Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless (born
Lucille Frances Ryan on
March 29,
1968 in
Mount Albert, New Zealand) is a
New Zealand actress and
singer best known for her role as
Xena on the television series
Xena: Warrior Princess from 1995 to 2001.
The fifth child of Frank and Julie Ryan, she found the joy of acting in secondary school. At
Auckland University, she studied foreign languages for a year. She then left for
Europe with her boyfriend, Garth Lawless, to travel around
Germany and
Switzerland. They went back and landed a job with a mining company in
Australia.
In 1988, Lucy and Garth were married. They returned to New Zealand and had a daughter, Daisy (born July 15, 1988). They divorced in 1995. Lawless married
Xena executive producer, Robert G. Tapert, on March 28, 1998. The couple have two sons: Julius Robert Bay Tapert (born October 16, 1999) and Judah Miro Tapert (born May 7, 2002).
Lawless had a guest role in 1990 on New Zealand TV series
Shark in the Park, around the same time compatriot
Karl Urban appeared. In March 1995,
Vanessa Angel was supposed to play a new character, the villainess Xena, in an episode of
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, but became sick and was unable to travel to New Zealand. Lawless had previously played two different characters in
Hercules, so the directors chose her as a replacement (though her hair had to be dyed to distinguish her from the previous, unrelated characters). Played by the 1.79 m (5'10 1/2") Lawless, Xena's character became popular and got her own series,
Xena: Warrior Princess which debuted on
4 September 1995. The show was a hit, lasting six seasons.
|
Lucy Lawless with son Judah in a promotional poster for World Breastfeeding Week 2002. |
An example of the popularity of
Xena: Warrior Princess is that Lawless is a universally recognized celebrity despite the fact that she has not had a major role outside of the television series. She was even portrayed as a character on
The Simpsons (playing a super-powered, flying version of herself).
In 1997, Lawless was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by
People magazine. Days earlier on
6 May 1997, Lawless famously and inadvertently exposed one of her breasts (resulting from a
wardrobe malfunction) while singing the
US national anthem at an
NHL hockey game in
Anaheim, California between the
Mighty Ducks and
Detroit Red Wings [
1]. She later said (
quoted in
Newsweek): "I was mortified. . . . It was quite a bit more exposure than I want".
She has since appeared in the
Vagina Monologues, on the first two episodes of the ninth season of
The X-Files, and in the short-lived (eight episodes) television series
Tarzan. She has had brief appearances in the movies
Eurotrip,
Spider-Man, and the
horror film Boogeyman. Her next role was on TV battling bugs in her new TV-movie
Locusts! Lawless also made a guest appearance in an episode of the second season of TV drama series
Veronica Mars.
From 2005, Lawless has a recurring role in the television series
Battlestar Galactica. She portrays
D'anna Biers, a reporter with the Fleet News Service who works on a critical
documentary about the crew of the
Galactica and who â€" in secret â€" is revealed to be Number Three, one of twelve basic
Cylon humanoid robot models that has infiltrated the ship to gather information. As a blonde and using her native New Zealand accent, many fans of
Battlestar Galactica have commented that they did not realize the actress was Lawless, which dispelled early fears that her appearance might be a blatant
cameo. In fact her character met with popular acceptance with the fans. Lawless appears in an episode later in the second season and, moreover, recurs in a 10-episode arc in the 20-episode long third season. According to interviews, while reluctant to get too heavily involved in TV, she really liked the writing, plots twists, and overall handling of the series; moreover, series executive producer David Eick had originally worked with her on
Xena.
Due to her character Xena's ambiguous
sexuality, Lawless gained a large cult following in the
lesbian community. A new term,
dykon, was coined to describe her status as a
gay icon. Although she is
heterosexual, Lawless has enhanced this reputation by appearing at
gay pride events such as the
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
During
Xena's run, fans speculated that she was being considered for the lead in a theatrical
Wonder Woman film.
*
Lawless Ink - Official Lucy Lawless Fan Club*
Lucy is Lawless*
AUSXIP Lucy Lawless Files*
Lucy Lawless webring - a directory of fan sites
