Famke Janssen

Famke Janssen
Birth name	Famke Beumer Janssen
Born	November 05 1965 (age 43) Amstelveen, The Netherlands

Famke Beumer Janssen (born November 5, 1965 in Amstelveen) is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is best known for her roles in GoldenEye, Nip/Tuck, and the X-Men film series.

Biography

Janssen was born in the Netherlands, the only brunette in a family of blondes. There, besides her native Dutch, she learned to speak English, German, and French.

She moved to the United States in 1984 and began her professional career as a fashion model. She was signed with Elite Model Management, and worked for Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel and Victoria's Secret. After studying writing and literature at Columbia University, she moved to Los Angeles to establish her acting career.

Janssen currently lives in New York City, in Greenwich Village.

Acting Career

Upon moving to Los Angeles, Janssen obtained her first parts, appearing in guest roles on TV series (such as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Melrose Place). Her first film role was with Jeff Goldblum in Fathers & Sons (1992). Later she appeared in the first Pierce Brosnan James Bond film, GoldenEye, as femme fatale Xenia Onatopp. In 1998, she starred in eight films.

Janssen played superheroine Dr. Jean Grey/Phoenix in X-Men, X2, and X-Men: The Last Stand. Janssen also starred in the movies Lord of Illusions, The Faculty, House on Haunted Hill, I Spy, Rounders, and Deep Rising. In addition, Janssen had a prominent role in the second season of the popular TV show Nip/Tuck as seductive and manipulative life coach Ava Moore.

Janssen has signed on toplining a new police drama for NBC. The show will be created by David Shore, also the creater and executive producer of House. The writer of House - Peter Blake will also help develop the project. The show will be a light drama with procedural elements that center on a female police officer (Janssen).

Trivia

• Height: 5' 11".
• Measurements: 36-24-36.
• First name is pronounced "Faam-kuh" (the 'a' pronounced as in the word 'farm'). The name means little girl in Frisian, the native language of the Dutch province Friesland.
• Has two sisters, Antoinette Beumer (director) and Marjolein Beumer (actress).
• Is the only one of her three sisters to keep her birth surname, Janssen. Sisters Marjolein and Antoinette chose to take the last name Beumer, the maiden name of their mother, after their parents divorced.
• Provides the Dutch-language narration for the Studio Tram Tour at all Disney parks
• Was married to writer/director Tod Culpan Williams from 1995 to 2000, son of architect Tod Williams.
• Has a brindle Boston Terrier named Licorice, with whom she frequently travels. [1]
• The Bronte sisters, Vladimir Nabokov, and Jean Rhys are her favourite writers.
• She gained some media notoriety for her exceptionally long feet (US size 11, EU size 44), because her shoes for GoldenEye, her first major role, had to be custom-made to fit her. This bit of trivia eventually made its way into a scene in her 2000 film Love & Sex, in which Jon Favreau's character teases a blushing Janssen about her shoe size.

Selected filmography

Famke Janssen as Ava Moore, in the TV series Nip/Tuck

See also

• List of famous tall women

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