Illeana Hesselberg ( ; born July 25, 1961), known professionally as Illeana Douglas, is an American actress and filmmaker. Following her screen debut with a small part in Hello Again (1987), she went on to appear in a variety of mainstream and independent features throughout the 1990s, such as Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Alive (1993), To Die For (1995), Grace of My Heart (1996), Chasing Amy, Picture Perfect (both 1997), Happy, Texas; Message in a Bottle; and Stir of Echoes (all 1999). Her other credits include The Next Best Thing (2000), Ghost World (2001), Dummy (2002), Factory Girl (2006), She's Funny That Way (2014), and Return to Sender (2015).

Outside film, Douglas won the Satellite Award for Best Actress for her starring role as Wendy Ward on the short-lived sitcom Action (1999). She appeared as Angela on the first season of Six Feet Under (2001), receiving a nomination for the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress, and played the recurring role of Gina Bernardo on Law & Order: SVU (2002–2003). Her other work includes Easy to Assemble (2008–2012), a web series she created, wrote, and starred in. Douglas appears regularly on Turner Classic Movies, hosting specials focused on female filmmakers throughout history.

Early life

Douglas was born on July 25, 1961 in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Joan Douglas (née Georgescu), a schoolteacher, and Gregory Hesselberg (1926–2017), a painter. Douglas's father was the son of Hollywood actor Melvyn Douglas and his wife, the artist Rosalind Hightower. Douglas had two older brothers, Stefan Gregor Hesselberg (1958–2007), a technician in the histology laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who also trained racehorses in Verona, Italy, and Erik Hesselberg, a journalist.

Douglas grew up primarily in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and has said that she was also raised in many other cities, in Massachusetts where her father lived, Connecticut where her mother lived, and New York, where her extended family lived. During her childhood she spent time going back and forth between relatives during the summer. Douglas said that her parents were heavily influenced by the 1970s hippie culture—her father especially by the movie Easy Rider. They had a loose parenting style and did not pressure her to go to college. Comedy albums were popular in her family. They would put on dramatic interpretations and performances.

Douglas's mother's side is Roman Catholic from Astoria, Queens. Her maternal grandmother worked in the restaurant at Gertz department store in Astoria; her maternal grandfather was a welder. In the 1940s, Douglas' grandfather and Peter Sellers both served in the military during WWII and met in Burma. In the 1960s, the two men reconnected in London and talked about their time together in the war.

Douglas notes the contrast between her working-class Italian roots and the glamorous Hollywood world of her paternal side of the family. Famous people including Myrna Loy, Gore Vidal, Gloria Steinem, politicians, writers, and others were often present, in a salon-like environment. Douglas has said it took her a long time to reconcile the different lifestyles she was exposed to in her youth. She identifies more with the Italian side of her family, and has said that she developed more of their "rhythms and ways" due to the amount of time she spent with them in Queens. Douglas said that Lorraine Bracco took Douglas under her wing during the shooting of Scorsese's Goodfellas, helping her to find an agent. It was then that Douglas became Scorsese's girlfriend.

Douglas appeared in Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991) – one of four Scorsese films in which she has appeared. After Cape Fear, she had several film roles where her character was eventually cut, including in Household Saints, Jungle Fever, and Quiz Show. "It was kind of depressing," she commented.

In 2016, Douglas appeared opposite Sean Astin in the independent feature film, Unleashed.

Television work

On television, Douglas appeared in a memorable role as one of Garry Shandling's love interests towards the end of the series, The Larry Sanders Show, in 1998. In 1999, she had a starring role opposite Jay Mohr in the series Action. She played a television executive who started out as a prostitute who had Mohr as a regular customer.

She guest starred on Seinfeld, Frasier and The Drew Carey Show, and has played a public defender on several episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2002 and 2003. She appeared in two episodes of the HBO TV series Six Feet Under, both of which earned Emmy nominations for Guest Actress in a Drama. She appeared as Mrs. Ari's sister Marci in the Season 7 finale of Entourage.

In 2006, she starred in the Lifetime TV film Not Like Everyone Else and played herself in Pittsburgh opposite Jeff Goldblum. In 2007, Douglas was added to the cast of Ugly Betty, playing Sheila, an editor for MODE magazine.

Douglas spent time in Sweden shooting a TV show called Welcome to Sweden, which was produced by Amy Poehler and also starred Greg Poehler and Lena Olin. The series was a Swedish-American co-production that aired on Swedish TV as well as on NBC. Douglas said that she had a great deal of autonomy from sponsor IKEA, whose only condition was that the show be suitable for children and families. It was canceled after 4 seasons.

In 2015, Douglas produced and developed a series for Joey Soloway called The Skinny. Douglas said that curating, writing, and working on this series allowed her to use her movie knowledge while making it funny, entertaining, and informative. The series was also in response to active discussions about the gender imbalance in Hollywood. The series will present work by female pioneers like Dorothy Arzner, Alice Guy-Blaché, Agnès Varda, Lina Wertmüller, as well as interviews with Allison Anders, Amy Heckerling, Julie Dash, and others. The series will be a multi-year event, with the first year's focus on women directors from the 1920s to the present. Each night is themed, with programming topics from foreign films to African-American filmmakers.

Other work

  • In Spärhusen, a spinoff series from Easy to Assemble, Douglas plays Beirget Kattsson, a member of a band called Spärhusen, a Swedish pop group. Douglas describes them: "Spärhusen has had their ups and downs over the years. They’ve been in many plane crashes, but they’ve survived and they’re together."
  • At the Walt Disney World Resort in the Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park, Douglas plays Aerosmith's manager in the preshow video for the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster attraction. She later appeared in an Aerosmith music video as Liv Tyler's mother.
  • Douglas and the comedian Sarah Sweet produced and co-starred in a series professional variety shows called The Living Room Show, that is hosted in various Los Angeles living rooms.

In 2015 Douglas published a memoir called I Blame Dennis Hopper which was released through Flatiron Books. In the memoir, Douglas tells about her life via her love for the movies and her exposure to Hollywood through her paternal grandfather Melvyn Douglas.

Personal life

From 1989 until 1997, Douglas was in a relationship with director Martin Scorsese.

On May 16, 1998, she married producer and writer Jonathan Axelrod, the stepson of producer George Axelrod; they divorced in 2001. Douglas said that the period after her divorce was difficult both emotionally and financially, and that she relocated from living in Los Angeles to the New York area, where she took classes at her former school, the Neighborhood Playhouse, and worked in theater. She also began writing and directing.