Daryl Hannah Biography

Daryl Hannah’s career took off when she appeared as the painted android Pris in Ridley Scott‘s Blade Runner (1982, with Harrison Ford). A tall blonde, powerful but with a soft touch, Hannah then showed she could play a romantic lead as well, appearing opposite Tom Hanks in the hit mermaid movie Splash (1985).

Daryl Hannah grew up near Chicago and attended UCLA, where she studied acting and ballet. She was only 17 when she appeared in her first film, with a small role in the thriller The Fury (1978). After Blade Runner made her a rising star, she appeared in high-profile films of the 1980s like the drama Wall Street (1987), the prehistoric action pic The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986, based on the novel by Jean Auel), and the romantic comedy Roxanne (1987, with Steve Martin and based on the story of Cyrano de Bergerac).

Her later films include Quentin Tarantino‘s two-part martial arts slugfest Kill Bill (2003-04, with Hannah as the villainous Elle Driver), the crime dramas Vice (2008) and Sicilian Vampire (2015, with James Caan), and the adoption drama Papa (2018).

Newer audiences are also familiar with Hannah as a political activist with a special interest in environmental issues ranging from solar power to protesting the Keystone XL pipeline.