Daryl Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American film actress. After making her screen debut in 1978, Daryl starred in a number of Hollywood films throughout the 1980s notably Blade Runner, Splash, Wall Street and Roxanne and in 2003-4 received acclaim for her role in the Kill Bill series.

Biography

Daryl was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Susan Wixler, a producer, and Don Hannah, a tugboat and barge company owner. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth and her mother remarried Jerrold Wexler, a businessman and brother of Haskell Wexler, a noted cinematographer. She grew up with siblings Don and Page Hannah, as well as half-sister Tanya Wexler.

Daryl became interested in movies at a young age, partly due to insomnia. She was very shy and diagnosed as "borderline autistic." Daryl attended the private Francis W. Parker School (where she played on the boys soccer team) and the Latin School of Chicago before enrolling at the University of Southern California.

Daryl made her film debut in 1978 with a brief appearance in Brian De Palma's horror film The Fury. She turned down many roles early on her career, including the role of Emmeline Lestrange for The Blue Lagoon (that ultimately went to Brooke Shields). Her first notable role came as the acrobatic and violent replicant Pris in Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi classic Blade Runner, in which she performed some of her own gymnastic stunts. That same year she appeared in the summer hit release Summer Lovers. She then was cast as a beautiful blonde mermaid in Ron Howard's 1984 fantasy Splash, which starred Tom Hanks and was a major financial success, establishing Daryl as a high-profile film actress.

Hannah's successes in the remainder of the 1980s ranged from Steel Magnolias and the Academy Award-winning Wall Street to the 1986 film version of the best-seller The Clan of the Cave Bear. She starred in the title role of Fred Schepisi's 1987 film Roxanne, a modern retelling of Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, a performance which was described as "sweet" and "gentle" by film critic Roger Ebert.

She also appeared in The Pope of Greenwich Village with co-stars Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts and played the daughter of Jack Lemmon in both of the Grumpy Old Men comedies. In 1995, Daryl was chosen by Empire magazine as #96 of the "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History." That same year she appeared as homicidal sociopath Leann Netherwood in The Tie That Binds.

Of her most recent roles, the most memorable may be that of the one-eyed assassin Elle Driver in Kill Bill Volume 1 and Kill Bill Volume 2, directed by Quentin Tarantino. Her performance in these films, as well as her appearances in Northfork, Michael Radford's Dancing at the Blue Iguana, John Sayles' Casa de los Babys and Silver City, have been described by some as a comeback.

Daryl wrote, directed and produced a short film, The Last Supper, which won an award at the Berlin Film Festival. She directed, produced and was cinematographer for the documentary Strip Notes. It aired on Channel 4 in the UK and on HBO and was about the research Daryl did for her role as a stripper in Dancing at the Blue Iguana. Daryl currently has several projects in post-production, including Shannon's Rainbow and A Closed Book.

Recently she appeared in Robbie Williams video for the song "Feel", as Robbie´s love interest.

Daryl and actress Hilary Shepard Turner created two board games, "Love It Or Hate It" and "LIEbrary", with Daryl previewing the latter on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show in 2005.

Hannah, a keen environmentalist, has her own weekly video blog called DH Love Life on sustainable solutions. She is often the sound recordist, camera person and on-screen host for the blog. Her home runs on solar power and is built with green materials. She drives a car that runs on biodiesel. In late 2006, she volunteered to act as a judge for Treehugger.com's "Convenient Truths" contest. On December 4, 2008, Daryl joined Sea Shepherd's crew aboard the MV Steve Irwin, as part of Operation Musashi.

Daryl has never married. She had a long-term relationship with singer Jackson Browne who had his roadies bring her backstage after a concert during her senior year at Parker -- (she is the female voice on Browne's 1985 hit song with Clarence Clemons, "You're a Friend of Mine"). She was with Browne from 1978 through 1992. After Browne, she had a relationship with John F. Kennedy, Jr. and was romantically linked with actor Val Kilmer. She is the sister-in-law of music producer Lou Adler, who is married to Hannah's sister, Page (who met Adler while Daryl was seeing Browne).

On June 13, 2006, Daryl was arrested, along with Taran Noah Smith, for her involvement with over 350 farmers, their families and supporters, confronting authorities trying to bulldoze the nation's largest urban farm in South Central Los Angeles. She chained herself to a walnut tree at the South Central Farm for three weeks to protest the farmers' eviction by the property's new owner. The farm had been established in the wake of the 1992 LA riots to allow people in the city to grow food for themselves. However, the land's new owner, who had paid $5 million for it, sought to evict the farmers to build a warehouse. He had asked for $16 million to sell it but turned down the offer when the activists raised that amount. Daryl was interviewed via cell phone shortly before she was arrested, along with 44 other protesters, and said that she and the others are doing the "morally right thing". She spent some time in jail.

Daryl has also worked to help end sexual slavery and has been traveling around the world to make a documentary.

This Daryl Hannah Biography Page is Copyright © 2004 - 2009 Chuck Ayoub