|
Emily Mortimer
|
 |
This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2009) (Find sources: Emily Mortimer – news, books, scholar) |
| Emily Mortimer | |
|---|---|
 Mortimer at a film premiere in September 2007 |
|
| Born | 1 December 1971 Finsbury Park, London, England, UK |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Spouse(s) | Alessandro Nivola (2003 – present), 1 child |
Emily Mortimer (born 1 December 1971) is an English actress. She began performing on stage, and has since appeared in several film and television roles, including Scream 3 (2000) and Match Point (2005).
Contents |
Early life
Mortimer was born in Finsbury Park, London,1 England, the daughter of Sir John Mortimer QC (lawyer and dramatist famous for Rumpole of the Bailey) and his second wife, Penelope (née Gollop).2 She has a younger sister, Rosie; two older siblings, Sally Silverman and Jeremy, by her father's first marriage, to author Penelope Fletcher; and a half brother, Ross Bentley, by her father's liaision with actress Wendy Craig.3 Her maternal grandfather was a pig farmer.4
Mortimer studied at St Paul's Girls' School, where she appeared in several student productions. After St. Paul's, she moved on to Lincoln College, Oxford, where she read Russian, and performed in several plays. Before becoming an actress, Mortimer wrote a column for the Daily Telegraph, and was also screenwriter for a screen adaptation of Lorna Sage's memoir, Bad Blood.
Career
Mortimer performed in several plays while studying at Oxford University, and while acting in a student production she was spotted by a producer who later cast her in a supporting role in a television adaptation of Dame Catherine Cookson's The Glass Virgin (1995). Subsequent television roles included Sharpe's Sword and Coming Home. Her first film role was opposite Val Kilmer in 1996's The Ghost and the Darkness. Mortimer was then in the Irish coming-of-age story The Last of the High Kings, released later the same year. In 1998 she appeared as Kat Ashley in Elizabeth, and played Miss Flynn in the TV mini-series Cider with Rosie, which was adapted for television by her father.
In 1999, she played three roles that raised her profile outside the UK: She was the ill-fated "Perfect Girl" dropped by Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, appeared as Esther in the American TV mini-series Noah's Ark, and was Angelina, the star of the film-within-a-film, in the upscale slasher flick Scream 3.
In 2000, Mortimer was cast as Katherine in Kenneth Branagh's musical adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost, where she met actor and future husband Alessandro Nivola. She took on her biggest role in an American film to date, playing opposite Bruce Willis in Disney's The Kid. In 2002, she had a major role in The 51st State (also known as Formula 51), starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Carlyle, and was a supporting character in John Woo's war drama Windtalkers.
In 2003, Mortimer appeared in Stephen Fry's film Bright Young Things. In 2004, Mortimer appeared in the movie Dear Frankie. In 2005, she played a major role as the oblivious spouse of an adulterous Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Woody Allen's Match Point, as well as voicing young Sophie in the English-dubbed version of Howl's Moving Castle. In 2007 she played a supporting role in Lars and the Real Girl as the supportive sister-in-law of Ryan Gosling's title character. She also appeared in The Pink Panther in 2006 and in its 2009 sequel, as the love interest of Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin). In the last three episodes of 30 Rock's first season, she played Phoebe, a love interest of Alec Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy.
Mortimer will play one of the lead characters in Martin Scorsese's 2009 film Shutter Island.
Personal life
In 2000, Mortimer met American actor Alessandro Nivola, while both were starring in Love's Labour's Lost. The couple married in Chiltern, Buckinghamshire, on 3 January 2003. A Mexican punk band performed at their wedding. Mortimer gave birth to their son, Samuel John, in Westminster, London,5 on 23 September 2003. Emily is current pregnant with their second child, due January 2010.6
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Sharpe's Sword | Lass | TV |
| The Glass Virgin | Annabella Lagrange | TV miniseries | |
| 1996 | The Ghost and the Darkness | Helana Patterson | |
| Midsomer Murders: The Killings at Badger's Drift | Catherine Lacey | ||
| The Last of the High Kings | Romy Thomas | ||
| Silent Witness | Fran | Episodes "Long Days, Short Nights" parts 1 and 2 | |
| 1998 | Coming Home | Judith Dunbar | TV |
| Cider with Rosie | Miss Flynn | TV | |
| Elizabeth | Kat Ashley | ||
| Killing Joe | |||
| 1999 | Notting Hill | Perfect Girl | |
| 2000 | Scream 3 | Angelina Tyler | |
| Love's Labour's Lost | Katherine | ||
| Disney's The Kid | Amy | ||
| 2001 | Lovely and Amazing | Elizabeth Marks | |
| The 51st State aka Formula 51 | Dakota Parker | ||
| 2002 | Jeffrey Archer: The Truth | Diana, Princess of Wales | TV |
| 2003 | A Foreign Affair | Angela Beck | |
| Nobody Needs to Know | Emily | ||
| The Sleeping Dictionary | Cecil | ||
| Bright Young Things | Nina Blount | ||
| Young Adam | Cathie Dimly | ||
| 2004 | Dear Frankie | Lizzie | |
| Howl's Moving Castle | Young Sophie | Voice | |
| 2005 | Match Point | Chloe Hewett Wilton | |
| 2006 | Paris, je t'aime | Frances | Segmant Père-Lachaise |
| The Pink Panther | Nicole Durant | ||
| 2007 | 30 Rock | Phoebe | Episodes "Corporate Crush", "Cleveland" and "Hiatus" |
| Lars and the Real Girl | Karin | ||
| Chaos Theory | Susan Allen | ||
| 2008 | Transsiberian | Jessie | |
| Redbelt | Laura Black | ||
| 2009 | The Pink Panther 2 | Nicole Durant | |
| Harry Brown | Frampton | ||
| 2010 | Shutter Island | Rachel Solando |
References
- ^ "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". Interview with Jay Leno. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1221328/. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
- ^ Rumpole creator Sir John Mortimer dies, aged 85" Daily Mail, 16 January 2009] says her maiden name is Gallop. In this Guardian obituary for the first wife, the maiden name of the second wife is Gollop. The Daily Mail article mentions that Sir John Mortimer had two children by his first marriage, which ended in 1972 (1971 per his Wikipedia article), and two by his second marriage.
- ^ "Mortimer's joy at son with Wendy Craig". Daily Telegraph. 13 September 2004. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1471554/Mortimer%27s-joy-at-son-with-Wendy-Craig.html. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
- ^ Cavendish, Lucy A bohemian hunter, Evening Standard (30 July 2003)
- ^ Marriages and Births England and Wales 1984-2006
- ^ http://celebrity-babies.com/2009/10/17/emily-mortimer-says-son-mocks-her-english-accent/
- Merritt, Stephanie (2 December 2001). "Woman on the verge". Film — Interviews (The Observer). http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,610239,00.html.