Rebecca Romijn was born in Berkeley, California on November 6, 1972. She is a Dutch American actress with parents who both are from Dutch descent. As a matter of fact her father, Jaap Romijn is a native born Dutchman having been born in Barneveld, province Gelderland, the Netherlands, and her mother is a third generation Dutch American, and the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, named Henry B. Kuizenga, with a name that is clearly Dutch.
Rebecca is best known for her roles as Mystique in the film “X-Men”, filmed in 2000, and for her roles as Mystique and Raven Darkholme in the 2003 film “X2: X-Men United”, a follow up on the earlier “X-Men” film. For the “X-Men” film she won two Best Supporting Actress Awards. One award was the Blockbuster Entertainment Award, and the other was the Saturn Award. For the follow up film “X2: X-Men United” she was nominated for three awards. They were: The Choice Movie Liar Teen Choice Award, the Choice Movie Actress Teen Choice Award, and the Sexiest She-Villain MTV Movie Award. Unfortunately for Romijn she won none of the three awards.
Several years later, in 2007-2008, Romijn played Alexis Meade in the television series “Ugly Betty”, during 2007-2008. For her performance in the television series “Ugly Betty”, she was nominated for the Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Screen Actors Guild Award. Again Romijn had to be satisfied with the nomination.
Romijn had only played two minor film roles prior to her performance in the 2000 “X-Men” film. So it appears that the “X-Men” film essentially launched Romijn’s successful acting career. Since 2000, she has been active both in film production and in television series production. As of the year 2010, she has appeared in about 10 films, and in about 10 television series. Her latest film, in 2010, was “Love Child” in which she plays the role of Belinda. And during 2009-2010, she appeared as Roxanne Torcoletti in the television series “Eastwick”.
Romijn attended the University of California at Santa Cruz and studied music, but did not graduate. While studying music at Santa Cruz she became interested in fashion modeling, and began her modeling career in 1991. She modeled for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Victoria’s Secret, Bebe, Miller Lite beer, and also did some fashion modeling on the runway. From 1998 to 2000 she was the host of MTV’s House of Style.
Romijn married the actor John Stamos in 1998. But due to their differing work schedules the marriage did not work out. The couple separated in 2004, and divorced the following year. Later in 2005, Romijn became engaged to actor Jerry O’Connell, and the couple married in 2007. With O’Connell, Romijn has two children, twin daughters, born in 2008.
The daughters are named Dolly Rebecca Rose and Charlie Tamara Tulip. The name Dolly was for Dolly Parton, and the name Tulip was clearly in memory of her father’s home land, famous for its tulips.
REFERENCES
Most of the information for this bio profile was obtained from the Wikipedia and the “Imdb” web sites.
Peyser, Marc, and Sean Smith, “A Dash of Fresh Pepper: ‘X’-person Rebecca Romijn in a Prime Time Comedy”, NEWSWEEK, April 10, 2006.
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PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICANS, CURRENT AND HISTORIC
EIGHT PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICAN FAMILIES: THE ROOSEVELTS, VANDERBILTS AND OTHERS, 2015
FIFTEEN PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICAN FAMILIES: THE VAN BURENS, KOCH BROTHERS, VOORHEES AND OTHERS, 2015
PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICANS IN U.S. GOVERNMENT LEADERSHIP POSITIONS, 2015
DUTCH PEGELS INVOLVED IN WARS
ALLIED EUROPE CAMPAIGN—1944/1945: TACTICAL MISTAKES, 2017
THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS: MEMOIRS, 2017
FRENCH REVOLUTION, NAPOLEON AND RUSSIAN WAR OF 1812, 2015