Билз, Дженнифер (англ. Jennifer Beals) — американская актриса, дочь бакалейщика и учительницы начальной школы — родилась 19 декабря 1963, в городе Чикаго (штат Иллинойс, США).

Биография

С детства мечтая о сцене впервые появилась в школьной сценической постановке после чего последовала роль в фильме My Bodyguard (1980). После окончания школы, поступила в Йельский Университет где изучала литературу. Ещё будучи первокурсницей получила свою первую роль в фильме Flashdance (1983). В 1985 году снялась в Franc Roddam's The Bride. По окончании университета вышла замуж за независимого режиссёра Александра Рокуэлла и появилась в нескольких его фильмах. Самой примечательной оказалась роль в In the Soup (1992) который выиграл Гран-при фестиваля «Санденс» и приз зрительских симпатий фестиваля Deauville Film.

В 90-х Дженнифер продолжала работать в кино и на телевидении и одной из главных ролей в её жизни стала роль лесбиянки Бет Портер в телепроекте Секс в другом городе .

Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963) is an American actress and a former teen model. She is known for her roles as Alexandra "Alex" Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance, and as Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word. She earned an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for the former. She has appeared in more than 50 films.


Early life

Beals was born on the southside of Chicago, Illinois,[1] the daughter of Jeanne, an elementary school teacher, and Alfred Beals, who owned a grocery store.[2] Her father was African-American and her mother is Irish American.[3] She has two brothers, Bobby and Gregory.[4] Her father died when Beals was ten years old, and her mother remarried, to Edward Cohen. Beals has said her biracial heritage had some impact on her, as she "always lived sort of on the outside", with an idea "of being the other in society".[5] She graduated from the progressive Francis W. Parker School. Beals also was chosen to attend the elite Goodman Theatre Young People's Drama Workshop. Beals attended Yale University, receiving a B.A. in American literature in 1987.[6] While at Yale, Beals was a resident of Morse College.[7]

Career

Beals in Sweden, July 1983

Beals had a minor role in the 1980 film My Bodyguard, then came to fame with her starring part in Flashdance. The third-highest grossing U.S. film of 1983, it is the story of 18-year-old Alex, a welder by day and exotic dancer by night, whose dream is to be accepted someday at an illustrious school of dance. Beals was cast for this key role while still a student at Yale. She was nominated for a Golden Globe and the film received an Academy Award for Best Song. Many of Beals' elaborate dance moves were actually performed by stunt double Marine Jahan.[8]

A number of interesting roles came Beals' way following that breakout performance. She and singer-actor Sting were cast as the leads in 1985's The Bride, a gothic horror film loosely based on the 1935 classic Bride of Frankenstein.

Starring opposite Nicolas Cage, the actress portrays a lusty and thirsty vampire who may or may not be a figment of a man's imagination in 1989's Vampire's Kiss.

In 1995, Beals and Denzel Washington co-starred in Devil in a Blue Dress, a period film based on a Walter Mosley novel featuring L.A. private detective, Easy Rawlins. Beals plays a biracial woman passing for white. That same year she appeared with Tim Roth in two segments of the four-story anthology Four Rooms, one of which was directed by her then-husband, Alexandre Rockwell.

Rockwell had previously directed her in the 1992 independent film In the Soup, which was a Grand Prize winner at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2003 she played one of the sequestered jury members in the film adaptation of Runaway Jury

Recently, she had a leading role in 2006's The Grudge 2, sequel to the hit horror film of two years earlier. In 2010, Beals reunited with Denzel Washington in the post-Apocalyptic action drama, The Book of Eli.

In television, she made a brief cameo in the final episode of Frasier. In 2007 she appeared in the small TV drama My Name Is Sarah, in which she plays Sarah Winston, a sober woman who joins Alcoholics Anonymous to conduct research for her book but finds herself falling in love with a recovering alcoholic and - as a result - having to deal with her original deception in joining the group.

Beals starred in Showtime Network's The L Word, where she played Bette Porter, an Ivy League educated lesbian. The series ended in March 2009. She also appears alongside Tim Roth in Lie To Me, as Cal Lightman's ex-wife, Zoe Landau.

Beals will be the female lead in a new TV drama for FOX called The Chicago Code. Her character will be Chicago's first female police chief.[9]

Personal life

Beals was married to Alexandre Rockwell from 1986 to 1996. In 1998, she married Ken Dixon, a Canadian entrepreneur.[10] She and Dixon had a daughter in October 2005, and Dixon has two children from a previous marriage. Beals has described herself as a "spiritual person".[11]

Beals was a Celebrity Grand Marshal at the 2006 San Francisco Pride Parade.[12]

Фильмография 
My Bodyguard (1980)
Flashdance (1983)
The Bride (1985)
Faerie Tale Theatre: Cinderella (1985)
La Partita, (The Gamble) (1988)
Split Decisions (1988)
Vampire's Kiss (1989)
Sons (1989)
Dr.M (1990)
Tinikling ou 'La madonne et le dragon' (The Madonna and the Dragon) (1990) (TV)
Blood and Concrete (1991)
In the Soup (1992)
Terror Stalks the Class Reunion (1992)
Indecency (1992)
2000 Malibu Road (1992)
Day of Atonement (1992)
Caro diario (1993)
The Princess and the Cobbler (1993) (Voice)
The Night Owl (1993)
Dead on Sight (1994)
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
The Search for One-eye Jimmy (1994)
Four Rooms (1995)
Let It Be Me (1995)
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
The Thief and the Cobbler (1995) (Miramax version)
Wishful Thinking (1997)
The Twilight of the Golds (1997)
The Outer Limits (1997)
Body and Soul (1998)
The Prophecy II (1998)
Nothing Sacred (1998)
The Spree (1998)
The Last Days of Disco (1998)
The Hunger (1999) (TV)
Something More (1999)
Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying (1999)
Without Malice (2000) (TV)
A House Divided (2000) (TV)
Militia (2000)
The Big House (2001) (TV)
Out of Line (2001)
The Anniversary Party (2001)
After the Storm (2001) (TV)
The Feast of All Saints (2001) (TV)
13 Moons (2002)
Roger Dodger (2002)
They Shoot Divas, Don't They? (2002) (TV)
Runaway Jury (2003)
Catch That Kid (2004)
The L Word (2004–2009)
Frasier (2004)
Break a Leg (2005)
Desolation Sound (2005)
The Grudge 2 (2006)
Troubled Waters (2006)
Law & Order (2007) (TV)
My Name Is Sarah (2007) (TV)
Queen to Play (Joueuse) (2009)
Lie to Me (2009–present) (TV)[13][14]
The Book of Eli (2010)
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas (2010)
The Chicago Code (2010) (TV)