Alison Marion Lohman (born
September 18, 1979) is an American
actress. She has had lead roles in the films
White Oleander,
Where the Truth Lies,
Flicka and
Drag Me to Hell as well as smaller
parts in
Matchstick
Men,
Big Fish and
Beowulf. She has also
been on several
television shows
including
7th Heaven,
Crusade,
Tucker, and
Pasadena.
Lohman also voiced the title character in the 2005 English language
re-dubbing of
Nausicaä of the
Valley of the Wind.
Career
In 1997,
after graduating from high school, Lohman moved to Los Angeles,
California
to pursue her acting career. For the next
few years, her work consisted of
science
fiction B-movies (such as
Kraa!
The Sea Monster and
Planet Patrol), television
productions (including the
made-for-TV
movie Sharing the Secret) and children's films (such
as
Delivering Milo and
The Million Dollar Kid). Also included was the dark urban
drama
White Boy.
Lohman starred in
White
Oleander, an adaptation of
Janet
Fitch’s novel, alongside
Michelle
Pfeiffer,
Robin Wright-Penn
and
Renée Zellweger. Though the
film was unsuccessful at the
box office
(it opened to $5.6 million in 1,510 theaters), Lohman's performance
met with wide critical acclaim and has been described as her
"breakthrough role" by media sources.
The following year, she appeared in
Matchstick Men, directed by
Ridley Scott. She starred with
Nicolas Cage and
Sam
Rockwell, and though it was not a box office success either,
Lohman continued to gain praise. Later that year, she appeared in
Tim Burton’s
Big
Fish, which continued her trend of appearing in films of
high acclaim, but little financial success.
She had no theatrical features in 2004, though she did voice the
lead character in the re-dubbing of
Nausicaä of the
Valley of the Wind. In 2005, she appeared in
Atom Egoyan's
Where the Truth Lies. The film
originally received an
NC-17 rating for its
graphic sexual content, and failed at the box office afterwards.
Some critics (such as
Roger Ebert) felt
that she was well-suited for the role. Her next feature,
The Big White, featured her
alongside actors including
Robin
Williams,
Holly Hunter and
Tim Blake Nelson), but nevertheless went
direct-to-video.
Lohman's next film was the drama
Flicka, which was released on October 20, 2006.
In the film, Lohman plays a 16-year-old girl who befriends a wild
mustang. Lohman had never ridden a
horse prior to filming and trained rigorously for a month. She said
that she was "constantly thrown emotionally and physically" while
working with the horses for this role.
Flicka went on to become a surprise hit in DVD
market.
She next played a recovering
heroin addict in
Things We Lost in
the Fire.
The actress was then signed to replace Oscar nominee
Ellen Page in
Sam
Raimi's new horror film,
Drag Me
to Hell, which was released on May 29, 2009 and received
critical acclaim.
Lohman, who is frequently cast as a teenager, has said that she
believes she "look[s] younger and act[s] younger" than her
age.
Personal life
Lohman was
born and raised in Palm Springs, California
, the daughter of Diane (née Dunham),
a patisserie owner, and Gary Lohman, an
architect. She has one younger
brother, Robert (born 1982). She has two cats, Monk and Clint. Her
family had no industry connections, but at age nine, she played
Gretyl in
The Sound of
Music at the Palm Desert's McCallum Theater. Two years
later, she won the Desert Theater League's award for "Most
Outstanding Actress in a Musical" for the title role in
Annie. By the age of 17,
Lohman had appeared in 12 different major productions and had been
a backing singer for the likes of
Frank
Sinatra,
Bob Hope and the Desert
Symphony.
As a senior, she was an awardee of
National
Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and was offered the
chance to attend the
Tisch
School of the Arts, but declined.
Lohman married director
Mark
Neveldine in Watertown, New York on Wednesday, August 19, 2009,
at St. Anthony's Catholic Church.
Filmography
Film
Television
Awards and nominations
In 2003 she was nominated for the PFCS Award at the
Phoenix Film Critics Society
Awards for Best Newcomer for
White Oleander (
2002) and in the same year she won the Young
Hollywood Award at the
Young
Hollywood Awards for Superstar of Tomorrow, the ShoWest Award
at the ShoWest Convention, USA for Female Star of Tomorrow and the
Supporting Actress of the Year award at the
Hollywood Film Festival.
References
- White Oleander (2002)
- Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - Studio Briefing - 22
August 2005
- Where the Truth Lies (2005)
- "Where the Truth Lies ", Roger Ebert review,
October 28, 2005.
- Alison Lohman Biography (1979-)
- Alison Lohman Biography - Yahoo! Movies
- Alison Lohman - Biography
- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/movies/30wein.html
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search