Daughter of actor Vic Morrow and actress-screenwriter Barbara Turner.
Took the name 'Jason' from family friend actor Jason Robards.
Won two 1990 Critic Society awards for her portrayal of Tralala in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989) and as Susan Waggoner in Miami Blues (1990).
Selected as one of "America's 10 Most Beautiful Women" by Harper's Bazaar Magazine, 1989.
Has a sister, Carrie Morrow, and a half-sister, actress Mina Badie. Her stepfather is director Reza Badiyi.
Well-known in Hollywood for the exhausting research she does for each of her portrayals and for her affinity of playing lurid roles.
Had a part filmed for Eyes Wide Shut (1999). When director Stanley Kubrick wanted to do re-shoots, she was unavailable and her entire part was redone with another actress.
Born at 12:33pm-PST.
She went down to a weight of 86 lbs for her role as an anorexic teenager in the TV movie The Best Little Girl in the World (1981) (TV).
In 1997, she appeared in Faith No More's music video of "Last Cup of Sorrow," the plot of which was a modification of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958).
Father, Vic Morrow, died while filming Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) due to a tragic accident on the set.
After reading the script for Backdraft (1991), she reportedly told director Ron Howard that she wished she was the fire because it has the best part.
She attended the infamous "Stagedoor Manor," which is an upstate New York summer camp that trains teenagers in acting, singing and dancing. Her fellow alumni include sitcom actor Zach Braff from NBC's "Scrubs" (2001), the writer and director Todd Graff (who made a film about the camp), and the pop star Mandy Moore.
Is of Russian descent.
She is good friends with actress/model Phoebe Cates; they met while filming Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) together.
Frequently works with maverick director Robert Altman who, before his maverick days, worked with her father, Vic Morrow on the sixties televison series "Combat!" (1962).
Lived with Eric Stoltz for 5 years in the 80's
Jennifer Jason Leigh has been acknowledged as one of the most daring actresses of her generation. With a wide range of roles, she has proven herself a master of the most disparate kinds of characters, immersing herself both physically and psychologically in each of them.
In addition to her acting career, Leigh made her directorial debut in 2001 with The Anniversary Party for which she received a citation for Excellence in Filmmaking from the National Board of Review and was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards: Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay.
Leigh was last seen starring with Meg Ryan and Mark Ruffalo in Jane Campion's thriller In The Cut. Her films include A Thousand Acres opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange, Georgia which she also produced, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle for which she won the National Society of Film Critics and Chicago Film Critics for Best Actress, the Coen Brothers' The Hudsucker Proxy, Dolores Claiborne, Single White Female and Last Exit to Brooklyn which garnered her the New York Film Critics Circle and Boston Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actress Awards. More recently, she starred in the Dogma film The King is Alive, Tamra Davis' Skipped Parts and David Cronenberg's eXistenZ. Her forthcoming films include Todd Solondz's Palindromes, the comedy Childstar and the thriller The Jacket.
