Liv Tyler

Biography

Liv Tyler - Biography It gets a little complicated. Little Liv Rundgren grew up with her mom, Bebe Buell (a Playboy/Ford model and band groupie) and her dad, Todd Rundgren, a musician. The tyke’s resemblance, though, to family friend and Aerosmith lead singer, Steven Tyler, led her to question her parentage. It turned out that Tyler was, indeed, her biological father, and the discovery led Liv Rundgren to change her name to Liv Tyler. Tyler lists Rundgren and the older Tyler as dads; also Coyote Stevens, and one or two other musicians about the house. Buell mayn’t have been your standard all-American-family-values sort of mom but she was a shrewd agent for her blossoming adolescent offspring. Mother and daughter moved from their Portland, Maine, home to New York to take advance of some fetching changes. Tyler had been an ordinary looking little girl -- a bit overweight, braces on the teeth -- but, at 14, she had dropped both the pounds and the hardware and the result was a Snow White-style beauty. Dark hair, very blue eyes, alabaster complexion, and Aerosmith-full red lips made the young Tyler a sought-after model for advertisements and fashion magazines. While filming a television commercial “with a story line” in South America, Tyler decided that she was cut out for acting. At approximately the same time, a show business agent back in the U.S. was reading an article about children of the rich and famous and liking what he read about Steven Tyler’s kid. Agent and actor got together, and what followed was a steady string of films for the former model. A too-sexy dance sequence by Tyler in Aerosmith’s Crazy video (1994) led to an unwanted seamy fan-base for the 17 year old beauty. Tyler’s movie roles, though, showed her to be much more than she seemed in that unfortunate production. Her talents for acting gained her a wider, more discriminating following. A role in Silent Fall (1994) was her big-screen debut, closely followed by increasingly larger parts in Empire Records (1995), Upstate Story (1995), Heavy (1995), and That Thing You Do (1996). Tyler’s part in Everyone Says I Love You(1996) was left on the cutting room floor, but a starring role in Stealing Beauty (1996) resulted in much acclaim for the actor, and recognition as that year’s Sundance Film Festival “It Girl.” 1997's U-Turn and Inventing the Abbotts led directly to Tyler’s first big-budget blockbuster, Armageddon (1998), with soundtrack by her dad (er, the Aerosmith dad). 1999 was taken up with the filming of Cookie’s Fortune, Plunkett & Macleane. The Little Black Book, and Eugene Onegin. Coming up for the now 23-year-old Hollywood veteran are two immediate projects -- the TV movie One Night At McCools, and the feature films Dr. T and the Women and Passion of Mind. As well, Tyler has been cast as a Arwen in the much-anticipated Lord of the Rings trilogy, set for staggered release in 2001. This actor, noted for her sophistication, beauty, and talent, has had no trouble finding her place amongst Hollywood’s brightest stars. It gets a little complicated. Little Liv Rundgren grew up with her mom, Bebe Buell (a Playboy/Ford model and band groupie) and her dad, Todd Rundgren, a musician. The tyke’s resemblance, though, to family friend and Aerosmith lead singer, Steven Tyler, led her to question her parentage. It turned out that Tyler was, indeed, her biological father, and the discovery led Liv Rundgren to change her name to Liv Tyler. Tyler lists Rundgren and the older Tyler as dads; also Coyote Stevens, and one or two other musicians about the house. Buell mayn’t have been your standard all-American-family-values sort of mom but she was a shrewd agent for her blossoming adolescent offspring. Mother and daughter moved from their Portland, Maine, home to New York to take advance of some fetching changes. Tyler had been an ordinary looking little girl -- a bit overweight, braces on the teeth -- but, at 14, she had dropped both the pounds and the hardware and the result was a Snow White-style beauty. Dark hair, very blue eyes, alabaster complexion, and Aerosmith-full red lips made the young Tyler a sought-after model for advertisements and fashion magazines. While filming a television commercial “with a story line” in South America, Tyler decided that she was cut out for acting. At approximately the same time, a show business agent back in the U.S. was reading an article about children of the rich and famous and liking what he read about Steven Tyler’s kid. Agent and actor got together, and what followed was a steady string of films for the former model. A too-sexy dance sequence by Tyler in Aerosmith’s Crazy video (1994) led to an unwanted seamy fan-base for the 17 year old beauty. Tyler’s movie roles, though, showed her to be much more than she seemed in that unfortunate production. Her talents for acting gained her a wider, more discriminating following. A role in Silent Fall (1994) was her big-screen debut, closely followed by increasingly larger parts in Empire Records (1995), Upstate Story (1995), Heavy (1995), and That Thing You Do (1996). Tyler’s part in Everyone Says I Love You(1996) was left on the cutting room floor, but a starring role in Stealing Beauty (1996) resulted in much acclaim for the actor, and recognition as that year’s Sundance Film Festival “It Girl.” 1997's U-Turn and Inventing the Abbotts led directly to Tyler’s first big-budget blockbuster, Armageddon (1998), with soundtrack by her dad (er, the Aerosmith dad). 1999 was taken up with the filming of Cookie’s Fortune, Plunkett & Macleane. The Little Black Book, and Eugene Onegin. Coming up for the now 23-year-old Hollywood veteran are two immediate projects -- the TV movie One Night At McCools, and the feature films Dr. T and the Women and Passion of Mind. As well, Tyler has been cast as a Arwen in the much-anticipated Lord of the Rings trilogy, set for staggered release in 2001. This actor, noted for her sophistication, beauty, and talent, has had no trouble finding her place amongst Hollywood’s brightest stars.