Calista Flockhart Biography

NAME: Calista Flockhart

OCCUPATION: Television

BIRTH DATE: November 11, 1964 (Age: 47)

EDUCATION: Rutgers University

PLACE OF BIRTH: Freeport, Illinois

Born Calista Kay Flockhart on November 11, 1964, in Freeport, Illinois, Flockhart is best known for her portrayal of the character Ally McBeal in the highly successful television drama of the same name. Born to a teacher and Kraft Foods employee, Flockhart moved around a great deal in her youth, finally settling in Medford, New Jersey. After graduating from high school in Medford, she attended nearby Rutgers University, where she studied drama.

But Flockhart's rise to stardom was slow and steady. She spent much of the 1990s fighting for progressively larger roles, including an award-winning performance in a Broadway run of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (1994). But it wasn't until Flockhart caught the eye of producer David E. Kelley in 1997 that she became a household name. Kelley cast the relatively unknown Flockhart in the lead role of his new series, Ally McBeal.

Returning to regular television work for the first time in four years, Flockhart starred in the “Dallas”-like soap drama, “Brothers and Sisters” (ABC, 2006- ), a family saga about five siblings who take over the family’s lucrative produce business after the sudden death of their father (Tom Skerritt). Flockhart played a New York-based rightwing radio talk show host who returns to her Los Angeles origins to start a television talk show, but must deal with her troubled family—particularly her estranged mother (Sally Field)—while helping to run the business. After the initial pilot was shot in March 2006, the network felt the show needed drastic changes—never a good sign. They recast a third of the actors—Betty Buckley originally played Flockhart’s mom—and dismissed executive producer Marti Noxon. The new-and-improved “Brothers & Sisters” emerged in fall 2006 with a lead-in from the popular “Desperate Housewives” (ABC, 2004- ) and earned decent—but not great—ratings. Despite the over-soapy storylines and generally slow-pace, Flockhart displayed considerable dramatic chops, a welcome change to her “Ally McBeal” silliness.