Calista Flockhart

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Calista Kay Flockhart

Birthdate:
Birthplace: Freeport, Illinois, United States
Immediate Family:

Daughter of Private and Kay Calista Flockhart
Wife of Harrison Ford
Mother of Private
Sister of Private

Occupation: Actress
Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:

About Calista Flockhart

Calista Kay Flockhart is an American actress, primarily on television. She is best known for playing the title character of Ally McBeal (1997–2002). She currently stars as Sally Field’s character’s daughter, Kitty Walker, on the ABC drama, Brothers & Sisters.

Born to a teacher and Kraft Foods employee, Flockhart moved around a great deal in her youth, finally settling in Medford, New Jersey. After graduating from high school in Medford, she attended nearby Rutgers University, where she studied drama.

Flockhart graduated in 1987 and spent roughly seven years shuttling between on- and off-Broadway productions, often paying the bills through small roles in daytime soap operas. In 1991, she got a small break with an appearance in the biographical television movie Darrow, which starred the still-emerging Kevin Spacey. An appearance in an HBO drama about bulimia soon followed.

But Flockhart's rise to stardom was slow and steady. She spent much of the 1990s fighting for progressively larger roles, including an award-winning performance in a Broadway run of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (1994).

But it wasn't until Flockhart caught the eye of producer David E. Kelley in 1997 that she became a household name. Kelley cast the relatively unknown Flockhart in the lead role of his new series, Ally McBeal. Ally became an immediate popular success and Flockhart's portrayal of the character -- a successful lawyer who is at once an independent career-woman and a mass of insecurity regarding relationship and family issues -- became the subject of heated controversy. While detractors claimed the character played on classic female stereotypes, many found the troubled McBeal a realistic and human version of modern womanhood.

After Ally McBeal's inaugural season, Flockhart won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. The show ended its run in May 2002. In the fall of 2006, she starred on television in Brothers & Sisters with Sally Field.

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Calista Flockhart's Timeline

1964
November 11, 1964
Freeport, Illinois, United States