From young starlet to Oscar winner and mother of three

Geena Davis childhood

Virginia Elizabeth Davis was born on January 21, 1956, in Wareham, Massachusetts, to Lucille, a teacher’s assistant, and William F. Davis, an engineer. In her 2022 memoir Dying of Politeness, she revealed that she attended Boston University to study acting, but was unable to graduate due to lack of credits.

“I loved BU. All of my lifelong friends are from BU. We’re still very close,” she told Boston University in a 2022 Q&A. “I learned a lot. The only thing I didn’t learn was that if you want to be in movies, you should go to LA.” (She signed with the Zoli Model Agency in New York after college.)

Geena Davis “The Fly”

After making her first appearance opposite Hoffman and Jessica Lange in Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie, she went on to appear in such television shows as Buffalo Bill, Remington Steele, and Family Ties. But it was her role as future husband Goldblum’s lover in the sci-fi thriller The Fly that catapulted her to movie stardom.

Reflecting on the “amazing experience” of filming the box office hit, Davis recalled to Collider, “I was cast because Jeff Goldblum had already been cast and we had been in the spotlight recently, and he recommended me for the female role. … I was acting with my actual real-life partner, so ever since I was cast, we were just living and breathing the movie.”

Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum’s marriage

A year after The Fly, Davis and Goldblum married and worked together again in 1988’s Earth Girls Are Easy. The power couple ultimately called it quits in 1990 and divorced in 1991, but Davis has no hard feelings.

“[Our relationship]was fun. It was really fun. It was a magical chapter of my life,” she told PEOPLE in 2022.

The 2024 SAG Awards reunited former actors and announced standout performances from the film’s cast.

Geena Davis in “Beetlejuice”

Davis added further theatrical success to her resume with Tim Burton’s 1988 horror comedy Beetlejuice. She and Alec Baldwin play the ghosts of the Maitlands, who died when their car crashed into a river, and who haunt an old house sold to the Dietz family (Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder).

She expressed interest in appearing in the 2024 sequel Beetlejuice, but Davis and Baldwin ultimately did not reprise their roles.

“My theory is that ghosts don’t age. … I don’t,” she quipped to Entertainment Tonight.

Geena Davis wins Oscar

She won her first Oscar at the 1989 Academy Awards and was nominated for her performance as animal hospital worker Muriel Pritchett in The Accidental Traveler. In her speech, she expressed gratitude to the many people involved in the novel-to-film adaptation, including two acting coaches, one of whom was her “beloved husband” Goldblum.

Geena Davis “Thelma & Louise”

One of her most memorable roles was in 1991’s Thelma & Louise, where she co-starred with Susan Sarandon. In a legendary cinematic shot, Davis’s housewife Thelma Dickinson rides into the sunset (and off a cliff) and shares a kiss with Sarandon’s Louise.

For their outstanding performances, both women were nominated for Best Actress at the 1992 Oscar Awards.

“Even though Thelma and Louise end up driving their car off a cliff, viewers still felt uplifted by their story,” she explained to The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. “I realized how few opportunities there are for women to come out of movies and feel inspired and empowered by female characters.”

Geena Davis and Renny Harlin’s marriage

She married her third husband, Finnish director Renny Harlin, in 1993. More than just a civil partnership, the two collaborated creatively on the action films Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight. The box office failure of Cutthroat Island ultimately forced Davis to take a two-year hiatus from acting. Davis filed for divorce from Harlin on August 26, 1997, the day after Harlin’s personal assistant gave birth to the Secretary’s child.

Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media

In 2004, Davis founded the Media and Gender Institute, a nonprofit organization that “advocates for fair representation in the media,” according to its website. The actress states on her website that the birth of her child was the impetus for starting this initiative.

“When I first watched children’s shows and movies through the eyes of my toddler daughter, I was struck by the lack of female characters and diversity,” she writes. “In 2004, only 11% of family films had a female lead role.”

What started as a passion project eventually developed into her “life’s mission,” Davis told PEOPLE in 2020, but she “didn’t intend for it.”

Geena Davis’ transition from film to television

In the 21st century, Davis began appearing in fewer films and more television work. Her transition to the small screen began with the short-lived sitcom The Geena Davis Show, but 2005’s Commander in Chief cemented her status as a television star. The lead actress, who played the fictional first female president of the United States, won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama Television Series.

Although Commander only lasted one season, Davis went on to have a brief recurring role on Grey’s Anatomy and a main role in Season 1 of The Exorcist. She will soon star in Netflix’s sci-fi series The Boroughs, set for release in 2026.

Geena Davis and ex Reza Jarrahi’s three children

Davis and Jarrahy, a surgeon who separated in 2018 after 17 years of marriage, have three children together: daughter Alizeh, born in 2002, and twins Kais and Kian, born in 2004. When their divorce was finalized in 2021, the couple agreed to change the then-minor twins’ last names from Davis-Jalahy to just Jalahy.

Speaking about having a child in her 40s, Ms Davies told ITV’s Loose Talk that she was “grateful” for waiting to become a mother.

“I thought, ‘The longer I wait, the more I’ll evolve,'” she said. “I didn’t have much self-esteem, but I was very determined that I wanted my children to have self-esteem.”