Daryl Hannah (born December 3, 1960)[1] is an American actress and environmental activist. She made her film debut in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film The Fury (1978). She has starred in various films across the years, including as Pris Stratton in Ridley Scott's science fiction thriller Blade Runner (1982) and as Cathy Featherstone in Randal Kleiser's romantic comedy Summer Lovers (1982), as the mermaid Madison in Ron Howard's fantasy-romantic comedy Splash (1984), Roxanne Kowalski in the romantic comedy Roxanne (1987), Darien Taylor in Oliver Stone's drama Wall Street (1987), and Annelle Dupuy Desoto in the comedy-drama Steel Magnolias (1989). In 2005, Hannah won a Saturn Award for her role as one-eyed assassin Elle Driver in Quentin Tarantino's martial arts action film Kill Bill: Vol. 2. In 2015, she appeared in the Netflix series Sense8 as Angelica Turing.
Early life
Hannah was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Susan Jeanne Metzger, a producer and former schoolteacher, and Donald Christian Hannah, a tugboat and barge company owner.[2][3] Her parents divorced, and her mother subsequently married businessman Jerrold Wexler, brother of cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Hannah grew up with siblings Don and Page Hannah and her maternal half-sister, Tanya Wexler, in Long Grove, Illinois.[4] She was raised Roman Catholic.[5]
Hannah became interested in movies at a young age, partly due to insomnia. She has said that she was very shy growing up.[6] As a young child, Hannah was emotionally isolated and struggled in school.[5] She was subsequently diagnosed with autism, and medical professionals urged her parents to have her institutionalized and medicated.[7][8][9] Instead, her mother decided to relocate with Hannah temporarily to Jamaica, in hopes that the change in environment would help her daughter.[5] Hannah later attended the progressive Francis W. Parker School in Chicago before enrolling at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she studied ballet and acting.[10][11]
Career
Film and television
Hannah made her film debut at age 17 in 1978 with an appearance in Brian De Palma's horror film The Fury.[4] She had an early role along with Rachel Ward in the 1983 horror film The Final Terror.[12] The film was shot in 1981, but was released in 1983.[13]
Hannah played the daughter of Jack Lemmon's character in both of the Grumpy Old Men comedies. That same year, she played Nancy Archer in the HBO comedy remake of Attack Of The Fifty-Foot Woman. In 1995, Hannah was chosen by Empire magazine as No. 96 of the "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History."[16] That year she appeared as homicidal sociopath Leann Netherwood in The Tie That Binds. In 1998 she played the co-lead to Christopher Reeve in the made-for-television film remake Rear Window. That same year she also starred in the direct-to-video film Addams Family Reunion playing Morticia Addams.
In the 2010s, Hannah appeared in several films, including A Closed Book and Eldorado. Robert Koehler of Variety wrote of A Closed Book that it allows curious fans to see what Hannah has been up to lately.[19] In 2013, she starred in Zombie Night, a Syfy original film by The Asylum as well as in TV movie Social Nightmare (a.k.a. Mother: She'll Keep You Safe), a thriller by The Asylum about internet bullying. In 2013, she joined Skin Traffik,[20] and, in 2014, she signed on to Signs of Death.[21]
Beginning in 2015, Hannah portrayed Angelica Turing in Sense8,[22] a series on Netflix from the Wachowskis. The series ran for two seasons, with a final episode released on June 8, 2018.[citation needed] Also in 2018, Hannah released Paradox, for which she served as writer and producer; the film featured musician Neil Young.[23]
In 2023 she was nominated for a Grammy Award for best Music film for Neil Young & Crazy Horse's "A Band A Brotherhood A Barn".[25]
Theatre
Hannah is also an accomplished theater actress, reprising Marilyn Monroe's starring role in The Seven Year Itch in 2000 in London's West End. Reviews of the play commended Hannah's performance, with Lizzie Loveridge of Curtain Up! saying that the play was the "perfect vehicle" for Hannah to "show her talents as a comedienne."[26]
Other work
Hannah wrote, directed and produced a short film titled The Last Supper. She directed, produced, and was cinematographer for the documentary Strip Notes, which was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK and on HBO and documented the research Hannah did for her role as a stripper in Dancing at the Blue Iguana.[citation needed]
In 2002, Hannah appeared in Robbie Williams' video for the song "Feel" portraying Williams' love interest.[27]
Hannah, an active environmentalist, created her own weekly video blog called DHLoveLife on sustainable solutions.[30] She is often the sound recordist, camera person and on-screen host for the blog.[31] As of 2006, her home—which was built with green materials—ran on solar power, and she drove a car that ran on biodiesel.[32] She has been vegetarian since age 11,[33] and later became vegan. In late 2006, she volunteered to act as a judge for Treehugger.com's "Convenient Truths" contest.[34][35][failed verification] On December 4, 2008, Hannah joined Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's crew aboard the MY Steve Irwin as part of Operation Musashi.[36]
On June 13, 2006, Hannah was arrested, along with actor Taran Noah Smith, for her involvement with over 350 farmers, their families and supporters, confronting authorities trying to bulldoze the largest urban farm in the U.S., located in South Central Los Angeles. She chained herself to a walnut tree at the South Central Farm for three weeks to protest against the farmers' eviction by the property's new owner, Ralph Horowitz. The farm had been established in the wake of the 1992 L.A. riots to allow people in the city to grow food for themselves. However, Horowitz, who had paid $5 million for it, sought to evict the farmers to build a warehouse. He had asked for $16 million to sell it but turned down the offer when the activists raised that amount after the established deadline. Hannah was interviewed via cell phone shortly before she was arrested, along with 44 other protesters, and said that she and the others are doing the "morally right thing".[37] She spent some time in jail.[38]
Hannah has also worked to help end sexual slavery and has traveled around the world to make a documentary.[39]
Hannah was among 31 people arrested on June 23, 2009, in a protest against mountaintop removal in southern West Virginia, part of a wider campaign to stop the practice in the region. The protesters, who also included NASA climate scientist James E. Hansen, were charged with obstructing officers and impeding traffic after they sat in the middle of State Route 3 outside Massey Energy's Goals Coal preparation plant, The Charleston Gazette reported.[40] In a Democracy Now! phone interview on June 24, 2009, Hannah spoke briefly on why she went to West Virginia and risked arrest.[41]
Hannah being arrested in Washington, D.C., while protesting the Keystone XL pipeline, 2013
Hannah was arrested on August 30, 2011, in front of the White House as part of a sit-in to protest against the proposed Keystone oil pipeline from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.[42] In a Huffington Post piece co-authored with Phil Radford, Hannah explained that the purpose of her action was to "shine the light" on the President's decision on the pipeline for "millions of voters" to see.[43] In October 2011, Hannah and other pipeline opponents rode horses and bicycles and walked from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to the Rosebud Reservation to protest the project.[44]
In September 2012, Hannah signed environmental activist Tom Weis' open letter calling on President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney to withdraw their support for the construction of the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, that would transport oil sands from Montana to Texas. Other signatories included climate scientist James Hansen and actors Sheryl Lee, Mariel Hemingway, and Ed Begley Jr.[46] On October 4, 2012, Hannah was arrested and jailed in Wood County, Texas, for criminal trespassing. She and a local landowner, 78-year-old Eleanor Fairchild, were arrested while protesting against the TransCanada Keystone XL oil sands pipeline by attempting to block heavy construction equipment. Although they were charged with trespassing, they were in fact protesting on Fairchild's land.[47] On February 13, 2013, Hannah was arrested at the White House along with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Conor Kennedy during a climate change protest against the proposed Keystone Pipeline.[48]
On April 26, 2014, in Washington, Hannah and Neil Young led a march by the "Cowboy and Indian Alliance" group against the Obama administration to reject the proposed Keystone Pipeline.[49][50][51]
Hannah had long-term relationships with John F. Kennedy Jr.[55] and musician Jackson Browne.[56] She and Browne began dating in 1983 and broke up in 1992 amid unsubstantiated rumors that Browne had been physically abusive to her.[57] Browne later prevailed in a defamation dispute with Fox Television which issued a retraction.[58][59] Hannah began a relationship with musician Neil Young in 2014, and they married in 2018.[60][61][62]
Hannah was among the numerous women who brought sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. In a part of Ronan Farrow's 2017 exposé, Hannah claimed that Weinstein sexually harassed her multiple times during the production of Kill Bill and that he once tried to break into her hotel room. Fearing that he intended to rape her, she fled the room through a fire escape.[63] Hannah later expressed belief that Weinstein sabotaged her career in retaliation for refusing his advances, as she struggled to find work after appearing in Kill Bill.[64]
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