Rosanna Lauren Arquette (born August 10, 1959) is an American actress,
film director, and
film producer.
Personal life
Arquette was born in
New York City, the daughter of Brenda "Mardi" Olivia (
née Nowak), an actress,
poet, theater operator, activist, acting teacher and
therapist, and
Lewis Arquette, an actor and director. Arquette's paternal grandfather was comedian
Cliff Arquette. Arquette's mother was
Jewish, the daughter of a
Holocaust refugee from
Poland,
and Arquette's father was a convert to
Islam and claimed to be a descendant of explorer
Meriwether Lewis.
Arquette's siblings are actors
Patricia,
Alexis,
Richmond and
David Arquette. Arquette is also the sister-in-law of
Courteney Cox, who is married to Arquette's brother David.
In 1963, Arquette's family moved to
Chicago, where her father managed
The Second City theater for several years. When she was eleven years old, her parents moved to a
commune in
Front Royal,
Virginia. Arquette did not do well at school. In 1974, she hitchhiked across the country with three older teenagers, eventually going to San Francisco, where she worked at
renaissance and
Dickens fairs. Her professional theater debut was May 27, 1977, appearing in the Story Theatre Musical production of
Ovid's The Metamorphoses at the
Callboard Theatre on Melrose Place in
Los Angeles.
Arquette was 19 when she married director/composer
Tony Greco; they divorced in October 1980. Arquette briefly dated
Toto member
Steve Porcaro; the band's
Grammy Award-winning single "
Rosanna," the lead track on the album
Toto IV, was named after her, but the song itself was not about her, according to writer David Paich. In a 1983 interview with
Rolling Stone, Arquette said that she used to bring the band "juice and beer" at all hours of the night during their recording sessions.
Her 1986 marriage to composer
James Newton Howard also ended in divorce.
English pop and rock star
Peter Gabriel recorded the hit "
In Your Eyes" inspired by a brief reconciliation with the actress. Arquette married restaurateur
John Sidel in 1993. One year later their daughter, Zoe Blue Sidel, was born. Arquette went on working intensively, which meant she was often away from home. The couple divorced in 1999. Arquette became engaged to entertainment executive, David Codikow, in September 2001.
Arquette promotes awareness of
breast cancer, while continuing with her work as a director. Her mother died of breast cancer in 1997. In
2002 her critically acclaimed documentary
Searching for Debra Winger was released. In the film, Arquette interviews prominent and respected actresses (mostly between the ages of 30 and 60) to explore the practicalities for a working actress to successfully maintain a family.
Career
From the beginning of her career, Arquette has appeared in both television and screen films. In 1982, she earned an
Emmy Award nomination for the
TV film The Executioner's Song. Thereafter, she played in many cinema movies and TV films and has worked with many of the most acclaimed film directors of the last twenty years. Arquette's first starring role was in
John Sayles's
Baby It's You, a highly regarded but little seen film. She starred in
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) alongside
pop singer
Madonna. Following the commercial and critical failure of both
After Hours and
8 Million Ways to Die, she quit
Hollywood to work in
Europe.
In 1989, Scorsese offered her a part in
New York Stories. Since then, Arquette has appeared, with few exceptions, in one or in several movies each year, some of them of notable interest, like
Pulp Fiction and the
David Cronenberg film,
Crash. An offbeat choice, however, was to fly downunder and make the Australian film
Wendy Cracked a Walnut (1990) (also known as
…Almost). An expensive film, and a huge box office flop, only the musical score by
Bruce Smeaton was generally noted by critics, for its musical innovation. In 1990, Arquette appeared on the cover and in a nude pictorial in
Playboy's September issue, although she claimed it was without her prior knowledge or consent.
In recent years, Arquette has expanded into directing. Recent films which she has directed include the documentaries
Searching for Debra Winger (2002) and
All We Are Saying (2005); she also produced both projects.
Arquette appeared in the short running
What About Brian as Nicole Varsi and on
Showtime's
The L Word as Cherie Jaffe.
In 2009, she joined
Fit Parent Magazine, founded by Craig Knight, as Editor at Large.
Filmography as actress
- Medium (2008) (guest star for one episode)
Filmography as director/producer
