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Geena Davis
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Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist .
s was born in Wareham, Massachusetts, USA, the daughter of Lucille, a teacher's assistant, and William Davis, a civil engineer; she has a brother named Dan. At an early age, she became interested in music.
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Encyclopedia
Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist .
Biography
Early life
Davis was born in Wareham, Massachusetts, USA, the daughter of Lucille, a teacher's assistant, and William Davis, a civil engineer; she has a brother named Dan. At an early age, she became interested in music. She learned piano, flute and drums and played organ well enough as a teenager to serve as an organist at her church in Wareham. Enrolling at New England College, Davis eventually graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from Boston University in 1979. While at Boston University, Davis worked part time for the Media Group. While an exchange student in Sandviken, Sweden, Davis became bilingual; she is fluent in English and Swedish.
Career
After graduating, Davis signed with New York's Zoli modelling agency and served as a window mannequin for Ann Taylor. With a height of six feet and a shoe size of 11 (US), Davis was a striking model cast from a different mold. She was working as a model when director Sydney Pollack spotted her and cast her in Tootsie (1982) as a soap opera actress. She followed this up with roles in the short-lived television series Buffalo Bill (1983–1984), for which she also wrote an episode, and Sara (1985). Davis made her film breakthrough with The Fly and Beetlejuice. She received an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Accidental Tourist (1988) and a Best Actress nomination for her role in Thelma and Louise (1991). Davis replaced Debra Winger for the lead in A League of Their Own and received a Best Actress Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance. She then co-starred in Hero alongside Dustin Hoffman and Andy Garcia. Following this, Davis teamed up with then husband Renny Harlin for the films Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight. She and Harlin produced the films.
Davis starred in the short-lived sitcom The Geena Davis Show (2000–2001). In early 2004, she guest-starred as Grace Adler's sister Janet on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. She most recently starred in the ABC television series Commander in Chief as the first female President of the United States. This role garnered her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series in 2006, and she also was nominated for a SAG Award for Outstanding Female Actor in a Drama Series and an Emmy Award.
Personal life
On September 1, 2001, Davis married Iranian-American Dr. Reza Jarrahy. They have three children: daughter Alizeh Keshvar (born April 10, 2002) and fraternal twin boys Kian William Jarrahy and Kaiis Steven Jarrahy on May 6, 2004. The marriage is Davis' fourth; she was previously married to Richard Emmolo (March 25, 1982 - February 26, 1983); actor Jeff Goldblum, with whom she co-starred in three films, Transylvania 6-5000, The Fly and Earth Girls Are Easy (1987 to 1990); and Renny Harlin, who directed her in Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight (1993 to 1998).
In 1999, Davis was a semi-finalist in trials for the United States' Olympic Archery team. She placed twenty-fourth out of twenty-eight.
Davis is tall and is a member of American Mensa, the society of persons with IQs in the statistical top 2%, with an IQ of 140.
Activism
Davis is fronting the Women's Sports Foundation campaign Geena Takes Aim in support of Title IX — an Act of Congress focusing on equality in sports opportunities, now expanded to prohibit gender discrimination in United States' educational institutions.
In 2004, while watching children’s television programs and videos with her daughter, Davis noticed what she thought was an imbalance in the ratio of male to female characters. From that starting point, Davis went on to sponsor the largest research project ever undertaken on gender in children’s entertainment (resulting in 4 discrete studies, including one on children’s television) at the University of Southern California's . The study, directed by Dr. Stacy Smith, shows that there are nearly 3 males to every 1 female character in the nearly 400 G, PG, PG-13, and R-Rated movies the undergraduate team of Annenberg students coded. That research sparked Davis to launch in 2007. The Institute’s first focus is an on-the ground program that works collaboratively with the entertainment industry to dramatically increase the presence of female characters in media aimed at children and to reduce stereotyping of both males and females.
Sports
Geena Davis was one of 300 women competing in July 1999 for a semifinals berth in the US Olympic team for archery, to participate in the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. She placed 24th of 300 and did not qualify for the team, but participated as a wildcard entry in the Sydney International Golden Arrow competition.
Davis states that she wasn't an athlete growing up, and that her introduction to the sports was in 1997, two years prior to her tryouts.
Filmography
Television work
| Year | Show | Role | Other notes |
|---|
| 1983-1984 | Buffalo Bill | Wendy Killian | | | 1983 | Knight Rider | Grace Fallon | guest star, "K.I.T.T. The Car" | | 1984 | Family Ties | Karen Nicholson | Guest star, two episodes | | 1985 | Sara | Sara McKenna | cancelled after a few months | | Secret Weapons | Tamara Reshevsky/Brenda | | Remington Steele | Sandy Dalrymple | Steele in the Chips (Season 3, Episode 20) | | 2000-2001 | The Geena Davis Show | Teddie Cochran | | | 2005-2006 | Commander in Chief | President Mackenzie Allen | Golden Globe; Nominated - Emmy Award | | 2008-present | Link's Future | Mrs. Diane Bolton | Season 3-present |
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