Lucy Lawless

Lucy Lawless MNZM
Lawless at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	Lucille Frances Ryan (1968-03-29) 29 March 1968 (age 56) Mount Albert, Auckland, New Zealand
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1989–present
Spouses	Garth Lawless (m. 1988; div. 1995) Robert Tapert (m. 1998)
Children	3

Lucille Frances Ryan (born 29 March 1968)^[1] is a New Zealand actress. When she was twenty years old, she got her first acting job in the TV program Funny Business. In 1995, she starred in her first television series, Xena: Warrior Princess, becoming in an international star in this role.^[2]

Lawless is also known for her role as D'anna Biers in the TV series Battlestar Galactica between 2005 and 2008.^[3] During a break in 1997 between filming seasons on Xena, Lawless made her onstage debut singing songs on Broadway as Rizzo in the remake of the musical play Grease.

Since her role as Xena, Lawless has pursued a new career in singing after being a contestant on Celebrity Duets. She sang at the Roxy in Hollywood in 2007, and has since performed regularly in concerts and released several CDs.^[4] She has a contralto singing range.

Early life

She was born in Auckland on 29 March 1968. Lawless' mother, Julie, was teacher, and her father, Frank, was mayor.^[5] She has 6 brothers. She had bulimia and Depression.

Lawless began acting in secondary school, attending Marist College, New Zealand, in Mount Albert. She studied foreign languages at Auckland University for a year^[6] before dropping out and leaving for Europe with her boyfriend, Garth Lawless, to travel to Germany and Switzerland.^[7] The couple then moved to Australia, where she worked briefly as a gold miner.^[5]

Career

Lawless wanted to act since she was five. She took her first acting class at the school. Lawless starred various national television commercials when she was a child. One of these was for McDonald's.^[8] She played an Amazon in the TV movie Hercules and the Amazon Women, in 1994, and Lisya in his Spin-off, the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys em 1995.^[9] In the same year, she plays Xena in three episodes, returning later.^[10]

In September, Xena won her own series, Xena: Warrior Princess, Lawless was the star in the program during 6 years.^[10] Lawless first appeared on Broadway in September 1997 in the Grease play remake, as the "bad girl" Rizzo character. She applied to play the squeaky-clean naive blond girl Sandra Dee, but she claimed the producers after Xena had typed her to playing only "bad girls."^[11] She said the Sandy character was very similar to her sheltered childhood, growing up in New Zealand with many protective older brothers.

Lawless has since appeared onstage in the Vagina Monologues and as a television guest star in episodes of The Simpsons, The X-Files, Just Shoot Me!, Veronica Mars, Burn Notice, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.^[12] She was also featured in the short-lived television series Tarzan. Lawless has made cameo appearances in the movies EuroTrip, Spider-Man and Boogeyman. She returned to television in the TV movie Locusts! and its sequel Vampire Bats.^[13]

From 2005 to 2008, Lawless has had 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 is later revealed to be a Cylon.^[3]

Public image

In 1997, Lawless was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" by People magazine.^[14] Days earlier on 6 May 1997, Lawless inadvertently exposed a breast as she concluded a performance of the US national anthem at an NHL hockey game in Anaheim, California between the Mighty Ducks and Detroit Red Wings.^[14] Lawless was quoted in Newsweek as saying:

Lawless has enjoyed a particular cult status in the lesbian community. Some of the lesbian fan base sees Lawless as a lesbian icon.^[15] A group called The Marching Xenas has participated in many gay and lesbian pride parades.^[16]

Some fans felt that the sexual nature of Xena and the character Gabrielle's relationship was cemented by an interview given by Lucy Lawless to Lesbian News magazine in 2003. Lawless stated that after the series finale, where Gabrielle revives Xena with a mouth-to-mouth water transfer filmed to look like a full kiss, she had come to believe that Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was "definitely gay... there was always a 'well, she might be or she might not be' but when there was that drip of water passing between their lips in the very final scene, that cemented it for me".

Costume donation

In 2006, Lucy Lawless donated her personal Xena costume to the Museum of American History.^[17] In an interview the same year with Smithsonian magazine, she was asked the question "Was the Warrior Princess outfit comfortable?" and she responded:

Not at first, because they would put boning in the corset. It would cover up those little floating ribs that are so important for breathing, so I'd feel like I was having panic attacks. But it just became a second skin after a while. It was very functional, once I got over the modesty factor. I admit to being a little bit embarrassed the first couple weeks because I'd never worn anything so short.

— Lucy Lawless, Smithsonian, November 2006, page 44

Personal life

At the age of nineteen, Lawless became pregnant with Garth's child. In 1988, they married in Kalgoorlie, Australia.^[18] They returned to New Zealand and had a daughter, Daisy Lawless (born 15 July 1988), who also attended Marist College, New Zealand.^[19] The couple divorced in 1995. Lawless married Xena executive producer Robert Tapert on 28 March 1998. Lawless and Tapert have two sons: Julius Robert Bay Tapert^[19] (born 16 October 1999) and Judah Miro Tapert^[19] (born 7 May 2002), both born in Auckland.

Filmography

Movies

Television

Video games

• Hunted: The Demon's Forge (2011), as Seraphine
• Evil Dead: The Game (2023), as Ruby Knowby

Stage

• 1997: Grease! – On Broadway, NY USA
• 2002: The Vagina Monologues – Auckland, NZ
• 2005: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – Seattle, USA
• 2011: BARE For Christchurch – Auckland, NZ
• 2013: Chicago The Musical – Hollywood Bowl, LA, USA
• 2013: Chicago The Musical – Auckland, NZ
• 2014–2015: Sleeping Beauty and Her Winter Knight – Pasadena, CA, USA
• 2017: Pleasuredome The Musical – Auckland, NZ^[21]

Discography

Albums

• Come 2 Me
• Come to Mama: Lucy Lawless in Concert: The Roxy Theater in Hollywood

Concert DVDs

• Come to Mama: Lucy Lawless in Concert: The Roxy Theater in Hollywood
• Gimme Some, Sugar: Lawless, NYC
• Lucy Lawless Live in Chicago: Still Got The Blues
• Lucy Lawless Live at The Roxy Theater: Ho Down
• Lucy Lawless Live in Concert: Welcome to the Pleasuredome

Other songs

• "Little Child" on Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars
• "4 All of Us" with Pauly Fuemana (OMC)
• "Little Child" on The Starship Christmas Album 2012 – Starship Foundation

Honours

In the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours, Lawless was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to entertainment and the community.^[22]

Awards and nominations

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References

Other websites

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lucy Lawless.

• Lucy Lawless Archived 2008-09-22 at the Wayback Machine at TV.com Archived 2019-05-20 at the Wayback Machine
• Fan Club at Internet
• Photos Archived 2008-09-14 at the Wayback Machine at Frodisman.com Archived 2008-12-08 at the Wayback Machine
• Biography at Ussbrazil.com
• Lucy Lawless on IMDb