Career
Boyle's first film role was a bit part in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), which earned her a SAG card, though her scenes were deleted from the final cut of the film. She then appeared in the mini-series Amerika (1987) and feature film Poltergeist III (1988). Although she was cast in Dead Poets Society (1989), her scenes were deleted. Her first major role was as Donna Hayward in the critically acclaimed television series Twin Peaks. When the series ended in 1991, creator David Lynch produced a movie, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, but Boyle did not return. Moira Kelly took over the role of Donna for the film.
Some of Boyle's most notable roles during the 1990s were:
- the obsessive and accident-prone Stacy in Wayne's World (1992)
- the fragile, homeless teen Heather in Where The Day Takes You (1992)
- fatally obsessed psychopath secretary - Kris Bolin in The Temp (1993)
- the sultry and manipulative Suzanne of Red Rock West (1993)
- Alex, the promiscuous beauty in the comedy Threesome (1994)
- flighty, manically repressed housewife Marianne Byron in Afterglow (1997)
- the glamorous, pretentious, self-loathing writer Helen Jordan in Happiness (1998)
In 1997, Boyle auditioned for the title role in David E. Kelley's Ally McBeal. Although she lost out to Calista Flockhart, the actress impressed Kelley enough to create the role of Assistant District Attorney Helen Gamble in his other 1997 series, The Practice, specifically for her. She starred on that show until 2003, when, in a dramatic attempt to revamp the show and cut costs, she was dismissed along with most of the cast. For her performance as Helen Gamble, she received an Emmy nomination as well as several Screen Actors Guild ensemble cast nominations. Boyle also made a crossover appearance in the role of Helen Gamble in an episode of Ally McBeal, and an uncredited guest appearance on the same show in its final season.
In 2002, Boyle played a lead role in the blockbuster feature film Men in Black II as the villainous shapeshifting alien Serleena. She also guest-starred on one of the last episodes of Ally McBeal, this time as Tally Cupp. Recently, she had a recurring role on several episodes of Huff, playing Melody Coatar, an unstable patient with borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder.
In 2005, Boyle joined the cast of Las Vegas for a seven-episode stint as Monica Mancuso, a new hotel owner. She played Barbara Amiel in the TV true story Shades of Black, about Amiel's controversial husband, Lord Conrad Black. Boyle also guest-starred as an ambitious reporter involved with the suspects in a possible murder in the Law & Order 2008 episode "Submission".
Read more about this topic: Lara Flynn Boyle
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“I doubt that I would have taken so many leaps in my own writing or been as clear about my feminist and political commitments if I had not been anointed as early as I was. Some major form of recognition seems to have to mark a woman’s career for her to be able to go out on a limb without having her credentials questioned.”
—Ruth Behar (b. 1956)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)