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Lucy Lawless (born Lucille Frances Ryan on 29 March 1968 ) is a New Zealand actress and singer best known for playing the title character of the television series Xena: Warrior Princess and for her role as D'Anna/Number Three on the series Battlestar Galactica.
ess, the fifth of seven children (five brothers and one sister), was born in Mount Albert, New Zealand. She is the daughter of Julie and Frank Ryan, who was formerly a banker and Mount Albert mayor.
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I am waiting for a sign that will indicate to me what meaning I must give to my life, but right now my existence is satisfactory.
Encyclopedia
Lucy Lawless (born Lucille Frances Ryan on 29 March 1968 ) is a New Zealand actress and singer best known for playing the title character of the television series Xena: Warrior Princess and for her role as D'Anna/Number Three on the series Battlestar Galactica.
Early life
Lawless, the fifth of seven children (five brothers and one sister), was born in Mount Albert, New Zealand. She is the daughter of Julie and Frank Ryan, who was formerly a banker and Mount Albert mayor. Lawless began acting in secondary school, attending Marist College, Mount Albert. She studied foreign languages at Auckland University for a year before dropping out and leaving for Europe with her boyfriend, Garth Lawless, to travel to Germany and Switzerland. The couple then moved to Australia, where she worked briefly as a gold miner.
Personal life
At 19, Lawless became pregnant with Garth's child. In 1988, they married in Kalgoorlie, Australia. They returned to New Zealand and had a daughter, Daisy Lawless (born 15 July 1988), who also attended Marist College. The couple divorced in 1995. Lawless married Xena executive producer Robert Tapert on 28 March 1998. Lawless and Tapert have two sons: Julius Robert Bay Tapert (born 16 October 1999) and Judah Miro Tapert (born 7 May 2002), both born in Auckland, New Zealand.
Acting career
In 1994, Lawless appeared in "Hercules and the Amazon Women," the television pilot for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. In that episode, she played a man-hating Amazon named Lysia. She went on to play another character, Lyla, in the first season episode "As Darkness Falls," but her key role was given to her when she was asked to play a villainous warrior woman named Xena in the episode "The Warrior Princess" – aired in March 1995. Vanessa Angel had originally been cast in the role, but fell ill and was unable to travel to New Zealand for shooting. To differentiate between Xena and the similar Lysia, Lawless' hair, naturally ash blond, was dyed black. Xena subsequently returned in two more episodes of the first season of Hercules.
The character was popular enough that a spin-off series was created for her. Xena: Warrior Princess debuted on 4 September, 1995 (although Lawless appeared as Lyla once again, in the second season Hercules episode "Outcast" – aired in October 1995). Xena: Warrior Princess, like its parent program, was a hit, lasting six seasons, and Lawless became an international celebrity.
While taping an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in October 1996, Lawless suffered a fractured pelvis when the horse she was riding lost its footing in the studio parking lot. She made a complete recovery, and her absence from the Xena set ultimately had minimal impact on the show.
In 1997, Lawless was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" by People magazine. Days earlier on 6 May 1997, Lawless inadvertently exposed a breast as she concluded a performance of the US national anthem at an NHL hockey game in Anaheim, California between the Mighty Ducks and Detroit Red Wings. Lawless was quoted in Newsweek as saying, "Obviously, I was mortified....It was quite a bit more exposure than I want".
Lawless first appeared on Broadway in September 1997 in the Grease play remake, as the "bad girl" Rizzo character. She had wanted to play the lead role of Sandy, and later stated her belief that the producers had typecast her to play "bad girls" following her success as Xena. She said the Sandy character was very similar to her sheltered childhood, growing up in New Zealand with many protective older brothers.
Lawless has since appeared onstage in the Vagina Monologues and as a television guest star in episodes of The Simpsons, The X-Files, Just Shoot Me!, Veronica Mars, Burn Notice, Less Than Perfect, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. She was also featured in the short-lived television series Tarzan. Lawless has made cameo appearances in the movies EuroTrip, Spider-Man and Boogeyman (2005). She returned to television in the TV movie Locusts! and its sequel Vampire Bats.
Lawless became a member of the New Zealand Order Of Merit in the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours List, and therefore is entitled to use the postnominal letters, MNZM.
From 2005 to 2009, Lawless has had a recurring role in the television series Battlestar Galactica. She portrays D'Anna Biers, a reporter with the Fleet News Service who works on a critical documentary about the crew of the Galactica and is later revealed to be a Cylon (Number Three).
Lawless appeared in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, in season 6 as herself. She goes on a date with Larry David, only to finally walk away after Larry makes an inappropriate suggestion about his underwear and the potential for sex between them.
Lawless competed as one of the celebrity singers on the reality TV show Celebrity Duets in 2006, finishing as the runner-up to winner Alfonso Ribeiro. She has also performed as a voice actor in several animated features.
Lawless has a cult following in the lesbian community, largely because of Xena's ambiguous relationship with traveling companion Gabrielle. Although Lawless is heterosexual, she has appeared at gay pride events such as the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. In a 2003 interview with Lesbian News magazine, she said that she had come to see Xena and Gabrielle's relationship as gay after viewing the series finale, though she has also stated on several occasions that she was undecided on the nature of the relationship while playing the role.
Lawless returned to television on Nov. 10, 2008 in a guest-starring role on the hit CBS television series, CSI: Miami playing a madame with connections to a murder. She is also set to guest star in the show, The L Word, and also had a role in the Adam Sandler movie, Bedtime Stories, released Christmas 2008. Also in 2008, Lucy stars with her former Xena stuntwoman Zoe Bell in Sony (Crackle)'s new web series Angel of Death written by Ed Brubaker set to debut online in early 2009.
Filmography
Charity
Lawless is a member of the board of trustees of the StarShip Foundation, the charity arm of the Starship Children's Health (hospital) which is part of the Auckland District Health Board. It is set up to provide additional equipment, support and help to staff, patients and families. She devotes much time and energy to fundraising for the organization. She recently sat for the New Zealand television series The Sitting , an arts series where celebrity portraits are produced during an interview session with the portraits later auctioned for charity (episode link). Lucy attended the auction where her portrait fetched the top price, with the whole event raising $39,000 for Starship.
Singing career
During a break in 1997 between filming seasons on Xena, Lawless made her onstage debut singing songs on Broadway as Rizzo in the remake of the musical play Grease.
Since her role as Xena, Lawless has pursued a new career in singing after being a contestant on Celebrity Duets. She sang at the Roxy in Hollywood in 2007, and has since performed regularly in concerts and released several CDs.
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