Joanne Whalley
Encyclopedia
Early life
Whalley was born in Salford but brought up in StockportStockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
where she studied at the Braeside School of Speech and Drama, Marple
Marple, Greater Manchester
Marple is a small town within the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Goyt southeast of Stockport.Historically part of Cheshire, Marple has a population of 23,480 .-Toponymy:...
.
Whalley first appeared as a child in How We Used To Live
How We Used To Live
How We Used to Live is a British educational historical television drama written by Freda Kelsall and sometimes narrated by Redvers Kyle and John Crosse, both employed as continuity announcers at Yorkshire Television at the time of production. Production began in 1968 at the YTV studios in Leeds...
and bit parts in soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s, especially Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
and Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...
. Her early film roles include a non-speaking part as a groupie in Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
's The Wall
Pink Floyd The Wall (film)
Pink Floyd—The Wall is a 1982 British live-action/animated musical film directed by Alan Parker based on the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. The film is highly metaphorical and is rich in symbolic imagery and sound...
; and as a young Beatles fan in Birth of the Beatles.
Music
In the post punk era, she flirted with the fringes of the Manchester New Wave scene and was briefly a member of a Stockport-based band called The SlowgunsThe Slowguns
The Slowguns were a Stockport, England punk rock band whose brief career spanned two singles between 1978 and 1980. Although a part of the burgeoning local punk scene, the mod influence was obvious in both their sound and look...
but left before the release of their two singles. Later, in 1982, at Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
as the lead singer of the pop group Cindy & The Saffrons
Cindy & The Saffrons
Cindy & The Saffrons was an UK vocal group, comprising Joanne Whalley as "Cindy" and Lindsay Neil and Sally Stairs as The Saffrons.In 1982 at Abbey Road Studios, they recorded a cover of the Shangri-Las' song "Past, Present and Future". It peaked at #56 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1983. ...
, they recorded the Shangri-Las song "Past, Present and Future" and the next year, "Terry" by Twinkle
Twinkle (singer)
Twinkle is an English singer-songwriter, primarily in the 1960s. Twinkle's most famous songs were "Terry" and "Golden Lights".-Career:...
. The group split up soon thereafter.
Career
In 1982 she played Ingrid Rothwell in A Kind of LovingA Kind of Loving
A Kind of Loving is a novel by the English novelist Stan Barstow. First published in 1960, it has long been used as a set text in British schools...
, a well received Granada TV adaptation of Stan Barstow
Stan Barstow
Stanley "Stan" Barstow FRSL was an English novelist.-Biography:Barstow was born in Horbury, near Wakefield, Yorkshire. His father was a coal miner and he attended Ossett Grammar School, he then worked as a draftsman and salesman for an engineering firm...
's three Vic Brown novels. Whalley acted in the film No Surrender
No Surrender (film)
No Surrender is a 1985 comedy film starring Michael Angelis and Ray McAnally.The film is black comedy about the Northern Ireland conflict, set in Liverpool on New Year's Eve. The plot focuses on the Irish Catholic and Protestant communities in the city, and the action is seen through the eyes of...
(Dumbarton Films with Film Four) scripted by Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale is an English television dramatist, best known for writing several social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.The Bleasdales live in prescot,liverpool,wales and london.-Early life:Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother...
, released in 1985, but the film was not successful.
Whalley came to prominence on British television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
as Emma Craven in Troy Kennedy Martin
Troy Kennedy Martin
Troy Kennedy Martin was a Scottish-born film and television screenwriter best known for creating the long running BBC TV police series Z-Cars, and for the award-winning 1985 anti-nuclear drama Edge of Darkness...
's Edge of Darkness
Edge of Darkness
Edge of Darkness is a British television drama serial, produced by BBC Television in association with Lionheart Television International and originally broadcast in six fifty-five minute episodes in late 1985...
(1985), quickly followed by Nurse Mills in the Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
-written serial The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective
The Singing Detective is a BBC television miniseries written by Dennis Potter, which stars Michael Gambon, and was directed by Jon Amiel. The six episodes were "Skin", "Heat", "Lovely Days", "Clues", "Pitter Patter" and "Who Done It"....
(1986) both for BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
. In 1987 she played Jackie in the TV movie Will You Love Me Tomorrow, she also played a role in The Good Father
The Good Father
The Good Father is a 1985 British film directed by Mike Newell and starring Anthony Hopkins, Jim Broadbent, Harriet Walter, Fanny Viner, Simon Callow, Joanne Whalley, and Michael Byrne....
(1985), another Channel 4 backed film.
Whalley met the American actor Val Kilmer
Val Kilmer
Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
while filming the fantasy adventure Willow
Willow (film)
Willow is a 1988 American fantasy film directed by Ron Howard and produced/co-written by George Lucas. Warwick Davis stars in the film, as well as Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Jean Marsh, and Patricia Hayes...
, and after marriage in 1988 moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where she used the professional name Joanne Whalley-Kilmer. She continued filming, making more films in Hollywood than the UK, including the mystery noir Shattered
Shattered (film)
Shattered is a 1991 Hitchcockian neo-noir/psychological thriller starring Tom Berenger, Greta Scacchi, Bob Hoskins, Joanne Whalley and Corbin Bernsen...
and, in 1989, the role of Christine Keeler
Christine Keeler
Christine Margaret Keeler is an English former model and showgirl. Her involvement with a British government minister discredited the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan in 1963, in what is known as the Profumo Affair....
in Scandal alongside stars John Hurt
John Hurt
John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
and Sir Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
. In 1994 she became the second actress to play Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
heroine Scarlett O'Hara
Scarlett O'Hara
Scarlett O' Hara is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the later film of the same name...
when she appeared in a made-for-TV adaptation of the sequel novel, Scarlett
Scarlett (novel)
Scarlett is a novel written in 1991 by Alexandra Ripley as a sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. The book debuted on the New York Times bestsellers list, but both critics and fans of the original novel found Ripley's version to be inconsistent with the literary quality of Gone with...
. She also starred in the 1997 film The Man Who Knew Too Little
The Man Who Knew Too Little
The Man Who Knew Too Little is a 1997 American comedy espionage film starring Bill Murray, directed by Jon Amiel, and written by Robert Farrar and Howard Franklin...
.
After divorce, Whalley returned to acting through making television films, including the 2000 television film Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis in which she played the title character. After divorce from Kilmer, she collaborated with the pop-punk band Blink-182
Blink-182
Blink-182 is an American rock band consisting of vocalist and bass guitarist Mark Hoppus, vocalist and guitarist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker. They have sold over 27 million albums worldwide since forming in Poway, California in 1992...
to read a letter at the beginning of the song "Stockholm Syndrome". In 2005, she appeared as Mary I of England
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
in The Virgin Queen
The Virgin Queen (TV show)
The Virgin Queen is a 2005 BBC and Power co-production, four-part miniseries based upon the life of Queen Elizabeth I, starring Anne-Marie Duff...
, a BBC serial about the life of Queen Elizabeth I which also starred Anne-Marie Duff
Anne-Marie Duff
Anne-Marie Duff is an English actress best known for playing Fiona Gallagher in Shameless, and Elizabeth I in The Virgin Queen.-Early life:...
and Tara FitzGerald
Tara Fitzgerald
Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage....
. The same year she also filmed Played
Played
Played is a 2006 crime film produced by Caspar von Winterfeldt, Nick Simunek and Mick Rossi, executive produced by John Daly, co-produced by Nigel Mead and Lenny Bitondo, written by Sean Stanek and Mick Rossi and directed by Sean Stanek...
which also starred her ex-husband Val Kilmer
Val Kilmer
Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
but the two didn't share any scenes. In 2006, she appeared in Life Line, a two-part drama on BBC1, starring opposite Ray Stevenson
Ray Stevenson (actor)
George Raymond "Ray" Stevenson is a Northern Irish-born English film and television actor. He is known for playing Titus Pullo in the BBC/HBO television series Rome , and in film as Dagonet in King Arthur and as Frank Castle/The Punisher in Punisher: War Zone and The Super Hero Squad Show...
. In 2008, she appeared in the ITV mini series Flood with Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle
Robert Carlyle, OBE is a Scottish film and television actor. He is known for a variety of roles including those in Trainspotting, Hamish Macbeth, The Full Monty, The World Is Not Enough, Angela's Ashes, The 51st State, and 28 Weeks Later...
amongst others.
In February 2008, she appeared on stage in Billy Roche
Billy Roche
Billy Roche is an Irish playwright and actor. He was born and still lives in Wexford and most of his writings are based there...
's Poor Beast in the Rain presented by the Salem K. Theatre Company at The Matrix Theatre, Los Angeles, California.
Whalley plays one of the female leads, Vannozza dei Cattanei
Vannozza dei Cattanei
Vannozza dei Cattanei was an Italian noblewoman from the House of Candia, who was one of the many mistresses of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, future Pope Alexander VI. Among them, she was the one whose relationship with him lasted the longest...
, mistress of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, future Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...
, in the Showtime historical drama The Borgias
The Borgias (2011 TV series)
The Borgias is a 2011 historical fiction television series created by Neil Jordan.The series is based on the Borgia family, an Italian dynasty of Spanish origin, and stars Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander VI with David Oakes, François Arnaud, Holliday Grainger and Aidan Alexander as Juan, Cesare,...
. She guest-starred as Princess Sophie in season 4 of Gossip Girl.
Personal life
Whalley met the American actor Val KilmerVal Kilmer
Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...
while filming the fantasy adventure Willow
Willow (film)
Willow is a 1988 American fantasy film directed by Ron Howard and produced/co-written by George Lucas. Warwick Davis stars in the film, as well as Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Jean Marsh, and Patricia Hayes...
. The couple married in 1988, and she used the name Joanne Whalley-Kilmer professionally for several years.
Whalley took a break from filming to raise her two children with Kilmer: daughter Mercedes (born October 29, 1991, in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
), and son Jack (born in June 1995).
Shortly after the birth of their son, the pair separated. Whalley filed for divorce on July 21, 1995, citing irreconcilable differences. This was the day after he left to start filming The Island of Dr. Moreau
The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996 film)
The Island of Dr. Moreau is a 1996 science fiction horror film, the third major movie version of the H. G. Wells novel The Island of Doctor Moreau about a scientist who attempts to convert animals into people...
, with him claiming to have found out from a CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
broadcast. Whalley has since taken Kilmer to court twice for non-payment of maintenance.
Filmography
- Pink Floyd The Wall (1982)
- A Christmas CarolA Christmas CarolA Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
(1984) - Dance with a StrangerDance with a StrangerDance with a Stranger is a 1985 British drama film, directed by Mike Newell. Telling the story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain in the fifties, this moving biographical British film won critical acclaim, and brought particular notice to the careers of both Miranda Richardson...
(1985) - No SurrenderNo Surrender (film)No Surrender is a 1985 comedy film starring Michael Angelis and Ray McAnally.The film is black comedy about the Northern Ireland conflict, set in Liverpool on New Year's Eve. The plot focuses on the Irish Catholic and Protestant communities in the city, and the action is seen through the eyes of...
(1985) - The Good FatherThe Good FatherThe Good Father is a 1985 British film directed by Mike Newell and starring Anthony Hopkins, Jim Broadbent, Harriet Walter, Fanny Viner, Simon Callow, Joanne Whalley, and Michael Byrne....
(1985) - WillowWillow (film)Willow is a 1988 American fantasy film directed by Ron Howard and produced/co-written by George Lucas. Warwick Davis stars in the film, as well as Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Jean Marsh, and Patricia Hayes...
(1988) - To Kill a PriestTo Kill a PriestTo Kill a Priest is a 1988 drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. The film tells a story based on the murder, under the Polish communist regime, of priest Jerzy Popiełuszko...
(1988) - Scandal (1989)
- Kill Me AgainKill Me AgainKill Me Again is a 1989 American thriller film directed by John Dahl and starring Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, and Michael Madsen. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer distributed the film.-Plot:...
(1989) - Navy SealsNavy SEALs (film)Navy SEALs is a 1990 action film, directed by Lewis Teague, written by Chuck Pfarrer and Gary Goldman, and produced by Brenda Feigen and Bernard Williams with consultant William Bradley.-Plot:...
(1990) - The Big ManThe Big ManThis article is about the film. For the saxophonist with that nickname, see Clarence Clemons.The Big Man is a 1990 film produced by Miramax Films. It starred Liam Neeson, Joanne Whalley and Billy Connolly and the film's score was composed by Ennio Morricone. It was featured in FlixMix's Ultimate...
(1990) - Shattered (1991)
- StoryvilleStoryville (film)Storyville is a 1992 film directed by Mark Frost and starring James Spader.-Plot:Cray Fowler, a young candidate for the United States Senate is filmed with a hooker as blackmail. As he investigates, Fowler discovers some family secrets involving his father and their political careers....
(1991) - The Secret Rapture (1993)
- ScarlettScarlett (TV miniseries)Scarlett is a 1994 six hour miniseries loosely based on the sequel to Margaret Mitchell's novel, Gone with the Wind, written by Alexandra Ripley...
(1994) - Mother's BoysMother's BoysMother's Boys is a 1994 thriller film starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Peter Gallagher, Joanne Whalley and Vanessa Redgrave.-Plot summary:Jude Madigan suddenly and inexplicably leaves her husband, Robert , and three sons. Three years later, when Robert finally files for divorce, Jude returns and tries...
(1994) - A Good Man in AfricaA Good Man in Africa (film)A Good Man in Africa is a 1994 film, based on the novel A Good Man in Africa , and directed by Bruce Beresford.-Synopsis:...
(1994) - Trial by JuryTrial by Jury (film)Trial by Jury is a 1994 American thriller film directed by Heywood Gould and starring Joanne Whalley, Gabriel Byrne and Armand Assante.-Tagline:For one juror, the question of guilt or innocence is a matter of life or death.....
(1994) - The Man Who Knew Too LittleThe Man Who Knew Too LittleThe Man Who Knew Too Little is a 1997 American comedy espionage film starring Bill Murray, directed by Jon Amiel, and written by Robert Farrar and Howard Franklin...
(1997) - A Texas Funeral (1999)
- The GuiltyThe Guilty (2000 film)The Guilty is a 2000 American crime film directed by Anthony Waller and starring Bill Pullman, Devon Sawa, Gabrielle Anwar, Angela Featherstone and Joanne Whalley.-Plot summary:...
(2000) - Breathtaking (2000)
- Before You GoBefore You Go (film)Before You Go is a 2002 comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert. The imperfect lives of three sisters are revealed at their unloved mother's funeral....
(2002) - Virginia's RunVirginia's RunVirginia's Run is a 2002 Canadian-American independent family drama/coming of age film.-Plot:Virginia is a 13 year old girl living in Nova Scotia with her older sister Caroline and her father Ford . Her mother was killed 3 years earlier in a horse riding accident...
(2002) - The CaliforniansThe CaliforniansThe Californians is a 2005 independent drama film from Hart Sharp Films starring Noah Wyle.-Cast:*Noah Wyle as Gavin Ransom*Illeana Douglas as Olive Ransom*Kate Mara as Zoe Tripp*Cloris Leachman as Eileen Boatwright*Joanne Whalley as Luna...
(2005) - PlayedPlayedPlayed is a 2006 crime film produced by Caspar von Winterfeldt, Nick Simunek and Mick Rossi, executive produced by John Daly, co-produced by Nigel Mead and Lenny Bitondo, written by Sean Stanek and Mick Rossi and directed by Sean Stanek...
(2006) - The Virgin Queen (2006)
- FloodFlood (film)Flood is a British disaster film from 2007, directed by Tony Mitchell It features Robert Carlyle, Jessalyn Gilsig, David Suchet and Tom Courtenay, and is based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Richard Doyle.-Synopsis:...
(2007) - 44 Inch Chest44 Inch Chest44 Inch Chest is a 2009 British film starring Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson and Ian McShane. The script was written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto, who wrote another British gangster drama Sexy Beast, and produced by Richard Brown and Steve Golin...
(2009) - DivertedDivertedThis article is about the movie. For other uses, see DiversionDiverted is a 2009 CBC made-for-TV movie. It was directed by Alex Chapple. The movie was written by Tony Marchant.- Synopsis:...
(2009) - Golf in the Kingdom (2010)
- Gossip GirlGossip GirlGossip Girl is an American young adult novel series written by Cecily von Ziegesar and published by Little, Brown and Company, a subsidiary of the Hachette Group. The series revolves around the lives and romances of the privileged teenagers at the Constance Billard School for Girls, an elite...
(2011) - The BorgiasThe Borgias (2011 TV series)The Borgias is a 2011 historical fiction television series created by Neil Jordan.The series is based on the Borgia family, an Italian dynasty of Spanish origin, and stars Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander VI with David Oakes, François Arnaud, Holliday Grainger and Aidan Alexander as Juan, Cesare,...
(2011) - Twixt (2011)