Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress who has played several notable roles in the film and television industry.
She portrayed Xenia Onatopp in the 1995 film GoldenEye, Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men movie series from 2000 to 2014, and Lenore Mills in the Taken film trilogy from 2008 to 2014.
Janssen was also appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for Integrity by the United Nations in 2008.
She made her directorial debut with Bringing Up Bobby in 2011. Janssen is recognized for her performances in the Netflix original series Hemlock Grove from 2013 to 2015, FX’s Nip/Tuck from 2003 to 2010, and ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder from 2014 to 2020.
She starred in the 2017 NBC crime thriller The Blacklist: Redemption as well.
Profile
- Name: Famke Beumer Janssen
- Date of Birth: November 5, 1964
- Age: [calculate_years datestring=”11/5/1964″] years
- Gender: Female
- Place of Birth: Amstelveen, Netherlands
- Nationality: Dutch
- Profession: Actress, Director, Model
Early Life
Famke Janssen was born on November 5, 1964, in Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Her parents, a former singer, and a teacher, divorced when she was young.
Janssen has two sisters who pursued careers in the creative arts.
Janssen was an accomplished student and received a degree in literature from the University of Amsterdam. She later moved to the United States to pursue a career in modeling and acting.
Personal Life
Famke Janssen tied the knot with Kip Williams, an architect’s son and a writer/director, in 1995, but the marriage dissolved in 2000.
Famke confirmed that she does not want to become a mother. In a 2007 PETA campaign that aimed to advocate animal rights, Janssen participated with her brindle Boston Terrier, Licorice, emphasizing the message “Be an Angel for Animals.”
In 2008, Famke Janssen was designated as a Goodwill Ambassador for Integrity for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime at a United Nations anti-corruption conference in Nusa Dua, Bali.
Famke Janssen expressed her disappointment 2016 after not getting cast in the X-Men: Apocalypse, stating that Hollywood exhibited gender bias towards older women.
She stated, “It’s interesting how women get replaced, and the older versions are never to be seen again… whereas the men are allowed to be both ages.”
Career
Back in 1984, Janssen made the move to the United States to begin her career as a fashion model. She landed a contract with Elite Model Management and quickly became the face of high-end brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Chanel, and Victoria’s Secret.
Her stunning appearance has been compared to legendary movie stars of the 1940s, including Hedy Lamarr.
After retiring from modeling in the early 1990s, Janssen took on several guest roles on TV shows. She even had a lead part in a 1992 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation as the metamorphic Kamala.
This led to her appearance in the X-Men franchise alongside Patrick Stewart. Despite being offered the role of Jadzia Dax in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, she declined to focus on her film career.
Her first film appearance was in the 1992 crime drama Fathers & Sons with Jeff Goldblum.
In 1995, Janssen played the alluring Xenia Onatopp in the James Bond flick GoldenEye, co-starring with Pierce Brosnan. She also starred in Lord of Illusions with Scott Bakula.
To avoid being typecast, Janssen pursued more diverse supporting roles in films such as City of Industry, Celebrity, The Gingerbread Man, and Monument Ave.
Janssen’s career skyrocketed after portraying Dr. Jean Grey in the 2000 superhero blockbuster X-Men. She continued to play the role in X2, where her character’s powers grew but was seemingly killed off.
Janssen then resurrected the character in X-Men: The Last Stand as Jean’s darker persona, Phoenix, earning a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She reprised her role as Jean in The Wolverine (2013) as a hallucination and briefly appeared in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).
Net Worth
Famke Janssen’s net worth is estimated at $20 million.
Social Media
- Instagram handle: @FamkeJanssen
- Twitter handle: @FamkeJanssen
Filmography
- Deep Rising
- Knights of The Zodiac
- The Vault
- X-Men
- Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
- Primal
- Taken
- GoldenEye
