recurring role on Third Watch. She has also had supporting parts in such films as The Omen, Be Kind Rewind, and Dark Horse as well as the Netflix series The Watcher. On stage, she returned to Broadway in the Jen Silverman play The Roommate for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Farrow is also known for her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and is involved in various international humanitarian activities. In 2008, Time magazine named her one of the most influential people in the world.
Early life and family
Maria de Lourdes Villiers Farrow was born February 9, 1945, in Los Angeles, California, the third child and eldest daughter of Australian film director John Farrow and his second wife, the Irish actress Maureen O'Sullivan. She is one of seven children, with older brothers Michael Damien, Patrick, younger brother John Charles, and younger sisters Prudence, Stephanie, and Tisa. Her godparents were director George Cukor and columnist Louella Parsons.Farrow was raised in Beverly Hills, California, in a strict Catholic household. She was described by her family as an eccentric and imaginative child, and would occasionally put on performances with "toy daggers and fake blood" for passing celebrity tour buses. Aged two, she made her film debut in a short documentary, Unusual Occupations: Film Tot Holiday. Farrow attended Catholic parochial schools in Los Angeles for her primary education. At nine years old, she contracted polio during an outbreak in Los Angeles County reportedly affecting 500 people. She was placed in an isolation ward for three weeks and later said the experience "marked the end of childhood."
In 1958, the Farrow family temporarily relocated to Spain, where her father was filming John Paul Jones. Farrow, then age 13, made a brief uncredited appearance in the film. In September 1958, Farrow and her sister Prudence were sent to attend a convent-operated boarding school in Surrey, England while her father completed post-production on John Paul Jones in London.
On October 28, 1958, Farrow's eldest brother Michael died in a plane crash near Pacoima, California while a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserve. After his burial, Farrow returned to boarding school in Surrey. Her family temporarily lived in the London Park Lane Hotel before renting a home in Chelsea. Farrow's father began drinking heavily, which strained the marriage. In her memoir, Farrow recalls witnessing violent arguments between her parents while visiting their Chelsea residence.
When Farrow was 16, she returned with her family to the United States and continued her education at an all-girls Catholic school in Los Angeles, Marymount High School. Farrow subsequently studied at Bard College.
During this time, her parents were struggling financially and her mother relocated to New York City to act in Broadway productions. Farrow's father remained in California, where he died the following year of a heart attack. Farrow was 17 years old.
The family was left with little money after her father's death, prompting Farrow to begin working to help support herself and her siblings. She initially found work as a fashion model before being cast as a replacement in a New York stage production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
Career
1963–1969: Beginnings and breakthrough
Farrow screen-tested for the role of Liesl von Trapp in The Sound of Music, but did not get the part. The footage has been preserved, and appears on the Fortieth Anniversary Edition DVD of The Sound of Music. She began her acting career in movies by appearing in supporting roles in several 1960s films, making her first credited appearance in Guns at Batasi.The same year, she achieved stardom on the primetime soap opera Peyton Place, playing naive, waif-like Allison MacKenzie. Farrow left the series in 1966 at the urging of Frank Sinatra, whom she married on July 19, 1966, when she was 21 and he was 50 years old. She appeared in her first featured role in the British spy film A Dandy in Aspic.
Farrow's first leading film role was in the psychological horror film Rosemary's Baby, a critical and commercial success. It is regarded as a classic of the horror genre and was named the second-best horror film of all time by The Guardian in 2010. Farrow won numerous awards, including the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress, and became established as a leading actress. Film critic Stephen Farber said her performance had an "electrifying impact... one of the rare instances of actor and character achieving a miraculous, almost mythical match". Critic Roger Ebert called the film "brilliant" and wrote, "A great deal of the credit for this achievement must go to Mia Farrow, as Rosemary."
File:Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow - John and Mary.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Farrow and Dustin Hoffman in John and Mary
After Rosemary's Baby, Farrow was to be cast as Mattie in True Grit and was keen on the role. But before filming, she made Secret Ceremony in England with Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Mitchum. While filming, Mitchum told her that True Grit director Henry Hathaway had a reputation for being rude to actresses. Farrow asked producer Hal Wallis to replace Hathaway. Wallis refused; Farrow quit the role, which was then given to Kim Darby.
Secret Ceremony divided critics but has developed a devoted following. Farrow's other late 1960s films include John and Mary, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.
1970–1979: Theater work and mainstream success
Beginning in the early 1970s, Farrow appeared onstage in numerous classical plays in London, beginning with the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1971 production of Jeanne d'Arc au bûcherin which she portrayed Joan of Arcat the Royal Albert Hall. Farrow made history as the first American actress to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. The same year, she appeared in the British horror film See No Evil, portraying a blind woman whose family is stalked by a killer. Though he gave the film a mixed review, Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote that Farrow "plays her blind patrician with exactly the right small depth of pathos and vulnerable nobility." Farrow also starred in the television film Goodbye, Raggedy Ann as an unstable Hollywood starlet. In 1972, Farrow starred in the French black comedy Dr. Popaul as a secretary who marries a womanizer, and in Carol Reed's Follow Me! as a woman suspected of having an affair by her wealthy husband. Onstage, she played the lead in a 1972 production of Mary Rose, Irina in The Three Sisters, and a dual role in The House of Bernarda Alba.Farrow was cast as Daisy Buchanan in the 1974 Paramount Pictures film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, directed by Jack Clayton. The film was a commercial success, grossing over $25 million in the U.S. Variety deemed it "the most concerted attempt to probe the peculiar ethos of the Beautiful People of the 1920s." In 1975, Farrow was cast as the lead in a stage production of The Marrying of Ann Leete, followed by The Zykovs, both at the Aldwych Theatre. She also appeared at the Aldwych in the 1976 production of Ivanov, portraying Sasha. She appeared onscreen as Peter Pan in the 1976 television musical film Peter Pan and as a woman haunted by the ghost of a deceased girl in the 1977 horror film Full Circle.
Farrow had a supporting role in Robert Altman's 1978 comedy A Wedding as the mute daughter of a trucking company tycoon. The same year, she starred with Rock Hudson in the disaster film Avalanche and in the British Agatha Christie adaptation Death on the Nile. In 1979, Farrow appeared on Broadway opposite Anthony Perkins in Bernard Slade's play Romantic Comedy and in the romance film Hurricane, opposite Jason Robards.
1980–1992: Collaborations with Woody Allen
Beginning in the 1980s, Farrow had a decade-long relationship with director Woody Allen; they collaborated on many of his films. Her first film with Allen was the comedy A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, in a role originally intended for Diane Keaton. She next appeared in Allen's Zelig, portraying a psychiatrist whose patient, Leonard Zelig, takes on characteristics of those around him in an effort to be liked.In Broadway Danny Rose, Farrow starred as the mistress of a washed-up lounge musician who becomes involved with the mob. Her character and the film were inspired by a woman she and Allen had frequently encountered while dining at Rao's, an Italian restaurant in East Harlem. Farrow gained weight for the role and adopted a thick Italian-American accent; Allen biographer John Bailey called her "unrecognizable" in the role. Farrow gained critical notice for this role and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Allen later said her performance was a "very, very brave thing for her to do"; most of her scenes required her to wear sunglasses that block view of her eyes. Farrow also voiced the title role in the animated film The Last Unicorn. She had a supporting role in Jeannot Szwarc's film Supergirl, playing Alura In-Ze, the mother of Supergirl. The film was considered a box office bomb, earning $13 million against its $35 million budget.
Farrow reunited with Allen for his The Purple Rose of Cairo, which follows a film character who emerges from the screen, enters the real world, and falls in love with a waitress. Farrow earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Allen next cast Farrow as the lead in his drama Hannah and Her Sisters, which follows a New York City family between two Thanksgivings. Farrow starred as the titular Hannah opposite Barbara Hershey and Dianne Wiest and Michael Caine as her husband. Released in February 1986, Hannah and Her Sisters was a box-office hit, grossing $35 million in the U.S. during its original theatrical release. Ebert called it Allen's best work to date. Farrow earned her third BAFTA nomination, again in the category of Best Leading Actress.
In 1987, Farrow appeared in two films directed by Allen: the comedy Radio Days, in which she had a supporting role as an aspiring radio star; and the drama September, in which she played a woman haunted by her killing of her mother's abusive lover. Farrow shot the latter film twice, originally with her mother, Maureen O'Sullivan, playing her character's mother. Displeased with the final cut, Allen recast several roles and reshot the film. The final version starred Elaine Stritch as Farrow's character's mother. Farrow was subsequently cast opposite Gena Rowlands in Allen's drama Another Woman, which follows a philosophy professor who becomes acquainted with a troubled woman undergoing an existential crisis. While the film earned praise from critics such as Ebert, its screenplay and dialogue were criticized by Vincent Canby, who called it "full of an earnest teen-age writer's superfluous words." In 1989, Farrow starred in a segment of Allen's anthology film New York Stories, playing the shiksa fiancée of a Jewish man. She had a supporting role in his 1989 film Crimes and Misdemeanors as a producer who falls in love with a documentary filmmaker.
She was next cast by Allen in his 1990 fantasy film Alice, the couple's 11th collaboration. In it, she plays the title character, an upper-class Manhattan woman who becomes enamored of a jazz musician. Her attraction results in feelings of Catholic guilt that manifest as physical ailments which she attempts to treat with herbal medicine. Canby called her performance career-defining, writing: "Farrow gives a performance that sums up and then tops all of the performances that have preceded it." She was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, and won a National Board of Review award for Best Actress. The next year, Farrow appeared as a circus performer in Allen's black-and-white comedy Shadows and Fog.
Farrow had a lead role in Allen's drama Husbands and Wives, in which she portrayed the wife of a writer and professor having an affair with one of his students. Husbands and Wives marked Farrow's final collaboration with Allen. It was released shortly after the couple's highly publicized separation. Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote in his review that much of its audience would watch it "for the titillation of seeing Allen make out with a 21-year-old and go through a wrenching split from Farrow onscreen. Even those who enter in this frame of mind, however, probably will put these thoughts aside for the most part as they become involved in the romantic longings and verbal crossfire of a host of interesting, difficult, intersecting characters."