Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actress.
Her first major role was the Replicant Pris Stratton in Blade Runner before being catapulted to stardom with her role as Madison in Splash. She remained a popular leading lady through the rest of the 1980s and early '90s, having major roles in Legal Eagles, Roxanne, Wall Street, Steel Magnolias, Grumpy Old Men and the 1993 remake of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
A 1992 incident in which she was discovered badly beaten, allegedly at the hands of her then-boyfriend Jackson Browne, became fodder for the tabloids, and Hannah's career went into a slump afterwards, although not nearly to the same extent as Browne's. She experienced a resurgence in the early 2000s, culminating in her appearance as Elle Driver in the Quentin Tarantino classic Kill Bill.
She retired from Hollywood shortly afterwards to devote her time to environmentalist activism, though she still acts occasionally, such as in the Netflix series Sense8. She made her directorial debut in 2018 with the surrealist Western film Paradox, which stars her husband Neil Young (they married that same year). Outside of acting, Hannah is a prominent activist for environmentalist causes. She has appeared in many high profile protests against construction projects (most notably the controversial Keystone XL pipeline), which has led to her being arrested and jailed multiple times.
In 2013, Hannah revealed
that she is autistic. She stated that she was diagnosed as a child and did her best to hide the condition during her career, and that it was the reason for her well-known reluctance to appear on talk shows and do promotional appearances for her films, conscious of her social awkwardness. The announcement made a splash, as the autistic community has long decried how autistic girls are consistently overlooked to the point that the condition is believed to primarily affect boys, expressing hope that Hannah's revelation could help change that. Like many autistics, she prefers to live close to the earth, "off the grid" as much as possible, and cherishes her rescued animal companions.
She later came forward as a victim of Harvey Weinstein in 2017, revealing that he sexually harassed her repeatedly during the production of Kill Bill. She later claimed that Weinstein tanked her career in retaliation for refusing his advances and implied that he played a part in her decision to retire.
In 2026's Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette, she was portrayed by Dree Hemingway. She found her portrayal so unlikeable and inaccurate that she wrote a New York Times op-ed about it.
Filmography with pages on TV Tropes:
- The Fury (1978) as Pam - Daryl’s film debut
- Blade Runner (1982) as Pris Stratton
- The Final Terror (1983) as Windy Morgan
- Splash (1984) as Madison - Daryl’s Star-Making Role
- The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) as Ayla
- Roxanne (1987) as Roxanne Kowalski
- Wall Street (1987) as Darien Taylor
- High Spirits (1988) as Mary Plunkett Brogan
- Steel Magnolias (1989) as Annelle Dupuy Desoto
- Crazy People (1990) as Kathy Burgess
- At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) as Andy Huben
- Memoirs of an Invisible Man (The Film of the Book, 1992) as Alice Monroe
- Grumpy Old Men (1993) Melanie Gustafson
- Grumpier Old Men (1995)
- Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (remake made for cable, 1993) as Nancy Archer
- The Tie That Binds (1995) as Lean Netherwood
- The Real Blonde (1997) as Kelly
- Addams Family Reunion (1998) as Morticia Addams (replacing Anjelica Huston)
- The Gingerbread Man (1998) as Lois Harlan
- Rescuers: Stories of Courage (1998) as Maria Althoff
- My Favorite Martian (1999) as Lizzie
- A Walk to Remember (2002) as Cynthia Carter
- Kill Bill Volume 1 and 2 (2003 and 2004) as Elle Driver
- Social Nightmare (2013) as Susan Hardy
- Skin Traffik (2015) as Zhanna
- Sense8 (2015-2018) as Angelica Turing
I Trope, Therefore I Am:
- Actor IS the Title Character: Roxanne.
- Baby Name Trend Starter: Her character in Splash singlehandedly transformed the virtually unknown boys' name "Madison" from a street sign into one of the most popular girls' names. Exaggerated because of its staying power: it took over a decade to reach the heights. The name became the second-most popular name in the US for two years just after the Turn of the Millennium before decreasing and leaving the top ten during the middle of The New '10s, over thirty years after the film's release. Consequently, the joke is lost on current viewers."It's funny because no one understands the irony, because the whole point of me choosing that name was because it [was such a] silly name..." — Daryl Hannah
- Career Resurrection: Experienced a comeback in the early 2000s that culminated with Kill Bill.
- The Cast Showoff: The gymnastic moves Pris performs throughout Blade Runner were not in the original script, which only implied that Pris had advanced gymnastic abilities as part of her physical enhancements. Hannah's skills as a trained gymnast and ballerina made Ridley Scott add them in, as he now had an actress who was capable of performing them.
- The mermaid tail Daryl Hannah wore in Splash was fully functional. The showoff part is that, ironically enough, Hannah had learned to swim mermaid style (legs together) since childhood due to her fascination with the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Little Mermaid. As a result, she swam so fast with the tail that the safety divers couldn't keep up.
- Cool Car: She owns the Pontiac Trans Am that Elle drove in Kill Bill, which has since been converted into an electric car.
- Creator Backlash:
- Daryl Hannah was never happy about playing Bud's materialistic girlfriend Darien in Wall Street and has never even seen the finished film. She considered the role to be at odds with everything the actress and activist represented. Sean Youngnote told Oliver Stone that she should play her role. Stone later admitted that Young and Hannah should have swapped roles. Hannah said in an interview that it was a "rough experience", and that she and Stone also had an "unhealthy working relationship". At the time of filming she accused Stone of being a misogynist. She said "film is a collaborate medium. Sometimes you hook up with people you don't collaborate well with."
- According to Hannah, the original script for the 1984 teen film Reckless did not have any nudity or sex in it. However, when the film’s director James Foley decided to add scenes of nudity and sex in the final film, Daryl ended up breaking out in hives from being naked and doing love scenes.
- When asked in an 2010 interview with The Guardian what the lowest point in her career was, Daryl said it was starring in a bunch of Direct-to-Video movies in the 2000s, which she only did for the cash:
- With the exception of Blade Runner note , she does not look fondly at any of the films she appeared in prior to her Star-Making Role in Splashnote . In fact, whenever it was brought up in interviews, Daryl would become embarrassed and apologize for starring in them:
- Creator's Favorite Episode: When Daryl was asked in that same 2010 interview with The Guardian what her "career high point" was, she said it was the film Blade Runner:"It was like The Wizard of Oz: we all went into another reality."
- The Danza: "Daryl" in Garbage
- Dark Action Girl: As Pris in Blade Runner and as Elle Driver in Kill Bill
- Family-Friendly Stripper: In Dancing at the Blue Iguana.
- Granola Girl: A very prominent Real Life example, she's as equally well known for being an environmental activist as she is for her acting career.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: As Madison in Splash, Ayla in Clan of the Cave Bear, Roxanne Kowalski in Roxanne.
- Lifetime Movie of the Week: Social Nightmare
- Magical Girlfriend: As Madison the mermaid in Splash and as the ghost Mary in High Spirits.
- Ms. Fanservice: To almost Once per Episode levels. Many of her films involve nudity of some kind. She has claimed that the first thing directors have said to her when she arrived on the set was, "Oh, and about the nude scene."
- She posed nude for Playboy to promote Kill Bill.
- Reclusive Artist: Daryl suffered from such paralyzing shyness and social anxiety (due in a large share to her being autistic) that it made it challenging for her to venture out on talk shows, premieres, or award shows like the Oscars as a means of promoting her work. In a 2010 interview, Hannah proclaimed that her difficulties with social interactions ultimately had a seriously detrimental effect on her career:"I never went on talk shows, never went to premieres. Going to the Academy Awards was so painful for me. I'd almost faint just walking down the red carpet. I was so socially awkward and uncomfortable that I eventually got blacklisted. Studio executives would call me but I'd be too shy to call them back. So after a while a couple of studios literally told my manager that I was blacklisted."
- Romantic Comedy: Splash, Roxanne, Summer Lovers, Two Much.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: The cover of the March 1998 issue of Gear Magazine is her pointing a gun at the camera.
- Star-Derailing Role: Kill Bill, ironically, as it was what brought her into contact with Harvey Weinstein.
- Star-Making Role: Madison the mermaid in Splash.
- Statuesque Stunner: Her striking looks and her 5' 10"/178 cm frame are her physical trademarks, often used to great advantage in her performances.
- Her physique helped her secure the role of Pris in Blade Runner. Out of all the actresses who auditioned for the role, Ridley Scott felt that Hannah could most believably be able to physically overpower Harrison Ford given her unusually tall frame and athletic build. Watching her linger around and hover over the significantly shorter William Sanderson in character as Pris is
Nightmare Fuel. - Despite the film's tepid reception, Hannah's height and build made her a pretty good choice for Ayla in The Clan of the Cave, as in the books she's described as being an athletic, unusually tall and beautiful woman (as an adult Ayla stands nearly six feet tall and even as a adolescent she towers over everyone in the Clan, as Neanderthals are much shorter than Cro-Magnon).
- Her physique helped her secure the role of Pris in Blade Runner. Out of all the actresses who auditioned for the role, Ridley Scott felt that Hannah could most believably be able to physically overpower Harrison Ford given her unusually tall frame and athletic build. Watching her linger around and hover over the significantly shorter William Sanderson in character as Pris is
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: This is the Feminist message of her remake of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman:"You're better than they are. You're smarter than they are. And you know more than you think. We all do."