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Ali Larter Profile |
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Birth Date: February 28, 1976
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Birth Place: Cherry Hill, New Jersey, USA
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Birth Name: Alison Elizabeth Larter
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Height: 5'8"
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Biography |
Alison Gertrude Larter was born February 28, 1976, in Cherry
Hill, New Jersey. She and her sister Kristen both enjoyed a
stable upbringing, and there was little to distinguish the
young Ali from other children her age, beyond her remarkable
beauty.
By age 13, Ali embarked on what would evolve into a fairly
successful modeling career under the tutelage of the
world-renowned Ford Modeling Agency. It was thus that a
portion of Ali's teenage years came to be spent in various
locales, being whisked from one photo shoot to another. At
17, Ali's profession brought her to Japan, where she settled
temporarily.
Ali's homecoming to New Jersey proved a transient one, and
at 19 she was on the road again, accompanying a boyfriend in
his move to Los Angeles. While the boyfriend wouldn't last
long, Ali's new home would, and, after taking a brief
sojourn in Australia (to put some time and space between her
and her ex), she set up camp on the West Coast. On the
advice of a friend, Ali began taking acting classes, and was
soon appearing in stage productions of Fine Line and Key
Exchange.
While building a background in stage work certainly may have
helped Ali toward breaking into film, luck had a hand in
launching her into the entertainment spotlight in a rather
unlikely fashion. In November of 1996, Esquire magazine
published a satirical stab at the Hollywood publicity
machine in the form of a hoax profile of an "Allegra
Coleman," touted in the feature as "Hollywood's Next Dream
Girl." Ali was chosen as the model to portray this fictional
persona and immediately following the magazine's release,
Esquire's offices were flooded with calls from agencies
seeking to represent the purported hot "new star."
Even after the hoax had been revealed, its effects seemed to
linger, and in a final ironic twist, Ali found that she was
still the object of agencies' wooing. With her career having
been accelerated through widespread exposure, Ali left the
stage behind her, and began auditioning for film and
television.
Ali's first professional role was in a 1997 guest spot on
the television series, Chicago Sons, which was followed by a
number of other brief appearances on Dawson's Creek, Chicago
Hope and Just Shoot Me. Her first feature film role came in
the 1999 independent comedy Casanova Falling, a movie which,
although critically well-received and the recipient of that
year's Palm Springs Film Festival Award for Best Romantic
Comedy, failed to capture a wide audience.
Ali's next project alongside James Van Der Beek (whom she
had worked with on the set of Dawson's Creek) in Varsity
Blues proved much more fruitful. In addition to the film's
success at the box office, Ali's appearance in it, at one
point wearing nothing more than a few mounds of whipped
cream, earned her an instant fan base. Her "Allegra Coleman"
alias had provided Ali with passage into the entertainment
industry, but it was her role in Varsity Blues that secured
her a place in it.
Ali's next two roles, as a co-star to Melissa Joan Hart in
Drive Me Crazy and in the horror remake House on Haunted
Hill, solidified her standing as one of Hollywood's hot
young faces. Her following part, in the teenie thriller
Final Destination, established her as one of the more
talented among them. The movie turned out to be the sleeper
hit of 2000, and Ali's performance in it as the pensive
loner Clear Rivers was the object of much critical acclaim,
in addition to winning her a Young Hollywood Award for Best
Breakthrough Performance by a Female.
She went on to make three more films in 2001, as Jesse
James' wife in the ill-fated American Outlaws, a fitness
guru on trial for murder in Legally Blonde, and a lesbian
jewel thief in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
Ali has made it clear in interviews that she has no interest
in returning to television work and, given the progression
of her career thus far, it seems that she will have no need
to. Her next feature appearance will be in Final Destination
2, slated for release in the spring of 2003. |
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Other
Information |
Close friend and former roommate of Varsity Blues (1999)
co-star Amy Smart.
Was part of a 1996 hoax by Esquire Magazine: they portrayed
her as "Allegra Coleman", a hot young star, in a parody of
fluff journalism.
Ranked #40 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women in the
World" (2002). |
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