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Alison Marion Lohman (born September
18, 1979) is an American actress. She has had lead roles in the films
White Oleander, Where the Truth Lies, Flicka and Drag Me to Hell as well
as smaller parts in Matchstick Men, Big Fish and Beowulf. She has also
been on several television shows including 7th Heaven, Crusade, Tucker,
and Pasadena.
Lohman also voiced the title character in the 2005 English language
re-dubbing of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
In 1997, after graduating from high school, Lohman moved to Los Angeles,
California to pursue her acting career. For the next few years, her work
consisted of science fiction B-movies (such as Kraa! The Sea Monster and
Planet Patrol), television productions (including the made-for-TV movie
Sharing the Secret) and children's films (such as Delivering Milo and The
Million Dollar Kid). Also included was the dark urban drama White Boy.
Lohman starred in White Oleander, an adaptation of Janet Fitch’s novel,
alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Wright-Penn and Renée Zellweger. Though
the film was unsuccessful at the box office (it opened to $5.6 million in
1,510 theaters), Lohman's performance met with wide critical acclaim and
has been described as her "breakthrough role" by media sources.
The following year, she appeared in Matchstick Men, directed by Ridley
Scott. She starred with Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell, and though it was
not a box office success either, Lohman continued to gain praise. Later
that year, she appeared in Tim Burton’s Big Fish, which continued her
trend of appearing in films of high acclaim, but little financial success.
She had no theatrical features in 2004, though she did voice the lead
character in the re-dubbing of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. In
2005, she appeared in Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies. The film
originally received an NC-17 rating for its graphic sexual content, and
failed at the box office afterwards. Some critics (such as Roger Ebert)
felt that she was well-suited for the role. Her next feature, The Big
White, featured her alongside actors Robin Williams, Holly Hunter and Tim
Blake Nelson, but nevertheless went direct-to-video.
Lohman's next film was the drama Flicka, which was released on October 20,
2006. In the film, Lohman plays a 16-year-old girl who befriends a wild
mustang. Lohman had never ridden a horse prior to filming and trained
rigorously for a month. She said that she was "constantly thrown
emotionally and physically" while working with the horses for this role.
Flicka went on to become a surprise hit in DVD market.
She next played a recovering heroin addict in Things We Lost in the Fire.
The actress was then signed to replace Oscar nominee Ellen Page in Sam
Raimi's new horror film, Drag Me to Hell, which was released on May 29,
2009 and received critical acclaim.
Lohman, who is frequently cast as a teenager, has said that she believes
she "look younger and acts younger" than her age.
Lohman was born and raised in Palm Springs, California, the daughter of
Diane (née Dunham), a patisserie owner, and Gary Lohman, an architect. She
has one younger brother, Robert (born 1982). She has two cats, Monk and
Clint. Her family had no industry connections, but at age nine, she played
Gretyl in The Sound of Music at the Palm Desert's McCallum Theater. Two
years later, she won the Desert Theater League's award for "Most
Outstanding Actress in a Musical" for the title role in Annie. By the age
of 17, Lohman had appeared in 12 different major productions and had been
a backing singer for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and the Desert
Symphony.
As a senior, she was an awardee of National Foundation for Advancement in
the Arts and was offered the chance to attend the Tisch School of the
Arts, but declined.
Lohman married director Mark Neveldine in Watertown, New York on
Wednesday, August 19, 2009, at St. Anthony's Catholic Church. |
