Barbara Hershey

Acclaimed actress Barbara Hershey was born Barbara Lynn Herzstein on February 5, 1948, in Hollywood, California. Barbara studied drama in high school, and landed her first acting gig at age seventeen, guest-starring in the teen television show Gidget alongside Sally Field. A regular spot on TV series The Monroes soon followed, and led to guest roles in a number of other series.

Barbara made her film debut at age twenty in With Six You Get Eggroll in 1968. The following year, Hershey appeared in Western Heaven with a Gun and subsequently the X-rated Last Summer in 1969, in which she played the promiscuous Sandy, who encourages the gang-rape of a teenage girl. In 1972, Barbara scored the title role in Boxcar Bertha, marking the first major movie directed by then-unknown Martin Scorsese. Barbara soon developed a relationship with her co-star in the film, David Carradine. In 1973, David directed both himself and Barbara in Americana, which was not released until the following decade. In 1972, the couple welcomed the birth of their son, Free Carradine, who currently works in the film industry and has since changed his first name to Tom.

By 1973, Barbara gave herself the name Barbara Seagull and flew to the Netherlands to film the drama Angela, for which she won the Best Actress honors at the Berlin Film Festival. During the mid-70s, Barbara appeared in a number of unremarkable films, including Diamonds in 1974, A Choice of Weapons in 1976, and The Last Hard Men in 1976.

During the late 70s, Barbara returned to television and also went back to former last name. She starred in the disaster production Flood!, the miniseries A Man Called Intrepid, and weekly show From Here to Eternity. By the early 80s, Barbara had eased back into films such as The Stunt Man in 1980, Take This Job and Shove It in 1981, and the 1982 horror flick The Entity.

In 1983, Hershey’s acceptance of a minor role in Philip Kaufman's acclaimed The Right Stuff landed her back on Hollywood’s radar. The following year, she starred in The Natural, and in 1986, was chosen for Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters.

By the late 80s, Barbara’s career was in full-flourish; she starred in the 1987 comedy Tin Men, and that same year, won Best Actress honors at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance in Shy People. The following year, Barbara was again honored at Cannes in the same category for her performance in Chris Menges's A World Apart. In 1988, Barbara starred opposite Bette Midler as the beautiful yet repressed Hillary in the tear-jerker Beaches. Also that year, Hershey starred as Mary Magdalene in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.

Barbara ushered in the 90s by winning an Emmy for her performance in the made-for-TV movie A Killing in a Small Town. She continued to act on the big screen in films such as Tune in Tomorrow in 1990, Falling Down in 1993, and The Pallbearer in 1996. For her performance in Jane Campion's 1996 adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady, Barbara was also recognized with an Academy Award nomination and a Best Supporting Actress award from the National Society of Film Critics.

In 1999, Barbara starred in Drowning on Dry Land alongside Naveen Andrews, who currently stars in popular television series Lost. Barbara became romantically involved with Naveen, twenty-one years her junior. Representatives for the couple report that they are currently still together, despite Navine’s reported infidelities.

Throughout the new millennium, Barbara has continued to appear in critically-acclaimed productions, such as the Australian film Lantana in 2001. She has also starred in 11:14 in 2003 and the 2004 adaptation of Stephen King’s Riding the Bullet.

YUDDY