patricia

When she was only 18 years old, during her first year of acting, Patricia Arquette landed the role of Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3. It was her second movie, after her role as Zero in Pretty Smart, and shortly afterwards she played a pregnant teenager in a T.V. movie called Daddy.

Patricia Arquette was born on April 8, 1968. Since she is one of the most recognized stars in Hollywood today, most people know that she is married to actor Nicolas Cage and that she comes from a family full of actors. She is the middle child of five, and all four of her syblings are actors. They are Rosanna (Pulp Fiction, Desperately Seeking Susan), Richmond, Alexis (Threesome), and David (Scream, Beautiful Girls). Her father, Lewis, and grandfather, Cliff, were also actors. She also had a son named Enzo when she was 19, but she didn't marry the father, Paul Rossi. Enzo had a small part as her son in Beyond Rangoon.

She and Nicolas Cage started dating about nine years ago, but weren't dating when she proposed. She says, "Marriage makes me feel so exposed and raw. For the first time, I'm not protectors over myself. I'm prying my ribs open and saying, 'You're the one. I love you.' It's an amazing feeling, really liberating."

Most people recognize Patricia for her role as Alabama in True Romance, but she has also starred in many other movies recently. Some of her films include Ed Wood, Ethan Frome, and Beyond Rangoon. She won a 1993 CableAce Award for her performance in a T.V. movie called Wildflower. Some of her more recent films are Flirting with Disaster, Infinity, and Lost Highway. Her upcoming releases include a thriller called Nightwatch and a film with Ellen DeGeneris called Goodbye, Lover.

Although her character of Kristin appeared in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, she declined the role, and it was filled by actress Tuesday Knight. She mentioned her Nightmare role on The Tonight Show last year (when she was promoting Flirting with Disaster), and she commented, "I was swallowed and regurgitated by a snake."

"I have a lot of idiosyncrasies," she says. "Someon's got to be pretty adult to deal with me. I'm a little moody. I have a dark, sorrowful side. People with sad stories always gravitate to me."