Blue-eyed, dark-haired Fairuza Balk weathered the storms of Oz, gradually breaking free from her fresh-faced little kid persona to plunge into dark and depressing film scenarios that ultimately reveal an optimism at her core. She worked first on TV in NBC's "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" (1983) before beating out 1,200 girls to fill Dorothy's ruby slippers in Walter Murch's feature debut, "Return to Oz" (1985). Refusing to be traumatized by critics comparing her unfavorably to Judy Garland, Balk rebounded for more kid stuff as the well-meaning klutz Mildred Hubble in "The Worst Witch", a 1986 HBO movie based on the popular children's book.
Balk attracted attention in her first somewhat adult role as the virginal Cecile de Volanges promised in marriage to someone 30 years her senior in Milos Forman's "Valmont" (1989). She turned in an outstanding performance as a young rape victim in the TV film "Shame" (Lifetime, 1992) and played the blossoming younger sister of Ione Skye in Allison Anders' indie favorite "Gas Food Lodging" (1992). Balk portrayed the older daughter who inadvertently becomes head of the household when the latest scheme of her father (Harvey Keitel) turns sour in "Imaginary Crimes" (1994) and was extremely sympathetic as a self-destructive prostitute in the little-seen "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" (1995). She continued to work steadily in features of varying quality, including playing a high school student caught up in the dark side of witchcraft in the hit supernatural thriller "The Craft" (1996) and co-starred with Edward Norton and Edward Furlong in Tony Kaye's "American History X" (1998), about a white supremacist who reforms.
- Also Credited As:
Fairuza A. Feldthouse, Fairuza Alejandra Balk
- Born:
Fairuza Alejandra Balk on May 21, 1974 in Point Reyes, California, USA
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Job Titles:
Actress
Family
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Father: Solomon Feldthouse. Traveling folk musician who was born in Pingree, Idaho and moved to Turkey at the age of ten, where he lived for six years and learned Greek, Turkish and Persian music; divorced from Fairuza s mother
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Mother: Cathryn Balk. Dutch; worked as a belly dancer and teacher of Middle Eastern and Flamenco dancing; divorced from Fairuza s father
Significant Others
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Companion: C.M. Talkington. Directed the cult classic, Love and a .45. (1994); no longer together
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Companion: David Thewlis. met during filming of Island of Dr. Moreau ; no longer together
Education
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Vancouver Academy of Music, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Milestones
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1983 First acting role, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (ABC)
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1983 Moved to Vancouver with her mother when she was nine years old
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1985 Feature acting debut as Dorothy in Return to Oz
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1987 Played Barbara (at age 12) in the NBC TV-movie Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story
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1989 Portrayed a 14-year-old girl entangled in an arranged marriage to a man 30 years her senior in Valmont ; co-starred with Jeffrey Jones, Annette Bening and Colin Firth; based on the French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses
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1992 Co-starred in Allison Anders Gas Food Lodging, as the idealistic younger daughter of a truck-stop waitress (played by Brooke Adams)
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1992 Received critical acclaim for her performance in the Lifetime movie Shame
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1993 Acted the real-life part of Caril Ann Fugate in the ABC miniseries Murder in the Heartland
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1994 Shined as Harvey Keitel s older daughter in Imaginary Crimes
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1995 Played a prostitute in Things to Do in Denver When You re Dead opposite Andy Garcia and Steve Buscemi
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1996 Experimented with witchcraft in the supernatural thriller The Craft
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1996 Portrayed Marlon Brando s daughter in The Island of Dr. Moreau ; met future romantic interest, David Thewlis
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1997 Co-starred in American Perfekt with Robert Forster, Amanda Plummer, Paul Sorvino and Thewlis
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1998 Acted as a neo-Nazi opposite Edward Norton in Tony Kaye s American History X
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2000 Had supporting role as a sort of groupie, or band-aid in Cameron Crowe s Almost Famous
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2002 Co-starred in the drama feature Personal Velocity
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2006 Co-starred in Wim Wenders neo-Western Don t Come Knocking with Sam Shepard
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2008 Cast opposite Frances Conroy in the comedy Humboldt County about a community of counterculture pot farmers
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2009 Co-starred with Nicolas Cage in Werner Herzog s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
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At eleven years old, moved with her mother to London, where she attended various prestigious ballet and acting schools