Samantha Mathis was born in 1970 to Bibi Besch, an aspiring actress living in New York at the time. At six months of age, Samantha was taken to an audition for Final Touch baby products with her mother since there was no one to look after her that day. As Besch waited for her turn, someone involved with the commercial approached her, admiring the young baby she was holding. When they saw Samantha, they instantly knew that she would be prefect as the child in the commercial, so her mother said that they could have Samantha if she herself could play the part that she had been waiting to audition for. That's how Samantha got her first acting job, and her first job with her mother, but not their last together.
At a young age, the experience of witnessing a fire caused Samantha to dream about becoming a fire fighter, but Samantha was obviously destined to be an actress. Her parents had divorced when she was only two years old, so she had been to auditions and on movie sets all her life with her mother.
Although she appeared in a commercial for Slender Pads For Teens, Samantha didn't really get into acting again until 1988 when she was in the TV movie Aaron's Way: The Harvest and the television series "Aaron's Way" in which she played Roseanne Miller. She also acted in the short-lived TV show "Knightwatch" that same year.
Although those shows were unsuccessful, they did give Samantha experience in acting, and she was soon cast in Forbidden Sun, a movie concerning the rape of a young gymnast in which she played Paula with Lauren Hutton.
During the next two years, Samantha was in five TV movies: Cold Sassy Tree with Faye Dunaway, American Nuclear, To My Daughter, Extreme Close-Up, which had Samantha and her mother, Bibi Besch, together again, and 83 Hours 'Til Dawn.
Following this, Samantha was finally cast in her biggest role up to that point, which generally broke her into the Hollywood scene. She played Nora Diniro opposite Christian Slater in 1991's Pump Up the Volume. This interesting cult movie shows her as a young poet who, like the rest of the students at her high school, can't get enough of a radio show that's hosted annonymously by Slater's Mark Hunter, a loser by day, a God by night. Samantha has a topless scene in this movie, and during filming, the set was cleared of all non-essential cast and crew members, but just before filming, Slater noticed that there was a group of men still on the set, so he kindly asked them to leave, just to be nice and fair to Samantha, his girlfriend at the time.
In 1992 Samantha co-starred in This Is My Life with Julie Kavner and Gaby Hoffmann. In this movie she played Erica Ingels, a girl who couldn't care less about her appearance and had very few friends.
FernGully: The Last Rainforest was a successful animated movie which children loved, but little did they know, Samantha Mathis was the 'star' of the film as the voice of Crysta, a troubled sprite in the rainforest when she finds out that her home is being destroyed. Christian Slater also submitted his voice as Pips, which marked his second role alongside Samantha.
Next, Samantha played Princess Daisy in the 1993 flick Super Mario Bros with Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper. The movie was well done and it attracted a lot of movie-goers due to the fact that it was based on the hit Super Mario video games which were already well know and popular among kids. It's also rumored that Samantha dated her co-star, John Leguizamo, during the production of this movie.
During this, Samantha was cast as the small part of Tiffany in The Music of Chance with James Spader and Mandy Patinkin. This movie was about two men forced to build a monumental wall, but for Samantha it was an escape from the filming of Super Mario Bros which was 'quickly becoming a nightmare'.
Then Samantha got one of her biggest roles to date. She played Miranda Presley in The Thing Called Love. Since she starred in the movie, many expected that she would get top billing, but that honor went to River Phoenix, her on- and off-screen love at the time. The movie, about a group of young country singers trying to make it in Nashville, also starred Dermot Mulroney and Sandra Bullock, Samantha's best friend who affectionately calls her Sammy. Samantha was able to show off her musical talents as well as her acting skills in this movie since the actors actually performed their own songs.
Although she had been hit hard by the death of her boyfriend River Phoenix in 1993, Samantha was quick to get back to her acting career and her next film, Little Women was released in late 1994. She played grown up Amy March with Kirsten Dunst as the younger version. With a cast that included Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon and Claire Danes, the movie couldn't have been better and it even recieved three Oscar nominations at the 67th Annual Academy Awards, including Best Actress (Ryder) and Best Costume Design.
Then Samantha played the secretary, Janie, to Michael Douglas' president in The American President. Up to the filming of this movie, Samantha had kept her feelings towards River's death to herself and she had auditioned for roles non-stop, but she finally decided that she needed to face what had happened and that it was okay for her to be upset.
Next was How to Make an American Quilt, in which Samantha played young Sophia. Surprisingly enough, two of her cast-mates from Little Women, Winona Ryder and Claire Danes, were also in the movie, although they never had any scenes with Samantha.
Just recently, Samantha was back with her Pump Up the Volume and FernGully co-star Christian Slater as well as with John Travolta in Broken Arrow, which was released earlier this year. She played Terry Carmichael, a park ranger who must help Riley Hale (Slater) save the West Coast from disaster when Travolta's character tries to set off a nuclear weapon. Although the kissing scene between Samantha and Slater ended up on the cutting room floor, she says that kissing him now, after their relationship during Pump Up the Volume is 'like kissing your brother'.
Samantha also co-starred in Jack and Sarah, a romantic comedy. She plays Amy, an American nanny, along with Richard E. Grant as Jack.
Unfortunately, on September 7 1996 Samantha's mother, actress Bibi Besch passed away after battling cancer for almost three years. She will be missed by all, and our deepest sympathy goes out to Samantha.
Samantha has been a guest on Letterman, Leno, Conan O'Brien and on a morning talk show. She's been featured in many magazines and is indeed reaching the status that her best friend Sandra Bullock held after Speed, which is great for all of her fans, as well as for Samantha herself.
Also, Samantha was supposed to have starred as Jane with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Sweet Jane (aka Lepers) about two AIDS patients trying to survive with the deadly desease and making friendships along the way. There was some trouble finding a production company to release the film, but I think that has been sorted out now that has been sorted out now. There is still no word on what has happened to the release of the film though.
Samantha Mathis is one of Hollywood's fastest rising stars.
"Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'who am I to be so brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are we not to be? You are a child of God: Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." ~Marianne Williamson
'ello love! Wishing you the best over the holidays. Just moved to a new pad in North Hollywood...love it. I would love to hang out sometime between our busy schedules my friend! :)
To who it loves sleeper, but it wakes up always of good mood, To who it salutes still with a kiss, To who it works a lot and it is amused of more, To who it goes in hustle in car, but it does not play to the traffic lights, To who it arrives in delay but not search excuses, To who it puts out the television for talk, To who it is happy the double one when does in half, To who it lifts itself soon to help a friend, To who it has the enthusiasm of a child but thoughts from man, To who it sees black only when it is dark.
