Biography - Famke Janssen

Dutch stunner Famke Janssen has the unique distinction of rising to fame based on the extraordinary power of her thighs. As Xenia Onatopp in 1995’s “Goldeneye”, Janssen turned one of the most ridiculous characters in James Bond history into a campy sex goddess, grabbing the attention of Hollywood along with legions of Bond devotees.

Janssen was born in Amsterdam on November 5, 1965, and moved to New York City in 1984 to pursue an acting and modeling career. The leggy beauty found modeling work with Yves Saint Laurent and took acting courses at Columbia University before moving to L.A. where she earned guest roles on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Melrose Place”. Her film debut was in the 1992 Jeff Goldblum thriller “Fathers & Sons”, and in 1995 she appeared in Clive Barker’s “Lord of Illusions” along with her breakthrough in “Goldeneye”, which was the first Bond film with Pierce Brosnan, and arguably his best. In the years since Janssen has proved that she’s more than a pair of steel thighs, impressing in films like Robert Altman’s “The Gingerbread Man”, Woody Allen’s “Celebrity”, the gambling drama “Rounders” with Edward Norton and Matt Damon, and genre films like “The Faculty” and “House on Haunted Hill”.

2000 saw Janssen take on the role of Jean Grey in the long-awaited “X-Men” film, and her conflicted character has become one of the most interesting of the superhero franchise. After the successful mutant film Janssen starred in “I Spy” with Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson, the Michael Douglas thriller “Don’t Say a Word”, Jon Favreau’s “Swingers” spin-off “Made”, the sequel “X2”, and the Robert De Niro horror flick “Hide and Seek”. Consistently exhibiting an on-screen poise that makes her characters eminently watchable, Janssen has also found success on television, playing the devious Ava Moore in the second season of the F/X hit “Nip/Tuck”. She can currently be seen in “X-Men: The Last Stand”, reborn as the villainous Dark Phoenix in the popular sci-fi saga.