Australians in Hollywood : Biographical Notes

Judy Davis
Judy Davis (b. 1955) has been a trailblazer for the current generation of Australian actresses in Hollywood. She studied acting at NIDA, where among other projects she appeared opposite a young Mel Gibson in a production of Romeo and Juliet. After making her screen debut in High Rolling (1977) she successfully auditioned for the lead role in Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career (1979), and was launched as a major actress. Her performance in David Lean's A Passage to India (1984) earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress. In 1990 she appeared in Woody Allen's Alice (1990), inaugurating a long creative relationship with that director that has so far yielded four further films, including 1992's Husbands and Wives , for which Davis received a supporting actress nomination. During the 1990s she appeared in films as diverse as Barton Fink (1991), Naked Lunch (1992), The Ref (1994) and Clint Eastwood's Absolute Power (1997). In 2001 she appeared with husband Colin Friels in the Australian film The Man Who Sued God (2001) and won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Judy Garland in the mini-series Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows.

Back