Ellen Barkin Bio

Ellen Barkin

Ellen Rona Barkin is an American actor best known for her femme fatale roles with body baring scenes in several 1980s films like the romantic thriller, The Big Easy in 1987, where she had her breakout role as Anne Osborne, and Sea of Love in 1989.

She was born in the Bronx, New York on April 16, 1954, to a conservative middle-class Jewish family. Her father worked as a chemical salesman and her mother was a hospital administrator. She has one sibling, brother George Barkin, who is a magazine editor and the former editor-in-chief of National Lampoon.

Ellen studied acting at The New York High School of Performing Arts, the New York-based Actor Studio, and the Hunter College in New York where she majored in history and drama.

Her well-known romantic relationships include dating actor Val Kilmer in 1984 as well as dating actor David Arquette, who she met on the set of the movie Wild Bill in 1995. The two got together shortly after Ellen’s 1993 divorce from her first husband, actor Gabriel Byrne.

Ellen met the Irishman, Gabriel Byrne during the 1987 filming of the experimental, supernatural thriller, Siesta.

Gabriel Byrne and Ellen married in 1988 and have two children together: son Jack Byrne, born in 1989, and daughter Romey Marion Byrne, born in 1992. Their divorce was amicable.

On June 28, 2000, she married her second husband, billionaire and owner of Revlon Company, Ronald Perelman. The two divorced on Valentine’s Day 2006. This divorce wasn’t nearly as amicable as Ellen’s first divorce, and she fought for the $20 million to $60 million settlement she received.

Ellen auctioned off more than 100 pieces of jewelry Ronald had given her, including her wedding ring, for $20.3 million in October of 2006.

While her personal life was one big real-life drama, Ellen kept up with the fictional drama of the acting world. She appeared in Oprah Winfrey’s made-for-television movie, Before Women Had Wings in 1997. She was honored with an Emmy and Golden Satellite Award in the category Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role in the movie. In 1999 she appeared with actresses Denise Richards and Kirstie Alley in the comedy, Drop Dead Gorgeous.

Ellen acted in Spike Lee’s 2004 drama, She Hate Me as Margo Chadwick. In 2005’s romantic comedy, Trust the Man, she appeared as Norah. She will be the leading lady in the 2007 crime drama, Ocean’s Thirteen.

YUDDY




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