Madeleine Stowe

Madeleine Stowe (born Madeline M. Stowe; August 18, 1958) is an American actress. She rose to prominence appearing in such films as Revenge, Stakeout, Unlawful Entry, The Last of the Mohicans, Blink, China Moon, 12 Monkeys, The General's Daughter and We Were Soldiers.
She currently stars as Victoria Grayson in the ABC drama series Revenge, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama in 2011.

Early life

Stowe, the first of three children, was born in Los Angeles, California[1][3] and raised in Eagle Rock, a suburb of Los Angeles. Her mother, Mireya (née Mora), had come from a prominent family in Costa Rica, and her father, Robert Stowe, a native of Oregon, was a civil engineer.[3][4][5] Stowe's father suffered from multiple sclerosis, and she accompanied him to medical treatments.[6]
Mireya Mora's parents were Federico Mora Carranza and Rosita Steinvorth Marín. Federico Mora, an accountant, was the son of Federico Mora Gutiérrez and Micaela Carranza Montealegre. Mr. Mora Gutiérrez was the son of General José Joaquín Mora Porras and María Dolores Gutiérrez de la Peña. General Mora was a younger brother of President Juan Rafael Mora Porras, President of Costa Rica between 1849-1859.[7]
Another important link is that of Micaela Carranza Montealegre. Her father was Bruno Carranza, President of Costa Rica in 1870, albeit briefly, as he resigned three months after taking power. His wife, Gerónima Montealegre Fernández was also the sister of President José María Montealegre Fernández, who governed from 1859-1863. He was behind the overthrow of President Juan Rafael Mora Porras and his eventual execution in 1860. José María Montealegre Fernández was firstly married to a sister of Juan Rafael Mora Porras, hence they had been brothers-in-law before José María Montealegre Fernández decided to overthrow and exile Juan Rafael Mora Porras, whose unlawful execution by firing squad led to the eventual abolition of the death penalty in Costa Rica.[8]
She originally aspired to become a concert pianist, taking piano lessons between the ages of 10 and 18. Stowe would later explain that playing the piano was a means of escape from having to socialize with other children her age. Her Russian-born music teacher, Sergei Tarnowsky, had faith in Stowe, even teaching her from his deathbed. Following his death at the age of 96, she quit, later commenting: "I just felt it was time to not be by myself anymore." Stowe went on her first date at the age of 18.[9]
[edit]Career



Madeleine Stowe in 2008
Stowe studied cinema and journalism at the University of Southern California. Not overly interested in her classes, she volunteered to do performances at the Solaris, a Beverly Hills theater, where a movie agent saw her in a play and got her several offers of appearances in TV and films.[citation needed]
For nearly fifteen years, Stowe appeared mostly in minor or supporting roles in movies and on TV. A few of her performances from this period are Stakeout, where she played with Richard Dreyfuss, and Revenge, which co-starred Kevin Costner. In 1992, she appeared in a supporting role as the wife of Kurt Russell in the gritty crime drama Unlawful Entry. Also that year, Stowe played Cora Munro in The Last of the Mohicans, which also starred Daniel Day-Lewis.
The next year, director Robert Altman cast Stowe in Short Cuts, in which she gave one of her most acclaimed screen performances as the wife of a compulsively lying and adulterous police officer played by Tim Robbins. The following year, Madeleine played a blind musician in the thriller Blink, co-starring Aidan Quinn. The year after that, she was a sympathetic psychiatrist in the science-fiction movie Twelve Monkeys.
In 1995, Stowe was chosen by Empire as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars in film history".[10] Stowe postponed her acting career in 1996 to concentrate on motherhood. In 1998, she came back with The Proposition, then The General's Daughter in 1999.
In 2001, she starred in the science-fiction box office bomb Impostor. [11] In 2002 she starred in the movies We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson and Avenging Angelo with Sylvester Stallone. In 2003, she starred in the thriller Octane.
In 2007 she appeared in the Jeff Goldblum detective drama Raines on NBC, a 2007 mid-season replacement. The series was canceled after two months. In 2009 she starred in the Lifetime movie The Christmas Hope. As of 2011, she stars as Victoria Grayson on ABC's television drama series Revenge.[12][13]
[edit]Personal life

In 1982, Stowe married Brian Benben, whom she met on the set of a television movie the previous year. They live near Johnson City, Texas, and have a daughter named May.[14]
In 2008, Stowe travelled to Haiti and helped found Artists For Peace And Justice. She is on the advisory board of this foundation.