Biography
Actress Patricia Arquette is the granddaughter of Cliff Arquette, the daughter of character actor
Lewis Arquette, and the sister of actors
Rosanna Arquette,
David Arquette and
Alexis Arquette. Inaugurating her own film career in the mid-'80s, the actress came into her own with a gallery of fine portrayals in the '90s. In 1993 alone, she was seen as the hero's cousin/inamorata in
Ethan Frome; the strung-out heroine in the stylishly violent road movie
True Romance; and the hero's lesbian sister in
Inside Monkey Zetterland. Arquette closed out 1994 on a fine note with her sympathetic portrayal of Kathy O'Hara, the second wife of Hollywood's "world's worst director," in
Tim Burton's
Ed Wood.
The following year included a starring role in
John Boorman's
Beyond Rangoon and a marriage to actor
Nicolas Cage. In 1996, Arquette had lead roles in a number of films, most notably David O. Russell's
Flirting With Disaster, in which she played
Ben Stiller's put-upon wife. She then switched gears with starring roles in
David Lynch's
Lost Highway and the thriller
Nightwatch. She tried her hand at a Western in 1998, playing the object of
Woody Harrelson's and
Billy Crudup's desires in
Stephen Frears'
The Hi-Lo Country. Despite an interesting premise and excellent cast, the film flopped, but Arquette continued to work steadily the following year, with lead roles in the black comedy
Goodbye Lover;
Stigmata, in which she starred opposite
Gabriel Byrne as the unwitting target of a supernatural phenomenon; and
Martin Scorsese's
Bringing out the Dead, a film starring Arquette's then-husband Cage as a burnt-out paramedic.
Following the weightiness of the creepy
Stigmata and the disturbing
Bringing Out the Dead, Arquette took things in a decidedly lighter direction with her next two projects. In 2000, she played
Adam Sandler's love-interest in the comedy
Little Nicky, while the following year found her opposite
Tim Robbins in the off-the-wall
Human Nature. Written by
Being John Malkovich scribe
Charlie Kaufman,
Human Nature was the feature debut from acclaimed music-video director
Michel Gondry and featured Arquette as a woman cursed with a coat of fur covering her body.
As the decade progressed, audiences could see Arquette in projects ranging from the star-studded documentary
Searching for Debra Winger to the sleeper family film
Holes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide