Everything about Mia Farrow totally explained
Maria "Mia" de Lourdes Villiers-Farrow (born
February 9,
1945) is an American
actress. Farrow has appeared in more than forty films and won numerous awards, including a
Golden Globe award (and seven additional Golden Globe nominations), three
BAFTA Film Award nominations, and a win for best actress at the
San Sebastian International Film Festival. Farrow is also notable for her extensive humanitarian work as a
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Her latest effort is
www.miafarrow.org
containing a guide on how to get involved with Darfur activism, along with her photos and
blog entries from Darfur, Chad, and the Central African Republic.
Biography
Early life
Farrow was born in
Los Angeles,
California, the daughter of
Australian film director
John Farrow and
Irish actress
Maureen O'Sullivan, and sister of actresses
Tisa Farrow and
Prudence Farrow. For the most part she grew up in
Beverly Hills in Southern California, and often traveled with her parents for films that were produced on location. She made her film debut in a 1947 short subject with her mother; the short was about famous mothers and their children modeling the latest fashions for families. In the 1950s, she appeared in the
Cold War educational film,
Duck and Cover.
Career
Farrow screen-tested for the role of Liesl Von Trapp in
The Sound of Music. That footage has been preserved, and appears on the fortieth Anniversary Edition DVD of
The Sound of Music. Farrow began her acting career by appearing in supporting roles in several 1960s films. However, she achieved stardom on the popular
primetime soap opera
Peyton Place as naive, waif-like Allison Mackenzie, a role she later abandoned at the urging of husband
Frank Sinatra. Her first leading film role was in
1968's
Rosemary's Baby, which was a major critical and commercial success at the time and continues to be widely regarded as a classic of the horror genre.
Farrow's performance in
Rosemary's Baby garnered numerous awards, including the
Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress, and established her as a leading actress. Film critic and author Stephen Farber described her performance as having an "electrifying impact… one of the rare instances of actor and character achieving a miraculous, almost mythical match. If Ira Levin's story shrewdly taps into every pregnant woman's fears about the stranger growing inside her, Mia Farrow gives those fears an achingly real and human force". Film critic
Roger Ebert noted that "the brilliance of the film comes more from Polanski's direction, and from a series of genuinely inspired performances… The characters emerge as human beings actually doing these things. A great deal of the credit for this achievement must go to Mia Farrow, as Rosemary". Following
Rosemary's Baby, Farrow starred in
Secret Ceremony, opposite Elizabeth Taylor. The film divided critics, but has gone on to develop a devoted following. Farrow's other late '60s films include
John and Mary, opposite Dustin Hoffman.
In the 1970s, Farrow appeared in a number of notable films, including the 1971 thriller
See No Evil, legendary French director
Claude Chabrol's 1972 film
Docteur Popaul, and the
1974 version of
The Great Gatsby, in which Farrow played "Daisy Buchanan". She also appeared in director
Robert Altman's cult classic
A Wedding in 1978. Farrow also appeared in a number of made for television films in the 1970s, most notably portraying the title role in a 1976 musical version of
Peter Pan. In 1979, Farrow appeared on
Broadway opposite
Anthony Perkins in the play
Romantic Comedy by
Bernard Slade.
In the 1980s and early '90s, Farrow's relationship with director
Woody Allen resulted in numerous film collaborations. She appeared in nearly all of Allen's critically acclaimed films during this period, including leading roles in
Hannah and Her Sisters (playing the title role of "Hannah"),
The Purple Rose of Cairo,
Broadway Danny Rose, and 1990s
Alice, again as the title character. Farrow also played Alura, mother of "Kara" (
Helen Slater), in the 1984 movie
Supergirl and voiced the title role in 1982's animated film
The Last Unicorn.
Citing the need to devote herself to raising her young children, Farrow worked less frequently during the '90s. Nonetheless, she appeared in leading roles in several notable films, included 1994's
Widows' Peak (an
Irish film) and the 1995 films,
Miami Rhapsody and
Reckless. She also appeared in several independent features and made for television films throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. She also wrote an autobiography,
What Falls Away (New York: Doubleday, 1997).
Farrow most recently appeared as "Mrs. Baylock", the
Satanic nanny, in the 2006 remake of
The Omen. Though the film itself received a lukewarm critical reception, Farrow's performance was widely praised, with the
Associated Press declaring "thank heaven for Mia Farrow" and calling her performance "a rare instance of the new
Omen improving on the old one." Filmcritic.com added "it is Farrow who steals the show", and the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer described her performance as "a truly delicious comeback role for Rosemary herself, Mia Farrow, who is chillingly believable as a sweet-talking nanny from hell".
Farrow has completed work on several films released in 2007, including the romantic comedy
The Ex and the first part of director
Luc Besson's planned trilogy of fantasy films,
Arthur and the Invisibles. In February 2008, she appeared in director
Michel Gondry's
Be Kind Rewind, opposite
Jack Black and
Danny Glover.
Activism
Farrow has been a high profile advocate for children's rights, working to raise funds and awareness for children in conflict affected regions, predominantly in Africa. She is a
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has worked extensively to draw attention to the fight to eradicate polio, which she survived as a child. She has traveled to
Darfur three times to advocate for Darfuri refuges. She traveled there, in November 2004 and June 2006, joining her son
Ronan Farrow, who has also worked for UNICEF in Sudan. Her third trip was as part of a documentary film expedition in 2007. Farrow's photographs of Darfur appeared in
People magazine in July 2006 and she authored an article on the crisis, published in the
Chicago Tribune on
July 25,
2006. On
February 5,
2007, Farrow authored an editorial for the Los Angeles Times. On August 7, 2007, Farrow offered to "trade her freedom" for the freedom of a rebel leader, being treated in a UN hospital but afraid to leave. She wanted to be taken captive in exchange for him being allowed to leave the country.
Her latest effort is www.miafarrow.org, containing a guide on how to get involved with Darfur activism, along with her photos and
blog entries from Darfur, Chad, and the Central African Republic.
Swayed by Farrow's campaign pressure on him, on February 12, 2008
Steven Spielberg withdrew as an artistic adviser to the
2008 Olympics.
Farrow has recently agreed to narrate a documentary film relating the struggle of many of the survivors of the Rwandan Genocide to forgive those who murdered their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, children and friends. The documentary, presently in postproduction, is titled: As We Forgive Those.
(External Link)
Personal life and relationships
In 1968, Farrow traveled to India, where she spent the early part of the year at the
ashram of
the Maharishi in
Rishikesh,
Uttarakhand, studying
transcendental meditation. Her visit gained worldwide media attention due to the presence of all four
Beatles,
Donovan,
Mike Love (the
Beach Boys lead singer), and
Prudence Farrow (Mia's younger sister who inspired John Lennon to write
Dear Prudence).
Farrow married singer
Frank Sinatra on
July 19,
1966, when she was 21 and he was 50. While she was filming
Rosemary's Baby with director
Roman Polanski, Sinatra served her divorce papers in front of the cast and crew. The move came as a shock to Farrow, who didn't think that Sinatra would divorce her because she'd refused his prior demand that she quit filming in order to work on his movie
The Detective. The split was finalized two years later. Farrow married
German-
American Jewish pianist
André Previn in 1970. His former wife, songwriter
Dory Previn, blamed Farrow for his leaving her and wrote a scathing attack in a song entitled "Beware of Young Girls". Farrow and Previn had three biological children (twins Matthew and Sascha, born in 1970; and Fletcher, born in 1974) together and
adopted three children, one from Korea, the other two from Vietnam,
Soon-Yi, Lark Song, and Daisy. André and Mia divorced in 1979, but they remained on good terms. Fletcher Previn appears in one of Farrow's Woody Allen films,
Radio Days; Fletcher plays with the children in a scene set on a roof-top.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Farrow spent many years with director
Woody Allen, but didn't marry or live with him. The two had one biological son named
Ronan Seamus Farrow. They also adopted a son and daughter together. They separated after Allen began a sexual relationship with Farrow's adopted daughter
Soon-Yi Previn, whom he later married. Their marriage reportedly left Farrow devastated. During the custody battle, Farrow filed
child abuse charges against Allen, involving her other daughter, Dylan. Those charges were later dropped, because the Connecticut state's attorney investigating the case found that although probable cause existed for prosecuting Allen, it wasn't worth subjecting the child to the possible trauma of a court trial. At the height of the Woody-Mia public fracas,
Frank Sinatra, who always had a soft spot for his exes, contacted Farrow offering to have Allen's legs broken. The court proceedings confirm this, and Farrow herself wrote of Sinatra's sentimental offer in her autobiography.
Farrow has been a high profile advocate of adoption since the 1970s, adopting children from poverty stricken regions, many of whom were deemed "difficult to place" due to biological handicaps. She adopted three children and has three biological children with Andre Previn. She also adopted two children and has one biological child with Woody Allen. Farrow went on to adopt five additional children as a sole parent thereafter. Her last adoption was in 1995. Farrow has fifteen children, eleven of them adopted. She is active in agencies that encourage adoption, as evidenced by her involvement with
UNICEF. Farrow is estranged from
Soon-Yi Previn since Soon-Yi's marriage to Woody Allen. She called the loss a "tragedy" in
The Observer (a U.K. Sunday newspaper) and remarked that "she's not coming back". Farrow said of Soon-Yi: "She was on the streets in Korea when she was captured and brought to the state orphanage. And in a way I can see from her perspective — a very limited perspective — that she's improved her situation. For a little orphan kid from Korea ... Perhaps she's not to be blamed." In a widely circulated quote, Soon-Yi dismissed Mia as "no Mother Teresa."
Farrow's adopted daughter Tam Farrow died in March 2000 at 21 years-old, after a long illness. Farrow splits her time between her spacious
SoHo Loft in NYC's
Greenwich Village and her estate/farm in
Roxbury, Connecticut near the Town of New Milford.
List of children
With André Previn
- Matthew Phineas Previn (born in 1970)
- Sascha Villiers Previn (born in 1970)
- Fletcher Farrow Previn (born in 1974)
Adopted with Previn
- Soon-Yi Previn, (born in South Korea 8 Oct 1970, adopted c. 1978 )
- Lark Song Previn, (born in Vietnam 1973, adopted 1973)
- Summer Song Previn (also known as Daisy), (born in Vietnam c. 1975, adopted 1976)
Ronan Seamus Farrow (1987—), (birth name Satchel O'Sullivan Farrow)
Adopted with Allen
Moses Amadeus Farrow (also known as Misha Farrow) (1978, adopted 1980)
Dylan O'Sullivan Farrow (also known as Eliza Farrow, current name is Malone)
Later adopted by Mia Farrow as a single mother
Tam Farrow (1979 – 2000)
Isaiah Justus Farrow (c. 1991)
Quincy Farrow (now known as Kaeli-Shea, adopted 1994)
Frankie-Minh (1991, adopted 1995)
Thaddeus W. Farrow (c. 1988, adopted 1994)
Gabriel Wilk Farrow
Filmography
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mia Farrow'.
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