Biography for
Illeana Douglas More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

25 July 1965, Quincy, Massachusetts, USA

Birth Name

Illeana Hesselberg

Height

5' 8½" (1.74 m)

Mini Biography

Born with show business in her blood Illeana is the granddaughter of screen legend Melvyn Douglas and his first wife artist Rosalind Hightower. She is the step granddaughter of Melvin Douglas' second wife, actress and politician Helen Gahagan Douglas. Illeana began studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. As a teenager, she acted in many plays and dabbled in stand-up comedy. In 1988, working for a publicist in New York led to her first movie role. Illeana appeared in several Martin Scorsese films in small roles, but she learned from actors and directors, all the while developing her talents.

In 1993, Illeana directed and starred in a comedy short The Perfect Woman (1993) which won best short film at the Aspen Film Festival. This success was a turning point, and led to larger parts, like a starring role in the commercially successful movie To Die For (1995) with big-name stars, and over 20 TV and movie projects. Illeana has developed quite an impressive resume ; of work. She provides great entertainment for her fans.

IMDb Mini Biography By: kdhaisch@aol.com

Spouse

Jonathan Axelrod

(16 May 1998 - 13 March 2001) (divorced)

Trivia

Granddaughter of Melvyn Douglas.

Former daughter-in-law of George Axelrod and Joan Axelrod. Former sister-in-law of actress Nina Axelrod.

Ms. Douglas trained for two years (1981 to 1983) at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC before attending Neighborhood Playhouse.

Personal Quotes

Women don't want to be listened to. They only want to be agreed with.

(On filming the face-biting scene with De Niro in Cape Fear) It was one of the hardest. It took two days to do that. The first was 17 hours of shooting. These days, if you go over 12, people start bitching and moaning. But I was so into acting, I was like, "Yeah! Break my arm!" I was friends with Elias Koteas in school, and his dream was to work with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. My dream was to be on a sitcom like Seinfeld. I was in sketch comedy and doing stand-up; no one ever cast me in dramatic roles. I always got cast in, you know, The Owl And The Pussycat. I ran into Elias on the street once, and he goes, "You have my life! How come you have my life?" And I'm like, "I don't know! I don't know why I'm here!" But it all came from my total fear. I was just like, "Well, you'd better be good." Also, it really hurt. My arms really were quite banged up. At one point, De Niro hopped off the bed and started whispering to Marty, and I thought, "Oh my God, they're going to fire me! I'm terrible!" I'd been crying for hours on end; I've never cried so much in my life. Then De Niro hopped back on, and Marty came and said, "Bob says you're done." It was like Stephen Boyd in Ben Hur-like, "Just take him off. He's done." I could barely walk, and my arms were all cut up from thrashing around, and then De Niro complimented me. He said that Charles Grodin was a pussy, because he couldn't take the handcuffs when they did Midnight Run. I thought that was a supreme compliment. That was also my first lesson in movie making, because it's like, "Now you have day two, and you have to do it all again." What's funny is that crying wasn't enough for Marty. Crying for Marty consisted of screaming, cathartic insanity. I'd be screaming and crying and he'd be like, "I think you can do more."