Jennifer Beals

Jennifer Beals

Birth : 1963-12-19, Chicago - Illinois - USA

History

Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963, height 5' 8½" (1,74 m)) is an American actress and a former teen model. She is known for her roles as Alexandra "Alex" Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance, and as Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word. She earned an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe Award nomination for the former. She has appeared in more than 50 films. Beals was born on the South Side of Chicago, the daughter of Jeanne (née Anderson), an elementary school teacher, and Alfred Beals, who owned grocery stores. She is multiracial; her father was African American, and her mother is Irish American. She has two brothers, Bobby and Gregory.Her father died when Beals was nine years old, and her mother married Edward Cohen in 1981. Beals has said her biracial heritage had some effect on her, as she "always lived sort of on the outside", with an idea "of being the other in society". She got her first job at age 13 at an ice cream store, using her height at the time (she is now nearly 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)), to convince her boss she was 16. Beals was inspired to become an actress by two events: doing a high school production of Fiddler on the Roof and seeing Balm in Gilead with Joan Allen while volunteer-ushering at the Steppenwolf Theatre. Beals graduated from the progressive Francis W. Parker School. She also was chosen to attend the elite Goodman Theatre Young People's Drama Workshop. Beals attended Yale University, receiving a B.A. in American literature in 1987; she deferred a term so she could film Flashdance. While at Yale, Beals was a resident of Morse College. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jennifer Beals, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia. ​

Profile

Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals

Movies

Luckiest Girl Alive
Lolo Vincent
A successful woman in New York City finds her life upended when she is forced to confront a dark truth that threatens to unravel her meticulously crafted life.
Sweet Thing
Producer
For Billie and Nico, life with their father is a roller-coaster ride of playfulness and unease. When he is in the grip of alcohol, tears flow and their apparently idyllic family life collapses. Their mostly absent and irresponsible mother is not much help either. But their friendship with Malik, a boy of Billie’s age, frees them from their shackles. Together they embark on a journey full of intense moments of freedom. The colourful, emotional world of the three young people is depicted in kaleidoscopic black and white imagery, which opens space for their own notions of childhood. Alexandre Rockwell's tale portrays a profound sense of solidarity and deep love: for cinema and Billie Holiday, and also for risk and adventure.
After
Karen Gibson
Tessa Young is a dedicated student, dutiful daughter and loyal girlfriend to her high school sweetheart. Entering her first semester of college, Tessa's guarded world opens up when she meets Hardin Scott, a mysterious and brooding rebel who makes her question all she thought she knew about herself -- and what she wants out of life.
The White Orchid
Vivian
Shy and reserved, Claire Decker, 30ish, is a part-time investigator for Social Services. Typically, she solves cases where senior citizens have died alone, leaving no indication of who must handle their estate. This time however, Claire is reluctantly drawn into a puzzling murder case. The local police have been unable to solve the horrific crime, or even decipher the victim's true identity. A beautiful and enigmatic young blond, known only as "The White Orchid," has been brutally murdered. As Claire is drawn deeper and more intimately into the dead woman's life, she finds herself taking dangerous chances and pushing personal and professional boundaries. As she gets closer to the truth, Claire must effectively become the charismatic "White Orchid" in order to solve the mysterious crime.
Before I Fall
Mrs. Kingston
Samantha Kingston has everything. Then, everything changes. After one fateful night, she wakes up with no future at all. Trapped into reliving the same day over and over, she begins to question just how perfect her life really was.
Manhattan Night
Co-Producer
Porter Wren is a Manhattan tabloid writer with an appetite for scandal. On the beat he sells murder, tragedy, and anything that passes for the truth. At home, he is a dedicated husband and father. But when Caroline, a seductive stranger asks him to dig into the unsolved murder of her filmmaker husband Simon, he is drawn into a very nasty case of sexual obsession and blackmail--one that threatens his job, his marriage, and his life.
Manhattan Night
Lisa Wren
Porter Wren is a Manhattan tabloid writer with an appetite for scandal. On the beat he sells murder, tragedy, and anything that passes for the truth. At home, he is a dedicated husband and father. But when Caroline, a seductive stranger asks him to dig into the unsolved murder of her filmmaker husband Simon, he is drawn into a very nasty case of sexual obsession and blackmail--one that threatens his job, his marriage, and his life.
Full Out
Valorie Kondos-Field
Based on the true life story of California gymnast Ariana Berlin. As she zoned in on her Olympic goals, 14 year old Ariana Berlin's life took a sharp turn when she was involved in a debilitating car accident. Gaining her confidence and movement back through learning hip hop dance, she unexpectedly found herself called back to the gymnastics world thanks to world renowned UCLA Coach Valorie Kondos Field. With Val's help, Ariana was eventually able to secure a spot on the UCLA gymnastics team and win an NCAA championship, a lifelong goal that she had always dreamed of. This is a wonderfully inspiring story of persistence, confidence, and the heart and courage to make a somewhat impossible comeback in life.
A Wife's Nightmare
Liz
Liz, just returned home after a mental breakdown, has to welcome a relative stranger into her home when Caitlin, a young, vivacious woman, claims to be her husband's daughter.
Cinemanovels
Clementine
The estranged daughter (Lauren Lee Smith) of a recently deceased filmmaker gains a new understanding of her father when she offers to create a retrospective of his work.
A Fuller Life
Self - Reader (segment "Crime Reporter")
Friends and admirers of iconoclastic film director Sam Fuller read from his memoirs in this unconventional documentary directed by Fuller's only child, Samantha.
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas
Angela Fox
When Santa sets off on his Christmas duties a day early, crashes into the Fox family's house, ends up with amnesia and loses his magic sack of presents, he needs help! But the Fox family are a modern and broken family. Can they help him? The parents are preoccupied with work and the kids aren't very festive. But it's up to them to help Santa find his magical bag of toys and the clock is ticking or Christmas will be ruined. Forced to set their own problems aside and work together the Fox family rediscover how much they enjoy being together and realise that maybe they need to reprioritise their lives. The Night Before The Night Before Christmas is a crazy Christmas fantasy for all the family, brimming with festive spirit.
A Night for Dying Tigers
Melanie
The night before Jack (Gil Bellows) is slated to begin a five-year prison sentence for murder, his wife, Melanie (Jennifer Beals), and assorted siblings gather for a dinner to bid Jack farewell and good luck on his trip up the river. But the party slides into a bitter fight over the bad behavior of Jack's brothers (John Pyper-Ferguson and Tygh Runyan) and sister Karen (Lauren Lee Smith). Terry Miles directs this dark comic drama.
The Book of Eli
Claudia
A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.
Queen to Play
L’Américaine
Hélène, a housekeeper at a ritzy hotel in Corsica, is devoted to her family but lacks any passion in her own life. When she sees a handsome couple play a passionate game of chess, she becomes inspired to play herself. Hélène's working-class husband and spoiled daughter are soon bewildered by her obsession with chess. They also grow suspicious of Hélène's close relationship with Dr. Kröger, her eccentric American expat tutor.
My Name Is Sarah
Sarah Winston
Sarah is depressed and lonely after her best friend dies. She follows a handsome man, Charlie, into a church where he attends AA meetings. Sarah lets him believe she is an alcoholic too, but when she falls for him, she must come clean and admit that she lied and she's not an alcoholic.
Troubled Waters
FBI Agent Beck
Intrepid FBI agent Beck, assigned to solve the case of a multimillionaire couple's missing daughter. As clues begin to reveal themselves, Beck draws an explosive line connecting the kidnapper and the girl's mother -- and brings to light their dark, disturbing secret. Racing against the clock, the determined agent must discover the real reason for the abduction and save the child's life.
The Grudge 2
Trish Kimble
A young woman encounters a malevolent supernatural force while searching for her missing sister in Tokyo, a mean high school prank goes horribly wrong, and strange things begin happening in a Chicago apartment building.
Desolation Sound
Elizabeth Storey
Noir thriller from Vancouver plays out a destructive friendship between a depressed housewife and her childhood friend to an ugly conclusion.
Break a Leg
Juliet
A talented but struggling actor is willing to go to any length to get a job - including "breaking a leg" - especially those of other actors!
Catch That Kid
Molly Phillips
Athletic 12-year-old Maddy (Kristen Stewart) shares an enthusiasm for mountain climbing with her father, Tom (Sam Robards). Unfortunately, Tom suffers a spinal injury while scaling Mount Everest, and his family is unable to afford the surgery that can save him. Maddy decides to get the money for her father's operation by robbing a high-security bank. She relies on her climbing skills and help from her geeky friends (Max Thieriot, Corbin Bleu) to pull it off successfully.
Runaway Jury
Vanessa Lembeck
A juror on the inside and a woman on the outside manipulate a court trial involving a major gun manufacturer.
They Shoot Divas, Don't They?
Sloan McBride
Sloan McBride is an 1980s music star who is trying to hold on to her career. She hires Jenny as her assistant and Jenny seems to be the perfect employee. However, Jenny is actually planning her revenge because she blames Sloan for ruining her mother's career and causing her suicide.
13 Moons
Suzi
Things aren't looking so good for television clown Banana's career, and the fact that his estranged wife, Suzi, has just been arrested for assaulting his girlfriend, Lily, just serves to compound Banana's despair.
Roger Dodger
Sophie
A smooth-talking ad executive attributes his remarkable success with women to his ability to manipulate their emotions from the moment he first meets them. When his teenage nephew drops in for a visit, he soon learns that his approach isn't as foolproof as he thought when he attempts to teach the boy how to pick up women.
Out of Line
Jenny Capitanas
Henry, a hitman hired to take out a socialite, finds himself falling for Jenny, a parole officer, instead.
Feast of All Saints
Dolly Rose
Set in nineteenth-century New Orleans, the story depicts the gens de couleur libre, or the Free People of Colour, a dazzling yet damned class caught between the world of white privilege and black oppression.
The Anniversary Party
Gina Taylor
While celebrating their reconciliation and six years of marriage, the American actress Sally Nash and the British novelist Joe Therrian receive their close friends, some colleagues and their next door neighbors in a party. Under the effect of Ecstasy, revelations are disclosed and relationships deteriorate among the group.
Something More
Lisa
When Sam and his friend fall for the same woman, their friendship is put at risk.
Body and Soul
Gina
Charlie Davis, an ambitious small-town boxer with dreams of making it as a professional, travels to Reno with his unwavering friend Tiny. On his climb to the top, he loses himself and the people he cares for most.
A House Divided
Amanda Dickson
In the aftermath of the terrible Civil War which has devastated the South, Amanda America Dixon returns home to find she has become the sole heir to a vast cotton plantation. But the dreadful secret which has blighted her life threatens to deprive her of the birthright which her beloved father David had struggled for so long to create. Raised by her father and grandmother to be the perfect white Southern Belle, Amanda's true mother was a black slave Julia. Confronted with the forces of greed and bigotry, Amanda has to face not only the hatred of a racist world, but the complex truth of a family whose lives have been built on a lie.
Without Malice
Samantha Wilkes
Paul Venters is a self-centered plastic surgeon who is soon to be married to beautiful Susan, but doesn't get along very well with his fiancée's family, particularly Susan's brother Marty, an ex-con who is trying to stay clean after beating a nasty drug habit. To appease his future wife, Paul tries to mend fences with Marty by inviting him along for a camping trip in the Canadian wilderness.
Militia
Julie Sanders
When deadly anthrax missiles are stolen by a militia, ATF agent Ethan Carter must go undercover and join the group to save the country from disaster.
Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying
Jessica
A passenger of a hijacked airliner who happens to be an airplane engineer works to deactivate a chemical weapons bomb after the hijackers kill the pilot and threaten to kill all the passengers on the plane.
The Last Days of Disco
Nina
Two young women and their friends spend spare time at an exclusive nightclub in 1980s New York.
The Spree
Xinia Kelly
A policeman becomes obsessed with a female cat burglar, who convinces him to join her in crime.
The Prophecy II
Valerie Rosales
Gabriel returns to try to destroy the human race he despises so much, with the help of a suicidal teen and the opposition of the angel Daniel.
Wishful Thinking
Elizabeth
A story told from three angles. Max meets Elizabeth; they live together, but when she talks of marriage, he balks. He becomes extremely jealous, probably without cause, and thinks she's taken up with a friend of his, Jack. Elizabeth, stung by Max's refusal to marry, catches Jack's eye, but the friendship seems innocent. Lena, who works with Max, likes him and realizes she can manipulate his jealousy and maybe engineer his split from Elizabeth. When she's sure Elizabeth is with a man, she calls Max at work, sending him home to confront the lovers. Then, Lena feels guilty and takes off for Max's apartment. What's really going on? Who's with Elizabeth?
The Twilight of the Golds
Suzanne Stein
When Suzanne Stein has a genetic analysis done on her unborn child, she discovers that although she has a healthy baby, the child will most likely be born gay, like her brother, David. She must decide whether to keep the child, or to have an abortion. Her family enters a crisis about love and acceptance as she makes this difficult choice.
Four Rooms
Angela
It's Ted the Bellhop's first night on the job...and the hotel's very unusual guests are about to place him in some outrageous predicaments. It seems that this evening's room service is serving up one unbelievable happening after another.
Let It Be Me
Emily Taylor
Right after getting engaged, a man starts taking dance lessons.
Devil in a Blue Dress
Daphne Monet
In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the disappearance of a missing white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out in one of the city's black jazz clubs. Strapped for money and facing house payments, Easy takes the job, but soon finds himself in over his head.
The Search for One-eye Jimmy
Ellen
While working on a documentary on his old neighborhood, a young film school graduate shifts the focus of his production onto the disappearance of a local resident and the strange characters who are conducting the search to find him.
Dead on Sight
Rebecca Darcy
A graduate student discovers her nightmares are actually visions of real-life murders committed by a man known as the Clock Killer. Joined by an unbelieving detective, she decides she must stop the killer herself, or become his next victim.
Pulp Fiction
Thanks
A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that ingeniously trip back and forth in time.
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
Gertrude Benchley
Dorothy Parker remembers the heyday of the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of friends whose barbed wit, like hers, was fueled by alcohol and flirted with despair.
Caro Diario
Self
Nanni Moretti recalls in his diary three slice of life stories characterized by a sharply ironic look: in the first one he wanders through a deserted Rome, in the second he visits a reclusive friend on an island, and in the last he has to grapple with an unknown illness.
The Thief and the Cobbler
Princess YumYum (voice)
It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald seas, and upon every grain of sand in the vast deserts, that the world which we see is an outward and visible dream, of an inward and invisible reality ... Once upon a time there was a golden city. In the center of the golden city, atop the tallest minaret, were three golden balls. The ancients had prophesied that if the three golden balls were ever taken away, harmony would yield to discord, and the city would fall to destruction and death. But... the mystics had also foretold that the city might be saved by the simplest soul with the smallest and simplest of things. In the city there dwelt a lowly shoemaker, who was known as Tack the Cobbler. Also in the city... existed a Thief, who shall be... nameless.
Night Owl
Julia
New York: Every night the mysterious "Night Owl" goes on the air with her moody radio show. She seems to have an inexplicable influence on some men; several of Julie's friends commit suicide while listening to her voice. She fears for her husband Harry, who becomes more and more distant from her.
The Big Pardon 2
Joyce Ferranti
The mobster Raymond Bettoun gets out of prison and joins his son Maurice in Miami, a drug trafficker who is about to launch a huge operation. But he falls into a trap and a war begins in which Raymond will fight a last battle to try to save his son and what remains of his family.
In the Soup
Angelica Pena
An aspiring young filmmaker gets involved with an eccentric gangster for the financing of his first film.
Indecency
Ellie Shaw
Thriller about three friends who work in an advertising agency, one of whom has a nervous breakdown. Upon her recovery, she embarks upon an affair with her former employer's husband, with deadly consequences.
Terror Stalks the Class Reunion
Virginia
A beautiful young detective goes to the rescue of a teacher kidnapped by a former student.
Blood and Concrete
Mona
A dimwitted thug encounters a strung-out, suicidal young woman and an unlikely relationship develops as they work together to make a break for new horizons.
Tinikling ou La madonne et le dragon
Patty Meredith
Exposé of two news photographers covering the People's Revolution in the Philippines.
Dr. M
Sonja Vogler
In the not-too-distant future Berlin is shocked by a series of spectacular suicides; a policeman's investigations lead him to a beautiful, enigmatic woman and the revelation of a sinister plot to manipulate the population through mass hypnosis.
Sons
Transvestite
A comedy drama that played the festival circuit before vanishing without trace. Forsythe, Sweeney and Miranda are the trio of stepbrothers accompanying paralysed father Fuller on a jaunt to Normandy, where the old boy saw combat and romantic action during the war. Jennifer Beals, a regular in husband Rockwell's movies, plays a transvestite.
The Gamble
Lady Olivia Candioni
When Francesco returns home with the assumption that his father's wealth will be there to keep him content, he discovers that his father has lost everything to a German countess while gambling.
Vampire's Kiss
Rachel
A publishing executive is visited and bitten by a vampire and starts exhibiting erratic behavior. He pushes his secretary to extremes as he tries to come to terms with his affliction. The vampire continues to visit and drink his blood, and as his madness deepens, it begins to look as if some of the events he's experiencing may be hallucinations.
Split Decisions
Barbara Uribe
When a boxer is killed because he wouldn't take a dive, his brother tries to find a way to avenge him even if only symbolically.
The Bride
Eva
After years of research Doctor Frankenstein finally succeeds in creating the perfect woman, whom he names Eva.
Cinderella
Cinderella
An oppressed young woman finds happiness when she secretly attends the royal ball.
That's Dancing!
A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from it's orgins after the invention of the movie camera, over the movie musical from the late 20s, 30s, 40s 50s and 60s up to the break dance and the music videos from the 80s.
Flashdance
Alex Owens
Alex Owens, a teen juggling between two odd jobs, aspires to become a successful ballet dancer. Nick, who is her boss and lover, supports and encourages her to fulfil her dream.
My Bodyguard
Clifford's Friend (uncredited)
Clifford Peach, an easygoing teenager, is finding less than easy to fit in at his new high school, where a tough-talking bully terrorizes his classmates and extorts their lunch money. Refusing to pay up, Clifford enlist the aid of an overgrown misfit whose mere presence intimidates students and teachers alike. But their "business relationship" soon turns personal as Clifford and the troubled loner forge a winning alliance against their intimidators - and a very special friendship with each other.