She lit up the 1980s with her groundbreaking talent, skyrocketing from model to Oscar-winning actress almost overnight.
But behind the glitz and fame lay a hidden struggle — and a childhood brush with death at just 8 years old.
Amish-like upbringing
Few actors of the ’90s captured hearts and critical acclaim quite like this star. With her signature dimples and magnetic presence, she was Hollywood magic, turning every role into a showcase of raw talent from the very start of her acting journey.
Born on January 21, 1958, in Wareham, Massachusetts, she discovered early on that performing was her true calling.
“I was three years old, and how I even knew it was a job, I have no idea, because we were only allowed to watch Disney movies, which were animated.”
Her parents, Bill and Lucille, were practical, old-fashioned people — so much so that she has joked they “would have been Amish had they heard of being Amish.”
She and her older brother, Dan, were raised with a strong emphasis on politeness and proper behavior.
Looking back on her New England upbringing, she reflected, “My parents are both from Vermont, very old-fashioned New England. We heated our house with wood my father chopped. My mom grew all of our food. We were very underexposed to everything.”
When she almost died
But even though this actress grew up in a sheltered world, far from Hollywood’s glitz and scandals, she sadly faced some truly tragic and frightening experiences during her childhood.
For example, the star has revealed that she came frighteningly close to death at age 8 during a terrifying drive with her 99-year-old great-uncle Jack. As he weaved in and out of oncoming traffic, neither she nor her parents spoke up about his reckless driving, even as a car barreled toward them. At the very last moment, Jack corrected his path, narrowly avoiding a head-on crash. The ordeal left a lasting impression: always remain polite, no matter the situation.
This struggle – of being too polite to stand up for oneself – also serves as the through line of her’ 2022 memoir, ”Dying of Politeness”.
The horrible secret she was carrying around
In her book, she also opened up about a deeply traumatic event from her childhood: being molested by a neighbor while delivering his newspaper.
Like many who have endured similar abuse, she didn’t fully understand the severity of what happened until adulthood.
“It caused a lot of shame in me that that happened because I didn’t know what he was doing when he was touching me in that way. I didn’t know that it was wrong. I had no reaction to it, and then to see my mother’s reaction, [it was like], ‘Oh, my God, this was a big deal. I did something terribly wrong,” she told Vanity Fair.
Her mother confronted the neighbor, but no police report was ever filed.
”I knew that he was also to blame because she strolled up the street and told him never to touch me again and then told me never to go up the stairs to his apartment again. But she didn’t explain what had happened or why it was bad to do the thing that he was doing, so it just felt like this horrible secret that I was carrying around.”
”My big lesson in life was you can’t ever complain about anything,” she reflected.
”You can’t draw that kind of attention to yourself by complaining about something. So I didn’t talk about it, but I wanted to talk about it.”
Bullied by classmates
Another factor that shaped this actress during her youth was one of her physical traits: her height. In high school, she stood out as the tallest girl in her class — a distinction that, rather than boosting her confidence, often weighed on her self-esteem.
“They always wanted me on the basketball team, but I wasn’t too good,” she told The Chilliwack Progress in 1985. “Track was my thing. I did high jumps and hurdles on the girls’ team. But it was hopeless if you were taller than everybody else.
“I was tall from minute one,” she told The View. “I was very self-conscious and shy, and the last thing I wanted to do was stand out, and yet, every minute, I stood out.”
Being teased by classmates made things even harder.
“So, it was really tough growing up. The boys’ nickname for me in high school was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which, you know, is so charming,” she recalled, referencing the legendary Lakers star.
Outside of sports, she played the flute in the marching band, and during her senior year, she spent time studying abroad in Sweden, leaving her fluent in the language.
She continued her studies at New England College in New Hampshire before transferring to Boston University to major in drama. Her parents accepted her decision to study acting at Boston University without hesitation.
“I think they knew so little about it, and it would be incredibly rare and freaky if I was able to have a successful career,” she told The Gentle Woman.
One surprising detail she shared: she never actually told her parents that she didn’t graduate college, even though Wikipedia had listed it as fact for years.
“They never knew the truth before they passed away,” she revealed.
Model for Victoria’s Secret
In 1977, she moved to New York City, taking on work as a window mannequin, sales clerk, and waitress while starting her journey in the modeling world. Her hard work paid off when she signed with the Zoli Agency and was featured in the iconic Victoria’s Secret catalog — a move that ultimately opened the door to Hollywood.
“I knew I wanted to be in movies, as opposed to theater,” she told NPR.
“I decided that I would try becoming a model first because, at that time, Christie Brinkley and Lauren Hutton were being offered parts in movies. And I thought, OK, well, I’ll just become a model, and then they’ll just offer me parts because obviously, it’s so much easier to become a supermodel.
It ultimately all worked out for me, but the likelihood of becoming a famous model was actually pretty slim, and I didn’t. I did get work, and it was through my model agency that I got my first acting job.”
Her big break came when legendary director Sydney Pollack spotted her in the catalog and cast her in the 1982 film Tootsie, setting the stage for a career that would define an era of Hollywood. After sharing the screen with Dustin Hoffman, she earned glowing reviews for her performance. Soon after, she relocated to Los Angeles, where her career began to gain real momentum.
It was at this point that the general public started to recognize her name, and more and more filmmakers wanted the young star in their projects.
Her name? Geena Davis.
In 1983, the talented actress starred in the critically acclaimed TV series Buffalo Bill, followed by her own show, Sara, in 1985. When that show was canceled, Davis shifted her focus to the big screen. She appeared in the 1985 film Transylvania 6-5000 alongside Jeff Goldblum, which didn’t perform well at the box office.
Thelma & Louise
But a year later, the duo reunited for the now-iconic 1986 horror film The Fly, marking a major breakthrough in her film career.
Her rise continued with a standout role in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice in 1988. One year later, Davis starred in The Accidental Tourist, a film that received four Academy Award nominations. Her performance earned her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, cementing her status as one of Hollywood’s leading talents.
But it’s her unforgettable role in Thelma & Louise that remains her most recognized work. This groundbreaking feminist film, directed by Ridley Scott, also sparked a formative friendship that taught Davis to find her own voice — her bond with co-star Susan Sarandon, her on-screen partner-in-crime, was especially influential.
Davis recalls Sarandon as a woman who “very simply and clearly said what she thought.” Following Thelma & Louise, she took on a role in A League of Their Own, solidifying her status as a leading figure in women-focused cinema.
She said the response to those films was so “surprising and significant” that it underscored just how rare it was to see movies made by women, for women.
At the height of her Hollywood fame, she was celebrated not only for her beauty, but for the depth and intelligence she brought to every role she played.
“People always ask, ‘Do you think you’re beautiful?’ What am I going to say?” she told Vogue in 1992, before adding, “But when I see myself in a movie, I sometimes think, Oh, that’s really nice. I look good.”
One aspect of Hollywood she openly loved was the chance to dress up for major events. Shortly after Thelma & Louise, she made a memorable Oscars appearance in a dramatic Bo-Peep–inspired gown complete with a long train.
“I’m just from this small town, and I’m actually going to the Oscars. Of course I want to wear something glamorous,” Davis said, noting how different that world was from the one she grew up in. She also pointed out that her parents lived very simply — and that “the only makeup my mother wore was red lipstick.”
But as Davis approached 40, a story familiar to many actors began to unfold.
“I fell off the cliff,” she told The Guardian in 2020.
“The great roles were incredibly scarce. It was a big difference.”
Married four times
While the industry may have let a major talent fade from the spotlight, it hardly diminished her influence. But when her career no longer soared in a straight line, there were other things in Davis’s life that mattered far more.
Davis, who has been married four times — including to her The Fly co-star Jeff Goldblum — became a mother for the first time at 46. Now 69, she is a mother of three: daughter Alizeh, 23, and fraternal twin sons, Kaiis and Kian, 19.
It was with her fourth husband, plastic surgeon Reza Jarrahy, that Davis realized her dream of motherhood. The two first met at a party and struck up a friendship, though Davis was hesitant to pursue a relationship with the then-27-year-old, 15 years her junior. She admitted:
“At first, to be honest, I was just approaching it like something that would be fun. I wasn’t thinking too far ahead of the game.”
As they spent more time together, Davis fell in love with Jarrahy, who would become her fourth husband and the father of her children. They married in 2001 and welcomed their first child, Alizeh, in 2002.
Mom in mid-forties
Welcoming a child in her mid-forties posed challenges, and Davis has never revealed the details of her pregnancy or whether she used IVF, as many older celebrity mothers do.
In 2004, she gave birth to twin boys, Kaiis and Kian, and admitted her biggest worry was managing three children under the age of three.
She also confessed another fear: that she couldn’t possibly love anyone as much as she loved her daughter — until she met her sons.
Unlike many celebrities who introduce their children to acting early, Davis is not encouraging any of her three to enter show business.
She is particularly protective of her daughter, emphasizing that she doesn’t want her exposed to an industry where women are often exploited and objectified.
But perhaps Alizeh will follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her LinkedIn profile shows that she now studies at the University of Southern California, working toward a bachelor’s degree in music industry and cinematic arts.
As her children grew, they motivated Davis to take action in Hollywood. Noticing gender inequality in movies and TV when her kids were toddlers, she decided to address the issue and went on to found the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2004. Today, Geena has long been an advocate for gender equality in Hollywood, noting that 96% of films are directed by men.
The Thelma & Louise star stresses that this isn’t due to a lack of talented women, but because of the male-dominated system.
Geena Davis today
Today, at 69, Davis remains active in her acting career.
She is set to appear in the Duffer Brothers’ upcoming Netflix supernatural mystery, The Boroughs. According to Deadline, the show “is set in a seemingly picturesque retirement community where a group of unlikely heroes must band together to stop an otherworldly threat from stealing the one thing they don’t have… time.”
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