Document Actions

DAVIS, Judy

by admin — last modified 2007-11-03 10:30 AM

Australisch filmactrice (1955- )

* 23.4. 1955, Perth, Western Australia.

Opleiding: Western Australia Institute of Technology; National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney, Australia

Passionate, high-strung, frank-talking leading actor, born in Australia, who dropped out of convent school to sing in a rock band. Davis first gained international recognition in Gillian Armstrong's MY BRILLIANT CAREER (1979) and has notably played several strong women who shatter the social mores of their time, including the footloose heroine who had years before abandoned her daughter in HIGH TIDE (1987), Miss Quested the cultural adventuress in A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984) and cross-dressing writer George Sand in IMPROMPTU (1991).

For a time after her early success Davis remained in her native Australia, skilfully playing such roles as the lonely prostitute in THE WINTER OF OUR DREAMS (1981) and the wife of an increasingly fascistic writer in KANGAROO (1986). As Davis moved into U.S. and international productions, the early 90s saw her careworn but sensitive features and intriguingly edgy performance style embroider a virtuoso series of highly-strung but generally sympathetic characterizations. She played the companion to a William Faulkner-like alcoholic writer in BARTON FINK, the bug-spray-addicted wife of William Burroughs's alter ego in NAKED LUNCH (both 1991) and the epitome of elitist, repressed English womanhood in the E.M. Forster adaptation, WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD (1991). Having cast Davis in a small role in his whimsical ALICE (1990), Woody Allen brought her talents to the fore as one member of the quartet in HUSBANDS AND WIVES (1992) attempting to balance emotional relationships with personal drives and ambitions.

Davis was cast by director George Sluizer in his psychological thriller DARK BLOOD (1993) but production closed down when co-star River Phoenix died of a drug overdose before the filming was completed. Working with director Ted Demme, nephew of Jonathan, Davis's shrewish performance as a battling spouse opposite Kevin Spacey in THE REF (1994) again demonstrated her formidable flair for comedy. For writer-director Michael Tolkin's THE NEW AGE (1994), Davis and her NAKED LUNCH (1991) co-star Peter Weller paired as a feuding, jobless LA couple who decides to open an upscale New Age boutique to pay for their divorce.

Academy Awards®

Nominated for Actress 1984: A PASSAGE TO INDIA

Nominated for Supporting Actress 1992: HUSBANDS AND WIVES