Selma Blair Beitner life and biography

In 2002, Vanity Fair magazine anointed Selma Blair as one of Hollywood’s next wave of stars, an honor bestowed to the acting elite. Fearless and versatile throughout her career when it came to choosing her film projects, she played everything from a ditzy prep school student to a big-breasted stripper. Blair even made an icy law student seem likeable in the comedy “Legally Blonde” (2001), the film in which audiences first took notice of her. Seven years after her blockbuster debut, she still had everyone laughing in “Kath and Kim” (NBC, 2008- ), a remake of a popular Australian sitcom, where she co-starred with TV funny gal Molly Shannon and continued to enthrall fans with her quirky beauty and comedic gifts.

After numerous supporting roles in the 1990s, she starred in the film Cruel Intentions and the short-lived TV series Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane in 1999. She has since had notable roles in Hollywood feature films such as Legally Blonde (2001), The Sweetest Thing (2002), and Hellboy (2004). She also played the titular role of Kim in Kath & Kim, a remake of the popular Australian sitcom of the same name.

Born Selma Blair Beitner on June 23, 1972 in Southfield, MI, the actress was the youngest of four girls. Her parents, Elliot and Molly Ann Beitner, divorced when she was 23; after which, she legally dropped her father’s name. “I have nothing to do with my father,” she said. “He is out of my life.” Her mother introduced her daughters as “the brain, the athlete, the klutz… and then there was Selma – the manic-depressive.” Blair said she really was not that troubled, although her mom gave her a necklace with a smile on one side and a frown on the other to reflect her quick-changing moods. She attended a Jewish day school and then Cranbrook Kingswood school in Bloomfield Hills, MI before attending Kalamazoo College her freshman year, where she acted in a play titled “The Little Theater of the Green Goose.”

Blair moved to New York City to pursue photography after graduating magna cum laude from University of Michigan in 1994 with a degree in photography and a minor in English, but she soon took interest in a different field – acting. Her training at the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting and Column Theater helped her land a few small roles in the early 1990s. She auditioned for the title role in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (WB, 1997-2007; UPN, 2001-03) in 1997, but lost out to her future co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar. That same year, she had an uncredited role in “Scream 2” as Gellar’s character’s friend. Unfortunately, she did not receive any screen time, as it was merely her voice used during a phone call scene.

In what was regarded as her breakout role, the actress appeared in the 1999 film “Cruel Intentions,” based on the classic novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses and the Stephen Frears-directed “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988). The movie starred Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Philippe and Gellar, whom Blair shared a passionate onscreen lip lock with. The scene where Gellar’s mean queen taught Blair’s naïve Cecile how to French kiss won the MTV Movie Award for “Best Kiss.” The wheels started turning faster for the star when she was cast as Zoe Bean in the twenty-something TV series “Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane” (WB, 1999-2000). The show, unfortunately, failed to connect with the audience and only lasted two seasons.

Blair formed a close friendship with her “Cruel” costar Witherspoon. They worked together again in the hilarious “Legally Blonde,” playing law school archrivals. Their brunette vs. blonde clash onscreen was comical and entertaining in a Betty vs. Veronica kind of vein. "She's a little wacky," Witherspoon said of her raven-haired co-star. "But wacky in that great way, (like) a Mary Tyler Moore sort of personality. She’s just one of the great comediennes of her generation.” Blair continued starring in more girl-power movies in the early millennium, acting alongside Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate in the sometimes vulgar comedy “The Sweetest Thing” (2002), and playing a preppie girl about to get married in “A Guy Thing” (2003).

Even though Blair could have taken on strictly mainstream projects and been successful, she also chose cutting edge roles in critically praised independent films, such as “Kill Me Later” (2001) with Max Beesley. She took the offbeat step further in the controversial “Storytelling” (2001) from director Todd Solondz, where her troubled character was described in the movie as “a spoiled, suburban white girl with a Benetton complex.” The movie’s first scene took off with a bang, with Blair having raunchy sex with her onscreen boyfriend who suffers from cerebral palsy.

By the mid-2000s, Blair was one of the busiest and most in-demand actresses in Hollywood. She took on the role of Liz Sherman in Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy” (2004). She reprised the role four years later in “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (2008), also directed by del Toro. Yet playing a girl with pyrokinetic powers in the “Hellboy” films did not compare to her role in “A Dirty Shame” (2004). In the John Waters’ comedy, the actress wore humongous prosthetic breasts to play stripper, Caprice Stickles.

Despite acting alongside a who’s-who of Hollywood leading men – from Topher Grace in “In Good Company” (2004) to Edward Burns in “Purple Violets” (2007) to Greg Kinnear in “Feast of Love” (2007) – Blair’s personal life was never a hot topic in tabloids, compared to other actresses of her time. She married actor and musician Ahmet Zappa, the son of the late singer-songwriter Frank Zappa, in January 2004, but they divorced in 2006. However, Blair’s fashion forward style was closely followed, not only by Hollywood cameras, but also by young fashionistas who looked up to her as one of its hipster princesses. Experimenting with different looks in short periods of time, she sported everything from a Mohawk, a pixie cut and a Louise Brooksesque bob, stating that she had “no fears when it comes to my hair and clothes.”

Aside from the short-lived “Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane” and a 2002 holiday-themed episode of “Friends” (NBC, 1994-2004), Blair’s big screen work had filled up the majority of her resume. However some of the better parts – particularly for actresses – were becoming increasingly found on television by the turn of the millennium. So like many of her fellow film “It” girls, Blair turned her attention back to the small screen, with “Kath and Kim,” co-starring with the hilarious Molly Shannon. In the series based on an Australian TV show of the same name, the twosome recreated the dysfunctional duo of a foxy 40-something mother (Shannon) and her childish and celebrity-obsessed daughter (Blair). Interestingly enough, Shannon was only eight years older than her onscreen daughter. Critics had their knives sharpened for any successful television overseas import that has been Americanized, but it was one of the more hotly anticipated series of the fall 2008 season.

Education

* University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, BA, 1994
* Cranbrook Kingswood School, Bloomfield Hills, MI
* Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI
* Stella Adler Studio of Acting, New York, NY

Milestones

* 1997 Feature film debut in the comedy, In & Out
* 1998 Appeared in the USA Network TV-movie No Laughing Matter
* 1998 Played the female lead in Brown s Requiem based on the novel by James Ellroy
* 1999 Cast as Zoe Bean in the WB sitcom, Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane
* 1999 Featured as Cecile in a modern-day reworking of Les Liaisons Dangereuse titled Cruel Intentions
* 2001 Offered a supporting role in the comedy, Legally Blonde
* 2002 Appeared on an episode of NBC s Friends as Chandler s co-worker
* 2002 Co-starred with Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate in the comedy The Sweetest Thing
* 2003 Cast opposite Jason Lee and Julia Stiles in the comedy feature A Guy Thing
* 2004 Cast as Pyrokenetic Liz Sherman in Guillermo del Toro s Hellboy
* 2004 Starred opposite Tracey Ullman and Johnny Knoxville in the John Waters comedy A Dirty Shame
* 2005 Cast opposite Christian Slater in the political thriller The Deal
* 2005 Co-starred with Tom Welling and Maggie Grace in the remake of John Carpenter s classic horror film, The Fog
* 2007 Played the wife of Greg Kinnear s character in Robert Benton s Feast of Love
* 2008 Re-teamed with director Guillermo del Toro for Hellboy II: The Golden Army
* Began studying acting at the Stella Adler Studio

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