The stunning, statuesque Liv Tyler stunned audiences in 1993 with the scintillating video for Aerosmith’s “Crazy.” Starring alongside Alicia Silverstone, the then-16-year-old Tyler, who is the daughter of Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler and model Bebe Buell, smoldered like a movie star in the sexy video and quickly became a household name. She is best known for roles in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “Empire Records,” and Michael Bay’s frantic asteroid actioner “Armageddon.”
After Tyler’s scantily-clad premiere in “Crazy,” major roles in James Mangold’s “Heavy” and Bruce Beresford’s “Silent Fall” (featuring Richard Dreyfuss) quickly followed. It was her role in 1995’s “Empire Records” that brought her major stardom, playing an employee of an indie record store that battles against corporate takeover. The film has become a cult classic, and helped introduce young stars like Tyler, Ethan Embry, and Renée Zellweger. Tyler’s art-sexpot status was confirmed soon after with a terrific performance in Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty,” in which Tyler portrayed a young woman in existential crisis after her mother’s suicide. Jeremy Irons co-starred in the racy film.
Some of Tyler’s notable roles include “Inventing the Abbotts” (alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup, and Jennifer Connelly), Oliver Stone’s twisty thriller “U Turn,” Tom Hanks’s 60s rock homage “That Thing You Do!,” Robert Altman’s “Dr. T and the Women,” and Kevin Smith’s romantic comedy dud “Jersey Girl” with a then-slumping Ben Affleck. The talented starlet just ended a break from acting necessitated by the birth of her child with Spacehog rocker Royston Langdon, and is now appearing in “Reign Over Me” with Don Cheadle, Adam Sandler, Donald Sutherland, and Jada Pinkett Smith. Later in 2007 Tyler will star with Diane Keaton in the family comedy “Smother.”