Natascha McElhone

FashionDream · April 1, 2011

Natascha McElhone

Natascha McElhone (born 14 December 1969)[2] is an English actress of stage, screen and television, best known for her roles in Ronin, The Truman Show and Solaris. McElhone also plays a leading role in the Showtime series Californication

McElhone was born Natascha Taylor in Surrey, to Irish parents[3] who were both journalists. She took the maiden name of her mother, Noreen, as her stage name.[4] McElhone has a script writer brother Damon who lives in Los Angeles, and two half brothers Alexander and Nicholas, who live in Stockholm. Her parents separated when she was two and her Irish mother subsequently moved the family to Brighton and later married journalist and columnist Roy Greenslade.[5] She and her family now live in Ireland and Brighton.

McElhone took lessons in Irish dancing from ages six to twelve, and was educated at St. Mary's Hall School for Girls, an independent boarding school in Brighton, East Sussex, after which she graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1993.[citation needed]

Career

McElhone began her career in the theater, including starring in Richard III in Regent's Park, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Cherry Orchard at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester; and in Midsummer Night's Dream at the Open Air Theatre. McElhone made her television debut in the BBC's Bergerac in 1991, and was seen in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous in 1992.

McElhone made her film debut in 1996's Surviving Picasso with Anthony Hopkins. In the same year she was seen in the Dennis Potter TV mini-series Karaoke. Although she has made relatively few films, her most successful to date has been 1998's The Truman Show with Jim Carrey. She had leading roles opposite Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own, Robert De Niro in Ronin and George Clooney in Solaris.

In 2005, she co-starred in the NBC miniseries Revelations with actor Bill Pullman. She starred in a 2006 West End production of Honour at the Wyndham's Theatre alongside Diana Rigg and Martin Jarvis. She then accepted a leading role in the Showtime cable television series Californication as Karen, alongside David Duchovny.

McElhone is the newest Neutrogena spokeswoman and the face of the Ageless Essentials Continuous Hydration line.[citation needed]

In 2010 she will be heard as the voice of Marie in the video game Castlevania: Lords of Shadow from Konami.[citation needed]

Personal life

McElhone married plastic surgeon Dr. Martin Hirigoyen Kelly on 19 May 1998. The couple lived in Fulham, West London, with their two sons: Theodore (born 2000) and Otis (born May 2003); their third son, Rex, was born five months after Kelly's death, in October 2008.[6]

On 20 May 2008, 43-year-old Kelly was found slumped in the doorway of the family home by a fellow doctor. He was rushed to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital (where he worked) but could not be revived. He died one day after their tenth wedding anniversary. A post-mortem exam revealed the cause of death to have been dilated cardiomyopathy.[7][8][9]

After the sudden death of her husband, McElhone continued to write letters to him, sometimes documenting the daily trivia of life but also dealing with how she and their young children were coping with the loss. These letters and diary entries formed the basis of her book After You: Letters of Love, and Loss, to a Husband and Father. The book was published in July 2010. (The book is simply titled After You in the Kindle edition-UK version only.)

wiki