The very image of the luscious and wide-eyed Midwestern ingenue, Heather Graham has been an idealized sweetheart in films from
Boogie Nights to
The Hangover. She grew up near Los Angeles, appeared in a Mountain Dew ad in her early teens, and was only 19 when she starred as a doomed junkie in
Gus Van Sant's indie film
Drugstore Cowboy. Still, it was several years before she made her mark in
Swingers (1996) as Lorraine, the girlfriend who rescues
Jon Favreau from nebbishy bachelorhood. Blonde, blue-eyed, and with an innocent sexual zing, she was perfect as the goofy porn actress Rollergirl in
Boogie Nights (1997, sharing love scenes with
Mark Wahlberg). That led to roles in
Scream 2 (1997),
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999, as Felicity Shagwell),
Bowfinger (1999, with
Steve Martin, with Graham sending up her own reputation for on-set romances), and the cockeyed romance
The Guru (2002). She also made the papers for her rumored relationships with singer
Adam Ant and actors including
Leonardo DiCaprio, Edward Burns, and
Heath Ledger. Graham had fewer big pictures in the 2000s, but in 2009 showed her still-ample chops as Jade, the Las Vegas dancer with a heart of gold in
The Hangover.
Copyright © 1998-2012 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.