Lara Flynn Boyle

Lara Flynn Boyle

Active - 1988 - 2021  |   Born - Mar 24, 1970 in Davenport, Iowa, United States  |   Genres - Drama, Crime, Comedy

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Biography by AllMovie

Actress Lara Flynn Boyle has David Lynch to thank for becoming so famous at such a young age. She was barely 20 when she made her series-TV bow on Twin Peaks in the role of Donna Hayward, best friend of the ill-fated Laura Palmer. After the debut of Twin Peaks in 1990, Boyle did steady work in both films and television. Some of her more notable ventures included John Dahl's Red Rock West (1993), a neo-noir in which she played a scheming femme fatale; Threesome (1994), which cast her as a college student whose unique boarding situation provides the basis for oodles of hormonal adventures with her two male roommates; Afterglow (1997), a romantic drama in which Boyle starred as an unhappy wife; and Todd Solondz's Happiness (1998), a very, very black comedy that cast the actress as an irredeemably bitchy celebrity writer. On television, Boyle nabbed one of her most prominent roles to date when she was cast as a lawyer in the acclaimed series The Practice in 1997. The Practice ran for seven years and her most high-profile film role afterward came in Men In Black II. She had recurring roles on the TV shows Huff and Las Vegas and in 2011 she appeared in the sex comedy Cougar Hunting.

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Factsheet

  • Named after Julie Christie's character in Doctor Zhivago.
  • Grew up in Chicago, where she wrote and performed in local theater productions.
  • Was diagnosed with dyslexia as a youth.
  • Had a small part in 1986's Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but her scene was edited out.
  • Moved to Los Angeles the day after her high-school graduation in 1988.
  • Auditioned for the title role on Ally McBeal, but lost out to Calista Flockhart.
  • Bought a Beverly Hills home that was originally servants' quarters at Pickfair, an estate owned by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.
  • Replaced Famke Janssen in the role of the villainous Serleena in 2002's Men in Black II.
  • Supports AIDS charities and once posed nude for the picture book 4 Inches, which benefited the Elton John AIDS Foundation.