Born: November 22, 1961
Age: 63
Birthplace: Mill Valley, California, U.S.
Mariel Hadley Hemingway (born November 22, 1961) is an American actress and author. She began acting at age 14 in a breakout role in Lipstick (1976) and received Best Supporting Actress Academy Award and BAFTA Award nominations for her role in Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979). She is also known for her roles in Personal Best (1982), Star 80 (1983) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987).
She has starred in and co-produced videos about yoga and holistic living. She published a memoir in 2002, and another, Out Came the Sun, in 2015.
Hemingway was born in Mill Valley, California, the third daughter of Byra Louise (née Whittlesey) Hemingway (1922-1988) and Jack Hemingway (1923-2000), a writer. Her sisters are Joan Hemingway (born 1950) and Margaux Hemingway (1954-1996). Margaux, who was an actress and model, died of a barbiturate overdose at age 42 in 1996.
Her paternal grandparents were Hadley Richardson (1891-1979) and Nobel Prize-laureate novelist Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), who committed suicide four months before she was born. She was named after the Cuban port of Mariel—her father and grandfather visited the village regularly to go fishing. Her middle name was her paternal grandmother's.
Hemingway grew up primarily in Ketchum, Idaho, where her father lived, and where Ernest had spent time as a sportsman and writer before he died there of a gunshot wound. She also spent part of her adolescence in Los Angeles and New York City.
Hemingway's first role was with her real-life sister Margaux (also in her debut role) in the film Lipstick (1976), where they played the role of sisters in the film. She received notice for her acting and was nominated as "Best Newcomer" for the Golden Globe Award that year. Lipstick is remembered for its particularly violent ending.
Hemingway's highest profile came with her role in Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979), a romantic comedy in which she plays Tracy, a high school student and Allen's lover. Just 16 during filming (in the film she is said to be 17), she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In her memoir, Out Came The Sun (2015), Hemingway alleges that Allen attempted to begin a sexual relationship with her shortly after filming was completed, when she had turned 18. Hemingway successfully resisted his advances.
In Personal Best (1982), she played a bisexual track-and-field athlete in a film noted for some explicit (by mainstream standards) lesbian love scenes. In connection with Personal Best, she appeared in a nude pictorial in the April 1982 issue of Playboy and was on the cover.
She starred as Dorothy Stratten in Star 80 (1983), a film about the Playboy model's life and murder. Reports circulated for years that Hemingway had had her breasts enlarged to play the role of Stratten, but during a 2007 appearance on the late-night talk and variety show, Fashionably Late with Stacy London, she said she had had the surgery before Star 80. Her breast implants were removed years later after they had ruptured.
Hemingway was also featured in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) as Lacy Warfield. Subsequently released additional footage showed an expansion of her role. She also co-starred in the 1991-93 ABC series Civil Wars. She was cast as the female lead in Darren Star's CBS drama Central Park West for the 1995-96 season; however, the show fared poorly with both critics and viewers, and after 13 episodes Hemingway was told that the show wanted her to accept a huge pay cut and demotion to recurring character status. Hemingway immediately quit the series, which only lasted eight more episodes in the summer of 1996 before being cancelled. In 1996, she had a leading role in the British TV movie September, playing the wife of Michael York. In 1997, she played in Road Ends (Kat) with Dennis Hopper.
Hemingway has played a lesbian or bisexual woman in several films and television shows, including Personal Best, The Sex Monster, In Her Line of Fire, and episodes of the TV series Roseanne ("Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and "December Bride") and Crossing Jordan. Hemingway, however, is not gay. She has said she formed a "big connection with the gay and lesbian community" after Personal Best and enjoys taking roles in "cutting-edge" productions.
She is currently the host of Spiritual Cinema, a monthly television show dedicated to spiritual films. She has begun hosting a series of yoga practice videos Yoga Now, with guru Rodney Yee.
Hemingway worked on the documentary film Running from Crazy, directed by Barbara Kopple and produced by the Oprah Winfrey Network chronicling the Hemingway family's history of suicide, substance abuse and mental illness, shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. In October 2013, Hemingway received a humanitarian award from the San Diego Film Festival for her role in the documentary.
Hemingway married Stephen Crisman on December 9, 1984. They have two daughters: Dree (born in 1987) and Langley (born in 1989). They separated in 2008 and divorced the following year.
As of early 2011, Hemingway was romantically linked with former stuntman Bobby Williams, with whom she has co-authored several self-help books. In April 2015, Williams was described as Hemingway's partner. Hemingway practices Transcendental Meditation.
In a 2013 television documentary film, Running from Crazy, Hemingway, then 51, talked of her bouts with mental illness and her still lingering issues with her siblings. She spoke of her family's struggles with alcoholism, mental illnesses and suicide. She also made claims that her parents' marriage was abusive and unhappy, and about abusive incidents in her childhood.
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1976 | Lipstick | Kathy McCormick | Nominated—Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress |
1976 | I Want to Keep My Baby | Sue Ann Cunningham | Television movie |
1979 | Manhattan | Tracy | Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role |
1982 | Personal Best | Chris Cahill | |
1983 | Star 80 | Dorothy Stratten | |
1985 | Creator | Meli | |
1985 | The Mean Season | Christine Connelly | |
1987 | Amerika | Kimberly Ballard | 2 episodes |
1987 | Superman IV: The Quest for Peace | Lacy Warfield | Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress |
1988 | Steal the Sky | Helen Mason | Television movie |
1988 | Sunset | Cheryl King | Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress |
1991 | Delirious | Janet Dubois/Louise | |
1991 | Tales from the Crypt | Miranda Singer | Episode: "Loved to Death" |
1991-93 | Civil Wars | Sydney Guilford | 36 episodes Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Drama |
1992 | Falling from Grace | Alice Parks | |
1993 | Desperate Rescue: The Cathy Mahone Story | Cathy Mahone | Television movie |
1993 | The Hidden Room | Jane Stark | Episode: "Stark in Love" |
1994-95 | Roseanne | Sharon | 2 episodes |
1995 | Central Park West | Stephanie Wells | 13 episodes |
1995 | Deceptions II: Edge of Deception | ||
1996 | Bad Moon | Janet | |
1997 | Deconstructing Harry | Beth Kramer | |
1997 | Little Men | Jo Baer | |
1999 | The Sex Monster | Laura Barnes | |
1999 | First Daughter | Alex McGregor | Television movie |
1999 | American Reel | Disney Rifkin | |
2000 | The Contender | Cynthia Charlton Lee | |
2001 | First Shot | Alex McGregor | |
2001 | Perfume | Lesse Hotton | |
2001 | Becker | Ruth Sanders | 2 episodes |
2001 | Fourplay | Carly | |
2002 | Crossing Jordan | Lisa Fromer | Episode: "Scared Straight" |
2002 | Warning: Parental Advisory | Tipper Gore | Television movie |
2005 | See Arnold Run | Maria Shriver | Television movie |
2006 | In Her Line of Fire | Lynn Delaney | |
2006 | Between Truth and Lies | Dr. Claire Parker | |
2007 | Nanking | Minnie Vautrin | |
2007 | Law & Order | Ashley Jones | Episode: "Remains of the Day" |
2008 | The Golden Boys | Martha | |
2008 | My Suicide | Charlotte Silver | |
2010 | Ay Lav Yu | Pamela | |
2012 | Rise of the Zombies | Dr. Lynn Snyder | Television movie |
2013 | Running from Crazy | Herself | Television documentary |
2014 | Unity | Narrator | Documentary |
Charities
Mariel Hemingway supports the following charitable cause: Depression.