Sherilyn Fenn (born Sheryl Ann Fenn February 1, 1965 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American actress, of Italian, Irish, French and Hungarian descent. Born into a family of musicians (her mother is keyboard player Arlene Quatro, her aunt is singer Suzi Quatro and her grandfather Art Quatro is a jazz musician), she traveled a lot with her mother and two older brothers before the family settled in Los Angeles when she was 17. She didn't want to start with a new school again and began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. The sultry and demure Sherilyn Fenn began her career with a number of B-movies including teen-fantasy movie The Wraith (1986), erotic Two Moon Junction (1988, directed by 9½ Weeks' writer/producer Zalman King) or Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel (1990, as a seductive femme fatale). She had a small but memorable part in the 1985 teen-comedy Just One of the Guys in which she tries to seduce disguised-as-a-man Joyce Hyser. Fenn won her most outstanding role and made an indelible impression when she was cast by David Lynch and Mark Frost as sexy dreamy Audrey Horne, toxic beauty from Twin Peaks who falls for Kyle MacLachlan, plays with Dana Ashbrook, seduces Billy Zane and tries to solve Laura Palmer's murder by knotting cherry stems with her tongue. After shooting Twin Peaks' pilot episode, David Lynch gave her a small but impressive part in Wild at Heart (Golden Palm at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival) as a girl injured in a car wreck, walking with a windshield through her head on Nicolas Cage's and Laura Dern's way. After two nominations (Emmy and Golden Globe) and a pictorial in Playboy magazine, she was propelled to stardom and was one of America's newest sex symbol. She imposed her old Hollywood stunning beauty (with her lily-white skin, vertiginous boomerang eyebrows, beauty mark next to her left eye, topaz eyes and beautiful brown hair) in many independent films. In 1992 she played with talent a sad and lonely country wife, desperately in need to talk to somebody in Gary Sinise's film adaptation of Of Mice and Men (nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival) opposite John Malkovich, and made a good imitation of Marilyn Monroe in John Mackenzie's Ruby as stripper Candy Cane DuJean alongside Danny Aiello and Arliss Howard. She also starred in Diary of a Hitman (nominated for the Critics Award at the 1991 Deauville Film Festival, as a mother determined to protect her child from hitman Forest Whitaker, costarring Sharon Stone) directed by her acting coach Roy London, romantic comedy Three of Hearts (1992) as Kelly Lynch's and William Baldwin's love interest, and Carl Reiner's spoof detective movie Fatal Instinct (1993) opposite Armand Assante, Sean Young and Kate Nelligan. Fenn gave an impressive performance in the much-waited, controversial but disappointing Boxing Helena (nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival) as a narcissistic Venus of Milo, amputated and imprisoned by desperately in love Julian Sands, directed by Lynch's daughter Jennifer Chambers Lynch. In 1995 she portrayed actress Elizabeth Taylor in NBC's Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story. Following that, she alternated TV movies and such small independent films as romantic comedies Lovelife (1996, directed by Tru Calling's creator Jon Harmon Feldman, opposite Jon Tenney, Saffron Burrows, Matt Letscher, Carla Gugino) and Just Write opposite Jeremy Piven. In 1998, being tired of Hollywood, she shot in the UK Darkness Falls, in which she gives a good performance as Tim Dutton's unhappy wife, sequestered by despaired Ray Winstone who tries to understand his wife's death. Back in a TV series she starred as Billie Frank, an ex-soap actress who gets drunk and strips in bars, sleeps with the wrong men and wants to become a writer, in Showtime's sitcom Rude Awakening (1998-2001) opposite Lynn Redgrave, Jonathan Penner and Mario Van Peebles. In 1999 she starred in her friend Adrian Pasdar's debut feature as director, film neo-noir Cement (written by Farscape's screenwriter Justin Monjo) as jealous bad cop Chris Penn's too beautiful wife opposite Jeffrey Wright and Henry Czerny. She had a small role in the critically acclaimed The United States of Leland (2003) as a woman who represents happiness and joie de vivre to Ryan Gosling. She also played a beautiful criminal in Swindle (2002) opposite Tom Sizemore and co-starred in Lesser of Three Evils (2005) alongside Ho Sung Pak and Peter Greene. Sherilyn Fenn guest-starred in numerous TV series like 21 Jump Street (1987, opposite her then-fiancé Johnny Depp) or HBO's Tales from the Crypt (1995, episode "You, murderer") in an episode directed by Robert Zemeckis, as Humphrey Bogart's lover who fights Isabella Rossellini and John Lithgow. In Friends she was Matthew Perry's wooden-legged girlfriend (1997, episode "The one with Phoebe's ex-partner"). She was duplicated in The Outer Limits (2001, episode "Replica") and played a manipulative woman in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2002, episode "Deception", directed by Constantine Makris) opposite Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay. She joined former co-stars Jeremy Piven in Cupid (1998), and Mark Harmon (Fenn and Harmon both starred in the gangster TV movie Dillinger) in NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service (2004). She also had recurrent roles in WB's Dawson's Creek (2002) and Fox's Boston Public (2003-2004) and played two different roles in WB's Gilmore Girls (2003, 2006). In October 1990, Sherilyn Fenn made the cover for Rolling Stone magazine (along with Mädchen Amick and Lara Flynn Boyle) and in December 1990, she made the cover for Playboy magazine. People magazine chose her as one of the 50 most beautiful women in the world in 1991 and FHM magazine chose her as one of the 100 sexiest women in the world in 1995. Sherilyn Fenn dated Prince and was engaged to Johnny Depp. She also dated photographer Barry Hollywood. She married musician Toulouse Holliday in 1994 (the couple has a son, Myles, born in late 1993) but the marriage came to an end in 1997.
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