Thora Birch

Thora Birch
Born: Mar 11, 1982
Los Angeles, CA
Career: 1988-2009
Countries: USA
Genre/Type: Comedy
Drama
Fantasy
Children's/Family
Thriller
Biography by Rebecca Flint Marx
By the time six-year-old Thora Birch made her feature film debut with a small role in Purple People Eater (1988), she was already a veteran television actress with two years' worth of commercial and series work under her diminutive belt.
Probably best known up to that point for her work opposite über-grandad Wilford Brimley in a Quaker Oats commercial, Birch went on to grow up in front of the camera, evolving from Monkey Trouble's moppet with a primate to a bras and boys-obsessed teeny bopper in Now and Then to Kevin Spacey's rebellious daughter in American Beauty.
Birch, who was born in Los Angeles on March 11, 1982, first attracted sizable notice for her role as Elijah Wood's tomboy friend in Paradise, a 1991 family drama that also starred Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. Afterwards, her visibility began to increase, first with a supporting role as Harrison Ford's daughter in Patriot Games (1992) (which she reprised in 1994's Clear and Present Danger), and then as one of the three kids who inadvertently bring three witches back to life in Hocus Pocus (1993).
The actress got her first chance to play a teenaged role in the aforementioned Now and Then (1995), a coming-of-age drama that cast her as the younger version of Paradise co-star Melanie Griffith. Neither that film, nor Birch's subsequent project, Alaska (1996), made a great impact among critics or audiences, and it was not until the actress was cast in American Beauty (1999) that her career really began to accelerate. Birch, who dyed her hair Goth black and adopted a resolute sullenness for her role as the rebellious Jane Burnham, earned wide praise and a Screen Actors Guild award, and a host of international awards nominations, for her work in the acclaimed film.
After the success of American Beauty, Birch -- who also had an uncredited role in that same year's Anywhere but Here -- was suddenly busy with a number of projects. Included among them were Ghost World, Terry Zwigoff's screen adaptation of Daniel Clowes' celebrated comic about two teenage girls trying to deal with life after high school; The Smokers, a teen drama that cast Birch as a drug-addled schoolgirl; and Dungeons and Dragons, in which she played an empress whose mystical kingdom is threatened by an evil wizard (Jeremy Irons).

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Filmography

Movie/Film Released Rating Role Buy
Train 2009 Actor [Starring]
Winter of Frozen Dreams 2008 Actor [Starring]
Dark Corners 2006 Actor [Starring]
Slingshot 2005 Actor [Starring]
Silver City 2004 Actor [Starring]
The Dot 2004 Voice [Starring]
Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story 2003 Actor [Starring]
Ghost World 2001 Actor [Starring]
The Hole 2001 Actor [Starring]
Dungeons & Dragons 2000 Actor [Starring]
The Smokers 2000 Actor [Starring]
American Beauty 1999 Actor [Starring]
Night Ride Home 1999 Actor [Starring]
Touched By an Angel: The Pact 1997 Actor [Starring]
Alaska 1996 Actor [Starring]
Now and Then 1995 Actor [Starring]
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Back to the topTop Questions about Thora Birch

i like her-- she is a good actress. i liked her in From homeless to Harvard and i believe she played in Hocus Pocus
No, she reminds me of trailer trash.
yeah i think they look alike but know they look totally differnet

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Awards

Year Movie/Film Role
2001 Hollywood Foreign Press Association Ghost World Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy (Nom)
2001 Toronto Film Critics Association Ghost World Best Actress (Won)
1999 British Academy of Film and Television Arts American Beauty Best Supporting Actress (Nom)
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