St. Ignatius College Prep. Photo: Andrew Jameson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Ignatius_School_Chicago_IL.jpg)
St. Ignatius College Prep. Photo: Andrew Jameson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Ignatius_School_Chicago_IL.jpg)
Robin Tunney is an American actress whose career spans film and television. She gained prominence through The Craft, Niagara, Niagara, Prison Break, and The Mentalist, where she played Teresa Lisbon from 2008 to 2015. Her performance in Niagara, Niagara won the 1997 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival.
Background
Ethnicity:
Irish American; her father emigrated from Ireland, and her mother was a first-generation Irish-American.
Robin Jessica Tunney was born on June 19, 1972, in Chicago, Illinois, to Patrick Tunney, a car salesman who emigrated from Ireland, and Cathy Tunney, a bartender and first-generation Irish-American. She grew up in the South Side and southwest suburbs of Chicago, including Orland Park and Palos Heights, in a family with strong Irish connections.
Tunney's early interests included basketball and acting. A serious knee injury during her freshman year of high school ended her basketball ambitions and required reconstructive surgery. She later transferred from Saint Ignatius College Prep to Carl Sandburg High School and developed her professional ambitions through arts education and local performance opportunities.
Education
Tunney attended Saint Ignatius College Prep and Carl Sandburg High School in the Chicago area. Carl Sandburg High School, opened in 1952 in Orland Park, served the rapidly growing southwestern suburbs of Chicago; Saint Ignatius College Prep is a Jesuit secondary school founded in 1869 and rooted in the Catholic educational tradition.
She studied acting and the arts at the Chicago Academy for the Arts. Founded in 1981, the independent Chicago school combines academic education with intensive training in disciplines including theater, music, dance, and visual arts. Tunney moved to Los Angeles at eighteen and began pursuing professional acting work after completing her secondary education.
Tunney began working professionally in television in the early 1990s, appearing in Encino Man, Law & Order, Dream On, Life Goes On, and the series Class of '96. Her early screen work placed her within the expanding American television and independent-film industries of the period, where actors commonly moved between episodic television, television films, and theatrical productions.
Her first major film roles included Debra in Empire Records (1995) and Sarah Bailey in The Craft (1996). She subsequently appeared in Julian Po, Niagara, Niagara, Montana, End of Days, Supernova, and Vertical Limit. Niagara, Niagara brought her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 1997 Venice Film Festival, while The Craft became a widely recognized 1990s teen supernatural film.
Tunney continued working in both independent and mainstream films, including Cherish, The Secret Lives of Dentists, The In-Laws, Paparazzi, Shadow of Fear, The Zodiac, Open Window, Hollywoodland, The Burning Plain, August, and Passenger Side. In Open Window, she played Izzy Fields, a woman coping with the aftermath of sexual violence; the performance earned her the 2006 Boston Film Festival prize for Best Actress.
On television, Tunney played Veronica Donovan in Prison Break from 2005 to 2006. From 2008 to 2015, she starred as Teresa Lisbon in the CBS crime drama The Mentalist, appearing throughout the series' seven-season run. Later credits include House, The Two Mr. Kissels, Love, Insatiable, The Fix, Monster Party, Looking Glass, Horse Girl, and Dear Edward. She also performed on stage in Smokefall at MCC Theater in 2016.
Achievements
Her performance in Niagara, Niagara earned the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 1997 Venice Film Festival.
She was ranked number 81 in Maxim's Hot 100 in 2001.
She was ranked number 15 in Celebrity Sleuth's 2005 list of the 25 Sexiest Women.
(Tunney played Veronica Donovan in the American television...)
2005
Religion
Tunney was raised Roman Catholic in an Irish-American family in the Chicago area. Roman Catholicism is the largest tradition within Christianity and has shaped many Irish-American communities through parish life, sacramental practice, schools, and family observance.
Views
Tunney has described acting in practical terms, emphasizing that performers interpret scripts within productions whose final form is also shaped by writers, directors, editors, and producers. She has also spoken about how parenthood changed the way she evaluates professional opportunities and long periods of work away from home.
Personality
In interviews, Tunney has been described as candid, thoughtful, and humorous. She has spoken openly about the practical pressures of sustaining an acting career and about becoming more selective with work after having children.
Physical Characteristics:
Tunney is approximately 5 feet 4 inches tall, or 1.63 meters.
Quotes from others about the person
Simon Baker described Tunney as one of his close friends when discussing their work together on The Mentalist.
Interests
Tunney has maintained strong connections with Chicago and Irish-American culture. She has also worked in theater as well as film and television.
Sport & Clubs
Basketball was an early passion before a serious high-school knee injury ended her participation.
Connections
Tunney's parents were Patrick Tunney and Cathy Tunney. She married producer and director Bob Gosse in 1997; they divorced in 2006. She was engaged to Australian writer and director Andrew Dominik from 2009 to 2010.
Tunney became engaged to interior designer Nicky Marmet in 2012. They have two children, Oscar Holly Marmet, born in 2016, and Colette Kathleen Marmet, born in 2020. Her relatives include Chicago politician Tom Tunney, who is her cousin.
Father:
Patrick Tunney
He was a car salesman who emigrated from Ireland.
Mother:
Cathy Tunney
She worked as a bartender and was a first-generation Irish-American.
Ex-husband:
Bob Gosse
Producer, director, and Tunney's husband from 1997 until their divorce in 2006.
fiance:
Andrew Dominik
Australian writer and director; he and Tunney were engaged from 2009 to 2010.
Partner:
Nicky Marmet
Interior designer and Tunney's fiancé; they have two children together.
Son:
Oscar Holly Marmet
Born in 2016.
Daughter:
Colette Kathleen Marmet
Born on January 8, 2020.
Boyfriend :
Page Hamilton
Musician associated with the band Helmet.
References
IMDb biography of Robin Tunney
Documents Tunney's birth date and place, acting education, early television work, and family relationships.
