 |
Ashley Judd
(born Ashley Tyler Ciminella on April 19, 1968)
is an American actress. She is perhaps best
known for her leading roles in a series of late
1990s and early 2000s thrillers, including Kiss
the Girls, Double Jeopardy and High Crimes.
Judd was born in Granada Hills, California to
Michael Ciminella, Jr., an Italian American
marketing analyst for the horseracing industry,
and Naomi Judd, a well-known country music singer;
she has a half-sister, Wynonna Judd, who is
a country music superstar. At the time of her
birth, her mother was working as a nurse, and
had only become well-known as a singer along
with her daughter Wynonna in the late 1970s.
Judd's parents divorced in 1972, and in 1974,
her mother took her back to her own native Kentucky,
where Judd grew up in poverty, as the family
sometimes lived without running water, electricity,
or a telephone.
Judd was born in Granada Hills, California to
Michael Ciminella, Jr., an Italian American
marketing analyst for the horseracing industry,
and Naomi Judd, a well-known country music singer;
she has a half-sister, Wynonna Judd, who is
a country music superstar. At the time of her
birth, her mother was working as a nurse, and
had only become well-known as a singer along
with her daughter Wynonna in the late 1970s.
Judd's parents divorced in 1972, and in 1974,
her mother took her back to her own native Kentucky,
where Judd grew up in poverty, as the family
sometimes lived without running water, electricity,
or a telephone.
Judd began acting on television, and appeared
as Ensign Robin Lefler, a Starfleet officer,
in two 1991 episodes of Star Trek: The Next
Generation. From 1991 to 1994 she had a reoccurring
role as Reed, the daughter of Alex (Swoosie
Kurtz), on the NBC drama Sisters. She made her
feature film debut in 1992's Kuffs, and had
the starring role in 1993's independent film,
Ruby in Paradise, for which she received good
reviews. She also had a role in the 1994 Oliver
Stone film Natural Born Killers, but her scenes
were cut from the final print. She gained further
critical acclaim for her role in 1995's Smoke
and Heat. She also played the role of Callie
in Philip Ridley's dark, adult fairy-tale The
Passion Of Darkly Noon.
By the end of the 1990s, Judd had managed to
achieve significant fame and success as a leading
actress, after leading roles in several thrillers
that performed well at the box office, including
Kiss the Girls in 1997 and 1999's Double Jeopardy.
Several of her early 2000s films, including
2001's Someone Like You and 2002's High Crimes,
received only moderate reviews and mixed box
office,[2] although she did receive positive
notices for her performance in the 2004 biography
of Cole Porter, De-Lovely, opposite Kevin Kline.
During the 1990s, Judd dated baseball player
Brady Anderson, singers Lyle Lovett and Michael
Bolton, and actors Matthew McConaughey and Robert
DeNiro. She became engaged to Scottish CART,
later Indy Racing League driver, Dario Franchitti,
in December of 1999, and the two were married
at Skibo Castle, near Dornoch, Scotland, on
December 12, 2001.
Judd regularly attends University of Kentucky
basketball games, frequently sitting next to
Donna Smith (wife of UK Coach Tubby Smith),
or in the student section. Last year, she was
a guest columnist for a local Kentucky newspaper,
writing about the NCAA Championships. She is
frequently sought out for celebrity camera shots
during televised games. At the request of her
cousin, she posed for a poster wearing only
a hockey jersey for fundraising purposes for
her alma mater's hockey team. She is also an
avid practioner of yoga, cooking and gardening.
Judd is active in humanitarian and political
causes. She was appointed Global Ambassador
for YouthAIDS, an international organization
promoting AIDS prevention and treatment, and
speaks and demonstrates at pro-choice events.
When in Manhattan, she attends services at a
charismatic Missionary Baptist Church. She and
her husband divide their time between a home
in Scotland and their farm in Tennessee.
In July 2006, Judd completed a program at Shades
of Hope Treatment Center in Buffalo Gap, Texas.
She was there because of personal issues, including
depression. |
|
