Lucy Lawless

Lucille Frances "Lucy" Ryan was born in the Auckland suburb of Mount Albert to teacher Julie Ryan (nee Haynes) and Mount Albert's mayor, banker Frank Ryan.[2] She is the fifth of six siblings (four brothers and one sister). She has described her family as "this big, sprawling Irish Catholic family",[3] and while filming in Ireland for the Discovery Channel in 2004, told Ireland on Sunday that her father's family originated in Quilty, County Clare.[4]

Her first musical was at age 10[5] and began acting in secondary school. She attended Marist College, Auckland, and began studies at Auckland University in languages.[6] At 18, she went on her "overseas experience", travelling through Europe and Australia with her future husband, Garth Lawless.[5] At 21, she won the 1989 Mrs New Zealand competition.[7]

Lawless has said she suffered from bulimia as a child, but she was able to overcome the illness.[8]

Her debut on television was 2½ seasons as a cast member in the New Zealand sketch-comedy series Funny Business. Then she studied drama at the William Davis Centre for Actors Study in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[5]

In 1994, Lawless appeared in Hercules and the Amazon Women, a Pacific Renaissance Pictures made-for-television film that became the television pilot for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. In that episode, she played a man-hating Amazon named Lysia. She went on to play another character, Lyla, in the first-season episode "As Darkness Falls."

Xena: Warrior Princess

Lawless at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010

Lawless received her best-known role as a heroic warrior woman named Xena in the first season of Hercules. She first appeared in the episode "The Warrior Princess" which aired in March 1995. R. J. Stewart, one of Pacific Renaissance Pictures's in-house writers, dramatised the teleplay from a story that Robert G. "Rob" Tapert commissioned John Schulian to write. The character became a fan favourite. Vanessa Angel was originally cast in the role, but she fell ill and was unable to travel to New Zealand for shooting. To differentiate between Xena and the similar Lysia, Lawless's hair, previously an ash blonde, was dyed black. She also wore a much darker costume. Lawless returned as Xena in two more episodes of the first season of Hercules, which portrayed her turn from villainess to a good, heroic character.

The character was popular enough that a spin-off series was created: Xena: Warrior Princess debuted on 4 September 1995. Xena: Warrior Princess, like its parent programme, was a huge hit and achieved high ratings and cultural significance, lasting six seasons. The series brought Lawless an immense amount of attention and she became an international celebrity.

While taping an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in October 1996, Lawless suffered a fractured pelvis when the horse she was riding lost its footing in the studio car park. She made a complete recovery, but several episodes of the second season of Xena were rewritten to focus on background characters to minimise the time Lawless was needed on set.[9]

Lawless performing at the Roxy, 2007

Lawless, who has a background in musical theatre, played Betty Rizzo on Broadway in a production of Grease in 1997.[39] She continued to sing during the run of Xena, even contributing dirge music of her own composition; this made it into the episode "The Path Not Taken" as the dirge "Burial," which she sang for the first time in the episode. Two musically-oriented episodes, "The Bitter Suite" and "Lyre, Lyre, Heart's on Fire," also showcased not only her singing but also that of some of her castmates. (See also List of Xena: Warrior Princess episodes for details.)

Lawless was encouraged to resume her singing career after being a contestant on Celebrity Duets, which she finished as runner-up to Alfonso Ribeiro. She made her solo debut at the Roxy in Hollywood, a venue of 500 seats, on 13 January 2007, with a sold-out crowd for back-to-back concerts.[40]

Lawless is a member of the board of trustees of the StarShip Foundation, the charity arm of the Starship Children's Health (hospital) which is part of the Auckland District Health Board.[41] It is set up to provide additional equipment, support and help to staff, patients and families.[42] She devotes much time and energy to fundraising for the organisation. She recently sat for the New Zealand television series The Sitting,[43] an arts series where celebrity portraits are produced during an interview session, with the portraits later auctioned for charity.

Since 2006, 21 September marks "Lucy Lawless Feel the Love Day/Week." The day, organised by the Official Lucy Lawless Fan Club, begins a week of charitable acts and donations by fans in honour and support of Lawless.[44][45]

In May 2009 Lawless became a "climate ambassador" for the Greenpeace "Sign On" campaign.[46]

In February 2012, she and six other Greenpeace activists boarded an oil drilling ship at Port Taranaki, New Zealand, and remained on it for 77 hours to stop it leaving for the Arctic where it was going to take part in oil exploration.[47] She was subsequently arrested and charged with burglary, which carried an imprisonment term of up to 10 years if convicted.[48] She pleaded guilty on 14 June 2012 to trespass charges regarding the February incident. Lawless said she intended for now to remain involved with Greenpeace.[49] In February 2013, Lawless and the other six activists were each sentenced to pay a fine of NZ$651 (about US$547) and undertake 120 hours of community service. The judge denied the $545,000 in reparations that Shell Todd Oil Services had sought from the activists. Following the sentencing, Lawless said: "I consider it a great victory that the court has struck down the reparation demand from Shell, which I think was absolutely ludicrous."[50]

Astronomer Michael E. Brown nicknamed his newly discovered dwarf planet "Xena" – finding this name more convenient to use than the then-official designation, 2003 UB313. When this object was initially determined to be larger than Pluto, it gained international attention and forced a year-long debate among astronomers as to the definition of a planet. (Observations made by New Horizons subsequently found Pluto to be marginally larger than the object, which was ultimately named Eris.)

The object's nickname "Xena" was used in the press. New Scientist magazine polled the public on their preferred final name for the so-called tenth planet; "Xena" ranked number 4.[51] Lawless rang Mike Brown in December 2005 to thank him for his "senseless act of beauty," and claimed that she "never dared hope [the name] would stick."[52] Eventually, both it and Pluto were deemed not to be true planets, and were instead classified as dwarf planets.

Although "Xena" is now officially known as Eris, Brown made an indirect tribute to Lawless by naming Eris's moon Dysnomia after the Greek goddess of lawlessness.[53]

In 1988, she became pregnant from her boyfriend Garth Lawless while working with him in the Australian outback. They married in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, that year, then returned to New Zealand where their daughter, Daisy, was born. They divorced in 1995.[54]

On 28 March 1998, Lawless married Xena's executive producer, Pacific Renaissance Pictures CEO, Robert G. "Rob" Tapert. They have two sons.[55]

• 1997: Grease! – On Broadway, NY USA
• 2002: The Vagina Monologues – Auckland, NZ
• 2005: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – Seattle, USA
• 2011: BARE For Christchurch – Auckland, NZ
• 2013: Chicago The Musical – Hollywood Bowl, LA, USA
• 2013: Chicago The Musical – Auckland, NZ
• 2014–2015: Sleeping Beauty and Her Winter Knight – Pasadena, CA, USA
• 2017: Pleasuredome The Musical – Auckland, NZ[57]

Albums

• Come 2 Me
• Come To Mama: Lucy Lawless in Concert: The Roxy Theater in Hollywood

Concert DVDs

• Come To Mama: Lucy Lawless in Concert: The Roxy Theater in Hollywood
• Gimme Some, Sugar: Lawless, NYC
• Lucy Lawless Live in Chicago: Still Got The Blues
• Lucy Lawless Live at The Roxy Theater: Ho Down
• Lucy Lawless Live in Concert: Welcome to the Pleasuredome

Other songs

• "Little Child" on Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars
• "4 All of Us" with Pauly Fuemana (OMC)
• "Little Child" on The Starship Christmas Album 2012 – Starship Foundation

In the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours, Lawless was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to entertainment and the community.[58]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lucy Lawless.

• Lucy Lawless at IMDb
• Lucy Lawless at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Lucy Lawless at the Internet Broadway Database