Anne Archer Bio

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Anne Archer (born August 24, 1947) is an American actress. Archer is noted for her role as the betrayed housewife in the 1987 film Fatal Attraction for which she received an Academy Award nomination. As a member of the ensemble cast in the film Short Cuts, Archer was awarded a special Golden Globe. Archer is the founder of Artists for Human Rights.

Anne Archer: Career

Archer received a degree in drama from Pitzer College. In the early 1970s, she began appearing in a variety of guest roles on episodic television series such as Hawaii Five-O, Ironside, and Love American Style as well as an episode of Night Gallery opposite William Shatner called "Can a Dead Man Strike from the Grave?" Archer received the Miss Golden Globe honor in 1971 and her first major movie role was opposite Jon Voight in the 1973 film The All-American Boy. She then starred in the short-lived 1973 television version of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (based on the 1969 movie of the same name). Following this, she made several more guest appearances in episodic television series such as Little House on the Prairie, Mannix, Petrocelli, and McCloud. She was reportedly was one of the finalists for the role of Lois Lane in Superman: The Movie (1978) before the part ultimately went to Margot Kidder. Archer's next major motion picture was the ill-fated Raise The Titanic in 1980. Following this, she appeared in Green Ice with Ryan O'Neal. With both films becoming box office flops, Archer then went to work off-Broadway during the early 1980s.

In 1984, Archer joined the cast of the primetime soap drama Falcon Crest, where she was billed as "special guest star". The series was a Top 10 ratings hit at the time and her role, as scheming advertising agency boss Cassandra Wilder, lasted a year and reunited her with actor David Selby with whom she had co-starred in Raise The Titanic. A breakthrough role for Archer came in the 1987 thriller Fatal Attraction, in which she portrayed the wife of Michael Douglas. The film earned her an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress. She later played the physician wife of CIA analyst Jack Ryan in two films based on Tom Clancy novels, 1992's Patriot Games and 1994's Clear and Present Danger opposite Harrison Ford.

Archer also appeared in the much maligned Madonna vehicle Body Of Evidence in 1993, and also in Robert Altman's 1993 film Short Cuts as a woman who performs at children's parties as a clown. Not known for provocative roles, Archer accepted the leading role of Mrs. Robinson, including its nude scene, for London's West End stage production of The Graduate, for which she received outstanding reviews.

More recently, Archer has appeared in recurring roles on several television shows. On The L Word she plays Lenore Pieszecki, the troubled mother of Alice Pieszecki (Leisha Hailey); on Ghost Whisperer she plays Beth Gordon, the mother of lead character Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt), and on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia she plays Barbara Reynolds, the self-serving socialite mother of Dee and Dennis Reynolds (Kaitlin Olson and Glenn Howerton, respectively), and ex-wife of Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito). She currently plays Laurel Limoges on The CW drama Privileged, starring Joanna Garcí­a, Lucy Hale and Ashley Newbrough.

Anne Archer: Personal life

Archer was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of actors Marjorie Lord and John Archer. Archer married William Davis in 1968 though the couple divorced in the mid 1970s. She then married Terry Jastrow in 1978. Archer has two sons, one from each marriage. In 1991, Archer made the story of her past abortion public.

Anne Archer: Scientology

Archer is a member of the Church of Scientology, first encountering the religion in the late 1970s at an acting school run by devout follower Milton Katselas, the Beverly Hills Playhouse. Her husband and fellow Scientologist, Terry Jastrow, also took courses at the Katselas school. Commenting on her experiences at the Playhouse, Archer said "I have seen performances sometimes in that class that are so brilliant that they're better than anything I have seen on the stage or film." Between 1982 and 1986 Archer was a spokeswoman for Applied Scholastics, the literacy training organization sponsored by the Church of Scientology.

Her son Tommy Davis is the head of the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Centre International in Los Angeles, California.

In 1998, Archer and fellow entertainers Isaac Hayes, Chick Corea, and Haywood Nelson attended the 30th anniversary of Freedom Magazine, the Church of Scientology's investigative news journal, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Anne Archer: Artists for Human Rights

In 2006, Archer founded the non-profit organization Artists for Human Rights. The program is affiliated with the Church of Scientology and was developed by Archer as an outgrowth of the church's Youth for Human Rights organization.