Life story

Possessing the same, sensual, full-lipped mouth as her famous rock singer father Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, the tall and lanky Liv Tyler initially followed in her mother Bebe Buell's footsteps and began a modeling career at the age of 14, though she soon soured on that profession. Raised by Buell and rock musician Todd Rundgren, she did not learn the true identity of her biological father until she was 11, but it was her appearance as a teen siren, along with future star Alicia Silverstone, in Aerosmith's "Crazy" video in 1994 that really put her on the map. That same year, Tyler made a strong feature debut in the unsettling role of a teenager who kills her sexually abusive father and complicit mother when she discovers him molesting her brother and then comes on to her therapist (Richard Dreyfuss) in Bruce Beresford's flawed thriller "Silent Fall". She followed with roles as the object of an overweight pizza chef's (Pruitt Taylor Vince) crush in James Mangold's "Heavy" and as a twentysomething slacker who was not as perfect as she seemed in Allan Moyle's disappointing "Empire Records" (both 1995).

Bernardo Bertolucci had searched high and low for a girl who could star in his "Stealing Beauty" (1996), someone who could embody innocence and lust, wisdom and youth, a virgin filled with desire. He had almost given up hope of finding the right actress when he met Tyler. "I felt immediately," he told US (June 1996), "that I'd found a kind of miracle." Paralleling her own mixed-up parentage, the film cast her as a young American girl who arrives in Italy knowing one father and leaves knowing another. At the erotic center of Bertolucci's meditation on the various forms of love, Tyler deftly captured the passage from childhood to adulthood, and Jeremy Irons was touching as the dying author renewed by his contact with her. Equally smitten was the director himself who indulged in one lingering close-up after another, allowing her to bask alone onscreen for much of her star-making turn. Woody Allen also cast her but later cut her cameo in the musical "Everyone Says I Love You", and she appeared in Tom Hanks' directorial debut, "That Thing You Do!" (both also 1996), as the girlfriend of the lead singer of a 60s rock band.

After starring in yet another coming-of-age tale, Pat O'Connor's rather anemic "Inventing the Abbotts" (1997), in which she sensitively rendered the meatiest of the three Abbott sisters, Tyler embarked on "Armageddon" (1998), her first commercial blockbuster amidst a steady diet of art-house films. As Bruce Willis' daughter and Ben Affleck's love interest, she got her first taste of the kind of inane story that can make hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Disney's marketing muscle. She was back on more familiar terrain for her three movies released in 1999. She joined an all-star cast that included Patricia Neal, Glenn Close, Julianne Moore and Charles S Dutton for Robert Altman's leisurely Southern Gothic comedy "Cookie's Fortune", winning raves for her rough-and-tumble, catfish-cleaning, box-toting "worthless tramp" of a daughter. She also graced the casts of Jake Scott's "Plunkett & Macleane" and Martha Fiennes' "Onegin", acquitting herself particularly well in the latter as Pushkin's Tatyana. Initially spurned by Onegin (Ralph Fiennes), she later gives him his own medicine in this classic tale of amorous mistiming.

Tyler was the love object of three men (Matt Dillon, John Goodman and Paul Reiser) who all tell their tale of woe sitting around the bar in Harald Zwart's "One Night at McCool's" (2001), produced by Michael Douglas who also acted in the film. She reteamed with Altman and "Cookie's Fortune" screenwriter Anne Rapp as one of the many women of "Dr T and the Women" (2000), starring Richard Gere as the titular gynecologist, surrounded by the likes of Helen Hunt, Laura Dern, Farrah Fawcett and Shelley Long, among others. She then took off for New Zealand to play Arwen, an elf princess who falls in love with a man, Aragorn, in Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" (lensed 1999-2001) trilogy, an ambitious undertaking employing 20,000 extras and 1200 state-of-the-art computer-generated effects. Slated for successive Christmas releases in 2001, 2002 and 2003, the three movies filmed at one time represented a considerable jump in scale for Tyler from her biggest picture, "Armageddon".

After the first two installments of the "Rings" films, Tyler was again cast opposite Affleck in writer-director Kevin Smith's middling romantic comedy "Jersey Girl" (2004), playing Maya, the woman who re-opens a widowed father's heart to love. Tyler received good notices for her performance, though the film opened to mixed reviews and the ever-continuing media hype surrounding Affleck's break-up with Jennifer Lopez. A star ready to shine, Tyler is awaiting the right project to capitalize on all of her talents.

Also Credited As: Liv Rundgren
Born: on 07/01/1977 in Portland, Maine
Job Titles: Actor, Model

Family

Son: Milo William Langdon. born December 14, 2004 in New York; father, English rocker Royston Langdon
Step-brother: Randy Rundgren. son of Todd Rundgren; Tyler considered him a brother as they were raised together
Step-brother: Rex Rundgren. son of Todd Rundgren; Tyler considered him a brother as they were raised together
Half-sister: Mia Tyler, after discovering who her real father was, Liv discovered that she also had a half-sister.
Half-sister: Taj Monroe Tyler, after discovering who her real father was, Liv discovered that she also had a half-sister.
Half-sister: Chelsea Anna Tyler, after discovering who her real father was, Liv discovered that she also had a half-sister.

Significant Others

Companion: Joaquin Phoenix. met during filming of "Inventing the Abbotts" (1997); broke up in fall 1998
Companion: Royston Langdon. with band Spacehog; began dating in fall of 1998; announced engagement in February 2001; married on March 25, 2003 in the Caribbean

Education

York Prepatory School, New York, New York

Milestones

•1977 Born and raised in Maine
•1988 Figured out the true identity of her father Steven Tyler at an Aerosmith concert when she came face-to-face with her mirror image, Tyler's daughter Mia
•1989 Moved with mother to NYC's Greenwich Village at age 12
•1991 Began modeling career; got first job with assistance of Paulina Porizkova who took photos that ended up in Interview magazine (date approximate)
•1994 Appeared in Aerosmith video "Crazy" with Alicia Silverstone
•1994 Feature film debut, Bruce Beresford's "Silent Fall"; Beresford reportedly told Tyler's mother, "If you put this girl in acting school, I'll kill you"
•1995 Played a pizza waitress opposite Shelley Winters and Deborah Harry in the low-budget "Heavy"; Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando cast as her boyfriend
•1996 Breakthrough screen role as the virginal Lucy in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty"
•1996 Ceased being managed by mother; replaced with Peter Hoffman, her godfather
•1996 Had small role in Woody Allen's "Everyone Says I Love You"; cut from final version
•1996 Nabbed the female lead in Tom Hanks' directorial debut, "That Thing You Do!"
•1997 Starred as the nicest Abbott sister in Pat O'Connor's "Inventing the Abbotts"
•1998 Portrayed Bruce Willis' daughter in the summer blockbuster "Armageddon"; father's band Aerosmith provided the picture's theme song
•1999 Blended seamlessly with the all-Brit cast for her first film with a female director, Martha Fiennes' "Onegin", adapted from Alexander Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin"; cast as Tatyana opposite the director's brother Ralph Fiennes
•1999 Co-starred as Lady Rebecca Gibson, a noblewoman who catches the eye of a highwayman in "Plunkett and Macleane", starring Robert Carlyle and Johnny Lee Miller
•1999 Won raves for her turn as the rebellious tomboy member of an eccentric Deep South matriarchy in "Cookie's Fortune", directed by Robert Altman
•2000 Reteamed with Altman for "Dr T and the Women", starring Richard Gere
•2001 Starred as Arwen in Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings" (filmed in 1999-2000), scheduled for successive Christmas releases in 2001 ("The Fellowship of the Ring"), 2002 ("The Two Towers") and •2003 ("The Return of the King")
•2001 Was the object of infatuation for three men (Matt Dillon, John Goodman and Paul Reiser) in "One Night at McCool's"
•2002 Revised role as Arwen for Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"
•2003 Again played Arwen for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"
•2004 Cast opposite Ben Affleck in director Kevin Smith's "Jersey Girl"
•2006 Starred in Steve Buscemi's "Lonesome Jim" opposite Casey Affleck
•Cast opposite Adam Sandler in Mike Binder's September 11 film "Empty City"
•Photographed for Seventeen and Mirabella magazines, among others; also starred in commercials for Pantene shampoo and Bongo jeans

Credit: Yahoo! Movies