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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 and Drag Me to Hell as well as smaller parts in Matchstick Men, Big Fish and Flicka. She has also had roles 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.

Biography

Early life

Lohman was born and raised in Palm Springs, California, the daughter of Diane (née Dunham), a patisserie owner, and Gary Lohman, an architect.¹ She has one younger brother, Robert (born 1982).² She has two cats, Monk and Clint.³⁴ 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.

Career

In 1997, after graduating from high school, Lohman moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue her acting career.⁴ 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),⁵ Lohman's performance met with wide critical acclaim and has been described as her "breakthrough role" by media sources.⁴

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,⁶ and failed at the box office afterwards.⁷ Some critics (such as Roger Ebert) felt that she was well-suited for the role.⁸ 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.⁴ 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.

Drag Me to Hell director Sam Raimi, actors Dileep Rao, Alison Lohman, and Justin Long discussing the film at San Diego Comic-Con International in 2008.

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.⁴

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.

Filmography

Film

Television

• 7th Heaven (1998).... Pregnant Teen
• Crusade (1999) .... Claire
• Sharing the Secret (2000) .... Beth Moss
• Tucker (2000) .... McKenna Reid
• Pasadena (2001) .... Lily McAllister

References

External links

• Alison Lohman at the Internet Movie Database
• Alison Lohman at MySpace
• Interview at Stumped Magazine