Melanie Lynskey Biography
Summary
"Melanie Jayne Lynskey" (born 16 May 1977) is a New Zealand-born actress best known for playing Rose, on "Two and a Half Men", and a range of characters in films such as "Away We Go", "Flags of Our Fathers", "Sweet Home Alabama", "Ever After" and "Heavenly Creatures".
Early life
Lynskey was born in New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand, the eldest of five children (three brothers and one sister). She studied at New Plymouth Girls' High School.
Career
In 1992, at the age of 15, Melanie won her first professional acting role as Pauline Parker in the Peter Jackson film "Heavenly Creatures", based on the 1954 Parker-Hulme murder, opposite Kate Winslet. The film was released to critical acclaim in 1994 with Richard Corliss of TIME magazine describing her performance as 'perfect, fearless in embodying teenage hysteria'. The film won Jackson and partner Fran Walsh a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Lynskey received the Best Actress Award at the New Zealand Film and TV Awards for her performance.
"Heavenly Creatures" would later be parodied in a episode of The Simpsons: Lisa the Drama Queen portraying Lisa Simpson in Lynskey's role as Pauline meeting a girl called Juliet Hobbs and together they create a magical fantasy world but the line between fantasy and reality is blurred.
After release of the film, Lynskey returned to New Zealand and would begin studying a Bachelor of Arts degree at Victoria University of Wellington, majoring in English Literature. She would later make a cameo as a police deputy in Jackson's next film "The Frighteners".
Her first appearance in American film was as Jacqueline de Ghent in "Ever After" opposite Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston and was quickly followed by roles in films such as "Detroit Rock City", an adaptation of the Anton Chekhov play "The Cherry Orchard", the Jerry Bruckheimer produced "Coyote Ugly" and the Stephen King mini series "Rose Red".
She then supported Katie Holmes in "Abandon" and Reese Witherspoon in "Sweet Home Alabama". She later joined Hayden Christensen in the Independent Spirit Award-nominated "Shattered Glass" and guested on "The Shield".
She has appeared as Rose, the sweet and zany neighbor on the Emmy Award-winning "Two and a Half Men" opposite Charlie Sheen since 2003. The sitcom is frequently in the top 10 of American television shows. Martin Sheen guested on the show playing the father of Rose.
In 2006 she had a small but substantial role in Clint Eastwood's Oscar-nominated World War II drama "Flags of Our Fathers" and returned to New Zealand in late 2007 to a starring role in film "Show of Hands" which premiered at the Montreal Film Festival in 2008.
Her latest role is in the Sam Mendes comedy-drama "Away We Go", with Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe describing her performance as dramatizing 'sadness and dysfunction with quiet, moving physicality'.
Currently in post production are her roles as the female lead in the Steven Soderbergh film "The Informant" opposite Matt Damon and "Leaves of Grass" alongside Edward Norton as well as " Up in the Air" opposite George Clooney and "Helena from the Wedding".
Personal life
In 2001 she met her future husband New Jersey-born actor Jimmi Simpson whilst co-starring in the Stephen King mini series Rose Red and after initially being friends, they became engaged in 2005.
On 14 April 2007 they married in a chapel overlooking a vineyard on Lake Hayes, in Queenstown, New Zealand. Also in attendance was her best friend and another of her "Rose Red" co-stars - Bones actress Emily Deschanel who was one of her bridesmaids. Lynskey currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband.
External links
(Melanie Lynskey profile) on NZ On Screen including excerpts from (Show of Hands) . Requires Adobe Flash
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Melanie Lynskey.
