Background

Ethnicity: Her father's ancestry was Irish, Bohemian Czech, German, English, and Scots-Irish/Northern Irish. Her mother is of half Italian and half Hungarian descent.

Sherilyn was born in Detroit, Michigan, United States on February 1, 1965, to parents Leo Fenn and Ariene Quarto. Her birth name is Sherilyn Ann Fenn. Her mother is a keyboardist whereas, her father is the manager of rock bands such as The Pleasure Seekers, The Billion Dollars Babies, and Alice Cooper. She has two siblings namely Leo Fenn, and David Fenn. She belongs to American nationality, and mixed (Italian-Hungarian-French) ethnicity.

Education

Sherilyn Fenn attended West Bloomfield High School. Then she enrolled at Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

Career

Fenn began her career with a number of B-movies including The Wild Life (1984) (alongside Chris Penn), skater film Thrashin' (1986) (opposite Josh Brolin) and teen-fantasy movie The Wraith (1986) (opposite Charlie Sheen). She had a memorable part in the cult teen-comedy Just One of the Guys (1985) in which she tries to seduce a teenage girl disguised as a boy, played by Joyce Hyser. Fenn landed her first starring role, as an engaged heiress to an old Southern family experiencing her sexual awakening in Zalman King's erotic drama film Two Moon Junction (1988), after which she said she wanted to hide for a year. Fenn won her most outstanding role and made an indelible impression on the public when she was cast by David Lynch and Mark Frost as the tantalizing Audrey Horne, the high-school femme fatale from the critically acclaimed TV series Twin Peaks (1990). The series ran from 1990 to 1991, and the character of Audrey was one of the most popular with fans, in particular for her unrequited love for FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan) and her style from the '50s (with her saddle shoes, plaid skirts and tight sweaters). Sherilyn made a memorable impression as the cherry stem-twisting siren. This was her breakout role; even now she says of her Twin Peaks (1990) experience: "It still makes me feel kind of proud and special to be part of something like that". In the show's second season, when the idea of pairing Audrey and Cooper was abandoned, Audrey was paired with other characters like Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) and John Justice Wheeler (Billy Zane). Sherilyn hit cult status when Lynch filmed her dancing on Angelo Badalamenti's music and with another memorable scene in which her character knotted a cherry stem with her tongue.

Shortly after shooting Twin Peaks' pilot episode, David Lynch gave her a small but impressive part in Wild at Heart, (1990), as a girl injured in a car wreck, obsessed by the contents of her purse, opposite Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern. According to Fenn, the turning point in her career was when she met veteran acting coach Roy London in 1990. She credits him with instilling confidence and newfound enthusiasm.

After two nominations (Emmy and Golden Globe) and covers for Rolling Stone and Playboy magazines, Fenn was propelled to stardom. Fenn has had an eclectic career with a significant body of work following Twin Peaks (1990). She chose to focus on widening her range of roles and was determined to avoid typecasting. She turned down the Audrey Horne spin-off series that was offered to her, and unlike most of the cast, chose not to return for the 1992 prequel movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), as she was then shooting Of Mice and Men (1992). She proved her mettle as an actress with varied roles in neo-noir black comedy Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel (1991) (as a sultry femme fatale, opposite Whip Hubley and David Hewlett), huis-clos Diary of a Hitman (1991) (the directorial debut of her acting coach Roy London, in which she plays a fragile mother who confronts hitman Forest Whitaker), John Mackenzie's fictionalized biopic Ruby (1992), (as stripper Sheryl Ann DuJean, a Marilyn Monroe look-alike fictional character, who is a composite of several real-life women from Jack Ruby and president John Kennedy's entourage; opposite 'Danny Aiello' and Arliss Howard), romantic comedy Three of Hearts (1993) (as Kelly Lynch and William Baldwin's love interest), Carl Reiner's 1940s detective parody Fatal Instinct (1993) (as Armand Assante's lovesick secretary and Sean Young and Kate Nelligan's rival) and Showtime's biblical Slave of Dreams (1995), directed by Robert M. Young (as Potiphar's seductive wife Zulaikha, opposite Adrian Pasdar and Edward James Olmos, and produced by Dino De Laurentiis).

A highlight of Fenn's film career is Gary Sinise's film adaptation of Of Mice and Men (1992), in which she brought nuance to the role of a seductive and lonely country wife, desperately in need to talk to somebody, opposite Sinise and John Malkovich. In 1993, Fenn teamed up with David Lynch's daughter Jennifer Lynch and starred in her directorial debut Boxing Helena (1993) as a haughty seductress forced to live in a box after her limbs were amputated by love-obsessed surgeon Julian Sands in an effort to possess her (a role Kim Basinger backed out of). Both Lynch and Fenn were proud of their work in it but the film - which was overshadowed by the lawsuits against Kim Basinger after she dropped out - ultimately was a critical and commercial failure. Another outstanding performance was in NBC's miniseries Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story (1995). During the shooting, Fenn fought to keep integrity in the script. Her priority was to respectfully and accurately portray Taylor, and she supported the original screenwriter's effort to concentrate on Taylor the person, not the legend. The same year she starred in an episode of Tales from the Crypt (1989) directed by Robert Zemeckis, alongside Isabella Rossellini and John Lithgow, as the lover of Humphrey Bogart, who appeared in the episode via CGI special effects. She went on to star in independent films that have been well received on the festival circuit like Jon Harmon Feldman's Lovelife (1997) (as a low self-esteemed waitress, along with Bruce Davison, Jon Tenney, Carla Gugino and Saffron Burrows), romantic comedy Just Write (1997) (as the dream actress of Hollywood tour bus driver Jeremy Piven, who mistakes him for a famous screenwriter) and Adrian Pasdar's neo-noir directorial debut Cement (2000), a contemporary re-telling of "Othello", in which she played a tempting but imprudent femme fatale, alongside Chris Penn, Jeffrey Wright, and Henry Czerny.

Tired of Hollywood, Fenn contemplated starting a European career when she starred opposite Ray Winstone in the British psychological drama and huis-clos Darkness Falls (1999) (as a wealthy, neglected wife, sequestered with her husband by a man determined to understand the events that led to his wife ending up in a coma). She eventually decided to return to the United-States and gained newfound enthusiasm with the lead role in Showtime's dark comedy Rude Awakening (1998) as Billie Frank, an alcoholic ex-soap actress who struggles with her self-destructive habits. Based upon creator/executive producer Claudia Lonow's experience, the series ran from 1998 to 2001 and co-starred Lynn Redgrave, Jonathan Penner, and Mario Van Peebles. Following Rude Awakening (1998), Fenn's film and television credits have included Showtime's family comedy Off Season (2001), directed by Bruce Davison (along with Hume Cronyn, Rory Culkin, Adam Arkin and Davison; as a singer who takes care of her orphaned nephew), Matthew Ryan Hoge's The United States of Leland (2003) (as a woman who represents happiness and joie de vivre to Ryan Gosling), Showtime's Cavedweller (2004) (2004, along with Kyra Sedgwick and directed by Lisa Cholodenko), Geretta Geretta's Whitepaddy (2006) (opposite Lisa Bonet and Hill Harper, as a woman who struggles with her dysfunctional family after she reluctantly returned home and tries to fit in with her new neighborhood that has become predominantly black), psychological thriller Presumed Dead (2006) (as a female detective working on a missing person case, who has to outwit crime novelist Duncan Regehr in order to get to the truth), and The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2007) (as a flirtatious version of Lulu Hogg).

Fenn has appeared along with Rob Estes and Milo Ventimiglia in a 2003 episode of Amy Sherman-Palladino's Gilmore Girls (2000), which was the pilot for a California-set spin-off, eventually dropped by the network. Sherman-Palladino brought her back in the series with a different part as Scott Patterson's ex-girlfriend and protective mother to his daughter (2006-2007). Other notable guest appearances have included21 Jump Street (1987) (opposite her then-fiancé Johnny Depp), Friends (1994) (1997, as Matthew Perry's wooden-legged girlfriend), and The 4400 (2004) (2005, as Jean DeLynn Baker, a 4400 who has the ability to grow deadly toxin-emitting spores on her hands).

Fenn's interest in directing and children led her to step behind the camera to direct in 2006 a documentary film about the child enrichment program CosmiKids and Judy Julin, the program's founder. She subsequently joined its executive team as executive director of the film and television division.

In December 2010, Fenn appeared on Psych with other Twin Peaks actors on the season-five episode "Dual Spires" as sultry librarian Maudette Hornsby. The episode paid homage to Twin Peaks and also made many in-joke references to the show. She reprised her role as Audrey Horne in 2017 for the limited third season of Twin Peaks. In February 2016, she joined the cast of the American version of Shameless.

Achievements

• 

  Sherilyn Fenn is best known for her whip-smart acting in David Lynch’s cult classic TV show “Twin Peaks” and films including “Ruby,” “Wild at Heart” and the jarringly original “Boxing Helena.”
  
  Being a sex symbol, she was chosen as one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World", was named one of the "10 Most Beautiful Women in the World" by Us magazine, and one of the "100 Sexiest Women in the World" by FHM magazine.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • The Wild Life

    (The Wild Life stars Christopher Penn, Eric Stoltz, Lea Th...)

    1984
  • Outside Ozona

    (As the powerful voice of a radio DJ (Taj Mahal) fills the...)

    1998
  • Wild at Heart

    (Virtuoso filmmaker David Lynch (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet) ...)

    1990
  • The Scenesters

    (In this dark comedy, when a serial killer starts picking ...)

    2009
  • Two Moon Junction

    (Two weeks before her marriage, a well-bred Southern belle...)

    1988
  • Backstreet Dreams

    (Brooke Shields stars in a touching drama about a psycholo...)

    1990
  • Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel

    (Though she only accompanied her businessman husband to An...)

    1991
  • Boxing Helena

    (Fantasy, desire, and manipulation make for a savory-yet-v...)

    1993
  • Just One Of The Guys

    (She's 18, she's beautiful and she's about to set off an e...)

    1985
  • Three of Hearts

    (After her female lover leaves her, a nurse hires a male e...)

    1993
  • Just Write

    (A tour-bus driver meets his favorite actress, who mistake...)

    1997
  • Diary of a Hitman

    (A hired killer struggles with his conscience when asked t...)

    1991
  • The Shadow Men

    (A writer tries to help a family haunted by recurring nigh...)

    1998
  • Zombie High

    (An academy coed discovers a faculty plot to achieve immor...)

    1987
  • Fist of the Warrior

    (A hit-man, a mobster and a corrupt detective confront eac...)

    2009
  • The Wraith

    (The mysterious driver of a turbocharged domestic car drag...)

    1986
  • True Blood

    (A street fighter returns after 10 years on the run and fi...)

    1989
  • Meridian

    (A cursed castle's mistress and her friend are ravished by...)

    1990
  • Novel Romance

    (Max Normante (Traci Lords) is a successful editor that ha...)

    2006
  • Thrashin'

    (Rival California skateboarders work up to a 20-mile downh...)

    1986
  • Fatal Instinct

    (Director Carl Reiner has a comic go at the recent spree o...)

    1993
  • Treasure Raiders

    (A Russian street racing star has met his match in a sly A...)

    2007
  • Of Mice and Men 1992
  • Darkness Falls
  • Cement 2000
  • The United States of Leland 2003

• TV series

  • Twin Peaks

    (Twin Peaks devotees, who have kept the mystery alive on m...)

    1990
  • Rude Awakening

    (An alcoholic former soap opera actress joins AA and tries...)

    1998

Religion

Sherilyn has expressed a lot of faith in God on her Twitter profile. She defines herself as a woman of God. She has tweeted Bible verses many times and also talks by spiritual coaches talking about verses from the Bible. She grew up as Catholic and she still is.

Politics

She has tweeted multiple times against the Republican Party's decisions and Donald Trump too. She is a supporter of LGBT rights. She has also tweeted in support of women's rights and believes in climate change. She has opposed the US getting out of the Paris treaty. She has also supported French President Emmanuel Macron.

Views

Fenn began practicing Transcendental Meditation in 2014.

Quotations: "I try to keep myself centered. I don't go to parties and all that. I don't think being seen or being in the right place is going to make me a better actress. I care about my work and try to do what's right in my heart."

"The world has certain rules - Hollywood has certain rules - but it doesn't mean you have to play by them, and I don't, or I'd be a miserable person."

"I see people giving me looks because I'm so opinionated. That hurts my feelings, but at the end of the day I have to live with me and respect myself. And I've done enough things in my life where I was confused and didn't respect myself that I will not do it any more."

"They’ve offered me every variation on Audrey Horne, none of which were as good or as much fun."

"I like taking risks and I decided to put every bit of me into the role."

"People who think they know me would be surprised that my whole life doesn't revolve around sex."

Personality

Sherilyn Fenn has a charming and pleasant personality and a good sense of humor. It appears that she likes tennis quite a bit and has tweeted about the French open 2017. She is also a huge fan of Rumi who was a Persian poetic intellectual. She shares a lot of inspirational quotes on social media. She also likes doing kundalini yoga.

Physical Characteristics: Fenn's classic looks - with her lily-white skin, vertiginous boomerang eyebrows, beauty mark next to her left eye and topaz eyes - were highlighted by renowned photographers like George Hurrell Sr., Steven Meisel, and Bettina Rheims, and led her to be compared to the ones like Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner.

Fenn has a height of 5 feet 4 inches and a weight of 56 Kg. She has brown hair and eyes colors.

Quotes from others about the person

• "She’s got a brain and all the right emotional instincts, and that’s a great combination." - Diana Rico
  
  "One of the keys to understanding Fenn is that when she talks about the characters she plays she's really talking about herself." - Mike Bygrave
  
  "She's a mysterious girl and I think that actresses like her who have a mystery - where there's something hiding beneath the surface - are the really interesting ones." - David Lynch

Interests

• Politicians

  Emmanuel Macron

• Writers

  Rumi

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis

Connections

In 1994 Sherilyn Fenn married writer Toulouse Holliday, with whom she has a son named Myles. They divorced in 1997. Currently, she is in a relationship with a computer consultant, Dylan Stewart. They have a son together.

Father:

Leo Fenn

Mother:

Arlene Quatro

Son:

Myles Holliday

ex-boyfriend:

Johnny Depp

Sherilyn Fenn was previously in a relationship with an actor Johnny Depp in 1986. The couple stayed together for several years before their separation.

ex-boyfriend:

Prince Nelson

In 1985, Sherilyn Fenn dated pop singer Prince.

Ex-husband:

Toulouse Holliday

Son:

Christian James Stewart

Partner:

Dylan Stewart

aunt:

Suzi Quatro

Suzi Quatro is an American rock singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress.

mentor:

Roy London

Roy London was Fenn's acting coach.

Friend:

Jennifer Lynch

Fenn close friends with Jennifer Lynch while working together in Boxing Helena (1993).

Friend:

Sheryl Lee

Sheryl Lee and Sherilyn Fenn are good friends.

colleague:

David Lynch

David Lynch is an American filmmaker. Sherilyn Fenn starred in many of his movies. He described Sherilyn as "Five feet of heaven in a ponytail" and said she makes him think of a porcelain doll.

colleague:

Kyle MacLachlan

Kyle MacLachlan and Sherilyn Fenn co-starred in Twin Peaks series.

References

• Entertainment Weekly Magazine (March 31, 2017)