Famke Janssen
Template:Short description Template:Pp-pc Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Famke Beumer Janssen (Template:IPA; born 5 November 1964) is a Dutch actress and former model. She played Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye (1995), Jean Grey / Phoenix in the X-Men film series (2000–2014), and Lenore Mills in the Taken film trilogy (2008–2014). In 2008, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for Integrity by the United Nations. She made her directorial debut with Bringing Up Bobby in 2011. She is also known for her roles in the Netflix original series Hemlock Grove (2013–2015), FX's Nip/Tuck (2003–2010), and ABC's How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020). Janssen starred in the 2017 NBC crime thriller The Blacklist: Redemption. Most recently, starring as Betty Jonkers, a scorned wife who is determined to destroy her husband’s Amsterdam coffee shop empire in the Netflix Dutch crime series, Amsterdam Empire (2025). This marks the first time she has performed speaking her native Dutch language.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Early life
Famke Beumer Janssen<ref name=yahoobio>Template:Cite web</ref> was born on November 5, 1964,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> in Amstelveen, the Netherlands.<ref name= "NYTimesArticle1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name= "newnetherlandinstitute1">Template:Cite web</ref> She has two sisters, director Antoinette Beumer and actress Marjolein Beumer, both of whom changed their surnames to Beumer after their parents divorced.<ref name= "NYTimesArticle2">Template:Cite news</ref>
In addition to her native Dutch, Janssen speaks English and French. She learned German, but has not kept up with it.<ref name="timeout-hotseat">Template:Cite journal</ref> Following her high school graduation, Janssen studied economics for a year at the University of Amsterdam, which she later called "the stupidest idea I ever had."<ref name="NYTimesArticle2"/> In the early 1990s, she enrolled at Columbia University's School of General Studies to study creative writing and literature.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Career
In 1984, Janssen moved to the United States to begin her professional career as a fashion model. She signed with Elite Model Management and worked for Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Chanel, and Victoria's Secret. She starred in a 1988 commercial for the perfume Exclamation by Coty.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her looks have been compared to 1940s movie stars like Hedy Lamarr.<ref name="NYTimesArticle1"/>
After retiring from modelling in the early 1990s, Janssen had guest roles on several television series, including a role in the 1992 Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Perfect Mate", as empathic metamorph Kamala, opposite Patrick Stewart, with whom she later starred in the X-Men film series.<ref name="NYTimesArticle1"/> That same year, Janssen was offered the role of Jadzia Dax in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but turned it down to pursue film roles. Her first film role was alongside Jeff Goldblum in the 1992 crime drama film Fathers & Sons.
In 1995, Janssen appeared in Pierce Brosnan's debut James Bond film, GoldenEye, as femme fatale Xenia Onatopp. She appeared in Lord of Illusions with Scott Bakula. In an attempt to fight against typecasting after her Bond girl performance, Janssen began seeking out more intriguing supporting roles, appearing in John Irvin's City of Industry, Woody Allen's Celebrity, Robert Altman's The Gingerbread Man, and Ted Demme's Monument Ave.<ref name="tavissmiley">Template:Cite web</ref> Denis Leary, her co-star in Monument Ave., was impressed by how easily she blended in, initially not recognizing her, as she was already in character.<ref name="NYTimesArticle1"/> In the late 1990s, she appeared in The Faculty, Rounders, Deep Rising, and House on Haunted Hill.
In 2000, Janssen played superhero Dr. Jean Grey in the 20th Century Fox film X-Men. She later reprised the role in the 2003 sequel, X2, where her character shows signs of increasing powers, but at the end of the film, she is presumably killed. Janssen returns as Jean, whose death in X2 awoke her dark alternate personality, Phoenix, in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). For that role, she won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.<ref name="newnetherlandinstitute2">Template:Cite web</ref> She returned as Jean in the 2013 film The Wolverine as a hallucination of Wolverine,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> followed by a brief cameo for X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2002, Janssen landed the role of villainess Serleena in Men in Black II, but had to abandon the film due to a death in her family and was replaced by Lara Flynn Boyle.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Janssen had a prominent role in the second season of the TV series Nip/Tuck, as the seductive and manipulative life coach Ava Moore, which earned her Hollywood LifeTemplate:'s Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She reprised her role in the final two episodes of the series.
In 2007, she starred in Turn the River, for which she was awarded the Special Recognition Best Actress Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The following year, she starred in Luc Besson's Taken. Janssen continued to work in television, appearing in TV pilots for NBC's police drama Winters and Showtime's The Farm, a spinoff of The L Word, set in a women's prison. Both pilots were rejected by their networks. Janssen provided the Dutch language narration for the Studio Tram Tour at all Disney theme parks.<ref name="tavissmiley"/>
In 2011, Janssen made her directorial debut with the drama Bringing Up Bobby. She wrote the screenplay to the film, which stars Milla Jovovich, Bill Pullman, and Marcia Cross.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She reprised her role as Lenore Mills in Taken 2 (2012) and Taken 3 (2014). She starred as the main villain Muriel in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013).
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Janssen starred in the Netflix original horror thriller television series Hemlock Grove, wherein she plays the role of family matriarch Olivia Godfrey.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Janssen had a recurring role in the ABC crime thriller television series How To Get Away With Murder, appearing in ten episodes throughout the series, beginning her role in season two of the show and concluding it in the series finale.
Janssen was cast in a starring role in the NBC crime thriller The Blacklist: Redemption, a spin-off of the NBC series The Blacklist, in March 2016;<ref name="Spinoff">Template:Cite web</ref> it was picked up to series in May 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The following month, Janssen expressed frustration in not being cast in X-Men: Apocalypse, saying Hollywood was sexist toward older women. She said: "Women, it's interesting because they're replaced, and the older versions are never to be seen again... whereas the men are allowed to be both ages."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In 2019, she served as a juror for the Tribeca Film Festival.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Also in 2019, Janssen joined Jeffrey Dean Morgan in The Postcard Killings, which was released in 2020.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2021, Janssen starred in the Christian romantic drama film Redeeming Love<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the action-thriller Dangerous.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In a March 2021 interview, she revealed to Forbes some details about her involvement with the live-action adaptation of Saint Seiya, a popular anime and manga. Janssen declared that filming was supposed to take place in Europe the previous year, but production had been postponed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic. She also hinted that she will play one of the main characters, but did not specify their name.<ref name="Saint Seiya">Template:Cite web</ref>The movie, titled Knights of the Zodiac, was eventually released in 2023, with Janssen playing the role of Vander Guraad.<ref name=":0" />
Famke Janssen made her first Dutch-language acting appearance in the 2025 Netflix crime drama series Amsterdam Empire, set in Amsterdam's cannabis scene, where she stars as Betty, an ex-pop diva seeking revenge. She also served as an executive producer on the series.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Activism
Janssen appeared with her dog, Licorice, a brindle Boston Terrier, in a 2007 PETA campaign to raise awareness for animal rights. The campaign used the slogan "Be an Angel for Animals."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 28 January 2008, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for Integrity for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime at a United Nations anticorruption conference held in Nusa Dua, Bali.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Personal life
From 1989 to 2000,<ref>Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.</ref> Janssen was married to writer and director Kip Williams, son of architect Tod Williams.<ref name= "newnetherlandinstitute1"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Refs. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Fathers & Sons | Kyle Christian | ||
| 1994 | Relentless IV: Ashes to Ashes | Dr. Sara Lee Jaffee | Direct-to-video film | |
| Model by Day | Lex / Lady X | Television film | ||
| 1995 | Lord of Illusions | Dorothea Swann | ||
| GoldenEye | Xenia Onatopp | |||
| 1996 | Dead Girl | Treasure | ||
| 1997 | City of Industry | Rachel Montana | ||
| 1998 | Monument Ave. | Katy O'Connor | ||
| Template:Sortname | Leeanne Magruder | |||
| Deep Rising | Trillian St. James | |||
| RPM | Claudia Haggs | |||
| Rounders | Petra | |||
| Celebrity | Bonnie | |||
| Template:Sortname | Fiona | |||
| Template:Sortname | Miss Elizabeth Burke | |||
| 1999 | House on Haunted Hill | Evelyn Stockard-Price | ||
| 2000 | Love & Sex | Kate Welles | ||
| Circus | Lily Garfield | |||
| X-Men | Jean Grey | |||
| 2001 | Made | Jessica | ||
| Don't Say a Word | Agatha "Aggie" Conrad | |||
| 2002 | I Spy | Rachel Wright | ||
| 2003 | X2: X-Men United | Jean Grey | ||
| 2004 | Eulogy | Judy Arnolds | ||
| 2005 | Hide and Seek | Dr. Katherine Carson | ||
| 2006 | X-Men: The Last Stand | Jean Grey / Phoenix | ||
| Template:Sortname | Allegra Marshall | |||
| 2007 | Template:Sortname | Gretchen Reigert | ||
| Turn the River | Kailey Sullivan | |||
| Winters | Christie Winters | Television film | ||
| 2008 | Template:Sortname | Kristen Squires | ||
| Taken | Lenore "Lenny" Mills | |||
| 100 Feet | Marnie Watson | Direct-to-video film | ||
| 2009 | The Farm | Valentina Galindo | Television film | |
| 2010 | The Chameleon | Jennifer Johnson | Direct-to-video film | |
| 2011 | Down the Shore | Mary Reed | ||
| 2012 | Taken 2 | Lenore "Lenny" Mills | ||
| 2013 | Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters | Muriel | ||
| The Wolverine | Jean Grey | |||
| The Being Experience | Template:TableTBA | Originally titled In the Woods | ||
| 2014 | A Fighting Man | Diane Schuler | Direct-to-video film | |
| X-Men: Days of Future Past | Jean Grey | Cameo | ||
| Taken 3 | Lenore "Lenny" Mills | |||
| 2015 | Unity | Narrator (voice) | Documentary | |
| Jack of the Red Hearts | Kay | |||
| 2017 | The Show | Ilana Katz | ||
| All I Wish | Vanessa | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | ||
| Once Upon a Time in Venice | Katey Ford | |||
| 2018 | Status Update | Katherine Alden | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | |
| Bayou Caviar | Nic | Originally titled Louisiana Caviar | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | |
| Asher | Sophie | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | ||
| 2019 | The Poison Rose | Jayne Hunt | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | |
| Primal | Dr. Ellen Taylor | |||
| 2020 | The Postcard Killings | Valerie Kanon | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | |
| Endless | Lee Douglas | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | ||
| 2021 | The Vault | Margaret | Originally titled Way Down | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> |
| Dangerous | Agent Shaughnessy | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | ||
| 2022 | Redeeming Love | Duchess | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | |
| 2023 | Door Mouse | Mama | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | |
| 2023 | Knights of the Zodiac | Vander Guraad | <ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> | |
| Boy Kills World | Hilda Van Der Koy | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | ||
| Locked In | Katherine | <ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | ||
| Template:TableTBA | The Experiment | Doctor Rachel McVeigh | Post-production | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| One Second After | Mayor Kate Lindsey | Filming | <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Star Trek: The Next Generation | Kamala | Episode: "The Perfect Mate" |
| 1994 | Melrose Place | Diane Adamson | Episode: "Michael's Game" |
| 1994 | Template:Sortname | Cleo | Episode: "Voyeur" |
| 2000–2001 | Ally McBeal | Jamie | Episodes: "The Man with the Bag", "The Ex-Files" |
| 2004–2010 | Nip/Tuck | Ava Moore | Recurring role, 11 episodes |
| 2008 | Puppy Love | Maya | Web series |
| 2013–2015 | Hemlock Grove | Olivia Godfrey | Main role |
| 2015–2020 | How to Get Away with Murder | Eve Rothlow | Recurring role, 10 episodes |
| 2015 | SuperMansion | Frau Mantis | Voice role; 2 episodes |
| 2016 | Robot Chicken | Jean Grey | Voice role; episode: "Joel Hurwitz" |
| 2016–2018 | The Blacklist | Susan Hargrave | Recurring role, 5 episodes |
| 2017 | The Blacklist: Redemption | Main role | |
| 2019 | When They See Us | Nancy Ryan | Miniseries; 2 episodes<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
| 2019 | The Capture | Jessica Mallory | Episode: "Correction"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> |
| 2022 | Long Slow Exhale | Melinda Barrington | Recurring role<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> |
| 2025 | Amsterdam Empire | Betty | Main role (Netflix)<ref name="rel:netflix">Template:Cite press release</ref> |
As director
- Bringing Up Bobby (2011), as director, producer, writer
Awards and nominations
References
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- 1964 births
- Living people
- 20th-century Dutch actresses
- 21st-century Dutch actresses
- Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
- Dutch expatriate actresses in the United States
- Dutch female models
- Dutch film actresses
- Dutch people of Frisian descent
- Dutch television actresses
- HIV/AIDS activists
- People from Amstelveen