Mia Farrow TOPICS: Arts / Music / Drama Children / Youth Family Inspiration Celebrity FEE CATEGORY:* 25.0k to 30.0k TRAVELS FROM: New York Profile Request This Speaker

Mia Farrow: Profile

Acclaimed Actress and Youth Advocate

This daughter of film director John Farrow and actress Maureen O'Sullivan became an "overnight" star in 1964 when she was tapped to essay the pivotal role of troubled teenager Alison MacKenzie in ABC's groundbreaking primetime serial "Peyton Place". Delicately pretty with blonde hair and blue eyes, Mia Farrow projected an aura of vulnerability, yet was capable of tempering that ethereal quality with a grounding strength (perhaps due in part to surviving a childhood bout with polio).

When as a headstrong pre-teen she expressed a desire to follow in her mother's stead, her father sent her to convent school in Europe. John Farrow allowed several of his children to take small roles in his 1959 film "John Paul Jones" and for his eldest daughter the desire to act became stronger. No matter how many Catholic schools she attended, Mia Farrow planned to become an actress. Ironically, it was only after her father's unexpected death from a heart attack in 1963 that she was able to finally realize her dream.

In 1978, she offered intriguing if not always successful performances like her mute bridesmaid in Robert Altman's "A Wedding" and her jilted lover in the all-star Agatha Christie adaptation "Death on the Nile". After a misguided turn in "The Hurricane" (1979), she began an association that had ramifications on her professional and personal life.

She had been introduced to filmmaker Woody Allen by Michael Caine and in 1982 assumed the role of his muse. Beginning with the lightweight "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" (1982) and stretching to "Husbands and Wives" (1992), Farrow got to create an astonish array of characters.

Her best work under Allen's guidance included the 1920s psychiatrist in "Zelig" (1983), the brassy gangster's moll in "Broadway Danny Rose" (1984), the downtrodden wife in "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (1985) and the luminous center of "Hannah and Her Sisters" (1986, which was filmed in large part in her Central Park West apartment).

The underrated "Alice" (1990), a spin on Lewis Carroll's tale, offered her another strong role, but it was around this time that her personal life began to unravel. As she was later to discover, Allen had begun a relationship with one her adopted daughters (Soon-Yi Previn whom he later married). When she discovered the affair, it unfortunately became fodder for the tabloids, partly as Farrow accused Allen of molesting their adopted daughter. The messy situation played out in the courts (with Allen denied custody of the two children he adopted with Farrow as well as their biological child) and Farrow retreated to tend to her family.

As the mother of fourteen children - ten of whom are adopted, Mia Farrow has now devoted her life to humanitarian efforts and the care of a truly remarkable family. With the goal of helping those who are less fortunate, she brings an unending source of courage, hope and spiritual strength to her role as mother and activist.

Farrow reflected on her ever-evolving life journey in the sincere and candid bestseller, What Falls Away. In what Newsweek calls "a simply elegant memoir," she presents a revealing and candid account of her personal struggles, her numerous professional successes, and her passionate and sincere commitment to the children of the world.

Expanding on this memoir, Farrow graces the lecture stage with her eloquence and honesty in a unique presentation that is sure to inspire any audience.

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