Patricia Arquette

Patricia Arquette ( ar-KET; born April 8, 1968) is an American actress. Known for her roles on film and television, she has received an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Arquette made her feature film debut as Kristen Parker in the fantasy slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). She has since had starring roles in several critically acclaimed films, including True Romance (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Flirting with Disaster (1996), Lost Highway (1997), The Hi-Lo Country (1998), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), and Holes (2003). For playing a single mother in the coming-of-age film Boyhood (2014), which was filmed from 2002 until 2014, Arquette won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

On television, she starred as a character based on the medium Allison DuBois in the supernatural drama series Medium (2005–2011), winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2005. For her role as a prison worker in the miniseries Escape at Dannemora (2018) and as Dee Dee Blanchard in the miniseries The Act (2019), she won Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress for The Act. She has starred as Harmony Cobel in the Apple TV thriller series Severance since 2022, earning two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

Patricia Arquette was born on April 8 1968, in Chicago, Illinois, to Lewis Arquette, an actor and puppeteer, and Brenda Olivia "Mardi" (née Nowak), who was involved in the arts and worked as a therapist. Through her father, Patricia is distantly related to explorer Meriwether Lewis. Arquette's father had converted from Catholicism to Islam. Arquette's mother was Jewish, and her ancestors emigrated from Poland and Russia.

Her father's family's surname was originally "Arcouet", and his paternal line was of French-Canadian descent. Her paternal grandfather was comedian Cliff Arquette. Patricia's siblings also became actors: Rosanna, Richmond, Alexis, and David. When she was a child, her parents offered to get her braces for her teeth, but she refused, claiming she didn't want to look perfect and "it didn't feel like it would fit who I was inside."

In 1987, Arquette's first starring roles included pregnant teenager Stacy in the television film Daddy, boarding school student Zero in Pretty Smart, and Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, alongside Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger and Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson. She reprised her role as Kristen in the music video to Dokken's Dream Warriors (1987). She was asked to reprise her role in the sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), but she declined the offer in order to do other projects. She gave up the role of Tralala in Last Exit to Brooklyn due to her pregnancy with her son Enzo.

In 1988, Arquette played the daughter of Tess Harper in Far North. Her roles in the early 1990s were in low budget and independent films, including Prayer of the Rollerboys (1990) as love interest of Corey Haim's character, The Indian Runner (1991), which was the directorial debut of Sean Penn; and the drama Inside Monkey Zetterland. In 1992, she won a CableACE Award for Best Lead Actress in a Mini-Series for her portrayal of a deaf girl with epilepsy in Wildflower, directed by Diane Keaton and also starring Reese Witherspoon.

In her early career, Arquette received the most recognition for her role as Alabama Worley, a free-spirited, kind-hearted prostitute in Tony Scott's True Romance (1993). The film was a moderate box office success but became a cultural landmark because of Quentin Tarantino's screenplay, which preceded Pulp Fiction, although some critics were deterred by the graphic violence. In one scene, Arquette puts up a fierce physical struggle in a fight with James Gandolfini (as a viciously sadistic killer) which her character ultimately wins. Arquette's performance received unanimous praise from critics. Janet Maslin of The New York Times remarked that Arquette played her role with "surprising sweetness", while Peter Travers remarked that "Arquette delivers sensationally".

Arquette next appeared in the television film Betrayed by Love (1994), and the well-received biopic Ed Wood, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, where she portrayed his girlfriend. Her next role was as Laura Bowman in John Boorman's Beyond Rangoon (1995), which drew mixed critical reviews, but was a success internationally. In France, it was an official selection at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, where it became one of the most popular hits of the event. Although the film had lackluster reviews, Arquette's performance as an American tourist in Burma during the 8888 Uprising was regarded as one of the work's strong points. Michael Sragow, writing for The New Yorker, stated "Arquette gives the kind of mighty physical performance usually delivered by men in existential action classics like 'The Wages of Fear', but she suffuses it with something all her own – she's bulletproof yet vulnerable." Hal Hinson of The Washington Post remarked that the film was "odd, brilliant in places, but frustrating all the same," commenting that "Arquette shows real grit when the chips are down".

Arquette appeared in three films in 1996, the first the comedy film Flirting with Disaster (1996), about a young man's cross-country pursuit to find his parents. Critical reception was largely positive, with Todd McCarthy of Variety praising the film and the authenticity of Arquette's performance, highlighting that "Arquette [is] very believably distracted and infuriated". Flirting with Disaster grossed $14 million at the American box office and was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Her second film released that year was the period drama The Secret Agent, an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel of the same name. The film received average reviews. Infinity was her third film that year, a biographical drama about the early life of American physicist Richard Feynman. The film received mixed to positive reviews. Although Emmanuel Levy of Variety said that Arquette was "miscast", he stated that she "registers more credibly in the first part of the film, when she plays an adolescent".

After the humdrum reception of Tiptoes, Arquette did not appear in another film until 2006's Fast Food Nation, directed by Richard Linklater. During these three years, she was largely working on Boyhood; it was released eight years later in July 2014. Fast Food Nation marked her second collaboration with Linklater; it is based on the bestselling 2001 non-fiction book of the same name by Eric Schlosser.

In January 2005, Arquette made her first transition to television with NBC's Medium. Her role as (a fictional version of) psychic medium Allison DuBois won her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2005, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe in 2005, 2006 and 2007, a SAG Award in 2006, 2007 and 2010, and an Emmy Award in 2007. In 2009 NBC cancelled Medium, then CBS picked the series up and it lasted another two seasons. In 2008, she provided voice work for A Single Woman, which was panned. She did not appear in another film until 2012. Girl in Progress, a drama directed by Patricia Riggen, marked her return; it was met with negative reviews. In 2013, she returned to television, appearing on Boardwalk Empire as Sally Wheet. Also in 2013, Arquette filmed the true crime drama Electric Slide.

In 2014, Boyhood was released, a project that Arquette and other actors had shot for 12 years beginning in 2002. The film was directed by Richard Linklater, marking his second collaboration with Arquette. In the film, she plays Olivia Evans, a single mother who raises her two children mostly alone with the sometimes assistance of their father (played by Ethan Hawke). The epic explores a 12-year scope. The film details the progression of her character's son, Mason, from ages eight to 18. The film has received universal praise, with many critics calling it a "landmark film". Arquette received widespread acclaim for her performance. Critic Katie McDonahugh, writing for Salon, states "the role gave [Arquette] space to be all of these messy things at once, and her performance was a raw, gutsy meditation on those profoundly human contradictions". Margaret Pomeranz, writing for ABC Australia, called Arquette's performance "stunning" and praised the film, further remarking that "the elision from one time to another is subtle and seamless. It's just a fabulous movie experience". Arquette won the Academy Award, BAFTA, Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, Independent Spirit, and SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In early 2015, Arquette began starring in the CBS series CSI: Cyber, a show about FBI agents who combat Internet-based crimes. On May 12, 2016, CBS canceled the series after two seasons, thus ending the CSI franchise.

Arquette portrayed Tilly Mitchell in the Ben Stiller-directed Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora, which premiered on November 18, 2018. For the role, she gained weight, wore prosthetic teeth, and brown contact lenses. For her performance, she received critical acclaim and won the SAG Award, Critics' Choice Television Award, and Golden Globe Award. She also received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.

In 2018, it was announced that Arquette would be starring in the Hulu series The Act. The series premiered in March 2019 to critical acclaim. For her performance, Arquette received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. In 2022, Arquette began co-starring in the Apple TV thriller series Severance, also directed by Stiller. The series has received critical acclaim.

At age 20, Arquette had a relationship with Paul Rossi, a musician. They had a son together, born on January 3, 1989. In April 1995, Arquette married Nicolas Cage (with whom she later co-starred in Bringing Out the Dead in 1999). They separated after nine months, but acted as a couple in public until Cage filed for divorce in February 2000.

Arquette and actor Thomas Jane became engaged in 2002. Their daughter, Harlow Jane, who was born on February 20, 2003, is also an actress. Arquette and Jane married on June 25, 2006, at the Palazzo Contarini in Venice, Italy. In January 2009, Arquette filed for divorce from Jane on the grounds of irreconcilable differences, but the couple soon reconciled. Arquette withdrew the divorce petition on July 9, 2009. On August 13, 2010, Jane's representative announced that Arquette and Jane had decided to proceed with a divorce due to "irreconcilable differences". The divorce was finalized on July 1, 2011, and the two agreed to joint custody of their child.

After the Haiti earthquake in 2010, Arquette and childhood friend Rosetta Millington-Getty formed GiveLove, a non-profit organization supporting ecological sanitation and composting, community development projects and housing construction in Haiti.

In 1997, after her mother died of breast cancer, Arquette worked to raise awareness about the disease. She has run in the annual Race for the Cure. In 1999 she was the spokesperson for Lee National Denim Day, which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer research and education.

In April 2010, she teamed up with welding students of the Robert Morgan Educational Center in Miami, Florida, to build shelters in Haiti from 20 used shipping containers, to provide housing to people displaced by the earthquake.

Arquette participated in the 2017 Women's March against President Donald Trump.