Jennifer Tilly is a 62-year-old American-Canadian actress and poker player known the movies Bride of Chucky and The Fabulous Baker Boys. She has frequented Hallmark Casino for online poker games and she is still active in the acting industry with a net worth running to tens of millions of dollars.
Born Jennifer Ellen Chan on 16 September 1958, Jennifer Tilly, as she is known, is an American-Canadian actress and poker player known for her unique voice and comedic timing. The Los Angeles born and raised 62-year-old is an Academy award-nominated actress and a world-level poker player.
Tilly made her acting debut with a small role in the 1983 series “Oh Madeline” and went on to make her film debut the following year in the film “No Small Affair”. Although, she mostly only appeared in small roles during her early acting years, they kept her busy.
The actress got her breakthrough role in Woody Allen’s “Bullets over Broadway”, which earned her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She then appeared in a couple of critically and commercially successful projects like “Liar Liar”, and the neo-noir thriller “Bound”, for which she earned Saturn Award and MTV Award nominations for her performance.
The project that cemented her place as a star, however, is the slasher film franchise “Child’s Play”, where she played Tiffany Valentine. Jennifer has also featured in voice roles in projects like “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons”.
She was the recipient of a Theatre World Award in 1993 for her performance in the Off-Broadway play “One Shoe Off”. Tilly is also a World Series of Poker Ladies’ Event bracelet winner, the first celebrity to win a World Series tournament. Here is a closer look at her 38-year career, her achievements, and her personal life. First, we consider ten interesting facts about Jennifer Tilly.
10 facts about Jennifer Tilly
- If you thought Jennifer Tilly is related to actress Meg Tilly, you are not wrong as they are actually sisters.
- In “Seed of Chucky” (2004), she shows her range by playing a dual role, providing the voice for Tiffany Valentine and also playing an exaggerated version of real self. .
- Jennifer is a semi-regular cast member on the series “Family Guy”, where she voices the Griffin family’s neighbour, Bonnie Swanson.
- She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a hopelessly bad actress in Woody Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway”.
- Tilly starred in 1996’s “Bound”, directed by The Wachowskis, which portrays a lesbian relationship her character has with Gina Gershon. The role remains her favourite role ever, and she even named her cat “Corky” after her character’s love interest in Bound. It was also rumoured that she and Gina Gershon prepared for the more explicit scenes in the film by drinking tequila.
- In December 2008, she announced her retirement from the poker circuit as a career but continued to play in numerous tournaments, thereafter.
- Tilly won the ladies no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament at the World Series of Poker in 2005.
- Her sister Meg Tilly is also an Academy Awards nominee like herself. She got nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1985 film “Agnes of God”.
- Tilly was married to Sam Simon, developer and producer of “The Simpsons”, from 1984 until 1991. She has been in a relationship with professional poker player Phil Laak since 2004.
- She currently has a net worth of $30 million.
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Early life and education
Tilly was born Jennifer Ellen Chan in Harbor City, Los Angeles. She is the first daughter of Harry Chan, a used car salesman, and Patricia (née Tilly), a Canadian schoolteacher and former stage actress. Her father was of Chinese descent, and her mother was of Irish and Finnish ancestry. Jennifer is the second of four children and was hugely inspired by her mother, who often accompanied her to her theatre performances.
Her parents separated when she was five years old, and her mother relocated to British Columbia with all four children. She spent most of her childhood in Canada and eventually took her mother’s maiden name.
She was very artistic as a kid but wasn’t too keen on academics, and this made her a frequent subject of bullying during her school days.
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She attended Belmont High School along with two of her younger sisters, and they too suffered verbal abuse and bullying. Jennifer Tilly started leaning towards theatre during her high school days, and with her mother’s help, she actively participated in plays as an extra.
Being into arts herself, her mother encouraged all her children to pursue careers in arts. Thus, Jennifer and Meg got into performing arts while her younger sister, Rebecca, went on to become a famous post-impressionist painter. To cap it, Tilly studied theatre and received her BA degree from Stephens College in Missouri.
Career – Jennifer Tilly movies
Jennifer Tilly moved to New York right after her graduation to pursue her career in theatre. She stayed there for a while, but eventually moved on to Los Angeles, when not much was forthcoming in terms of acting roles. On her arrival in Los Angeles, she began auditioning for film roles and started with small parts, slowly building her way up. Today, after almost 40 years in the craft, Jennifer has accomplished great feats.
In 1983, Tilly had small roles and a recurring guest role on “Hill Street Blues” as Gina Srignoli, a mobster’s widow who becomes romantically involved with detective Henry Goldblume. She also played Frasier Crane’s seductive-but-ditzy date, Candi Pearson, on an episode of the fourth season of “Cheers”. Most of the 1980s were spent doing many films without actually making it big, but in 1989, just when she had begun to consider returning to New York theatres, she landed a role that changed the trajectory of her career.
Fabulous Baker Boys
The Fabulous Baker Boys is a 1989 American romantic comedy-drama musical film that follows a piano duo consisting of brothers who hire an attractive singer in an effort to revive their waning career, only for complications to ensue among the trio when the younger brother develops a romantic interest in the singer. The film stars brothers Jeff and Beau Bridges alongside Michelle Pfeiffer.
Director Steve Kloves wrote the Blanche ‘Monica’ Moran character, a waitress and aspiring singer, specifically for Jennifer Tilly. Something that indicated that her small roles over the years had not gone unnoticed. The role rightfully became her breakthrough role.
Bullets over Broadway
Although Jennifer appeared in a couple of films after her breakthrough in “Fabulous Baker Boys”, she didn’t enjoy much acclaim till 1994, when she starred in Woody Allen’s satirical comedy-drama film “Bullets over Broadway”. The film tells the story of David Shayne, a young underground playwright, who finds himself in a dilemma when he reluctantly has to cast a gangster’s talentless girlfriend to get funds for his initial venture.
Jennifer played the supporting role of Olive Neal, the talentless actress and girlfriend of gangster Nick Valenti who Shayne has to cast in a minor role. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Tilly for Supporting Actress. She, however, lost the award to Dianne Weist, who also happened to be her co-star in the same film.
Bound
Tilly’s role in “Bullets over Broadway” gave her a lot of exposure, especially for working with a renowned director like Woody Allen. She soon landed a role in the 1996 Wachowskis directed film “Bound”, where she played a rather challenging role because of its raunchy theme, as a result of this, Jennifer and co-star Gina Gershon had to take alcohol to prepare for their very explicit scenes.
“Bound” is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film. In the film, Violet (Jennifer Tilly), who longs to escape her relationship with her mafioso boyfriend Caesar, enters into a clandestine affair with alluring ex-con Corky, and the two of them hatch a scheme to steal $2 million of Mafia money. The sexually charged film was a hit with film festivals, and Jennifer became a hot, young actor who got offered more roles by some of the biggest directors of that time.
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Bride of Chucky, Seed of Chucky, Curse of Chucky, & Cult of Chucky
Jennifer joined the Child’s Play film franchise in 1998 and gained additional popularity for her portrayal of serial killer Tiffany Valentine. “Child’s Play” (also known as “Chucky”) is an American horror slasher media franchise that focuses on Chucky, a serial killer who frequently escapes death by performing a voodoo ritual to transfer his soul into a “Good Guys” doll.
Tilly made her debut in the franchise’s fourth instalment, “Bride of Chucky”, as Tiffany Valentine, a murderous female doll. She has reprised her role in all three instalments after that.
Jennifer has had success in television also, she has shown her skills in series like “Out of Practice”, “Frasier”, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, and “Spun Out”, just to mention a few. She isn’t a stranger to the animation series world either as she has frequently lent her voice to popular animated series like “Family Guy”, “Stuart Little”, and “The Simpsons”.
Poker
Jennifer Tilly’s father was a gambler and a poker player, and he gave her the video game “World Series of Poker”. Then, her boyfriend subsequently taught her the real game, when she moved to Hollywood. On 27 June 2005, Tilly beat 600 other players to win a World Series of Poker bracelet (and $158,625) in the Ladies’ No-Limit Texas hold ’em event.
On 1 September 2005, she won the third World Poker Tour Ladies Invitational Tournament held at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, a suburb of Los Angeles. Tilly also played in the Celebrity Poker Showdown, which aired 14 June 2006 on Bravo. Bravo’s online poker champion Ida Siconolfi beat her, making her finish 3rd. In a television interview in 2005, Tilly stated that at that point in her career, she was more interested in pursuing poker than acting, however, she soon retired from the game as a career, choosing to treat it more like a hobby.
As of June 2017, her live tournament winnings had exceeded $992,000. Hallmark Casino, an online one-stop destination for about 200 favorite casino-style games, is one of Jennifer Tilly poker destinations these days.
Jennifer Tilly nude
Why is there so much interest in Jenifer Tilly nude on the internet? Likely, her hot scenes from 1996 “Bound” film, and more recently in the “Chucky” franchise has being behind this. Whatever the reason, there are several fake Jennifer Tilly hot photos online which claim to be showing the actress topless but they are mostly photoshopped.
Personal life
There is hardly anything known about Jennifer’s personal life, asides from relationships, which have never been dramatic. She was in a relationship with director and producer Sam Simon early on in her career (the early 1980s). The couple got married in 1984 and divorced in 1991. Sam is known for one of the longest-running and most popular TV series of all-time “The Simpsons”.
Since 2004, she has been in a relationship with famous poker player Phil Laak, and Jennifer Tilly has no known children to date.
Jennifer Tilly net worth
As of 2021, the net worth of Jennifer Tilly is around $30 million, which she has accumulated by working as an actress and poker player. This comes as no surprise considering her almost four decades long career in acting.
Latest news on Jennifer Tilly
It was announced earlier in the year that a television series based on Chucky is set to premiere in 2021. The upcoming horror series has now been scheduled for an October 2021 release on the Syfy channel.
Jennifer Tilly announced she is reprising her role of Tiffany on the upcoming series. In a tweet she shared on Friday, 5 March 2021, she said, “Who would’ve thought when I made my first #Chucky movie in 1998, that I would still be playing “Tiffany” over 20 years later! Chucky is like that bad boyfriend who is so good that you just can’t quit him! Here is a polaroid of me on the set of #BrideofChucky.”
The wait is almost over for fans of the franchise, as the series premiere is less than 3 months away.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, Jennifer Tilly has had a fun and adventurous life and career. Her journey through stage, film, television and then poker has been nothing short of successful. At 62, the award winning actress is still going strong, and it is beautiful to see. Jennifer is a winner, and one can only expect her to keep killing it till her last days.
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