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Robin Tunney Profile |
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Birth Date: June 19, 1972
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Birth Place: Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Birth Name: Robin Tunney
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Height: 5'4"
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Biography |
Robin Tunney was born June 19, 1972, in Chicago, Illinois. A
natural performer, she attended the prestigious Chicago
Academy for the Arts where she took classes with her close
friend and fellow actress Lara Flynn Boyle.
Robin’s training paid off in 1987 when she landed a small
part in Frog, a whimsical made-for-TV movie starring Shelley
Duvall and Elliott Gould. Robin’s strong performance led to
subsequent roles in the movie’s substandard sequel Frogs!
(1991), as well as in the popular shows But He Loves Me,
Life Goes On and Perry Mason.
After becoming a familiar face on the tube, Robin made the
jump to the big screen in 1992 with Encino Man, a film about
two high-school outcasts who discover a frozen caveman in
their backyard.
Although Robin’s career was progressing nicely by this
point, her natural excitability still got the best of her
from time to time, like in 1993 when she was flown to New
York and asked to audition for Tony Richardson’s drama Blue
Sky. "I started crying and hyperventilating; the guy had to
get me out of the room," she recalls. "But it was the best
thing that ever happened to me. If I'd gotten the part on
one of my first auditions, with the first director I'd ever
met, I would have thought it was that easy."
Luckily, Robin returned to the silver screen again in 1995
in Empire Records, a rocking teen film about the misfit
employees of an independent record store, starring Liv
Tyler. Records was followed by a starring role in The Craft
(1996), a risqué horror film costarring fellow up-and-comers
Fairuza Balk and Neve Campbell. To the surprise of many, the
movie became the top-grossing film at the box office on its
opening weekend, transforming Robin into an instant star.
“I'm really proud to have been in The Craft,” she says in
retrospect. “I will always be that chick from The Craft, no
matter what I do.”
With her star status now secure, Robin decided to test the
indie waters with Niagara, Niagara (1997), a challenging
film in which she played an outsider plagued with Tourette's
syndrome. In addition to netting her a Best Actress award at
the Venice Film Festival, the role also allowed Robin to get
closer to director Bob Gosse, whom she married later that
year.
Robin spent the next five years of her career alternating
between quirky independent films like Julian Po (1997) and
major blockbusters like End of Days (1999) starring Arnold
Schwarzenegger, and Vertical Limit (2000) starring Chris
O’Donnell. Sadly, it was during this time that her
relationship with Gosse began to deteriorate and the couple
called it quits in 2002.
Although her relationship with Gosse may have ended, Robin’s
career continued to pick up steam thanks to roles in The
In-Laws (2003), a hilarious comedy costarring Michael
Douglas and Albert Brooks, and the serial-killer thriller
The Zodiac (2005). While The Zodiac may have given her the
chance to work with wunderkind Rory Culkin, Robin is the
first to admit that, “My friends that are snobs think it’s
cool I did a movie with Albert Brooks.”
2006 was a particularly busy year for Robin. She lit up the
small screen eary in the year as lawyer Veronica Donovan on
Fox’s hit series Prison Break. She was also equally radiant
on the big screen in Open Window, The Darwin Awards and
Hollywoodland, starring Academy Award-winners Adrien Brody
and Ben Affleck. |
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Other
Information |
She had to wear a wig during the production of The Craft
(1996) because she shaved her head for her role in Empire
Records (1995), which was filmed a year earlier.
Attended the Chicago Academy for the Arts and studied
acting.
Grew up with Lara Flynn Boyle and attended high school
together at the prestigious Chicago Academy for the Arts.
Is best friends with Indie Rocker Liz Phair. |
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