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Samantha Mathis
Born	May 12, 1970 (1970-05-12) (age 38) Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1990–present

Samantha Mathis (born May 12, 1970) is an American actress. The daughter of actress Bibi Besch, Mathis made her film debut in Pump Up the Volume (1990).

Biography

Early life

Mathis was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, the daughter of actress Bibi Besch,¹ and granddaughter of actress Gusti Huber. Her parents divorced when she was 2 years old, Mathis was raised by her mother. She relocated to Los Angeles, California at the age of 5.² Mathis' mother discouraged her from pursuing acting, but growing up on locations, in theaters, and in acting classes, Mathis knew she wanted to act.¹ She is a vegetarian.^{citation needed}

Career

Mathis began acting professionally at the age of sixteen,³ her first job was a commercial for "Always Slender Pads - Just For Teens".¹ Her first starring role in a feature film was that of Nora in Pump Up the Volume (1990), opposite Christian Slater, whom she briefly dated at the time.² She appeared in the television movies Extreme Close-Up, 83 Hours 'Til Dawn, and To My Daughter in 1990. Mathis and Slater also had voice roles in the animated film FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992). She next appeared in the comedy This Is My Life (1992), written and directed by Nora Ephron, playing an insecure teenager.³ Mathis appeared in the play Fortinbras in New York City in October 1992.⁴ Her film Super Mario Bros. (1993), where she played Princess Daisy from the popular Nintendo video game Super Mario Bros., was a box office bomb.

Mathis met actor River Phoenix on the set of the country music film The Thing Called Love (1993) and the two started a relationship. She was with him the night that he fell unconscious from a drug overdose on the sidewalk outside West Hollywood's Viper Room on Halloween, October 31, 1993; he died later at Cedars-Sinai Hospital.⁵ She made the film Jack and Sarah (1995), which was shot in London, in order to get out of the country after his death because of the large amount of press coverage.²

Mathis appeared in Little Women, the 1994 film version of the novel by Louisa May Alcott, and How to Make an American Quilt (1995), both starring Winona Ryder, an actress she was often compared to early in her career.⁶ She then co-starred with Michael Douglas in The American President (1995), playing the assistant to the President of the United States. Mathis co-starred with Christian Slater again, along with John Travolta, in John Woo's Broken Arrow (1996). She took a little over a year off from acting after her mother died in 1996.⁷

She later starred opposite Christian Bale and Reese Witherspoon in the critically acclaimed film American Psycho (2000), directed by Mary Harron, an adaptation of the 1991 Bret Easton Ellis novel American Psycho. She starred opposite Gretchen Mol, Tom Everett Scott and Matthew Settle in Attraction (2000), and in The Simian Line (2001), opposite William Hurt, Lynn Redgrave and Harry Connick, Jr. She starred in the TNT television miniseries The Mists of Avalon (2001), with Anjelica Huston, Joan Allen and Julianna Margulies. Mathis later re-united with co-star John Travolta for The Punisher (2004). Mathis has a recurring role on the ABC television show, Lost as Dharma Initiative teacher, Olivia Goodspeed.

Personal life

She has had relationships with male celebrities, but she has never married, nor had any children.⁸

Awards and nominations

She was nominated in 1995 for a Young Artist Award at the Young Artist Awards for Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture for This Is My Life (1992) and in 2005 for a Saturn Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for Best Supporting Actress on Television for 'Salem's Lot (2004) (TV).

Filmography

• Aaron's Way: The Harvest (1988) (TV) .... Roseanne Miller
• Aaron's Way (14 episodes, 1988) .... Roseanne Miller
• Knightwatch (6 episodes, "Knights of the City", "Friday Knight", "Codes", "Lost Weekend", "Cops: Part 1" and "Cops: Part 2", 1988-1989) .... Jacqueline "Jake" Monroe
• Forbidden Sun (1989) .... Paula
• Cold Sassy Tree (1989) (TV) .... Lightfoot McClendon
• CBS Summer Playhouse (1 episode, "American Nuclear", 1989) .... Mary Dunne
• Pump Up the Volume (1990) .... Nora Diniro
• Extreme Close-Up (1990) (TV) .... Laura
• 83 Hours 'Til Dawn (1990) (TV) .... Julie Burdock
• To My Daughter (1990) (TV) .... Anne Carlston
• This Is My Life (1992) .... Erica Ingels
• FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) .... Crysta (voice)
• The Music of Chance (1993) .... Tiffany
• Super Mario Bros. (1993) .... Princess Daisy
• The Thing Called Love (1993) .... Miranda Presley and also performer of Big Bar Hair, I Can't Understand, Blame It On Your Heart, Ol' John and Jimmy', Crazy and Big Dream
• Little Women (1994) .... Older Amy March
• Jack and Sarah (1995) .... Amy
• How to Make an American Quilt (1995) .... Young Sophia Darling Richards
• The American President (1995) .... Janie Basdin
• Broken Arrow (1996) .... Terry Carmichael
• Museum of Love (1996) .... Stephanie
• 2nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (1996) (TV) ....
• Waiting for Woody (1998) .... Gail Silver
• Sweet Jane (1998) .... Jane
• Freak City (1999) (TV) .... Ruth Ellison
• The Outer Limits (1 episode, The Shroud, 1999) .... Marie Wells
• Harsh Realm (4 episodes, "Pilot", "Leviathan", "Inga Fossa" and "Reunion", 1999-2000) .... Sophie Green
• The Simian Line (2000) .... Mae
• American Psycho (2000) .... Courtney Rawlinson
• Mermaid (2000) (TV) .... Rhonda
• Atraction (2000) .... Corey
• First Years (1 episode, "There's No Place Like Homo", 2001) .... Anna Weller
• Night Visions (1 episode, "The Bokor", 2001) .... Diane Barnes
• The Mists of Avalon (2001) TV mini-series .... Gwenhwyfar
• Politically Incorrect (1 episode, "14 March 2001", 2001) .... Herself
• The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (1 episode, "10 July 2001", 2001) .... Herself
• Becoming Glen (2002) (TV) ....
• PBS Hollywood Presents (1 episode, "Collected Stories", 2002) .... Lisa Morrison
• Collected Stories (2002) (TV) .... Lisa Morrison
• Searching for Debra Winger (2002) .... Herself
• The Twilight Zone (1 episode, "Into the Light", 2003) .... Rachel
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1 episode, "Control", 2003) .... Hilary Barclay
• The Punisher (2004) .... Maria Castle
• 'Salem's Lot (2004) (TV) .... Susan Norton
• Fathers and Sons (2005) .... Jenny
• Kids in America (2005) .... Jennifer Rose
• Touched (2005) .... Jeannie Bates
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (1 episode, "Saving Face", 2005) .... Dr. Christine Ansel
• Secrets of a Small Town (1 episode, "Pilot", 2006) .... Samantha Steele
• Believe in Me (2006) .... Jean Driscoll
• House, M.D. (1 episode, "Clueless", 2006) .... Maria Palko
• Local Color (2006) .... Carla
• Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (2006) (unknown episodes, segment "The Fifth Quarter") TV mini-series .... Karen Evans
• Absolution (2006) (TV) .... Bettina Lloyd
• Our Friend River (2006) (V) .... Herself
• The Thing Called Love: A Look Back (2006) (V) .... Herself
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (1 episode, "30 April 2007", 2007) .... Herself
• A Stranger's Heart (2007) (TV) .... Callie Morgan
• Lost (1 episode, "The Man Behind the Curtain", 2007) .... Olivia the Teacher
• Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day (2007) (TV) .... Young Pauline "Posey" Benetto
• The Secret World of Superfans (2008) .... Herself
• The Chaos Theory (2008) .... Jennifer (post-production)
• The New Daughter (2009) .... Cassandra (post-production)
• Lebanon (2009) .... Vicki (post-production)

References

External links

• Samantha Mathis at the Internet Movie Database
• Samantha Mathis at MySpace