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Daryl Christine Hannah was born December 3rd, 1960, in Chicago, Illinois. As a child, she was diagnosed as almost autistic. According to her sister, actress Page Hannah, Daryl was a "very private, rather dreamy person with a "Please Knock" sign on the door and parakeets and hamsters running loose inside."

Daryl has suffered from insomnia since a very early age, which encouraged her to escape into the world of movies as a young girl.

big family, big dreams

Her parents divorced when she was in the first grade. After they remarried, Daryl was eventually one of eight children (including half-siblings and step-siblings), consisting of seven girls and a brother, Don. Her uncle, Haskell Wexler, was a filmmaker who won two Oscars for his work as a cinematographer.

In high school, Daryl played soccer on the boys' team because there was no soccer team for girls. Before deciding to pursue acting, she practiced ballet with Maria Tallchief. She then switched to drama, studying at Chicago's Goodman Theater.

Hannah made her screen debut in the 1978 Brian De Palma thriller The Fury, when she was just 17. It was only a small part, but it gave her the incentive to further her dramatic training. She studied with Stella Adler and graduated from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Following her graduation, she played Kim Basinger's younger sister in 1981's Hard Country. In 1982, she co-starred in Summer Lovers, but it was another film from the same year that made audiences sit up and take notice of the young actress. As Pris, the seductive, pleasure-model "replicant" in Ridley Scott's futuristic detective story Blade Runner, Hannah was perfectly cast as the statuesque, sexy android.

Also in 1982, Daryl began a ten-year, on-again, off-again relationship with singer/songwriter Jackson Browne. During this period, she occasionally played keyboards and sang backup with his band in the studio and on stage.

from android to mermaid

If people took notice of her for her supporting role as Pris, then it's fair to say that her next role made her a star. Appearing opposite Tom Hanks in Ron Howard's 1984 romantic comedy Splash, Hannah demonstrated her versatility and comedic flair as Madison the mermaid.

Appearances in some more films that year solidified her status as a rising new talent: She played a student who gets involved with a motorcycle riding loner in Reckless, and Mickey Rourke's girlfriend in The Pope of Greenwich Village. Further pointing to her potential as a rising actress, Hannah was selected as one of 12 "Promising New Actors of 1984" in John Willis' Screen World.

Despite her sudden popularity and acclaim, Hannah's next few film appearances didn't ignite audiences or critics alike. In 1986's The Clan of the Cave Bear, she portrayed a Cro-Magnon cavegirl, but few people actually saw the film. She followed this up by playing a performance artist in the comedy Legal Eagles, co-starring Robert Redford, and then as an interior designer in Oliver Stone's 1987's critically-acclaimed Wall Street.

Many critics felt that her best performance since Splash came when she portrayed the title role in the 1987 romantic comedy Roxanne, starring Steve Martin in a contemporary retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac. The following year she was featured alongside acting legend Peter O'Toole in High Spirits, where she played a lonely ghost.

more roles and a certain john-john

Hannah was teamed with some big-name actresses in 1989's Steel Magnolias and was highly praised for her portrayal of a Southern hairdresser. She also got to work with Woody Allen that same year, appearing in Crimes and Misdemeanors.

1989 was also the year Daryl Hannah made headlines regarding her new love interest. She began a serious relationship with John F. Kennedy, Jr., whom she dated on and off until 1994. The couple never wed, allegedly due to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' disapproval of her son marrying an actress.

Hannah next portrayed a fragile mental patient in the 1990 black comedy Crazy People. In 1991's At Play in the Fields of the Lord, she played a missionary's wife. She returned to comedy, as Chevy Chase's mixed-up love interest in 1992's Memoirs of an Invisible Man.

daryl attacks

Daryl Hannah's next project was a giant achievement for the actress (literally); she co-produced and starred in the title role of the made-for-TV film Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman in 1993. She also played Jack Lemmon's daughter in Grumpy Old Men that same year.

The following year, she was honored at the Berlin International Film Festival. Hannah wrote, produced and directed The Last Supper, and received the Jury Award for Best Short. She revised her role as Jack Lemmon's daughter in the sequel Grumpier Old Men and co-starred in the drama The Ties That Bind, both in 1995.

Daryl Hannah played an adult film actress trying to break into legitimate films in 1997's The Last Days of Frankie the Fly, co-starring Dennis Hopper and Kiefer Sutherland. In Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man, she was given the opportunity to really act again, portraying a mentally off-center housewife.

Hannah learned the art of the striptease for her role in 2000's Dancing at the Blue Iguana. She demonstrated her pole-dancing skills on The Tonight Show, but hasn't yet joined the growing list of Hollywood ladies who've installed a stripping pole in their homes.

blonde ambition

In the fall of 2000, Hannah conquered her lifelong fear of the live stage when she starred in the London production of The Seven Year Itch. She reprised Marilyn Monroe's part from the 1955 film of the same name, receiving mixed reviews from critics.

More roles in smaller, indie films followed, including Jackpot and Ring of Fire in 2001, and Run for the Money in 2002. She recently portrayed Shane West's mother in the teen flick A Walk to Remember starring Mandy Moore and will next be seen in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill.

After her highly publicized romance with John F. Kennedy, Jr., Daryl Hannah has been romantically linked with her Run for the Money castmate Val Kilmer and magician David Blaine.