Sarah Michelle Gellar

Sarah Michelle Gellar (born April 14, 1977) is an American actress, best known for her role in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Some of her most commercially successful films have been horror films such as The Grudge (2004), but she has also acted in a variety of other genres, from family films like Scooby-Doo (2002) to thrillers like Harvard Man (2001). more...

Early life

Gellar was born in New York City to Jewish American parents Arthur and Rosellen. After her parents divorced in 1984, she was brought up by her mother. She refuses to acknowledge any relationship with her father saying "Just because you donate sperm does not make you a father". Arthur died on October 9, 2001 of unknown causes. In a famous appearance with Howard Stern on June 20, 2002, he grilled Sarah extensively about both her religion and her relationship with her (then deceased) father and she became very angry and defensive.

She has been acting since the age of four, when she did a commercial for Burger King. Her best friend as a child was Melissa Joan Hart, who later was the star of the television series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.

Career

Gellar's major break came in 1992 in the teen soap opera Swan's Crossing. From there, she moved on to the long-running soap opera All My Children, where she played the conniving character Kendall Hart, the long-lost daughter of character Erica Kane (played by Susan Lucci). In 1995, at the age of 18, she won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Leading Actress in a Drama Series.

Gellar left All My Children in 1995 and landed the lead in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, as a teenager burdened with the responsibility of fighting a number of mystical foes, with the aid of a group of friends and her Watcher (a teacher of sorts). The show was well received by critics and audiences alike, and throughout its seven seasons, Buffy, and Gellar along with her, became cult icons in the United States and the UK. Gellar also sang several of the songs during the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode "Once More, with Feeling," which spawned an original cast album. While continuing in that role, she attempted to capitalize on her television fame in order to create a career for herself in motion pictures, with intermittent commercial success. After roles in the popular thrillers I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2, Gellar starred in the film Simply Irresistible. This film, rumored to be the last film ever watched by critic Gene Siskel, featured a magical crab and borrowed heavily from Like Water for Chocolate. Gellar's next film was the steamy hit Cruel Intentions, a modern-day retelling of Les Liaisons Dangereuses; this movie gained much exposure due to a famous girl on girl kissing scene between Sarah and Selma Blair. Also in 1999, she made an appearance in the Stone Temple Pilots music video Sour Girl. She then went on to play a lead role in Harvard Man.

Personal life

On September 1, 2002, Gellar and teen-movie actor Freddie Prinze Jr. were married in Mexico.

Scooby-Doo

Gellar found greater box office success playing Daphne in Scooby-Doo, a live-action adaption of the cartoon series. Despite being universally panned by critics, the movie was highly popular with audiences. Gellar also appeared in the movie's sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004).

Movies

The year of 2004 was marked by a point of controversy in Gellar's career, as the president of the talent agency representing Gellar, David Wirtschafter, told the The New Yorker that the success of Gellar's low-budget film The Grudge (a remake of the Japanese horror film Ju-on: The Grudge) "takes our client Sarah Michelle Gellar, who now is nothing at all, and it makes her a star, potentially. Suddenly, the Sarah Michelle Gellar space is meaningful." The remark led to Gellar abandoning the agency. In January 2005 Gellar signed for the movie The Return which she started filming in March of that same year. Gellar finished filming The Return in April 2005 and started filming Southland Tales, a film by Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly in August 2005. Sarah finished filming Southland Tales in October 2005. Next she will be filming "The Air I Breathe" with co-stars Diego Luna, Kevin Bacon and Ken Watanabe in January 2006 in Mexico City. She will also be reprising her role as Karen Davis in The Grudge 2 which is expected to begin filming on January 30, 2006 and released in cinemas on October 20, 2006. Production for A Girl's Guide to Hunting And Fishing , based on the book of the same name and co-starring Alec Baldwin will start in May 2006. Both The Return and Southland Tales are expected to be released in 2006. Also in that same year, Gellar is expected to start filming Alice based on the game from American McGee.

Filmography

Television

• Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1998)... (voice) Andromeda
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)....Buffy Summers
• Beverly Hills Family Robinson (1997)... Jane Robinson
• All About Erica (1994)... (archive footage) Kendall Hart
• All My Children (1993-1995)... Kendall Hart #1
• Swan's Crossing (1992)... Sydney Orion Rutledge
• A Woman Named Jackie (1991)... teenage Jacqueline Bouvier
• Spenser: For Hire, episode: "Company Man" (#3.17) (1988)... Emily
• An Invasion of Privacy (1983)... Jennifer Bianchi

Gellar has hosted Saturday Night Live several times.

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