Geena Davis was born on 21 January 1957 and is the daughter of William Davis,
a civil engineer, and Lucille, a teacher's assistant. She has one brother and
he is a geotechnical engineer, living in Las Vegas. Geena: 'I knew when I was
five or something that I wanted to be an actress. I can remember parts of my
life where I was thinking, "Well, I'll be an actress and I'll be a clothing
designer and an inventor and a graphic artist." I thought, "I'll be each thing
for ten years, and I'll switch professions, because there are so many things I
want to be."'
She studied acting at Boston University, and when she was 22 she moved to New
York where she initially worked as a waitress. Lying about her height (she wore
high heels and said she was 1,75 m (5'10") without them), she got signed up by
the prestigious Zoli modelling agency. In between catwalk assignments she took
a job as a sales assistant in a dress shop. To combat boredom she posed with the
mannequins in the window to confuse passers-by. The prank was a crowd-puller,
and she was consequently hired to stand in the window every Saturday. She also
married the manager of the stores restaurant, a liaison which lasted two years.
Before going on a modelling trip to Paris, she auditioned for a small role in the
film Tootsie and allready in France she received a telegram telling her she had won
the part. Her role was only small, but she played it with stile. Wearing nothing
but the some underwear, she played a TV starlet who shares a dressing room with
Dustin Hoffman, who was disguised as an actress. Her naked innocence was charming,
Hoffman's embarrassment hilarious, and the film became an enormous success.
After Tootsie Geena's marriage ended and she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her
career as movie star. After numerous roles in TV-series and films, in 1998 she won
the Oscar for best supporting actress - beating such rival nominees as Michelle
Pfeiffer and Sigourney Weaver. Geena is a member of Mensa, the international
society whose members' intelligence exceeds that of 98 per cent of the population.
She can also speak fluent Swedish, is a talented cartoonist, small-time inventor
and accomplished musician, able to play the drums, flute, organ and piano. She
also ran her own production company, Genial Pictures, on the lot at Twentieth
Century Fox, with whom she had carved out a production deal. In 1992, Genial
had 12 films in pre-production - all due to star Ms Davis. Not bad for an ex-model.
