Geena Davis Biography

Geena Davis is a renowned American actress, producer, writer and women’s rights activist. This biography profiles her childhood, life, career, achievements and timeline.

Quick Facts

Birthday: January 21, 1956

Nationality: American

Famous: Models Actresses

Age: 63 Years, 63 Year Old Females

Sun Sign: Aquarius

Also Known As: Virginia Elizabeth Davis, Virginia Emmolo, Virginia Elizabeth

Born in: Wareham

Famous as: Actress, Producer, Model

Height: 1.83 m

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Jeff Goldblum, Renny Harlin, Reza Jarrahy, Richard Emmolo

father: William Davis

mother: Lucille Davis

siblings: Dan Davis

children: Alizeh Keshvar Davis Jarrahy, Kaiis Steven Jarrahy, Kian William Jarrahy

U.S. State: Massachusetts

Net worth: $38 Million as of Jan 2017

More Facts

education: Boston University, Wareham High School, New England College

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Geena Davis is a renowned American actress, producer, writer and women’s rights activist. Apart from her multifaceted roles in Hollywood, she has received critical acclaim for her roles in televisions serials of all genres. Before coming to films, she was a fashion model and a member of semi-finalist Team of Women’s Archery in Olympics. Her passion for music since early childhood made her learn piano and flute. She used to play organ at a Church in Wareham. After finishing her graduation in Drama from Boston University, she went to New York City to start her career as an actress. She struggled hard there and ended up doing different types of odd jobs before getting a break in acting. She was a successful model before she made her debut in the movie ‘Tootsie’ in 1982. She also appeared in several Television serials and later had a very successful acting career and won the Oscar Award for her movie ‘The Accidental Tourist’. She also bagged the ‘The Golden Globe Award’ for her role in a television drama series. She is married to Reza Jarrahy and has one daughter and two sons from this marriage. She also works for many social causes.

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Geena Davis

Childhood & Early Life

Geena Davis was born in Wareham in Massachusetts on 21st January 1956. Her father William F. Davis was a civil engineer and her mother, Lucille used to work as a teacher’s assistant. Her birth name is Virginia Elizabeth Davis. She has a brother named Danforth Davis.
She enrolled at Wareham High School and she also attended a school in Sandviken in Sweden as an exchange student that made her fluent in Swedish Language.
Her tall height made her feel out of the group and she had low self-esteem during her school days.
She initially enrolled at New England College in New Hampshire but in a year moved to Boston University and finally graduated from there in drama. After her graduation she moved to New York to start her career in acting.

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Career

In her initial days in New York, Geena worked as waitress and sales clerk and took up work for Ann Taylor and worked as window mannequin and then got a modeling contract with Zoli Modeling Agency.
Her acting career took a slow start in 1982 with her debut movie ‘Tootsie’ where she played a small role. She co-starred with Dustin Hoffman in this comedy. In the same year she appeared in a television comedy ‘Buffalo Bill’.
Her acting career got a big break when she appeared in the famous sitcom ‘Family Ties’ where she co-starred with Michael J. Fox’. This series was telecast from1982 to 1989.
She co-starred with Tom Hanks, Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell in the movie ‘A League of Their Own’ (1992) and got critical acclaim.
She moved on to action movies to and acted in movies such as ‘Cutthroat Island (1995)’ and ‘The Lion Kiss Goodnight’ (1996).
She played the role of Eleanor in the movie ‘Stuart Little’ (1999) and its sequels in 2002 and 2005.
She also appeared in a sitcom show on TV ‘The Geena Davis Show’ that got telecast for very short period.
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She played the role of 1st female President of the US in the popular TV series ‘Commander in Chief’ ( 2005 to 2006) for which she got nominated or many awards.
She played the role of Dr. Nicole Herman in the TV Series ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ (2014-2015).

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Major Works

She got nomination for her television series ‘Commander in Chief’ (Golden Globe Awards-2006, Primetime Emmy Awards-2006, Screen Actors Guild Awards-2006, and Satellite Awards-2005).
For the movie ‘Thelma Louise’ she received nominations for ‘Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards’ (1991), Academy Awards (1991), BAFATA Awards (1992), Golden Globe Awards (1992) and MTV Movie Awards (1992).

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Awards & Achievements

She won ‘Best Supporting Actress’ Academy Award in 1989 for her role in the movie ‘The Accidental Tourist’.
In 1991, she was given the “Boston Society of Film Critics Awards’ in the ‘Best Actress’ Category for her role in the movie ‘Thelma and Louise’. For the same movie she shared the ‘Best Actress Award’ with Susan Sarandon awarded by ‘National Board of Review’ in 1991.
She won the ‘Golden Globe Awards’ in the category of ‘Best Actress-Television Series Drama’ for her role in the television serial ‘Commander in Chief’ in 2006.
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In 2015, she started an annual Film Festival that will have movies that basically have females and minorities as cast and crew.
She got nomination for Golden Globe Awards for the movies ‘Herself’ in 1992, ‘A League of Their Own’ in 1993, ‘Speechless’ in 1995, ‘The Lion Kiss Goodnight’ in 1997.
She was ranked #61 in the list of ‘Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time’ by Empire Magazine of UK in October 1997. The same magazine ranked her #31 in the list of ‘100 Sexiest Stars in Film Industry’.

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Personal Life & Legacy

Geena Davis is married to her fourth husband Reza Jarrahy who is a plastic surgeon and has Iranian-American family background. She got married to Reza on 1st September 2001 and the couple has three children from the marriage.
She gave birth to a daughter, Alizeh Kashvar on 10th April, 2002 while her two twin sons Kaiis William Jarrahy and Kian William Jarrahy were born on 6th May, 2004.
Director Renny Harlin was Geena Davis’s third husband with whom she got married on 18th September 1993. The couple got divorced five years after their marriage on 17th October 1998. Davis acted in ‘The Long Kiss Goodnight’ and ‘Cutthroat Island’ both of which were directed by Renny Harlin.
Her second marriage was with actor Jeff Goldblum with whom she did three movies. The couple married on 1st November 1987 and divorced on 17th October 1990.
She got married for the first time to Richard Emmolo on 25th March 1982 and the couple got divorced on 26th February 1983.Richard Emmolo was a restaurant manager.

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Trivia

In 1999, this Oscar Award winning actress was one of 300 women sportspersons who contested for a semifinals birth in the US Olympic archery team to participate in the Sydney Olympics in 2000 but could not qualify for the team. She, however, participated in the Sydney International Golden Arrow Competition.
She actively works against gender discrimination and leads the Women’s Sports Foundation Campaign named ‘Geena Takes Aim’ to support ‘Title IX’ Act to end gender discrimination in different educational institutes in the US.
She also got associated with an NGO ‘Dads and Daughters’ in 2005 that aims at having equal number of female and male characters in various TV programs and movies made for children.
She was also attached to Ad Council’s FWD Campaign and USAID that aimed at making people aware about drought in East Africa.

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See the events in life of Geena Davis in Chronological Order