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Olivia Jane Wilde (born Olivia Jane
Cockburn, March 10, 1984) is an Irish-American actress. She began acting
in the early 2000s, and has since appeared in a number of film and
television parts, including roles on the series The O.C. and The Black
Donnellys. She currently portrays Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley in the TV
drama House.
Wilde was born in New York City on March 10, 1984. Her mother, Leslie
Cockburn (née Corkhill Redlich), is a 60 Minutes producer and journalist,
and her London-born father, Andrew Cockburn, is an Irish journalist, as
are her paternal uncles Alexander and Patrick, all of whom are
contributors to the political website CounterPunch.org. Her half-aunt was
the late writer Sarah Caudwell and her paternal grandfather was the
novelist/journalist Claud Cockburn. Wilde has said that as a result of her
family background, she has a "strong journalistic streak", being "really
critical and analytical". Both her parents were prominent in the
Washington social scene, hosting dinner parties. Her mother once recounted
a story of a young Wilde eavesdropping one night on a conversation between
Richard Holbrooke and Mick Jagger until Mick noticed her and shooed Olivia
to bed. She has wanted to become an actress since the age of two. For a
short time, Olivia's family had a house in Guilford, Vermont. She attended
Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C., as well as Phillips Academy in
Andover, Massachusetts, and subsequently moved to Dublin, Ireland, where
she attended The Gaiety School of Acting. She initially began working as a
casting assistant.
Wilde has appeared in the films The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog,
Conversations with Other Women and Turistas. She became known for her role
on The O.C. as Alex Kelly, although she originally auditioned for the role
of Marissa Cooper. She has also appeared in the Dashboard Confessional
music video for "Stolen", and the French Kicks music video for "So Far We
Are". She was strongly considered to play Bond girl Vesper Lynd in the
21st Bond film Casino Royale but Eva Green eventually won the role.
As of 2009, Wilde is ranked #1 on Maxim magazine's Hot 100. She was also
ranked #95 on the FHM 100 Sexiest Women of 2006. She was one of the key
models in Abercrombie & Fitch's "Rising Stars" campaign in summer of 2004.
In 2007, Wilde was a part of the ensemble cast of the short-lived NBC
mid-season drama The Black Donnellys. Her character, Jenny Reilly, was the
lone principal female character in the series following the lives of an
Irish-American family tied to organized crime in New York City. Also in
2007, Wilde appeared in the play Beauty on the Vine, a political thriller,
playing three different characters.
Wilde joined the cast of the Fox medical drama House in autumn 2007,
playing a young internist, Dr. Remy Hadley, nicknamed Thirteen, who works
closely with Dr. House. Wilde told Star magazine how she sometimes takes
cues from her character even when she's not working, saying, "I'm now
convinced that I'm a doctor. I mean, if someone says they have a pain, I'm
like, 'Well, that's your spleen.'" During the episode "The Tyrant", upon
hearing about Foreman's recent firing of Wilde's character, House
sarcastically teased, "My condolences. Although, it's not like she's the
hottest woman in the world." This was an inside pop-culture joke nodding
to her real-life No. 1 ranking in Maxim's Top 100.
The New York Observer has described Wilde as having a "throaty voice" and
the "wide, teal-eyed charisma of Hollywood in the days of yore". She has
cited Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Frances McDormand, Catherine Keener
and Robin Wright Penn as acting inspirations.
She won the 2006 US Comedy Arts Festival Film Discovery Jury Award for
Best Actress for Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas (2006) and in 2008 at the
Teen Choice Awards she was nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice
TV Breakout Star Female for House M.D. and won the Rising Star Award at
the Vail Film Festival.
On October 7, 2008, Wilde appeared in a video on funnyordie.com showing
how much she enjoys registering early for the 2008 Presidential election,
"Olivia Wilde Does It Early". Wilde appeared alongside Jack Black and
Michael Cera in the 2009 comedy Year One.
Wilde has dual citizenship in the United States and the Republic of
Ireland. She derived her stage name "Wilde" from author Oscar Wilde.
She married Italian-American documentary filmmaker, photographer, flamenco
guitar player, and Italian prince Tao Ruspoli on June 7, 2003, in
Washington, Virginia on a school bus with only a pair of witnesses. They
currently live and work in Venice, Los Angeles, California. Wilde is a
former vegan.
Wilde is a supporter of youth voter organization, 18 in '08. She serves on
their advisory council and appeared in a public service announcement that
debuted June 30, 2008. In the fall of 2008, Wilde campaigned with actors
Justin Long and Kal Penn for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nominee
Barack Obama.
She also appeared in the Moveon.org mock-PSA "supporting" the right of the
healthcare insurance industry to maintain their high profits. |
