Daryl Hannah Life Story

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Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American film actress. After making her screen debut in 1978, Hannah starred in a number of Hollywood films throughout the 1980s. She has recently had several notable roles, including that of Elle Driver in Kill Bill, after a hiatus from major roles during the 1990s.

Hannah was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Donald and Susan Hannah. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth and her mother remarried Jerrold Wexler, a businessman and brother of Haskell Wexler, a noted cinematographer. Hannah, a vegetarian since age eleven, grew up with siblings Don and Page Hannah, who also became actors, as well as half sister Tanya Wexler, now a film director. Due to a childhood accident, Hannah is missing a part of her left index finger.

Hannah became interested in movies at an early age, due to insomnia. She was very shy and was diagnosed as ‘borderline autistic’. Hannah attended the Francis W. Parker School (where she played on the boys’ soccer team) and the University of Southern California, majoring in theatre.

Hannah made her film debut in 1978, making a brief appearance in Brian De Palma’s horror film The Fury. She subsequently appeared in several early 1980s films, the most notable role of which is probably as the replicant, Pris, in Ridley Scott’s 1982 film, Blade Runner. Hannah was cast as a mermaid in Ron Howard’s 1984 fantasy, Splash, which was a major financial success, grossing over $62 million and establishing Hannah as a notable film actress.

Hannah’s roles in the remainder of the 1980s ranged from successful major roles in Steel Magnolias and the Academy Award-winning Wall Street, to the disappointing, including the 1986 film version of The Clan of the Cave Bear, which received mostly negative reviews and performed poorly at the box office.Hannah also played the title role in Fred Schepisi’s 1987 film Roxanne, a modern retelling of Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac, a performance which was described as “sweet” and “gentle” by film critic Roger Ebert.

In the 1990s, Hannah’s roles included starring as a giantess in the television movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1993), which she also co-produced. She also appeared as the daughter of Jack Lemmon’s character in both of the Grumpy Old Men films. In 1995, Hannah was chosen by Empire magazine as #96 of the “100 Sexiest Stars in film history”. That same year, Hannah anticipated (by a decade) her Kill Bill role when she appeared as homicidal sociopath Leann Netherwood in The Tie That Binds.

Of Hannah’s most recent roles, the best-known may be that of the one-eyed assassin Elle Driver in Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill Volume 2, directed by Quentin Tarantino. Her performance in these films, as well as her appearances in other recent films, including Casa de los Babys and Silver City, have been described by some critics as a cinematic comeback for Hannah, who had not appeared in many mainstream films in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In late 2004, Hannah was a featured model in Playboy magazine, participating in a revealing set of photographs.

Hannah and actress Hilary Shepard have co-created a boardgame called “Liebrary”. Hannah previewed the game on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in December 2005.

Hannah and actress Hilary Shepard Turner created two board games, “Love It Or Hate It” and “LIEbrary”, with Hannah previewing the latter on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show in 2005. Hannah, an active environmentalist, has her own weekly video blog called DHLoveLife on sustainable solutions. She is often the sound recordist, camera person and on-screen host for the blog. Her home runs on solar power and is built with green materials. She drives a car that runs on biodiesel. In late 2006, she volunteered to act as a judge for Treehugger.com’s “Convenient Truths” contest. On December 4, 2008, Hannah joined Sea Shepherd’s crew aboard the MV Steve Irwin, as part of Operation Musashi.

Hannah has never married, although she had long-term relationships with singer Jackson Browne and John F. Kennedy, Jr. She is the sister-in-law of music producer Lou Adler, who is married to Hannah’s sister, Page.

On June 13, 2006, Hannah was arrested, along with Taran Noah Smith, for her involvement with over 350 farmers, their families and supporters, confronting authorities trying to bulldoze the nation’s largest urban farm in South Central Los Angeles. She chained herself to a walnut tree at the South Central Farm for three weeks to protest the farmers’ eviction by the property’s new owner.

The farm had been established in the wake of the 1992 LA riots to allow people in the city to grow food for themselves. However, the land’s new owner, who had paid $5 million for it, sought to evict the farmers to build a warehouse. He had asked for $16 million to sell it but turned down the offer when the activists raised that amount. Hannah was interviewed via cell phone shortly before she was arrested, along with 44 other protesters, and said that she and the others are doing the “morally right thing”. She spent some time in jail. Hannah has also worked to help end sexual slavery and has been traveling around the world to make a documentary.

Daryl Hannah was among 31 people arrested on June 23, 2009 in a protest against mountaintop removal in southern West Virginia, part of a wider campaign to stop the practice in the region. The protesters, who also included NASA climate scientist James E. Hansen, were charged with obstructing officers and impeding traffic after they sat in the middle of State Route 3 outside Massey Energy’s Goals Coal preparation plant on Tuesday, the The Charleston Gazette reported. In a Democracy Now! phone interview on June 24, 2009, Ms. Hannah spoke briefly on why she went to West Virginia and risked arrest.