Famke Janssen took-on her first starring role in Lord of Illusions. Immediately following, she landed the female lead in the James Bond movie, GoldenEye, in which she starred with Pierce Brosnan. GoldenEye came out to excellent reviews on November 17, 1995.
Famke's unique name means 'little girl' in Frisian. She was born in Holland, where she began her professional career as a model. From there she moved to the United States, where she has made her home since 1984. Initially settling in New York, she majored in writing and literature at Columbia University and studied acting with Harold Guskin. She then went to Los Angeles, where she continued to study acting under Roy London. Famke made her feature film debut with Jeff Goldblum in Fathers and Sons.
Since GoldenEye, Famke has done The Leading Man , a low-budget independent project starring Jon Bon Jovi and Thandie Newton; RPM with David Arquette and the John Irvin directed City of Industry with Timothy Hutton, Harvey Keitel, and Stephen Dorff which started March 14th, 1997.
Famke wrote a script a few years ago but hasn't done anything with it yet. She has also directed a short film, but as far as pursuing those interests more, Janssen says "I want to do that in the future, it's just that at the moment I'm so busy acting, it's difficult to combine anything, and I kind of want to focus on one thing right now."
She will next be appearing in Rounders (1998) ,with Matt Damon and in Celebrity (1998) ,a Woody Allen film with Leonardo DiCaprio.
