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.
