Rosanna Arquette

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Rosanna Arquette

Arquette at Cannes in (2002)
Birth name Rosanna Lauren Arquette
Born August 10, 1959 (age 47)
Flag of United States New York City,
NY, United States
Nationality American
Field actress, film director, and film producer

Rosanna Lauren Arquette (born August 10, 1959) is an American actress, film director, and film producer.

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Arquette was born in New York City. Her father was actor Lewis Arquette, and her grandfather was comedian Cliff Arquette, best remembered for his "Charley Weaver" character, a fixture on the original Hollywood Squares. Arquette's mother, Mardi Olivia Nowak, was Jewish, the daughter of a Holocaust refugee from Poland. Arquette's father was a convert to Islam and a descendant of explorer Meriwether Lewis.[1][2] Her siblings are actors Patricia, David, Richmond and Alexis Arquette. Through her brother David, she is the sister-in-law of actress Courteney Cox, and through her sister Patricia she is the former sister-in-law of actor Nicolas Cage.

In 1963, Arquette's family moved to Chicago, where her father managed The Second City theater for several years. When she was 11 years old, her parents moved to a commune in Front Royal, Virginia. Arquette did not do well at school. In 1974, she hitchhiked across the country with three older teenagers, eventually going to San Francisco, where she worked at Renaissance and Dickens fairs. Her professional theater debut was May 27, 1977, appearing in the Story Theatre Musical Ovid's The Metamorphoses at the Callboard Theatre on Melrose Place in Los Angeles.

In Hollywood, she had her first roles playing teens with troubles. A few years later she started to act in mature roles. Besides cinema movies, Arquette appeared from the beginning of her career in television films. In 1982, she earned an Emmy Award nomination for the TV film The Executioner's Song. Thereafter, she played in many cinema movies and TV films and has worked with many of the most acclaimed film directors of the last twenty years.

Arquette's first starring role was in John Sayles's Baby It's You (film), a highly regarded but little seen film. She carried Desperately Seeking Susan but was eclipsed by her pop singer co-star Madonna. After Hours also played to her comedic talents but failed to find an audience while 8 Million Ways to Die was buried by the studio and for a time she quit Hollywood to work in Europe.

In 1989, Martin Scorsese offered her a part in New York Stories. Since then, Arquette has appeared, with few exceptions, in one or in several movies each year, some of them of notable interest, like Pulp Fiction and the David Cronenberg film, Crash. An offbeat choice, however, was to fly downunder and make the Australian film Wendy Cracked a Walnut (1990) (also known as "…Almost"). An expensive film, and a huge box office flop, only the musical score by Bruce Smeaton was generally noted by critics, for its musical innovation.

In 1990, Rosanna appeared nude in Playboy's September issue, although without her prior knowledge or approval.[3]

Known for most of her career as an actress, in recent years, Arquette has also been expanding into film direction. Recent films which she has directed include the documentaries Searching for Debra Winger (2002) and All We Are Saying (2005); she served for both projects in the role of producer, as well as director.[4]

Arquette was married when she was 19 to director/composer Tony Greco; they divorced in October 1980. (Some sources suggest that she might have been briefly married to an unknown individual once before, as well.[5]) Her 1986 marriage to composer James Newton Howard ended in divorce as well. The reconciliation with an old love of Arquette's, English pop and rock star Peter Gabriel, proved also to be impossible.

Her relationships with musicians were the inspiration for two popular hits of the 1980s:

Arquette married restaurateur Jon Sidel in 1993. One year later their daughter, Zoe Blue Sidel, was born. Arquette went on working intensively, which meant she was often away from home. The tensions this created, as well as the death of her mother from breast cancer, led the couple to divorce.

More recently, Arquette found energies to spend time with her daughter and promote awareness of breast cancer, while continuing with her work, now also as a director. In 2002 her critically acclaimed documentary Searching For Debra Winger was released. In the film, Arquette interviews prominent and respected actresses (mostly between the ages of 30 and 60) in an attempt to find out whether it was practical for a working actress to successfully maintain a family.

"I'm a wreck. I get hurt very easily. I don't have a tough shell. I'm so insecure — it's pretty stupid for me to be in this business, isn't it?"[6]

"I have buck teeth. I sucked my thumb until I was 11... and then I went on to suck other things…"[7]

"I'm very insecure. I hate working out. I detest it. I have places that could probably be more toned, but in Europe, imperfection is beautiful."[8]

"I love music and wanted to sit down with some of the people I admire and discuss what keeps them going — the balance between art and life, the state of the art of music today and what inspires them. Most true artists care about music as a pure, passionate art form, but can get caught in the trap of the business which, sadly, has now become more important than the artist or even the music itself."[9]

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