Thora Birch



Thora Birch (born March 11, 1982)[1]  is an American actress. She got her first role at the age of 6 in the short-lived sitcom Day by Day, that performance was followed by an appearance in the motion picture Purple People Eater (1988), for which she received a Young Artist Award for "Best Young Actress Under Nine Years of Age". Birch's profile was raised significantly with major parts in films such as All I Want for Christmas (1991), Patriot Games (1992), Hocus Pocus (1993), Monkey Trouble (1994), Now and Then (1995), and Alaska (1996).

Her breakthrough role came in 1999 with the Academy Award winning film, American Beauty. Her performance was well received by both critics and audiences and brought Birch to international recognition. She later played the lead role in Ghost World (2001) for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. She has since appeared in independent films such as Dark Corners (2006), Train (2008) and Winter of Frozen Dreams (2009).



Contents
[hide]  *1 Early life  ==Early life[edit] == Birch was born in Los Angeles, California, the eldest child of Jack Birch and Carol Connors. Her parents, who were her business managers from the start, are former adult film actors and both appeared in thepornographic film Deep Throat.[2] [3] [4] [5]  Birch is of German Jewish, Scandinavian, and Italian ancestry.[6]  The family's original surname was Biersch.[6]  Her name Thora is derived from the name of the Norse God of thunder and lightning, Thor.[7]  She has a younger brother named Kian.[8]
 * 2 Career
 * 2.1 Early career, 1988–1995
 * 2.2 1996–2001
 * 2.3 2002–2013
 * 2.4 2014–present
 * 3 Filmography
 * 3.1 Film
 * 3.2 Television
 * 4 Awards
 * 5 References
 * 6 External links

Due to their own experience with acting, Birch's parents were reluctant to encourage her in the profession, but were persuaded to show her photograph to agents by a babysitter who noticed her imitating commercials.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height:1;white-space:nowrap;">[citation needed]  She had several parts in the late '80s, including advertisements for Burger King, California Raisins, Quaker Oats, and Vlasic Pickles.<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="line-height:1;"> [dead link] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[9] ==Career<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == ===Early career, 1988–1995<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">In 1988, she landed the role of Molly in the short-lived television series Day By Day. She was billed simply as "Thora". That same year, she won a part in the movie Purple People Eater opposite Ned Beatty and Neil Patrick Harris. Her performance won her a Youth In Film Award.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[10]  Birch played as 'tomboy' Billie Pike in the movie Paradise, which also starred Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, and Elijah Wood.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">Birch's parts during the period of 1991–1995 included the role of Dani in Hocus Pocus (1993), as well as All I Want for Christmas (1991) and Monkey Trouble (1994). She appeared in two Harrison Ford films, Patriot Games (1992) and its sequel, Clear and Present Danger (1994), where she played Sally Ryan, the daughter of Ford's character Jack Ryan. Birch's performance in the 1995 film Now and Then teamed up with Gaby Hoffmann, Christina Ricci, Demi Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, and Melanie Griffith. ===1996–2001<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">In 1996, she landed a leading role in the adventure film, Alaska (1996). After guest-starring appearances in The Outer Limits, Promised Land, and Touched by an Angel, Birch took a break from acting.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[11]  In 1999, she returned in the made-for-TV film Night Ride Home and also took a small uncredited role in the Natalie Portman film Anywhere but Here.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">Later in 1999, Birch won critical praise playing the role of Jane Burnham in American Beauty and was nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award. The movie itself went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. As Birch was 16 at the time she made the film, and thus classified as a minor in the United States, her parents had to approve her brief topless scene in the movie. They and child labor representatives were on the set for the shooting of the scene.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EbertAnswerMan_12-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[12] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[13]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">After supporting roles in The Smokers (2000; where Birch was called "a scene-stealer" by The Hollywood Reporter)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[14]  and Dungeons & Dragons (2000), she landed the lead role alongside Keira Knightley in the horror movie The Hole (2001). The film was released in the cinema in the UK, and went direct-to-video in the US almost two years later and gained divided reviews. BBC.co.uk wrote: "Given that she has a much leaner role than the one she enjoyed in "American Beauty", the qualities which made her flourish in that multi-Oscar-winner are still abundantly clear".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[15]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">Birch landed the leading role in Ghost World (2001), alongside Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, and Brad Renfro. Her performances gained positive response from film critics. In his review for The New York Times, A. O. Scott praised her: "Thora Birch, whose performance as Lester Burnham's alienated daughter was the best thing about American Beauty, plays a similar character here, with even more intelligence and restraint".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[16]  In his Chicago Reader review, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote, "Birch makes the character an uncanny encapsulation of adolescent agonies without ever romanticizing or sentimentalizing her attitudes, and Clowes and Zwigoff never allow us to patronize her".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[17]  However, in his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris disliked Birch's character of Enid and remarked: "I found Enid smug, complacent, cruel, deceitful, thoughtless, malicious and disloyal".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[18]  She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[19] ===2002–2013<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">Birch played Liz Murray in the made-for-TV movie Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003), for which she received an Emmy nomination.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-20" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[20]  The next year, she appeared as Karen in Silver City (2004), written and directed by John Sayles, which after premiering at that year's Cannes Film Festival, received a mixed reception.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[21] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Had_22-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[22]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">In 2006, Birch starred in the low-budget horror movie Dark Corners, a film in which she plays a troubled young woman who wakes up one day as a different person—someone who is stalked by creatures.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[23]  Tony Sullivan, for Eyeforfilm.co.uk, found Birch "convincing as the two halves of this split personality".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-24" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[24]  She also had the leading role in the 2008 slasher Train.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">She starred alongside Brittany Murphy in the psychological thriller Deadline. The film first premiered directly-to-video in October 2009 in the U.K. before being released in December in the U.S. Birch revealed in 2014 that she observed a "condition" in regard to Murphy, stating: "But when I worked with her I saw the condition—she twirls her finger next to her head—and I thought, that can't be good." Birch also stated that she was not surprised upon hearing of Murphy's death.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Had_22-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[22]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">Also in 2009, she starred in the mystery motion picture Winter of Frozen Dreams. A controversy during filming involving Birch's father and his forced presence during Birch's taping of a sex scene for the movie made tabloid headlines.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NewYorkPost_4-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[4]  In January 2010, Birch played Sidney Bloom in the Lifetime movie The Pregnancy Pact.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-25" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[25]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">Birch was cast and scheduled to make her American stage debut in the off Broadway revival of Dracula, but was fired for the behavior of her father, her manager at the time, who physically threatened one of the show's cast members.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NewYorkTimes_2-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]  Reflecting on the incident in January 2014, Birch revealed that not only was she in a "state of shock," but later accepted that she had upset a lot of people and those around her wanted her to "be not fine."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Had_22-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[22]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">She appeared as the lead character in 2013's Petunia, a film that she also produced and one that received a very limited release.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Had_22-3" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[22] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-26" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[26]  About the motion picture, Birch said: "I think it's just something that's a little bit different from your standard summer fare. It's a little bit more intimate. It's also a very modern tale. I think it's actually honest."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-27" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[27] ===2014–present<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;">In regard to her reduced exposure in the film industry, she insists that she has continually worked and maintained a career but "it's just that no one was paying attention." However, Birch admitted that she "decided to take a break and live my life, branch out a little, educate myself." In addition to her ongoing acting aspirations, Birch is seeking production support for a screenplay and stated that she wants to "move forward" as part of a life in which she considers herself "really lucky!"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Had_22-4" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[22] ==Filmography<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] == ===Film<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] === ===Television<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] === ==Awards<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;">[edit] ==