Virginia Madsen
Born: 11 September 1963
Where: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Madsen landed an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress in Alexander Payne's bittersweet romantic comedy Sideways.
She played Maya, a young woman who brings light relief to Paul Giamatti's lost writer drowning in wine on a road trip.
Although she lost out to Cate Blanchett, Madsen was finally recognised in an industry which has largely ignored her underrated work.
The daughter of a firefighter and an Emmy-award-winning writer, Madsen graduated from New Trier High School in Illinois with her best friend, actress Rusty Schwimmer.
(her actor brother is Tarantino favourite Michael Madsen - who refuses to see any film she's in where she appears naked).
After attending the Ted Liss Acting Studio in Chicago, she made her big screen debut in the 1983 high school Class with Jacqueline Bisset.
The following year she played Princess Irulan in David Lynch's noble failure, the sci-fi epic Dune and also appeared in Steve Barron's futuristic comedy Electric Dreams.
Subsequent appearances included the largely forgettable Fire with Fire, Zombie High and Highlander II: The Quickening.
In 1992, she memorably played Helen Lyle in Bernard Rose's horror-thriller Candyman with Kasi Lemmons and went on to star in Rob Reiner's Ghosts of Mississippi in 1996.
The following year she starred in John Grisham's thriller The Rainmaker with John Voight and Danny De Vito.
Subsequent work was patchy - mainly TV work and straight-to-video releases - until Alexander Payne cast her as Maya in Sideways.
She was married briefly to director Danny Huston, son of Angelica, and has a child with Antonio Sabato Jr, star of hit TV drama Melrose Place.
