Actress.
Born Ashley Tyler Ciminella, on April 19, 1968, in Los Angeles,
California. Her father, sports broadcasting producer Michael Ciminella,
left the family before she was four years old; Ashley moved with her
mother, Naomi Judd, and older sister, Wynonna Judd, to her parents�
native state of Kentucky soon after. She was 15 when her mother and
sister signed their first record deal, with RCA, as the country-singing
duo the Judds. While Naomi and Wynonna were away on tour, Judd often
stayed with her maternal grandmother and paternal grandparents; she
sometimes lived with her father, who was based in Louisville. She also
traveled with the Judds, reportedly earning $10 per day to clean the
duo�s tour bus.
The studious Judd attended college at the University of Kentucky,
where she majored in French and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Judd
considered joining the Peace Corps but was encouraged by Wynonna, among
others, to try her luck in Hollywood. She moved to Los Angeles in 1990,
where she began studying acting at the prestigious Playhouse West
school. After two years of study, Judd won a small role in the
disappointing Christian Slater vehicle
Kuffs (1992), which was
enough to earn her a Screen Actor�s Guild card.
In 1991, Judd had a recurring role on the TV series Star Trek: The
Next Generation. From 1991 to 1994, she appeared on the popular
television drama Sisters, as the daughter of one of the lead
characters, played by Swoosie Kurtz.
Judd made her big-screen breakthrough in 1993, when
she played the title role in the well-received independent film
Ruby
in Paradise, which won that year�s Grand Prize at the Sundance
Film Festival. She then turned in critically acclaimed supporting
performances in Smoke
(1995), starring Harvey Keitel; Heat (1995), starring Robert
De Niro, Al Pacino, and
Val Kilmer; and A
Time to Kill (1996), starring Matthew McConaughey and Samuel
L. Jackson. In addition to starring roles in the little-seen
Normal
Life (1996) and The
Locusts (1997), Judd also played Norma Jean Baker (opposite
Mira Sorvino as Baker�s legendary alter ego, Marilyn
Monroe) in Norma Jean and Marilyn, which aired on cable
TV in 1996.
Ashley put her reputation as �the other Judd� behind her for good
with the release of the hit 1997 thriller
Kiss the Girls,
co-starring Morgan Freeman. The film made over $60 million and
established Judd as a credible action heroine. Though the low-key drama
Simon Birch (1998) met with a mediocre reception, Judd cemented
her status as a box office draw with the 1999 action thriller
Double
Jeopardy, in which she played a vengeful housewife and mother who is
framed for the so-called murder of her treacherous husband. Though
Double Jeopardy, which co-starred Tommy Lee Jones, got terrible
reviews, it stayed atop the box office for a number of weeks and grossed
a total of $116 million.
Though both of her next efforts�the thriller
Eye of the Beholder
(2000) and the sentimental
Where the Heart Is (2000)�were greeted
with far less than an enthusiastic reception, Judd�s star is continuing
to rise. In 2001, she stars in
Someone Like You, a romantic
comedy for which she will reportedly receive a career-high salary of $4
million, as well as Dexterity, a romantic drama co-starring her
former on- and off-screen love interest McConaughey,
Judd lives on a 100-year-old farm in Tennessee, close to both Naomi
and Wynonna. In addition to McConaughey, she has also been romantically
linked to De Niro and the pop singer Michael Bolton. In April 2000, Judd
announced her engagement to Dario Franchitti, a Scottish race car
driver. The couple married in Scotland in December 2001. |