Olivia Wilde

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Olivia was born on March 10, 1984 in New York, New York (sorry, can't find a burrough) as Olivia Jane Cockburn. She is 5' 7½" [1.71 m] tall.

Those of you who are sic-fi geeks like me would know Olivia from "Cowboys and Aliens" and "Tron: Legacy" but if you are into science-like television, like me, you would know Olivia as "13" on the once formerly good TV show "House." Now the show is called "House, M.D." and it stinks, not only because this show and so many other shows has become a soap-opera but also because Olivia is no longer in the cast. Perhaps Fox News is starting to influence Fox TV, but I digress...

Olivia seems to be able to somehow become the age of the character she is playing. For some reason, she just looks ageless… well, to me anyway. Doing the math, as of today (11/8/11) she is 27 years old but I guarantee you that she can play 18 or 35 without make-up. Any younger would be almost unbelievable unless they ugly her up a bit with acne & other teenage angst and any older she would have to have more wrinkles.

Her next/current movie is a must see for sic-fiers, "In Time" but she has two in the can (done, no more filming), one in post (final touches) and three in pre (preparing to film). She is a busy young lady and hopefully she will be for a long time.

Factoids:

• Daughter of Andrew Cockburn and Leslie Cockburn.
• Attended Georgetown Day School in Washington, DC, through 8th grade.
• Attended Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland.
• Spent one month on the set of The Girl Next Door (2004) before being asked to join the cast.
• Raised in Washington, DC.
• Graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
• Has a dog named Paco.
• Won Best Actress at HBO's US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, 2006 for her role in Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas (2006).
• Has dual citizenship between Ireland and the United States. (I alway have to answer this question about dual citizenship. The United States does not recognize another country's citizenship if you are a citizen of the United States. In other words, if you're American, you're American and nothing else from the point of view of the United States... under oath, you renounced other countries if you were naturalized. Other countries, however, will recognize other citizenships, so, Ireland must recognize U.S. citizenship and Irish citizenship, hence, from the Irish government's point of view, you have dual citizenship. -ed., who is a naturalized U.S. citizen)
• Once won a pancake eating contest while in Australia.
• Is a natural blond. (I thought the other way around, didn't you? -ed.)
• Is a vegan.
• Is Irish-American.
• Was rumored to play the lead Bond girl in Bond 23. (I can see that. -ed.)
• Replaced Kate Hudson in "Butter."
• A lifelong lover of classic cars, the actress owns a 1958 Chevy Biscayne and a 1959 Thunderbird Convertible. Once owned a 1966 Lincoln Continental with suicide doors. (We used to own one of those Lincolns too. -ed.)
• Adopted her professional name "Wilde" after she developed a profound respect and admiration for Irish poet and writer Oscar Wilde and his body of literature.
• Has an older sister named Chloe, and a younger brother named Charlie.
• Mick Jagger was once her parents' dinner guest at their Washington D.C. home, and she had an impromptu brownie-eating contest with Chris Farley when, at age 10, she visited the set of "Saturday Night Live" (1975).
• Her well-connected journalist parents once helped her get a casting office job in Los Angeles, hoping the experience would dissuade her from taking up acting.
• Her paternal grandmother, Jean Ross, was the inspiration for Christopher Isherwood's character "Sally Bowles", portrayed on film in "I Am a Camera" (1955) by Julie Harris, and "Cabaret" (1972) by Liza Minnelli.

Quotes

• (In the interview Wilde at Heart to Sara Vilkomerson to The New York Observer on April 15 2007) When people saw "The Black Donnellys" (2007), they didn't know it was the same girl from "The O.C." (2003). I'm a natural blonde, but I feel like a brunette. I feel like people treat me now how I should be treated. People used to be shocked, when I was blond, that I wasn't stupid. I used to get these comments that I swear people thought were compliments. Like, 'Oh! You're smart!' - like they couldn't believe it.
• Trying to find this industry's tendency to celebrate the physical is a waste of time. So I'm happy to play the game. But I am also thirsty for input. I'm not a dunce whose only skill is knowing how to take a photograph, you know? And at the end of the day I think it makes me slightly less replaceable.
• [on TRON: Legacy (2010)] It was an effort to get into that suit, but if I was a real astronaut I wouldn't expect that to be easy either. It's all part of the process, it's a challenge and that is what creates the rewards.
• I wanted to be on "Saturday Night Live" (1975) as a cast member. So I went to my mom at ten years old and said, 'This is what I want.' And she said, 'Great, well, you're going to have to go to Second City and you're going to have to audition.' And she took me seriously. And I think that's what always kind of helped propel me and take myself seriously is that I had supportive parents that were in no way pressuring me to do anything. But if I declared that I wanted something, they took me seriously. And that is often what it takes when you decide to be an artist. (I hope my son says something like this when he's rich and famous. -ed.)  

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Find more Olivia Wilde stuff here.

Find more Olivia Wilde stuff here.