Celebrity Nooz: Madeleine Stowe

Madeleine Stowe (Actress) - The Last of the Mohicans

Updated: 9/08/22

Name: Madeleine Stowe

Birth Name: Madeleine Marie Stowe Mora

Born: August 18, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA

Claim To Fame: Madeleine Stowe is an American actress best known her roles in Stakeout (1987), Revenge (1990), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), and 12 Monkeys (1995).

Family Life: She has been married since 1982 to actor Brian Benben. They have one daughter, May Theodora Benben; born in 1996.

Info: Her father, Robert Stowe, was a civil engineer, while her mother, Mireya, came from a prominent family in Costa Rica.

Is the first of three children.

One of Stowe's maternal great-great-grandfathers, politician José Joaquín Mora Porras, was a younger brother of President Juan Rafael Mora Porras, who governed Costa Rica from 1849 to 1859. Another maternal great-great-grandfather, Bruno Carranza, was briefly President of that country in 1870 (he resigned three months after taking office); his wife, Stowe's great-great-grandmother Gerónima Montealegre, was the sister of President José María Montealegre Fernández, who governed Costa Rica from 1859 to 1863.

Stowe originally aspired to become a concert pianist, taking lessons between the ages of ten and eighteen. She later stated that playing the piano was a means to escape having to socialize with other children her age.

She and husband Brian Benben own a working cattle ranch outside of Fredericksburg, TX.

In 2008, Stowe traveled to Haiti and helped found Artists for Peace and Justice; she's on the Board of Directors of the foundation.

Is a practitioner of Taekwondo, Tai Chi Chuan, Kickboxing, & Judo. She also enjoys Belly dancing, Salsa, & Sambo.

Trivia: She volunteered to do performances at the Solaris, a Beverly Hills theater, where a movie agent saw her in a play and got her several offers of appearances in TV and films.

In 1978, she made her debut in an episode in the police drama series Baretta.

In 1982, she married her boyfriend of a year Brian Benben, whom she met on the set of the NBC miniseries The Gangster Chronicles.

In 1987, Stowe appeared in her first breakthrough role in the feature film Stakeout with Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez. The film debuted at No.1 at the box office.

In 1992, Stowe played Cora Munro in The Last of the Mohicans, which also starred Daniel Day-Lewis. Her critically acclaimed performance in the film, which grossed more than $75 million worldwide, elevated Stowe from supporting player to an A-list movie star.

In 1993, director Robert Altman cast Stowe in the award-winning ensemble cast movie Short Cuts. She won the National Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1994 Stowe was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World".

In 1995, Stowe was chosen by Empire as #90 of the "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History".

In 1995, she was a sympathetic psychiatrist in the financially successful and critically lauded science-fiction movie 12 Monkeys. Stowe received a Sci-Fi Universe Magazine award for Best Actress in a Genre Motion Picture for this performance.

Stowe postponed her acting career in 1996 to concentrate on her family life.

Replaced Faith Hill as Julie Moore in We Were Soldiers (2002); she won a Best Actress award from the American Veterans Center.

Stowe won Best Actress at the Imagen Awards for her performance in Saving Milly (2005).

Stowe starred in the not-picked-up Fox pilot Southern Comfort about a woman who takes over her mobster husband's business when he gets sent to prison.

In 2011, Stowe announced her return and began playing Victoria Grayson, the glamorous and powerful matriarch of the Grayson family, on ABC's television drama series Revenge. Her performance received critical praise, and she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Drama for this role.

In April 2012, she was listed at No. 5 in People magazine's annual Most Beautiful Woman list.

In 2014, Stow won the Humanitarian Award from the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Where Are They Now: It's been a few years since we've seen Stowe on the big or small screen. It is unknown if she has retired from acting, but I honestly hope that's not the case. Maybe a serious comeback is in the cards for her. Finger crossed.

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