Offbeat, unconventionally pretty, and utterly mesmerizing, Ellen Barkin
was born on April 16, 1954 in the Bronx, New York, to Evelyn (Rozin), a hospital
administrator, and Sol Barkin, a chemical salesman. Her parents were
both from Russian Jewish families. Raised in the South Bronx and
Queens, New York area, she wanted to be an actress as early as her
teens and was eventually accepted into Manhattan's High School of the
Performing Arts.
Barkin then attended Hunter College and received her degree after
double majoring in history and drama. At one point she wanted to teach
ancient history, but instead turned her thoughts back to her first love: acting. Barkin then continued her education at New York's Actor's
Studio. Fearful of the auditioning process, she studied acting for
seven years before finally landing her first audition. While continuing
her studies, she worked as a waitress at the avant-garde Ocean Club.
Performing off-Broadway in such plays "Shout Across the River" (1979),
"Extremities" (1983), "Fool for Love" (1984) and "Eden Court" (1985),
she was applauded across the board for her first film lead in
American Diner (1982) opposite
Mickey Rourke and
Daniel Stern, and pursued sexy
tough-cookie status thereafter with such quirky roles in
The Big Easy - Der große Leichtsinn (1986) starring
Dennis Quaid and
Siesta (1987) with Irish actor
Gabriel Byrne, whom she married in 1987
and separated from in 1993 after producing a son and daughter. She and
Byrne divorced in 1999.
With trademark squinting eyes and slightly off-kilter facial features,
Barkin continued the fascination of her seamy/steamy
girl-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks status most notably opposite
Al Pacino in the thriller
Sea of Love - Melodie des Todes (1989). In addition, she
was well cast as Robert De Niro's abused
wife in Die Geschichte einer Jugend (1993),
and portrayed "Calamity Jane" in
Wild Bill (1995) with earnest. Other
impressionable offbeat projects included roles in
Angst und Schrecken in Las Vegas (1998),
Gnadenlos schön (1999) and
Mercy - Die dunkle Seite der Lust (2000). On TV, she was well-cast in
the mini-movie
Tropic War (1988)
and won an Emmy award for her gripping performance in
Wie ein Vogel ohne Flügel (1997)
opposite Oprah Winfrey as another abused
wife who, in this case, turns her violent anger on her own daughters.
In 2000, Barkin married billionaire
Ronald O. Perelman, eleven years her
senior and chairman of the Revlon company, and put her career
relatively on hold, appearing sporadically in edgy films like
She Hate Me (2004) and
Palindrome (2004). Barkin and
Perelman went through an acrimonious divorce in 2006.
Just prior to her divorce in late 2005, Barkin ventured into
independent film production with Applehead Pictures, a company she set
up with her brother George Barkin, who is
a scriptwriter and former editor-in-chief of National Lampoon and High
Times, and former Independent Film Channel executive
Caroline Kaplan. In her first
major acting appearance since her divorce from Perelman, Barkin
co-starred in
Ocean's 13 (2007) with
George Clooney,
Matt Damon,
Brad Pitt and former co-star Pacino. She
followed up Ocean's with a supporting role in
Antoine Fuqua's
Gesetz der Strasse - Brooklyn's Finest (2009),
Happy Tears (2009) with
Parker Posey and
Demi Moore, and
Twelve - Doppelt so gut wie Sex! (2010).
Barkin has produced features over time, including
Briefe an Julia (2010) and
Another Happy Day (2011) (she
also starred in the latter project). On the small screen, she appeared
in an episode of
Modern Family (2009) and her
new NBC show,
The New Normal (2012), got a
sneak peek during the Olympics.
More recent sightings have included the films Das Chamäleon (2010), Very Good Girls - Die Liebe eines Sommers (2013), Cobbler: Der Schuhmagier (2014), Hands of Stone (2016) and Active Adults (2017). She has had regular roles on the TV series The New Normal (2012) and Animal Kingdom (2016).
