Lili Taylor

LILI TAYLOR

Date of Birth: February 20, 1967

Although Lili Taylor once starred in the same film as Julia Roberts, her career hasn't quite gone the same way. And anyone who saw her excellent performance in I Shot Andy Warhol would have to say that's a good thing. "Beauty helps you get a job," she says. "I could be the best actor ever, but it doesn't matter. I don't do lingerie. I don't do roles that diminish females or tell the same story about the whore with the heart of gold."

The second youngest of six children, Taylor was born in Glencoe, Illinois and grew up in a suburb of Chicago. In high school, she took acting classes with Joyce and Byrne Piven (actor Jeremy Piven's parents) at the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, Illinois. Other Piven Theatre alums include John Cusack and his sister, Joan. She acted in a production of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds as a Junior in 1984.

Taylor attended college at the Goodman Theatre School at DePaul University but was expelled because of a rule requiring her to abstain from taking paying acting jobs while in school. Before being expelled, she appeared in Mystic Pizza (1988) and Say Anything...(1989). After leaving college, she moved to New York. The film roles she went on to land included a lot of short, but unforgettable cameos, such as the war widow visited by Tom Cruise in Born On The Fourth Of July, the religious ascetic who hallucinated conversations with Jesus Christ in Household Saints, the hippified housesitter in Short Cuts, Edna Ferber in Mrs. Parker and The Vicious Circle, and the cynical lesbian photojournalist in Ready to Wear.

In 1996, she starred in I Shot Andy Warhol, a film that examined Valerie Solanas, the radical feminist who shot Warhol in 1968. That same year, she also starred in Jim McKay's Girls Town, which she co-wrote with the ensemble cast and director. For her outstanding work in these films, the Sundance Film Festival awarded Taylor its first-ever Special Grand Jury Prize for Acting.

While Taylor prefers to work on independent films because she feels the roles for women are better, she has done the occasional big budget production, including 1999's The Haunting with Liam Neeson and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and High Fidelity (2000) starring John Cusack. In 2002, she took on the regular role of Lisa Fisher in HBO's hit series Six Feet Under. She can most recently be seen starring alongside Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore in Being Flynn (2012) about a man trying to reconnect with the son he abandoned. She will also be seen in The Conjuring (2013).

Taylor resides in New York City and is active in the 52nd Street Project, which gives inner city kids a chance to experience theater first hand. She is married to Nick Flynn.

Filmography:

The Conjuring (2013)
Being Flynn (2012)
Cherry (2012)
The Pier (2011)
Brooklyn's Finest (2009)
Public Enemies (2009)
The Promotion (2008)
Si j'étais toi (2007)
Starting Out in the Evening (2007)
The Secret (2007)
The Notorious Bettie Page (2006)
Factotum (2006)
Casa de Los Babys (2003)
Julie Johnson (2001)
High Fidelity (2000)
The Haunting (1999)
Janis (1999)
Spring Forward (1999)
The Impostors (1998)
O.K. Garage (1998)
Pecker (1998)
Kicked in the Head (1997)
Letters Not About Love (1997) (voice)
Things I Never Told You (1996)
Girls Town (1996)
Illtown (1996)
I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)
Ransom (1996)
Pain Pleasures (1996)
The Addiction (1995)
Four Rooms (1995)
Touch Base (1994)
Cold Fever (1994)
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
Ready to Wear (1994)
Arizona Dream (1993)
Household Saints (1993)
Rudy (1993)
Short Cuts (1993)
Watch It (1993)
Bright Angel (1991)
Dogfight (1991)
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Say Anything... (1989)
She's Having a Baby (1988)
Mystic Pizza (1988)