Who is Kyra Sedgwick? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Also Known As: Kyra Minturn Sedgwick

Age: 58 Years, 58 Year Old Females

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Kevin Bacon (m. 1988)

father: Henry Sedgwick V

mother: Patricia Rosenwald

siblings: Holly Sedgwick, Mike Stern, Robert Sedgwick

children: Sosie Bacon, Travis Bacon

Born Country: United States

Jewish Actresses Actresses

Height: 5'5" (165 cm), 5'5" Females

Ancestry: British American

U.S. State: New Yorkers

More Facts

education: University Of Southern California

Recommended For You

Recommended Lists:

New Yorkers Actresses

University Of Southern California

Leo Actresses

Childhood & Early Years

Kyra Sedgwick was born on 19 August 1965 in New York City to Patricia Heller and Henry D. Sedgwick. Her mother was an educational and family therapist while her father was a venture capitalist. She belongs to blue-blood lineage - her great grandfather founded the Gorton School, her uncle Ellery Sedgwick was the owner of The Atlantic Monthly, her cousin Edie Sedgwick was the popular muse of the 60s pop artist Andy Warhol, her brother Robert Sedgwick is an actor and her half-brother Mike Stern is jazz artist. She is the niece of writer John Sedgwick.

Her parents split up when she was only 6 years old and she moved to Upper East Side of New York to live with her mother and stepfather, Ben Heller’s home. Ben was an art dealer. Her mother was an ardent theater fan and she had many Broadway celebrities as her friends. Due to her love for art, she encouraged Kyra to take interest in arts as well. When she was 12, she performed for the first time on stage for her school and the play was called ‘Fiddler on the Roof’.

Sedgwick got her high school diploma from Manhattan’s Friends Seminary after which she briefly attended Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Southern California. While at the university she realized that higher education was not for her and her heart was set on becoming an actress. Therefore, she quit her studies to pursue acting full time.

Continue Reading Below

Recommended Lists:

American Actresses

Actresses Who Are In Their 50s

Women Film & Theater Personalities

American Film & Theater Personalities

Career

When Sedgwick was only 16 years old, she got her first opportunity to become a professional actress and landed a recurring role in the American television series ‘Another World’. But she had her eyes set on a bigger actress stage. Over the next decade she did more and more of small time television and built up a strong resume. In 1985 she bagged the title role in ‘Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale’ and also a part in the TV movie called ‘Lemon Sky (1987)’.

In 1989, Sedgwick gained her first big-screen role as a supporting actress in Oliver Stone’s ‘Born on the Fourth of July’. It got her a lot of attention as the movie starred Tom Cruise. In the same year, she got a role in Emmy Award winning TV movie ‘Miss Rose White’, where she played the role of a polish woman who immigrates to New York to dodge the Holocaust but she had to ultimately face her Jewish heritage to find her estranged sister.

In 1992, she got her big role in Cameron Crowe’s ‘Singles’. She played the female lead in the movie. She worked in the movie with other artists like Matt Dillon, Bridget Fonda, Eddie Vedder, Chris Cornell, etc. the movie was about love and life after college. It was shot in Seattle and proved to be a very important creative development in Sedgwick’s entertainment career.

After this she did movies like: ‘Heart and Souls (1993)’, ‘Something to Talk About (1995)’, ‘Phenomenon (1995)’ where she played opposite John Travolta. In 2003 she played the part of Mae Coleman in ‘Secondhand Lions’ and of Stella Peck in ‘The Game Plan’ in 2007. In 2004, she worked opposite her husband, Kevin Bacon, in ‘The Woodsman’. This movie was produced by Kevin Bacon. The movie showcased Bacon as a paroled pedophile and Sedgwick as an emotionally hardened fellow lumberyard worker. It was a critically acclaimed movie.

Since 2005, Sedgwick starred in ‘The Closer’, and it became the epic success of her life. She did the role of ‘Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh’ in the series and became an instant hit on the America television. There came a point in her career while doing ‘The Closer’ where she started earning about 30,000 US dollars per episode. The series fetched her many nominations and prestigious awards throughout the life of the series. She won a Golden Globe for her performance as the lead actress in 2007 and in 2010, she won an Emmy for the same.

Recommended Lists:

American Female Film & Theater Personalities

Leo Women

Personal Life & Legacy

In 1988, Sedgwick, while working in the PBS version of the Lanford Wilson’ play ‘Lemon Sky’, met her husband Kevin Bacon, who was also her co-star. It is said that in the beginning Sedgwick did not really like Bacon for she thought he had an attitude on him and was arrogant. But soon Bacon changed her mind and they decided to get married the same year, when she was only 22.

She gave birth to son Travis in 1989, just a year after she got married. After three years, in 1992, she gave birth to daughter Sosie.

Trivia

Sedgwick received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009.

This famous American actress gave voiceover for Batwoman in the movie ‘Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman’.

Kyra Sedgwick Biography