Famke Beumer Janssen[2] was born on November 5, 1964,[3] in Amstelveen, the Netherlands.[4][5] She has two sisters, director Antoinette Beumer and actress Marjolein Beumer, both of whom changed their surnames to Beumer after their parents divorced.[6]
In addition to her native Dutch, Janssen speaks English and French. She learned German, but has not kept up with it.[7] Following her high school graduation, Janssen studied economics for a year at the University of Amsterdam, which she later called "the stupidest idea I ever had."[6] In the early 1990s, she enrolled at Columbia University's School of General Studies to study creative writing and literature.[8][9]
Career
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After retiring from modelling in the early 1990s, Janssen had guest roles on several television series, including a starring role in the 1992 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Perfect Mate", as empathic metamorph Kamala, opposite Patrick Stewart, with whom she later starred in the X-Men film series.[4] That same year, Janssen was offered the role of Jadzia Dax in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,[11] but turned it down to pursue film roles. Her first film role was alongside Jeff Goldblum in the 1992 crime drama film Fathers & Sons.
In 2002, Janssen landed the role of villainess Serleena in Men in Black II, but had to abandon the film due to a death in her family and was replaced by Lara Flynn Boyle.[17] Janssen had a prominent role in the second season of the TV series Nip/Tuck, as the seductive and manipulative life coach Ava Moore, which earned her Hollywood Life's Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award.[18] She reprised her role in the final two episodes of the series.
In 2007, she starred in Turn the River, for which she was awarded the Special Recognition Best Actress Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival.[19] The following year, she starred in Luc Besson's Taken. Janssen continued to work in television, appearing in TV pilots for NBC's police drama Winters and Showtime's The Farm, a spinoff of The L Word set in a women's prison. Both pilots were rejected by their networks. Janssen provided the Dutch language narration for the Studio Tram Tour at all Disney theme parks.[12]
Janssen starred in the Netflix original horror thriller television series Hemlock Grove, wherein she plays the role of family matriarch Olivia Godfrey.[21] Janssen had a recurring role in the ABC crime thriller television series How To Get Away With Murder, appearing in 10 episodes throughout the series, beginning her role in season two of the show and concluding it in the series finale.
Janssen was cast in a starring role in the NBC crime thriller, The Blacklist: Redemption, a spin-off of the NBC series The Blacklist, in March 2016;[22] it was picked up to series in May 2016.[23] The following month, Janssen expressed frustration in not being cast in X-Men: Apocalypse, saying Hollywood was sexist toward older women. She said, "Women, it's interesting because they're replaced, and the older versions are never to be seen again... whereas the men are allowed to be both ages."[24]
In a March 2021 interview, she revealed to Forbes some details about her involvement with the live action adaptation of Saint Seiya, a popular anime and manga. Janssen declared that filming was supposed to take place in Europe the previous year, but production had been postponed twice due to the Coronavirus pandemic. She also hinted that she will play one of the main characters, but did not specify their name.[29]
In 1995, Janssen married writer and director Kip Williams, son of architect Tod Williams. They divorced in 2000.[5] She has stated that she does not want to have children.[32]
^ ab"Famke Janssen [1965] Stage and Screen Performer". New Netherland Institute. Retrieved 2 May 2016. Also note that Famke retained her family name Janssen but her sisters changed their family name to Beumer.
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