The youngest daughter of a performing family, the vivacious and vulnerable Patricia Arquette quickly rose from the world of horror sequels and genre fare to become a leading player working with topnotch directors and co-stars. Since beginning her career as a teenager in the late 1980s, she has alternated between television and features, although by the late 90s, she primarily concentrated on films. After studying acting with Milton Katselas, Arquette landed roles as a teenaged mother in the ABC TV-movie "Daddy" (1987) and made guest appearances on such series as "thirtysomething" and "The Outsiders". She has the distinction of starring in two small screen projects directed by Diane Keaton: a "CBS Schoolbreak Special" entitled "The Boy With the Crazy Brother" (1990) and the longform "Wildflower" (Lifetime, 1991). In the latter, the actress had the demanding role of a young girl with epilepsy whose stepfather keeps her locked up believing she is possessed by demons. Arquette earned a CableACE award for her touching performance.
Bringing much of the same vulnerability to the big screen, Arquette was cast as the tender girlfriend of Viggo Mortensen in Sean Penn's directorial debut "The Indian Runner" (1991). She also earned critically praise for her portrayal of Mattie Silver, the life force in the otherwise bleak, wintry tale of "Ethan Frome" (1993). Later that year, she gave a breakout performance alongside heavy-hitters Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper in the Quentin Tarantino-scripted "True Romance". Tim Burton tapped her as the tolerant wife of eccentric filmmaker "Ed Wood" (1994) and Arquette displayed a compelling presence as an American doctor caught up in the political turmoil of Burma in "Beyond Rangoon" (1995). Switching to lighter fare, she was the moody spouse of an adopted man seeking his birth parents in "Flirting With Disaster" (1996). While she earned some praise from reviewers for her dual turn as the murdered wife of a jazz musician and a bottle blonde femme fatale in David Lynch's "Lost Highway" (1997), most dismissed the film as confusing and pretentious. Arquette undertook a similar type of role as the unhappily married wife of a ranch hand who embarks on an affair with a rival cattle rancher in "The Hi-Lo Country" (1998). Next Arquette starred in the horror film "Stigmata" (1999) and opposite her ex-husband Nicolas Cage in the Martin Scorsese film "Bringing Out the Dead" (1999).
Arquette returned to comedy in 2000, cast opposite Adam Sandler in "Little Nicky" (2000) and in Charlie Kaufman's "Human Nature" (2001), where she played a woman involved in a love triangle with an ape-like man. In 2002, Arquette starred with Billy Bob Thorton in the crime thriller "The Badge," which premiered on the Starz network. After appearing as the school teacher-turned-outlaw Kissin Kate Barlow in the offbeat Disney drama, Holes (2003), Arquette signed on for the lead role in the new supernatural mystery series, Medium (NBC, 2004- ). Based on the real-life psychic and criminal profiler Allison DuBois, the series depicted Arquette as a wife and mother who struggles to balance tending to her family and solving murders. The series proved popular out of the gate, and in 2005 Arquette won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series following the debut season.
Copyright © Baseline 2006.