British postcard by Pyramid Posters, Leicester, no. PC9465. Photo: Miramax / A Band Apart.
Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver in
Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino, 2003). Caption: Elle Driver a.k.a. Californian Mountain Snake.
American actress
Daryl Hannah (1960) is a tall blond beauty, with haunting blue-green eyes. She had her breakthrough as Pris Stratton in Ridley Scott's Science-Fiction thriller
Blade Runner (1982) and as the mermaid Madison in Ron Howard's fantasy
Splash (1984). She is best known for her role as one-eyed assassin Elle Driver in Quentin Tarantino's two-part classic
Kill Bill (2003-2004).
Daryl Christine Hannah was born in 1960 in Chicago, Illinois. She is the daughter of Susan Jeanne (Metzger), a schoolteacher and later a producer, and Donald Christian Hannah, who owned a tugboat/barge company. Her parents divorced and her mother subsequently married music journalist/promoter Jerrold Wexler, brother of cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Her siblings are actress Page Hannah, Don Hannah, and film director Tanya Wexler. Daryl graduated from the University of Southern California School of Theatre. She practiced ballet with Maria Tallchief and studied drama at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. Her interest in film was sparked by a severe case of insomnia early in life, and young Hannah would spend hours on end soaking in films into the wee hours of the night. In her twenties, she played keyboard and sang backup for Jackson Browne. She started with small roles, such as a student in the supernatural horror film The Fury (Brian De Palma, 1978) and as Kim Basinger's kid sister in Hard Country (1981). Daryl's breakout role was as the acrobatic, beautiful replicant punk android Pris in Blade Runner (1982). IMDb: " Pris was the vixen who wanted to live beyond her allotted years and risked the wrath of the title character." That same year she appeared in the summer hit release Summer Lovers (Randal Kleiser, 1982). Showing her versatility, from there she portrayed a mermaid, Madison in Ron Howard's zany comedy Splash (1984), which starred Tom Hanks. That same year, she appeared in The Pope of Greenwich Village (Stuart Rosenberg, 1984), with co-stars Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts. She also played a Cro-Magnon in The Clan of the Cave Bear (Michael Chapman, 1986), and the title character in Steve Martin's romantic comedy Roxanne (Fred Schepisi, 1987), a contemporary take on Edmond Rostand's play 'Cyrano de Bergerac'. Hannah received a Razzie Award for her part as Darien Taylor in Oliver Stone's drama Wall Street (1987) opposite Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen. She was highly praised for her interpretation of a nerdish hairdresser Annelle Dupuy Desoto in the comedy-drama Steel Magnolias (Herbert Ross, 1989) and was treated kindly by the press and public for her title role in the made-for-TV Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (Christopher Guest, 1992), a comical remake of the 1958 cult Science-Fiction film of the same name.
Despite public perception that Daryl Hannah withdrew from acting in the later 1990s, it was simply an unfortunate series of career missteps that kept the enigmatic actress out of the multiplexes and in such mediocre fare as The Last Days of Frankie the Fly and Gun (both 1997). Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Of course, not all was lost during the 1990s, and audiences could indeed catch memorable performances by Hannah in Grumpy Old Men (1993) (as well as that film's 1995 sequel), the Emmy-nominated mini-series The Last Don and the Robert Altman thriller The Gingerbread Man (1998)." As a filmmaker, Hannah wrote, directed, and produced an award-winning short film, entitled The Last Supper (1995). Hannah also directed, produced, and shot the documentary Strip Notes (2002) which was inspired while researching her role for Dancing at the Blue Iguana (Michael Radford, 2000). She has been a consistent, strong supporter of independent cinema, both acting in and producing many films. Daryl starred in the experimental improvised film Dancing at the Blue Iguana (Michael Radford, 2000), Casa de los babys (John Sayles, 2003) as well as the political satire Silver City (John Sayles, 2004). In 2002, Hannah appeared in Robbie Williams' video for the song 'Feel' portraying Williams' love interest. She worked on several films with the Polish Brothers including Jackpot (2001) and the acclaimed drama Northfork (2003). The success of Northfork marked the beginning of a critical year for the veteran actress. A turn as a contract killer with a conscience followed with The Job, and after a trip to the middle of nowhere in The Big Empty, Hannah aspired to adopt a Mexican orphan in John Sayles Casa de los babys (John Sayles, 2003). Teamed with a powerhouse cast that included Lili Taylor, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Marcia Gay Harden, the critically acclaimed drama cemented the comeback that would continue with Kill Bill Vol. 1 just a few short months later. Cast as deadly assassin Elle Driver (Codename: California Mountain Snake), Hannah's eye-patch-wearing killer was inspired by the exploitation roughie Thriller (also known as They Call Her One Eye). Though Hannah was still breathing at the end of Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), audiences held their breath to discover the ultimate fate of her vicious character until the release of Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004) four months later. In 2015, she appeared as Angelica Turing in the Netflix series Sense8 (2015-2018) from the Wachowskis. Darryl Hannah was in a serious relationship with John Kennedy Jr. for several years but never married due to Jacqueline Kennedy's disapproval of her son marrying an actress. She began seeing musician Jackson Browne in 1983 and eventually broke up in 1992 amid allegations that Browne was physically abusive to her. Since 2018, Hannah is married to musician Neil Young.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
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