Although she has friends in high places, such as ex Prime Minister, Tony Blair, a curriculum vitae that includes, modeling and an acting career on both sides of the Atlantic, this actress also has one of those faces that are recognizable but not instantly easy to name.

Saffron Burrows was born on October 21st, 1972 in London, England to parents who were both politically active for the Socialist party. Her father is an architect and her mother is a teacher.

Saffron was discovered at the age of fifteen by a modeling agency, standing 6 foot tall made her instantly noticeable and certainly helped her on the way to a successful modeling career.

Progressing on from modeling it was a natural move for Saffron to become an actress with her acting debut in 1993 in the movie depicting the troubles in Northern Ireland, In The Name of the Father, which saw her acting alongside Daniel Day Lewis. But her first significant role came in the form of an ambitious Irish girl in the 1995 movie Circle of Friends which once again put her up there with more Hollywood success stories, Chris ODonnell and Minnie Driver.

Subsequent movies in her repertoire included Hotel de Love in 1999 and in the same year the science fiction movie Wing Commander. The thriller Deep Blue Sea, also in 1999, featured Samuel L Jackson and LL Cool J. The following year she appeared in Miss Julie and Timecode.

The intriguing movie Enigma offered Burrows the opportunity to star with another British actress and Oscar winner, Kate Winslet and Dougray Scott. Tempted followed in the same year and matched Saffron with Burt Reynolds and Peter Facinelli. But her biggest role came in 2004 when she starred in the Oscar nominated movie Troy with Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom.

By 2005 Saffron had returned to the stage at the Old Vic theatre in London in Night Sky with Christopher Eccleston and David Baddiel.

Crossing the Atlantic, Saffron landed the role of Lorraine Weller in the ABC’s legal series, Boston Legal along with William Shatner, Candice Bergen and James Spader.

In her personal life Saffron was, for a number of years, involved with film director Mike Figgis, but since ending that relationship, she has been romantically linked with actress Fiona Shaw.

In 2008, Burrows appeared in the independent film, The Guitar, which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival, in which a woman is diagnosed with terminal cancer, fired from her job and abandoned by her boyfriend and given two months to live, she blows her savings and maxes out her credit cards to pursue her dreams, which include romance and learning to play the electric guitar.

In 2008 Saffron starred in the British movie, The Bank Job, a movie based on a true story of a bank heist in London in 1971 starring Peter Bowles and Jason Statham.

ABB