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Described by her own mother as “an intellectual pinup”, Ashley Judd has portrayed a wide array of characters that possess a fierce determination coupled with an alluring sensuality. Whether she is playing a Southerner starting over (her breakthrough role in “Ruby in Paradise” 1993), a pre-fame Marilyn Monroe (HBO’s “Norma Jean & Marilyn” 1996) or a kidnap victim who managed to elude her captor (”Kiss the Girls” 1997), this actress delivers strong, beautiful, delicate and forthright performances that have impressed critics and audiences alike.

When her parents divorced, Judd was shuttled between California, Kentucky and Tennessee, attending 12 schools in 13 years. A bookish child, she developed an early interest in performing and, goaded by her older sister, opted to try her luck in Hollywood after completing college. Working as a hostess at the popular restaurant The Ivy, Judd made industry connections and within a year had begun to land stage and screen roles, perhaps most notably as Swoosie Kurtz’s troubled daughter Reed on the NBC drama “Sisters”. Judd, however, found the small screen role frustrating and negotiated an early release from her contract. The ambitious actress auditioned for the pivotal role of Christian Slater’s girlfriend in the comedy “Kuffs” (1992) but as she told Lawrence Grobel in Movieline (October 1997): she “thought they were boiling it down to a booby factor–choosing a pair of breasts.” Her agent suggested she pass and accept instead the smaller role of a woman in a paint store and her career began to take shape.

After her award-winning turn as the Tennessee heiress who sets out to find herself in Florida in “Ruby in Paradise”, Judd was cast as the sole survivor of a massacre who describes the traumatic event in detail in “Natural Born Killers” (1994). Because her emoting was accompanied by graphic flashbacks, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) requested that director Oliver Stone cut the scene, deeming it too violent and disturbing. (Stone restored it for the 1996 “director’s cut” video release.) Judd continued to add to her gallery of supporting roles with a dramatic turn as Harvey Keitel’s junkie daughter in “Smoke” and Val Kilmer’s unfaithful wife in “Heat” (both 1995) and she brought what she could to the underwritten part of a lawyer’s spouse in “A Time to Kill” (1996). Faring better on the small screen, Judd displayed her intelligence and skill (as well as a considerable amount of flesh) as the younger incarnation of Marilyn Monroe in “Norma Jean and Marilyn”, which brought her an Emmy nomination. While “Normal Life” (1996) was originally intended for theatrical release, it was relegated to HBO. Nevertheless, it contained her disturbing, impassioned portrayal of an unhinged woman who drives her caring husband to a life of crime in order to satisfy her acquisitive nature.

In her first Hollywood lead, Judd was cast as a capable doctor who, having escaped from a kidnapper, agrees to help the police track down the criminal in “Kiss the Girls” (1997). Again, her native intelligence and striking beauty were used to good effect, even if the surrounding efforts were not top-drawer. The actress exhibited her sexy side as the local girl who falls for a drifter in “The Locusts” (also 1997) and offered a memorable, if relatively brief, turn as a single mother in the sentimental period drama “Simon Birch” (1998). Judd returned to thrillers as an innocent woman who, after serving time for murdering her abusive husband, discovers he was still alive in “Double Jeopardy” (1999) and a suspected serial killer tracked by Ewan McGregor in “Eye of the Beholder” (2000).

In 2001, Judd starred opposite Hugh Jackman as a betrayed woman who becomes obsessed with studying male behavior in the romantic-comedy feature “Someone Like You,” which did not ignite any special box office sparks. A return to form in the middlebrow thriller “High Crimes” (2002) as a high powered laywer stunned by her husband’s shocking past–opposite her “Kiss the Girls” co-star Morgan Freenan (though not a sequel)–also did little to advance the actress craft or audience pull, though she did provide some fire and flavor to her softer follow-up, the seriocomic “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” (2002), playing the flashback version of Vivi, the highly strung Ellen Burstyn character. She was then cast as in a small but crucial supporting role as Tina Modotti in the story based on the life of Frida Kahlo, “Frida” (2002), as a favor to Judd’s longtime friend Salma Hayek. After a stint on Broadway in the role of Maggie in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and a never-realized flirtation with the role of “Catwoman” (later played by Halle Berry), Judd returned to the big screen in 2004 as Linda Lee Porter, the devoted wife and muse to the great American composer/songwriter Cole Porter (Kevin Kline) in the elegant and sophisticated biopic “De-Lovely.”

• Also Credited As:
  Ashley Tyler Ciminella
• Born:
  on 04/19/1968 in Los Angeles, California
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Restaurant hostess

Family

• Father: Michael Ciminella. divorced from Naomi Judd in 1972
• Half-sister: Wynonna. former member of those singing Judds; subsequently a successful solo act; born c. 1964; married Arch Kelley III on January 20, 1996; filed for divorce in November 1998
• Mother: Naomi Judd. born on January 11, 1946; member of The Judds; stopped performing after being diagnosed with hepatitis; recovered
• Step-father: Larry Strickland. sang back up for Elvis Presley; married Naomi Judd c. 1988; she filed for divorce in August 2000

Significant Others

• Husband: Dario Franchitti. born c. 1962; Scottish; became engaged in December 1999; married on December 12, 2001 in Scotland
• Companion: Brady Anderson. played centerfield with the Baltimore Orioles; no longer dating
• Companion: Lyle Lovett. dated in the early 1990s
• Companion: Matthew McConaughey. involved during filming of “A Time to Kill”
• Companion: Michael Bolton. had on-again, off-again relationship

Milestones

• 1972 Was living in L.A. when father left family
• 1974 Mother took Judd and her older sister and moved back to rural Kentucky
• 1989 First TV appearance (in a non-acting role), “The Judds: Across the Heartland”, a variety special starring her mother and sister
• 1990 Worked as a hostess at the Ivy, a popular L.A. restaurant
• 1990 Moved to Los Angeles
• 1991 Appeared in the L.A. stage production “Welcome Home, Soldier”
• 1991 TV debut with recurring role on syndicated series “Star Trek: The Next Generation”
• 1992 Feature acting debut in small role in “Kuffs”
• 1992 First role in a TV-movie, “Till Death Us Do Part” (NBC)
• 1993 Breakthrough feature role, the lead in the independent “Ruby in Paradise”
• 1994 Had role in Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” as a witness recounting a slumber-party massacre perpetrated by serial killers Mickey and Mallory Knox (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis); part cut as the Motion Picture Association of America deemed the scene (shown in flashbacks) too “disturbing” and violent; Stone restored it for the 1996 video release of the director’s cut
• 1994 Made Broadway debut in a revival of William Inge’s play “Picnic”
• 1995 Cast in cameo role as a vituperative junkie in “Smoke”; appeared in the music video of “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” sung on the soundtrack by Jerry Garcia
• 1995 Played Val Kilmer’s straying wife in “Heat”
• 1996 Played the frustrated wife of a Southern lawyer in “A Time to Kill”
• 1996 Shared the title role with Mira Sorvino in the HBO drama “Norma Jean & Marilyn”, about Marilyn Monroe; portrayed Norma Jean; received Emmy nomination
• 1996 Starred opposite Luke Perry as his self-indulgent wife in “Normal Life”; film sold to HBO
• 1997 Portrayed a kidnap victim who manages to escape from her captor and tries to assist the police in tracking him in the thriller “Kiss the Girls”
• 1998 Had small but important part as the single mother in in “Simon Birch”
• 1999 Cast in leading role of a woman mistakenly sent to prison for murdering her husband who decides to commit the crime when she is released in “Double Jeopardy”
• 2000 Co-starred as a woman who befriends a pregnant teenager in “Home Is Where the Heart Is”
• 2000 Played a serial killer in “Eye of the Beholder”, directed by Stephan Elliot
• 2001 Had lead role in the romantic comedy “Someone Like You”
• 2002 Cast as photographer Tina Modotti in “Frida”
• 2002 Portrayed a Young Vivi Walker in “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” based on the best-selling novel by Rebecca Wells
• 2002 Reteamed with Morgan Freeman for “High Crimes”
• 2003 Broadway debut as Maggie in “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof”; scheduling conflict led her to abandon plans to star in “Catwoman”
• 2004 Co-starred with Kevin Kline in “De-lovely,” a film about Cole Porter, the legendary American composer; received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Lead Actress (Musical or Comedy)
• 2004 Starred with Samual L. Jackson and Andy Garcia in the thriller “Twister”
• Played Reed Halsey on the NBC drama series “Sisters” for three seasons; left to pursue film career
• While growing up, moved frequently between California, Kentucky and Tennessee