Gillian Anderson: Difference between revisions

Gillian Leigh Anderson (born August 9, 1968) is an American actress, best known for her role as FBI Agent Dana Scully in the American TV series The X-Files and her role as Lady Dedlock in the BBC TV series Bleak House.

She was born in Chicago to Edward and Rosemary Anderson, who were both of English and Irish descent; soon after her birth her family moved to Puerto Rico for fifteen months and then to Crouch End in London. When she was eleven, her family moved again, this time to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she attended City Middle/High School, a program for gifted students with a strong emphasis on the humanities. With her English accent and background, she felt out of place in the American Midwest, and developed a reputation as a strong-willed and rebellious teenager. Anderson, mocked because of her British accent, soon developed a Midwest dialect. In addition, she had her nose pierced in the early 1980s, and dyed her hair various colors.

She found an outlet for her talents when she began acting in high school and community theater productions. She attended Goodman Theater School of Drama at DePaul University in Chicago, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990.

Following some professional stage work, she "broke into" television. In 1993, she had a guest appearance on the collegiate drama Class of '96 on the fledgling Fox Network, and auditioned for the role of Dana Scully on The X-Files. There she met assistant art director Clyde Klotz [1], whom she married and with whom she had a daughter, Piper Maru, in 1994. (An alien-abduction storyline explained her brief absence from the series for delivery.) Anderson and Klotz later divorced. She had roles in a handful of films during the run of The X-Files and starred in The House of Mirth, an adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel of the same name.

Since The X-Files ended, she has performed in several stage productions and worked on various film projects. She has also done narrative work for documentaries on scientific topics, in which the voice listeners recognize as "Agent Scully" lends an air of credible authority to the material. In 2005 she appeared as Lady Dedlock in a BBC television adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House, had a starring role in the Irish film The Mighty Celt (for which she won an IFTA award for Best International Actress) and performed in a film version of the novel Tristram Shandy, released in January 2006.

Also of note was her role in the English release of Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, where she played the voice of Moro. Anderson is a proclaimed lover of Miyazaki's work.

In 2006, she was nominated for the prestigious BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress and won the Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio award for Best Actress for her role in Bleak House.

On New Year's Day 1994, Anderson married Clyde Klotz, the "The X-Files" series assistant art director, on the 17th hole of a golf course in Hawaii in a Buddhist ceremony. A few months later came the news that she was pregnant, and Chris Carter created an alien abduction storyline that kept Anderson off-camera long enough for labor, delivery, and a 10-day maternity leave. Daughter Piper was born by cesarian section on September 25, 1994 - Chris Carter was her godfather.

In December 2004, Anderson married Julian Ozanne, a documentary filmmaker, on Lamu's island of Shella, off the coast of Africa. Anderson and Ozanne announced their separation on 21 April 2006, after 14 months of marriage [2].

• Future Fantastic as a presenter (unknown air dates)

• The Last King of Scotland (Completed; to be released 2006), as "Sara Zach"
• Straightheads (Post-production; to be released February 2007 (TBC)), as "Alice"
• Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life (Announced - unknown release date)
• Bleak House as "Lady Honoria Dedlock"
• Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005)
• The Mighty Celt (2005), as "Kate"
• The House of Mirth (2000), as "Lily Bart"
• Mononoke Hime (1997), aka Princess Mononoke (English language version, 1999), voice, as "Moro"
• Playing by Heart (1998), as "Meredith"
• The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998), as "Dana Scully"
• The Mighty (1998), as "Loretta Lee"
• Chicago Cab, aka Hellcab (1998), as "Southside Girl" (or "Brenda")
• The Turning (1992), as "April Cavanaugh"
• A Matter of Choice (1988), B&W student production
• Three at Once (1986), B&W student production, as "Woman 1"

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items.

• The Sweetest Swing in Baseball (2004). World premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London.
• What The Night Is For (2002-11-07 to 2003-02-09). This play ran at the Comedy Theatre in London, and was Anderson's West End debut.
• The Vagina Monologues (1999)-(2000)
• The Philanthropist (1992).
• Absent Friends (1991). Long Wharf Theater. Won a Theatre World Award for Best Performance.
• A Zoo Story (1986)
• Arsenic and Old Lace (1983). City High School, Grand Rapids, Michigan, two performances, as "Officer Brophy". [3]

• The X-Files episode "Piper Maru" is named after her child, Piper.
• X-Files director, creator, writer and actor Chris Carter is godfather to her child.
• Her favourite X-Files episodes are "Triangle" and "Bad Blood".
• Wrote and directed the X-Files episode "All Things".
• Her eyes are blue-green, and her original hair color is ash-blonde.
• Tattoos include a Tahitian tribal symbol on the inside of her right ankle, the words "every day" in Sanskrit on her right wrist, and a "P" on her left hip (presumably for daughter Piper)
• Is allergic to cats, as stated in an X-Files commentary.
• Had a nose piercing in her younger years; the remnants of the hole are still visible in some photographs.
• Compiled a collection of Electronica music inspired by Future Fantastic, entitled Future: A Journey Through The Electronic Underground. Contributed vocals to one track, Extremis, with music by HAL.
• Provided the voice for the ship's computer in the 1996 videogame Hellbender by Terminal Reality and Microsoft.

• Official website
• Gillian Anderson at IMDb
• Template:Voice actor
• Gillian-Anderson.Net
• Anderson Avenue
• Quotes from Gillian Anderson
• The truth is in here - The Guardian, October 26, 2002 - in-depth interview and profile.
• BBC Drama Faces - Gillian Anderson
• Gillian Anderson fan gallery