Hollywood Blog

Juliette Lewis Biography & wallpaper - pictures

Posted on 2008 under Actress

Lewis was born in Hollywood to Glenis Batley, a graphic designer, and actor Geoffrey Lewis, a regular in Clint Eastwood’s films and frontman of the musical group Celestial Navigations. By the age of 6, she knew she wanted to be a performer and found inspiration in musicals like Fame (1980) and Grease (1978). At 12, Lewis landed her first leading role in the Showtime miniseries Home Fires (1987) (TV). After appearing in the sitcoms “The Wonder Years” (1988) and “I Married Dora” (1987), she went on to star with Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) and with Jennifer Jason Leigh in the drama Crooked Hearts (1991). At 16, Lewis starred in the critically acclaimed telefilm Too Young to Die? (1990) (TV), based on the true story of Amanda Sue Bradley, a sexually abused runaway who was the first minor to receive the death sentence. Lewis’ performance caught the attention of Martin Scorsese, who cast her in the thriller Cape Fear (1991). Her powerful scenes with Robert De Niro captured the quiet complexities of adolescence and earned her an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her auditorium scene with De Niro goes down in movie-making history as one of cinema’s classic scenes. Lewis next worked with Woody Allen in Husbands and Wives (1992), playing a self-assured college coed who has a penchant for older men, particularly her married professor. She then went on to star in the bittersweet love story That Night (1992), with C. Thomas Howell. In 1993, Lewis starred as Adele Corners, a dysfunctional innocent on a cross-country journey with her psycho-killer boyfriend (Brad Pitt) in Kalifornia (1993). She also played a waitress from Queens opposite Gary Oldman in Romeo Is Bleeding (1993) and a wise and worldly young drifter in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) with Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. In 1994, Lewis starred alongside Woody Harrelson in Natural Born Killers (1994), Oliver Stone’s controversial media satire about two mass murderers who become legendary folk heroes. Lewis’s other credits include the Nora Ephron comedy Mixed Nuts (1994) with Steve Martin and Adam Sandler; the sci-fi action film Strange Days (1995) with Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett; and Quentin Tarantino’s vampire tale From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) with George Clooney. In 1996, Lewis appeared as Shirley MacLaine’s granddaughter in The Evening Star (1996). She went on to star in the independent film Some Girl (1998), with Michael Rapaport and Giovanni Ribisi, and the thriller The 4th Floor (1999) with William Hurt. Lewis has been married since 1999 to professional skateboarder Stephen Berra but has filed for divorce.