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Liv Rundgren Tyler (born July 1,
1977) is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's
lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a
career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she
decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994 film
Silent Fall. She then appeared in supporting roles in Empire Records
(1995), Heavy (1996), and That Thing You Do! (1996). Tyler later achieved
critical recognition in the leading role Stealing Beauty (1996). She
followed this by starring in supporting roles including Inventing the
Abbotts (1997) and Cookie's Fortune (1999).
Tyler achieved international recognition as a result of her portrayal of
Elf maiden Arwen Undómiel in the The Lord of the Rings films. She has
appeared in an eclectic range of films, including the 2004 comedy Jersey
Girl, the indie film Lonesome Jim (2005), the drama Reign Over Me (2007)
and big-budget studio films such as Armageddon (1998), The Strangers
(2008) and The Incredible Hulk (2008).
Since 2003, Tyler has served as a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Goodwill Ambassador for the United States, and as a spokesperson for
Givenchy's line of perfume and cosmetics. Tyler married musician Royston
Langdon of the band Spacehog in 2003; they have one son, Milo, born
December 14, 2004. The couple announced their separation in May 2008.
Tyler was born Liv Rundgren at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, New
York. She is the first-born daughter of Bebe Buell, a model, singer, and
former Playboy Playmate (Miss November 1974), and Steven Tyler, the lead
singer of Aerosmith. Her mother named her after Norwegian actress Liv
Ullmann after seeing Ullmann on the cover of the March 5, 1977, issue of
TV Guide. She has three half-siblings: Mia Tyler (born 1978), Chelsea Anna
Tallarico (born 1989), and Taj Monroe Tallarico (born 1992). Her maternal
grandmother, Dorothea Johnson, founded the Protocol School of Washington.
At birth, Buell claimed that rock star Todd Rundgren was Tyler's
biological father. Tyler discovered her true parentage at age nine. She
discovered that she was Steven Tyler's daughter after meeting him and
noticing a resemblance she shared with his other daughter, Mia. When she
asked her mother about the similarity, the secret was revealed. The truth
about Tyler's paternity did not become public until five years later, in
1991, when she changed her name from Rundgren to Tyler, but kept the
former as a middle name. Buell's alleged reason for the initial decision
was that Steven was too heavily addicted to drugs at the time of her
birth. Since learning the truth about her paternity, Liv and Steven have
developed a close relationship. They have also worked together
professionally, once when she appeared in Aerosmith's music video for
"Crazy" in 1993 and again when Aerosmith performed many of the songs in
the film Armageddon (1998), in which Tyler starred.
Tyler attended the Congressional School of Virginia, Breakwater School and
Waynflete School in Portland, Maine, before returning to New York City
with her mother at the age of 12. She went to York Preparatory in New York
City for junior high and high school, after her mother researched the
school to accommodate Tyler's attention-deficit disorder. She graduated in
1995 and left to continue her acting career. When asked about the way she
spent her early life, Tyler said: "For me, I didn’t get much of a
childhood in my teen years because I’ve been working since I was 14. But
that also kept me out of trouble. When everybody was doing acid and
partying like crazy, I was at work on a movie in Tuscany ... having my own
fun, of course, but it was a different kind of thing. I have no regrets. I
love the way my life has gone."
At the age of 14, Tyler received her first modeling job with assistance of
Paulina Porizkova who took photos of her that ended up in Interview
magazine. She later starred in television commercials. However, she became
bored with her modeling career less than a year after it started, and
decided to go into acting. She never took acting lessons. Tyler first
became known to television audiences when she starred alongside Alicia
Silverstone in the music video for Aerosmith's 1993 song "Crazy".
Tyler made her feature film debut in Silent Fall in 1994, where she played
the older sister of an autistic boy. In 1995, she starred in the comedy
drama Empire Records. Tyler has described Empire Records as "one of the
best experiences" she has ever had. Soon after, she landed a supporting
role in James Mangold's 1996 drama Heavy as Callie, a naive young
waitress. The film received favorable reviews; critic Janet Maslin noted:
"Ms. Tyler ... gives a charmingly ingenuous performance, betraying no
self-consciousness about her lush good looks."
The breakthrough role in Tyler's career came in Stealing Beauty (1996), in
which she played Lucy Harmon, an innocent, romantic teenager who travels
to Italy intent on losing her virginity. The film received generally mixed
reviews, but every film critic complimented Tyler's performance; Variety
wrote: "Tyler is the perfect accomplice. At times sweetly awkward, at
others composed and serene, the actress appears to respond effortlessly
and intuitively to the camera, creating a rich sense of what Lucy is about
that often is not explicit in the dialogue." Empire noted, "Liv Tyler
(here radiantly resembling a ganglier young Ava Gardner) with a rare
opportunity to enamour, a break she capitalises on with composure." The
film was directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Bertolucci chose Tyler for the
role after meeting with a number of young girls in Los Angeles, including
Tyler's music video co-star Alicia Silverstone. But Bertolucci claimed
"there was something missing in all of them". He later admitted that what
he saw in Tyler was a gravitas he described as "a New York aura". During
promotion of the film, Tyler admitted she wanted to separate herself from
the character during production; "I tried my damnedest not to think of my
own situation. But at one point, after a take, I just started to cry and
cry. I remembered when I found out about my dad and how we just stared at
each other from head to toe taking in every nook and cranny."
She later appeared in That Thing You Do! (1996), a movie about the story
of a fictional one-hit wonder rock band called The Oneders, following
their whirlwind rise to the top of the pop charts, and just as quickly,
their plunge back to obscurity. The film was written and directed by Tom
Hanks. It grossed over $25 million worldwide, and was met with favorable
reviews. The following year, she appeared in Inventing the Abbotts in
1997, in which she played Pamela the daughter of Will Patton and Barbara
Williams' characters. The movie is based on a short story by Sue Miller.
Entertainment Weekly declared Tyler's performance as "lovely and pliant".
That same year, Tyler was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most
Beautiful People.
Tyler next appeared in Armageddon (1998), where she played the daughter of
Bruce Willis' character and love interest of Ben Affleck's character. The
film generated mostly critical reviews, but was a box office success
earning $553 million worldwide. The movie included the songs "I Don't Want
to Miss a Thing" and "What Kind of Love Are You On" by Aerosmith. In a
2001 interview with The Guardian, she admitted that she turned down the
role in Armageddon; "I really didn't want to do it at first and I turned
it down a couple of times, but the biggest reason I changed my mind was
because I was scared of it. I wanted to try it for that very reason. I
mean, I'm not really in this to do amazing things in my career - I just
want it to be special when I make a movie."
She was then cast in the drama Onegin (1999), a film based on the 19th
century Russian novel by Alexander Pushkin, in which she portrayed Tatyana
Larina and co-starred with Ralph Fiennes. Tyler was required to master an
English accent, though Stephen Holden of the New York Times felt that her
approximation of an English accent was "inert". The film was critically
and financially unsuccessful. That same year, she appeared in the
historical comedy film Plunkett & Macleane.
She later appeared in two films directed by Robert Altman, Cookie's
Fortune (1999) and Dr. T & the Women (2000). In Cookie's Fortune, she was
part of an ensemble cast that included Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Chris
O'Donnell, and Patricia Neal. Her performance well received amongst
critics; Salon.com wrote: "This is the first time in which Tyler's acting
is a match for her beauty (she's always been a bit forlorn). Altman helps
her find some snap, but a relaxed, silly snap, as in the cartoon sound she
makes when she takes a midday swig of bourbon. The lazy geniality of the
movie is summed up by the way Emma (Tyler's character) saunters off to
take a swim with her cowboy hat and pint of Wild Turkey." Entertainment
Weekly also noted that Tyler is "sweetly gruff as the tomboy
troublemaker". In the romantic comedy, Dr. T & the Women, she played
Marilyn, a gynecologist patient of Richard Gere's character, who is the
lesbian lover of his daughter, played by Kate Hudson.
In 2001, Tyler played the object of infatuation for three men (Matt
Dillon, John Goodman and Paul Reiser) in the black comedy One Night at
McCool's. In discussion of the role, she said: "This was definitely the
first part where I had to be so physically aware and have people so aware
of me physically. Maybe it's not hard for anybody else, but it is a bit
for me. I mean I love my body and I feel very comfortable in my skin, but
this was tough." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote: "Tyler, a true
beauty, gives the role a valiant try, but her range is too limited to play
this amalgam of female perfection."
2001 marked a significant turning point in Tyler's career, when she
starred in the feature film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring, directed by Peter Jackson. She depicted the elf princess Arwen
Undómiel. The film is based on the similarly titled first volume of J. R.
R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The filmmakers approached Tyler after
seeing her performance in Plunkett & Macleane. She learned to speak the
fictitious Elvish language that was created by Tolkien. The film broke
records for opening-day sales and opening weekend takings and was the
second highest-grossing film of 2001. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco
Chronicle noted that Tyler's performance was "lovely and earnest".
A year later, Tyler again starred as Arwen in The Lord of the Rings: The
Two Towers, the second installment of the series. The film, like the
first, received favorable reviews. Tyler spent months before filming
learning swordfighting, to be used during the concluding battle scenes in
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, though her scenes from the battle
were removed after the script was changed. The film was an enormous box
office success, earning over $926 million worldwide, out grossing its
predecessor, which earned over $871 million. In 2003, the third and last
installment of the series, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,
was released and became the second-highest grossing film, unadjusted for
inflation, of all time, making The Lord of the Rings series the fourth
highest grossing film series in history.
Following the success of The Lord of the Rings, she appeared opposite her
Armageddon co-star Ben Affleck in writer-director Kevin Smith's romantic
comedy Jersey Girl (2004), playing a woman who re-opens a widowed father's
heart to love, played by Affleck. In an interview with MTV News, Tyler
confessed that she felt "scared and vulnerable" while filming Jersey Girl,
adding "I was so used to those other elements of the character (Arwen). On
The Lord of the Rings, a lot of things were done in post-production,
whereas this was really just about me and Ben sitting there, just shooting
off dialogue." However, she reiterated that doing Jersey Girl was what she
wanted to do.
In 2005 she appeared in Steve Buscemi's independent drama Lonesome Jim,
where she was cast alongside Casey Affleck, as a single mother and nurse
who reconnects with an old fling who has returned to their small town of
Indiana after a failed run as a novelist in New York. The film was
screened at a special presentation at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival
where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Tyler's next appearance
in film was in a supporting role as an insightful therapist who tries to
help a once-successful dentist (Adam Sandler) cope with the loss of his
family during the events of the September 11th attacks in Reign Over Me
(2007).
In 2008 she starred in the horror-thriller The Strangers with Scott
Speedman, a film about a young couple who are terrorized one night by
three masked assailants in their remote country house. Although the film
garnered a mixed reception among critics, it was a box office success. In
an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she noted that The Strangers was
the most challenging role of her career. "It was as far as I could push
myself in every way: physically, emotionally, mentally."
She appeared in The Incredible Hulk (2008), in which she played Dr. Betty
Ross, the love interest of the title-character, played by Edward Norton.
Tyler was attracted to the love story in the script, and was a fan of the
television show. She said filming the part was "very physical, which was
fun", and compared her performance to "a deer caught in the headlights".
The Incredible Hulk was a box office success, earning over $262 million
worldwide. The Washington Post, in review of the film, wrote: "Tyler gives
Betty an appropriately angelic nimbus of ethereal gentleness as the one
Beauty who can tame the Beast ... during their most pivotal encounters."
Tyler dated actor Joaquin Phoenix from 1995 to November 1998; the couple
met on the set of Inventing the Abbotts. In 1998, she began dating British
musician Royston Langdon of the band Spacehog. Tyler and Langdon became
engaged in February 2001, and got married in Barbados on March 25, 2003.
On December 14, 2004, she gave birth to a son, Milo William Langdon. On
May 8, 2008, the couple confirmed through representatives that they would
be separating but remain friends. In an interview with The Daily
Telegraph, Tyler revealed that her separation from Langdon led her to move
to Los Angeles, explaining that it was hard to be in the New York home
they shared.
Tyler is an active supporter of the charitable United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF). She was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United
States in 2003. In November 2004, she hosted the lighting of the UNICEF
Snowflake in New York City. Tyler also served as spokesperson for the 2004
Givenchy Mother's Day promotion, in support of UNICEF's Maternal &
Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) campaign.
Since 2004, she has donated to the Women's Cancer Research Fund to support
innovative research, education, and outreach directed at the development
of more effective approaches to the early diagnosis, treatment and
prevention of all women's cancers. In October 2007, Tyler, along with her
mother, Bebe Buell and her grandmother, Dorothea Johnson, helped launch
the Emergen-C Pink energy drink, in which the event was in honor of Breast
Cancer Awareness month.
She is good friends with designer Stella McCartney, model Helena
Christensen and actresses Kate Hudson and Gwyneth Paltrow. Tyler was
formerly a vegan, but has since begun to eat meat. In 2003, she became the
spokesperson for Givenchy perfume and cosmetics; in 2005 the brand named a
rose after her, which was used in one of its fragrances. In 2009, Tyler
signed on for two more years as Givenchy spokesperson. |
