Lucy Lawless

Actor

Name at birth: Lucille Frances Ryan

The TV show Xena, Warrior Princess, starring Lucy Lawless as a campy barbarian-with-a-bosom, was a surprise TV hit in 1996. (The Xena series began as a spinoff of the fantasy series Hercules, which starred Kevin Sorbo.) The series ran until 2001 and made the New Zealand actress a TV star as well as a favorite among America's lesbian community (thanks to Xena's ambiguous relationship with her sidekick, Gabrielle). Lawless has starred in feature films including the animated Hercules and Xena: The Battle for Mount Olympus (1998), the blockbuster Spider-Man (2002, in a very brief cameo) and the comedy Eurotrip (2004). She had a recurring role as the Cylon newshound D'Anna Biers (aka Number Three) in the TV series Battlestar Galactica from 2005-07. After singing on the TV show Celebrity Duets in 2006 she began a second career as a part-time club singer, and released the CD Come 2 Me in 2007.

Extra credit: Lawless is naturally a dark blonde; her hair was dyed black for Xena... She was married to Garth Lawless from 1988 until their divorce in 1995. They had one daughter, Daisy, in 1988... Lucy married Xena executive producer Rob Tapert in 1998. They have two sons, Julius (b. 1999) and Judah (b. 2002).

Other TV stars of the 1990s: Gillian Anderson (The X-Files), Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld) and Claire Danes (My So-Called Life).