Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963)[1] is an American actress. She made her film debut in My Bodyguard (1980), before receiving critical acclaim for her performance as Alexandra Owens in Flashdance (1983), for which she won NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.
Jennifer Beals
Beals has appeared in several films including Vampire's Kiss (1988), Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), The Last Days of Disco (1998), Roger Dodger (2002), The Book of Eli (2010), Before I Fall (2017), and Luckiest Girl Alive (2022). On television, she starred in shows such as The Chicago Code (2011), Proof (2015), Taken (2017), and The Book of Boba Fett (2021). Her portrayal of Bette Porter on the Showtime drama series The L Word (2004–2009) earned her a nomination for the Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama. She reprised her role as Bette Porter and served as an executive producer on the sequel series The L Word: Generation Q (2019–2023).
Early life[edit]
Beals was born and raised in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois,[2] the daughter of Jeanne (née Anderson), an elementary school teacher, and Alfred Beals, who owned grocery stores.[3] Beals's father was African-American, and her mother is Irish-American.[4] She has two brothers, Bobby and Gregory.[5] Her father died when Beals was nine,[6] after which she spent a summer at Cheley Colorado Camps in Estes Park, Colorado.[7] Her mother married Edward Cohen[5] in 1981.[8] Beals says that her biracial heritage affected her. Of her youth, she says that she "always lived sort of on the outside", with a feeling "of being the other in society".[4] Beals's first job was at age 13 at an ice cream store, using her height at the time (later 5 ft 8 in [1.73 m]) to convince her boss she was 16 years old.[6]
Two key moments inspired Beals to pursue a career in acting—working on her high school's production of Fiddler on the Roof, and seeing Balm in Gilead (with Joan Allen) while volunteer-ushering at the Steppenwolf Theatre.[9]
Beals graduated from Francis W. Parker School in Chicago,[10] then participated in Goodman Theatre Young People's Drama Workshop.[11] She graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in American Literature in 1987.[12] While at Yale, Beals was a resident of Morse College.[12] She deferred a term so she could perform in the feature film Flashdance.[10]
Personal life[edit]
While attending Yale, Beals dated future film executive Robert Simonds.[44] She married Alexandre Rockwell in 1986, before divorcing in 1996.[4] In 1998, she married Ken Dixon, a Canadian entrepreneur. On October 18, 2005, Beals gave birth to their daughter. Dixon also has two children from a previous marriage.[45]
Beals has described herself as a spiritual person. She has expressed interest in the Bible and Catholicism, as well as Judaism, to which she once considered converting, and is a practicing Buddhist.[46][47][48]
She has been a vocal advocate for gay rights, saying, "I think after playing Bette Porter on The L Word for six years I felt like an honorary member of the community."[49] Beals was a Celebrity Grand Marshal at the 2006 San Francisco Pride Parade.[50] In October 2012, she received the Human Rights Campaign's Ally For Equality Award, in recognition of her outstanding support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.[51]
Beals is a practitioner of kung-fu, sanshou, and kickboxing, and is a triathlete.[52][53]
Beals is a photographer[5] and has had shows featuring her work under her married name, Dixon.[54] In 1989, she spent some time in Haiti photographing the elections.[55] She published a book about her time on The L Word featuring her own photographs.[56]
In 2010, Beals served as the Grand Marshal of the McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade in Chicago,[57] during which she spoke of the two charities important to her: the Matthew Shepard Foundation and Pablove Foundation.[58]