Natasha T. Henstridge (born August 15, 1974) is a Canadian fashion model turned actress. Her most notable roles include Species and Species II.

Biography

Early life & modeling career

Henstridge was born in Springdale, Newfoundland and Labrador, the daughter of Helen, a homemaker, and Brian Henstridge, a biker/contractor. She was raised in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada with younger brother, Shane. At the age of thirteen, she entered the Casablanca Modeling Agency's "Look of the Year" contest and was chosen first runner-up. The following year, Henstridge went to Paris to pursue her modeling ambitions. At fifteen, she was featured on her first magazine cover, the French edition of Cosmopolitan. Several magazine covers followed and Henstridge went on to do television commercials for products such as Olay, Old Spice, and Lady Stetson. Her modeling career established, Henstridge moved on to a career in movies.

Movies

In her movie debut Species, Henstridge played "Sil," a genetically engineered Alien/Human Hybrid created from a message received by SETI, who breaks free from the captivity of a laboratory when her overseers attempt to "euthanize" her. Pursued by a team of experts who band together to stop her before her "Species" multiplies, Sil embarks on a killing spree while also discovering her powerful instinct to mate. With a strong cast, an interesting story angle and polished sensuality Species was an instant hit, raking in $113 Million (USD). Notable for its sexual content, the film won Henstridge the MTV Movie Award for "best kiss" for a scene in which her character, while kissing an aggressive would-be suitor, impales his head with her tongue.

The movie gave Henstridge a platform to launch her acting career, but most of the following movies she appeared in were not as successful. Species spawned a sequel Species II, in which a male alien was attempting to mate with Eve, a genetic duplicate of Sil.

Eve was played as gentle and more docile than the original Sil, creating an air of sympathy for the character who spends the majority of the movie imprisoned in a glass habitat and undergoing painful experiments. The film was a failure at the box office, taking in $19 million (USD) domestically. A few smaller independent movies followed, including Bela Donna and Dog Park, with varied box office returns. She also starred opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in the action/adventure movie Maximum Risk. Despite having some reservations about the sci-fi genre, she signed up for John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars in the lead role and reprised her role as Eve in a brief cameo in Species III. Ghosts of Mars was not well-received, with a 21% rating in Rotten Tomatoes.

In 2000, she starred in The Whole Nine Yards and its 2004 sequel The Whole Ten Yards.

Television

She has played a number of roles on television, such as Caracara and The Outer Limits. From 2005 to 2006, Henstridge had a recurring role in the cancelled ABC drama Commander in Chief, which starred Geena Davis as a fictional female U.S. President. She also hosted Mostly True Stories: Urban Legends Revealed on TLC, a show about urban legends. Natasha guest starred in South Park episode 111 "Tom's Rhinoplasty" as a substitute teacher, and was credited as "the chick from Species."

Henstridge was working on the TV show She Spies, prior to its cancellation. She has also completed a TV movie for the Lifetime channel titled Widow on the Hill. In 2006 she filmed the CTV original mini-series Would Be Kings in Hamilton, Ontario. She also starred in the expansion set to the video game Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, entitled Kane's Wrath.

In 2008 Natasha played a role on the new ABC show, Eli Stone. She has also been involved with two new productions, joining the cast of Dave Rodriguez's "Anytown," an indie drama that examines a racist high school attack and its aftermath. Henstridge will play a news anchor covering an attack on an Indian-American boy by two fellow students who videotape the crime. The event forces her to examine the media's post-September 11 role in fueling hate crimes committed by youth. She has also been involved with the production of Should've Been Romeo from American Independent Pictures.

Personal life

Henstridge was married to actor Damian Chapa twice. However, the second marriage lasted only a few months and the couple divorced in 1996. She has two sons by actor Liam Waite, named Tristan River Waite, born October 1998, and Asher Sky Waite, born September 2001. Her long-term partner is Scottish singer-songwriter and actor Darius Danesh.

Filmography

• 1995 Species
• 1996 Maximum Risk
• 1996 Adrenalin: Fear the Rush
• 1998 Bela Donna
• 1998 Dog Park
• 1998 Species II
• 1999 Caracara
• 2000 The Whole Nine Yards
• 2000 Second Skin
• 2000 It Had To Be You
• 2001 Ghosts of Mars
• 2001 Kevin of the North
• 2002 She Spies
• 2002 Steal
• 2004 Species III
• 2004 The Whole Ten Yards
• 2005 Widow On The Hill
• Eli Stone
• 2008 Deception

* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Natasha_Henstridge".
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Christina Applegate (born November 25, 1971) is an Emmy Award-winning American actress, known for playing Kelly Bundy on the long-running FOX Broadcasting Company sitcom Married... with Children. She has since established a film and television career, with major roles in several pictures, such as Farce of the Penguins, Anchorman, The Sweetest Thing, a Broadway revival of the musical Sweet Charity. She currently plays the lead character, Samantha Newly, in the ABC sitcom Samantha Who?.

Biography

Early life

Applegate was born in Hollywood, California. Her father, Robert W. Applegate, was a record producer and record company executive, and her mother, Nancy Lee Priddy, was a singer and an actress. Her parents split up shortly after her birth. She has two half-siblings (Alisa and Kyle) from her father's remarriage.

Career

Early Career

At the age of three months, Christina Applegate made her TV debut, appearing with her mother in the soap Days of Our Lives and later, at age five, in a commercial for Playtex. Her first big screen appearance followed at age nine when she was seen in the 1981 films Jaws of Satan (a.k.a. King Cobra), and Beatlemania. She debuted in a television movie as Young Grace Kelly in the biopic Grace Kelly (1983, opposite Cheryl Ladd) and appeared on her first TV series in Showtime's political comedy Washingtoon (1985), in which she played a Congressman's daughter. She was also spotted as a guest in the shows Father Murphy (1981) and Charles in Charge (1984 and 1985).

In 1986, Applegate won the role of Robin Kennedy (1986-1987), a cop's daughter, on the police drama series Heart of the City. Meanwhile, she was also seen guest starring in the sitcoms All is Forgiven, Still the Beaver, Amazing Stories, and Family Ties.

Applegate eventually scored her most memorable role of ditzy Kelly Bundy in Fox's comedy series Married... with Children. She portrayed her character for ten years (1987-1997). While working on the series, Applegate was seen in Dance 'Til Dawn (1988, NBC) and in Streets (1990), in which a teenage drug addict is stalked by a psychotic police officer. Applegate guest-starred in 21 Jump Street (1988), Top of the Heap (1991, as Kelly Bundy), and hosted Saturday Night Live (May 8, 1993) and Mad TV (1996).

The character of Sue Ellen Crandell in the comedy feature Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991) was Applegate's first starring role. She followed it up with films such as Vibrations (1995), Across the Moon (1995), Wild Bill (1995), Mars Attacks! (1996), and Nowhere (1997). After the sitcom Married... with Children was canceled in May 1997, Applegate starred as Claudine Van Doozen in the independent feature Claudine's Return (a.k.a. Kiss of Fire), was cast in the action-comedy The Big Hit, and played the fiancée of a Mob descendant in the Mafia satire Jane Austen's Mafia (1998).

In that same year, NBC handed her the title role in their sitcom Jesse. The series debuted in 1998, received rave reviews, and brought Applegate a People's Choice Award for Favorite Female Performer in a New TV series and the TV Guide Award for Star of a New Series as well as a nomination at the Golden Globe for Lead Actress in a Comedy. Though the series gained praise, it was canceled in 2000.

The new millennium saw Applegate playing the dual role of a 12th-century noblewoman, Princess Rosalind, and her 21st-century descendant, Julia Malfete, in the time-travel comedy Just Visiting (2001). After gaining wide notice for playing Cameron Diaz's level-headed best friend, Courtney Rockcliffe, in The Sweetest Thing (2002), Applegate continued to win roles in such movies as Heroes (2002), the airplane comedy View from the Top (2003), Wonderland (2003), Grand Theft Parsons (2003), Surviving Christmas (2004) and Employee of the Month (2004). Behind the screen, she was the executive producer of Comforters, Miserable (2001).

Later career

Applegate also guest-starred on two episodes of Friends, in the ninth (2002) and tenth (2003) seasons, titled "The One with Rachel's Other Sister" and "The One Where Rachel's Sister Babysits" as Amy Green, Rachel's (Jennifer Aniston) younger sister. She won the 55th Annual Prime Time Emmy Award for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy for her performance in "The One with Rachel's Other Sister". On the silver screen, she portrayed TV anchorwoman Veronica Corningstone in the 2004 films Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and the DVD bonus film Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie.

In addition to her screen work, Applegate has performed on stage in such productions as The Axeman's Jazz, Nobody Leaves Empty Handed, The Runthrough, as well as John Cassavetes' The Third Day (co-starring Gena Rowlands). In 2004, she debuted on the Broadway stage playing the title role of Charity Hope Valentine in a revival of the 1966 musical Sweet Charity. She eventually took home the 2005 Theatre World Award and was nominated for a 2005 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

Applegate was one of the founding members of the Pussycat Dolls, which debuted at the Viper Room on Sunset Strip, Los Angeles in 1995. Applegate emceed for the group when they moved to The Roxy in 2002.

While appearing in Sweet Charity, she broke her foot, and it was announced that the musical would close during previews. She persuaded the producers to rescind their decision, and on April 18, 2005, she made her Broadway debut. Sweet Charity ended its Broadway run on December 31, 2005. In 2006, she appeared in an advertising campaign for Hanes title "Look who we've got our Hanes on now". The campaign had started in 2005 but she, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Kevin Bacon were added to the ads in 2006.

In 2006, Applegate appeared in Jessica Simpson's music video "A Public Affair", alongside Eva Longoria, Ryan Seacrest and Christina Milian. Applegate is currently starring in the ABC comedy, Samantha Who?, costarring Jean Smart, Jennifer Esposito, and Melissa McCarthy. The series is about a 30-year-old who, after a hit-and-run accident, develops amnesia and has to rediscover her life, her relationships and herself.

In 2003 Applegate was the spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day, which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer education and research. She was mentioned in the popular song by P.M. Dawn entitled "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss". The line, "Christina Applegate, you gotta put me on" is a reference to the song "Bonita Applebum" by A Tribe Called Quest.

Personal life

In October 2001, Applegate married longtime boyfriend Johnathon Schaech, in a small mixed-religion Palm Springs ceremony attended by family and close friends. Schaech filed for divorce in November 2005, citing irreconcilable differences; Applegate and Schaech's final divorce papers were entered August 10 2007 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Her close friends include Lance Bass. On July 1, 2008, her close friend and ex-boyfriend Lee Grivas was found dead of an apparent drug overdose.

Breast cancer

On August 3, 2008, People Magazine reported that Applegate had been diagnosed with breast cancer. This was confirmed by her representative.

On August 19, 2008. It was announced that Applegate is cancer free after a double mastectomy, even though cancer was found in only one breast. She has an inherited genetic fault, a BRCA1 mutation, which very often causes breast cancer in those with said fault. Her mother, Nancy Priddy, is a breast cancer survivor. Applegate said when she first was diagnosed "I was just shaking and - and then also immediately, I had to go into ... `take-care-of-business-mode'" which included a change to a more healthy diet. Applegate appeared on a television special entitled Stand Up to Cancer designed to raise funds for breast cancer research. The one hour special was broadcast on CBS, NBC, and ABC television networks on September 5.

Applegate, who was given the all clear following the operation, is n