American actress; six-foot tall winner of an Oscar for her role in “Accidental Tourist,” 1989 and an Oscar nominee for her role in “Thelma and Louise,” 1991. A former fashion model, she is a Mensa member. From Boston University, she was a senior year exchange student in Sweden where she had her first big romance. When she came home she did summer stock and modeled in New York. Her blossoming beauty was remarkable to a girl who grew up thinking that she was a goon, unattractive and unpopular. Not believing in luck or fate, she set about to create herself and mold her own life. She swears that at the age of three, she knew that she was “different,” and that she had things to do and places to go. She nurtured the very private secret of her knowledge.
The daughter of an engineer and a teacher, she was raised in a small town. She knew that she would have to leave there for the future of which she dreamed. She wrote fantasy stories, creating a magical inner world while delivering papers as a kid. She loved to sing and play music, and created plays in the basement. At church, she played the organ and also learned flute and piano. Her family encouraged her spirit that one can do anything they set their mind to.
Too tall and too shy, Davis had little social life as a teen, yet she left for New York determined be become an actress as soon as she graduated from college. She worked as a waitress and sales clerk while making rounds to modeling agencies. One Saturday, she looked at the mannequins in the store window and said, “I can do that.” She climbed into the store window setup and struck a pose among the plastic mannequins. Soon people were gathering to watch. The manager was ready to throw her out until he recognized the publicity potential, and from then on, she sat in store windows every Saturday.
Finally she began to model for a minor agency where she worked for two years. Seen by a director in a Victoria’s Secret magazine, she was signed to a small role in “Tootsie” in 1982.
Davis was married at 24 to restaurateur Richard Emmolo, 1980-1983. Moving to Hollywood, she worked on “Buffalo Bill” (l983-84) and “Sara” (1985), both short-lived TV series. In 1985 she made “Fletch” and in 1988, “Beetlejuice.”
On the set of the horror spoof “Transylvania 6-5000” she met Jeff Goldblum. They played together again in “The Fly,” 1986 and in “Earth Girls Are Easy.” They married on 10/31/1987, 3:00 AM, Las Vegas, NV, and divorced in 1990.
Davis made a third marriage 9/25/1993 to Finnish director Renny Harlin, 34, at the Valley of the Moon, CA. They separated in April 1997, sold their house in Montecito, CA for $9.5 million in May, then visited the Cannes film festival together. Remaining friends, they have no plans to dissolve their production company, The Forge.
With a passion for archery, in July, 1999, Davis was a finalist to make the U.S. Olympic archery team after competing in the semifinals against 299 other women. In competition against 32 other finalists for three spots on 8/21/1999, she was eliminated from contention.
Davis, 45, made her fourth trip down the aisle on 9/01/2001, marrying surgeon Reza Jarrahy, 30. They welcomed their first child, a daughter who came easily and quickly on 4/10/2002. In November 2003, the lanky actress announced that she and her husband of two years, Reza Jarrahy, 33, a surgeon, were expecting twins in the spring of 2004. At age 47, the actress gave birth to twin boys on May 6, 2004 in Los Angeles. The boys’ names are Kian William and Kaiis Steven.
In autumn 2005, Davis had the lead role in a popular TV series, “Commander-in-Chief” in which she plays the first woman United States President. In the first episode of the series she is Vice President and takes the oath when the President dies in office.
Link to Wikipedia biography