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Leoni was born Elizabeth Téa
Pantaleoni 'teːɑ lɛ'oːniː in New York City, the daughter of Emily (née
Patterson), a dietician and nutritionist, and Anthony Pantaleoni, a
corporate lawyer. Leoni’s mother is a native of Texas and her father is of
Italian and Polish descent. Leoni’s paternal grandmother, Helen “Helenka”
Tradusa Adamowska (1901 - 1987), was a film and stage actress who was a
member of a family of prominent musicians known as the Adamowski Trio.
Leoni attended Brearley School and The Putney School. She attended but did
not complete studies at Sarah Lawrence College. She went on to star in a
number of TV series and movies, starting as “Lisa DiNapoli” on Santa
Barbara in 1989. She starred in the 1995 box-office hit, Bad Boys, along
with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Her most commercially successful
movie was Deep Impact, in which her character breaks the story of a comet
that is going to hit Earth. She also starred in Woody Allen’s movie
Hollywood Ending, with Allen and Mark Rydell. In 2004, she starred in
Spanglish with Adam Sandler, Cloris Leachman, and Paz Vega.
In 1992, she landed the starring role in Fox’s Flying Blind, a short-lived
sitcom. In 1995, Leoni landed the lead role in the television sitcom The
Naked Truth, playing Nora Wilde, a tabloid news journalist. The show was a
minor hit and was cancelled in 1998. In 2001, she starred with Sam Neill
and William H. Macy in the blockbuster, Jurassic Park III, the third
instalment of the Jurassic Park franchise. The film was a major box office
hit and is one of her most notable roles.
She was ranked #79 on the FHM 100 Sexiest Women of 2000.
Leoni states in the October 27, 2006, issue of Life magazine that she
became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF partially because her paternal
grandmother was the president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF for 25 years.
She married her first husband, Neil Joseph Tardio, Jr., a television
producer, on June 8, 1991, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Hope, New
Jersey. The couple divorced in 1995. She married her second husband, actor
David Duchovny, on May 6, 1997, after a nine-week courtship. Their first
child, daughter Madelaine West Duchovny, was born on April 24, 1999, in
Southern California, and their second, son Kyd Miller Duchovny, was born
on June 15, 2002, in Los Angeles, California. During a June 14, 2007,
interview on The Tonight Show, she commented on her 10 year anniversary
and how 10 years in Hollywood is like “50 years in the real world”. She
also revealed that she and Duchovny got tattoos on their ring fingers to
celebrate their tenth anniversary. She is a vegetarian. The family lives
in Malibu, California. Leoni starred as herself representing Dana Scully
alongside Duchovny in the X-Files season 7 spoof episode "Hollywood A.D.".
Duchovny was also writer and director.
An asteroid, 8299 Téaleoni, has been named after her. |
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"I don't do T&A very well
because I haven't got much of either."
"David. The best thing about marriage is David" (When asked what is
the best thing about marriage to David Duchovny).
"Not to sound like a whore, but I've been with...I've worked
with...some very attractive men. Nicolas Cage...Al Pacino...Ben
Stiller...and Woody Allen".
"I love tennis. I love very aggressive tennis, and I think I'm quite
good. Golf, well, of course you can drink beer when you play that,
but I take it pretty seriously, and I'm quite good at that. And I'm
a good swimmer, and I used to compete in windsurfing" |
