Fairuza Balk Biography
Born: May 21, 1974
Former child actress Fairuza Balk started her screen career at the age of 11 when she starred as Dorothy in Return to Oz (1985). A sweet-faced child with dark hair and striking blue eyes, Balk -- whose first name means "turquoise" in Persian -- was summarily typecast in sugary roles in television movies. She spent some time in England making films and got a chance at more adult fare in 1989 when she played easily deflowered convent girl Cecile DeVolanges in Milos_Forman's Valmont. Balk subsequently returned to the U.S. and, at the age of 18, she earned some of the greatest acclaim of her young career for her portrayal of Shade, a sensitive girl growing up in a dead-end New Mexico town, in Gas,_Food,_Lodging (1992), the esteemed directorial debut of Alison_Anders. Following further TV and film work, Balk earned a certain degree of cult status with her starring role as a psychotic teenage witch in The_Craft (1996). In keeping with the goth image fostered by her role in the film, Balk subsequently bought Panpipes, a famed Hollywood occult shop. In 1998, the actress ventured into more mainstream territory as the girlfriend of Adam_Sandler in the smash comedy The_Waterboy. That same year, she earned plaudits playing another girlfriend, this time in American_History_X, which cast her as the love interest of a neo-Nazi (Edward_Norton). Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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