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- Description:
- Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni was born February 25, 1966 in New York, New York, USA to Emily (mother) and Anthony (father) Pantaleoni.
A beautiful actress with a distinctive, honeyed, husky voice, Leoni developed an interest in acting at an early age encouraged by her grandmother, a Broadway performer. She dropped out of college to tour the world and upon her return to the US, was cast in the busted pilot "Angels '88", a remake of the 1970s "Charlie's Angels". She made her film debut as the "dream girl" in Blake Edwards' gender-bending "Switch" (1991). Leoni garnered rave reviews for her non-stereotypical portrayal of a flamboyant blonde bombshell in the Fox sitcom "Flying Blind" (1992-93). She was criticized for an infamous interview in connection with that show in which she said there wasn't enough sex on TV, at least not enough "all-American, healthy, fun sex." With her great looks and flamboyant style, Leoni landed the title role in the Fox TV-movie "The Counterfeit Contessa" (1994). As Gina, a streetwise Brooklyn woman swept into New York society and romance with an attorney when she is mistaken for an Italian countess, Leoni earned critical kudos. She and producer Chris Thompson developed the idea for "The Naked Truth" (ABC, 1995-96; NBC 1996-98) in which Leoni created the role of Nora Wilde, a formerly rich divorcee forced to become a tabloid newspaper photographer.
Leoni's additional feature film credits include Penny Marshall's "A League of Their Own" (1992), in which Leoni accidentally hit Madonna with a baseball. In Lawrence Kasdan's overlong oater "Wyatt Earp" (1994), she shone as a tough frontier prostitute. Leoni co-starred with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in "Bad Boys" (1995) as a sexy crime witness who causes two Miami drug enforcement cops to exchange identities. The following year, she once again showed her sultry appeal in David O Russell's "Flirting With Disaster."
Leoni once again displayed her pluck as a newswoman who discovers that Earth is about to be destroyed by a meteor in "Deep Impact" (1998). By the time of its release, she had married actor David Duchovny, and she took a brief hiatus for motherhood. Returning to the big screen in 2000, Leoni lent her sexy intelligence to the role of Nicolas Cage's wife in the holiday fantasy "The Family Man". The next year, she was among those facing off against dinosaurs in the inevitable sequel "Jurassic Park 3." In 2002, Leoni starred as Woody Allen's wife in "Hollywood Ending," where Allen played a film director who goes blind, and appeared as a celebrity with troublesome addictions in the well-regarded but little-seen "People I Know" (2002) opposite Al Pacino.
The actress next snared one of her highest-profile roles when she appeared as Adam Sandler's high-strung, out-of-control wife Deborah Clasky in writer-director James L. Brooks' seriocomic "Spanglish" (2004). Leoni played her character's emotionally frayed existence at a high pitch, and somehow made her lovable at the same time, despite an abundance of tics and neuroses that seem far from the experience of a normal human being—she also delivered the most raucous orgasm sequence on film since Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally." After starring in her husband's directorial debut, "The House of D" (2005), Leoni starred opposite Jim Carrey in the high-profile comedy, "Fun With Dick and Jane" (2005), a remake of the 1976 film starring Jane Fonda and George Segal. In the updated version, Carrey and Leoni played Dick and Jane Harper, a married couple so desperate to retain their deluxe suburban home and luxury cars after Dick loses his job that they resort to armed robbery—even if all they want is an iced mocha. - Viewed:
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