Years active: 1984 - present (started around 19 years old; 40 years in the business)
About Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress. She played Xenia Onatopp in the 1996 James Bond film "GoldenEye", Jean Grey / Phoenix in the "X-Men" film series, and Lenore Mills in the Taken film trilogy. In 2008, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for Integrity by the United Nations. She made her directorial debut with "Bringing Up Bobby" in 2011
Moving to the United States in the 1980's, first to New York City, Famke majored in writing and literature and studied stage craft, and then moved to Los Angeles.
She then later modeled for Chanel, Victoria's Secret, and Yves Saint Laurent.
This model-turned-actress broke into Hollywood in the early 1990s. Her first film was "Fathers & Sons" (1992). While appearing on NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" to promote her role of the sex-crazed assassin in the James Bond film "GoldenEye", Famke gave Conan a first hand experience of her character's signature moves by performing them on him using the top of his desk. When she asked him if he would like the demonstration, Conan responded with "This is what we in the industry call a 'no-brainer'."
Famke was ranked #69 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women in the World" [2002].
Janssen appeared with her dog Licorice, a brindle Boston Terrier, in a 2007 PETA campaign to raise awareness for animal rights. The campaign used the slogan "Be an Angel for Animals." On 28 January 2008, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for Integrity for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime at a United Nations anti-corruption conference held in Nusa Dua, Bali.
