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Jaime King (born April 23, 1979) is an American film actress and model. In her modeling career and early film roles, she went by the names Jamie King and most especially James King, which was a childhood nickname given to King by her parents,^[1] because her agency already represented another Jaime — the older, then-more famous model Jaime Rishar.^[2] King, because of the latter name, is sometimes referred to as the "Model with a man's name".^[3]

Called by Complex magazine "One of the original model- turned- actresses",^[4] King appeared in Vogue, Mademoiselle, and Harper's Bazaar among other fashion magazines. Afterwards, she began taking small film roles, her first large endeavor being the big-budget Pearl Harbor (2001), and later first starring role in Bulletproof Monk (2003). She has gone on to appear as a lead in various other films, and gained more notoriety after Sin City (2005), in which she will reprise her role for the sequel Sin City 2 (2009).

Early life and family

King was born in the suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska to mother Nancy H. King, a beauty queen, and father Robert R. King. She has an older sister, Sandi, and a younger brother, Barry. King was named after Lindsay Wagner's character, Jaime Sommers, of the 1970s television series The Bionic Woman.^[4][5] King's parents split amicably in 1995, and the two continue to work together in Omaha where they rent out low-income apartments. King had attended the modeling school Nancy Bounds's Studios and later dropped out of Westside High School in 1995 to pursue a modeling career in New York, afterwards enrolling in a home-study program run by the University of Nebraska.^[2][6]

Career

Early modeling career, 1993-1998

She was discovered in November 1993, at the age of fourteen, while attending Nancy Bounds's Studios, a school for modeling. After being spotted at her graduation fashion show by New York model agent Michael Flutie, King was invited to New York to begin modeling professionally.^[7][8] She joined with Company Management, who already represented Jaime Rishar, a more established model at the time. To avoid confusion, King opted to go by her childhood nickname, James, for the duration of her modeling career and later, the beginning of her film career. In March 1994 she traveled to New York for test pictures and received enthusiastic responses, however, she did not return to New York until July 1994 after gaining a successful advertisement for Abercrombie & Fitch. Much of Fall and Spring 1994 were spent commuting between Omaha and New York.

King had a successful early career as a fashion model, and by age fifteen she had been featured in the fasion magazines Vogue, Mademoiselle, Allure, and Seventeen. At sixteen, King had graced the pages of Glamour and Harper's Bazaar. She was featured on the New York Times Magazine cover story published on February 4, 1996^[9] and had walked the runway for Chanel and Christian Dior. In 1998 she began co-hosting MTV's fashion series, House of Style, with fellow model turned actress Rebecca Romijn. Despite her success, King has noted that she "remember[s] the times where I was so alone" and thought she was "never gonna be able to be a kid."^[2] She, along with Kate Moss, had been often cited as those who helped popularize the idea of heroin chic in the 1990s.^[10][11]

Since 1998, King's modeling career continued to grow, and she has been featured in advertisements for Bebe, Revlon, Cesare Paciotti, Express Jeans, Coach, Armani Exchange, and Matsuda. In 2006, King was chosen by Rocawear CEO Jay-Z to become the new face of the line; her advertisements were featured for the Winter 2006 Season.^[12]

Early acting work, 1998-2004

In 1999, King began her acting career and made her debut in the Daniel Waters' comedy Happy Campers, as Pixel. Happy Campers was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, and in 2003, King was nominated for "Best Actress" at the DVD Exclusive Awards for her portrayal of Pixel.^[13] Filmed in 1999, she also appeared in Filter's music video for "Take a Picture". Following her debut acting roles, King appeared briefly in the film Blow, portraying Kristina Jung, daughter of George Jung (portrayed by Johnny Depp). Blow was based on the real-life stories of cocaine smugglers George Jung, Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder and the Medellín Cartel.^[14]

King made her first appearance in a large Hollywood production with her role as the seventeen year old nurse, Betty, in World War II epic romance Pearl Harbor (2001). Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine had commented that King "has a lively minute or two" in the film, however, her part was small and the "young cast is mostly pinup packaging".^[15] King went on to be featured in the Incubus music video "Wish You Were Here".^[16] The roles King took part in during 2001 garnered her the "New Stylemaker" title at the Young Hollywood Awards.^[17]

In 2002, she appeared in teen comedy Slackers as Angela Patton , Four Faces of God as Sam, and crime comedy Lone Star State of Mind as Baby. 2003 saw King in the film Bulletproof Monk, along side Chow Yun-Fat and Seann William Scott, an adaptation of a comic book by Michael Avon Oeming. She portrayed Jade, a character skilled in martial arts. This was King's first leading action film role, however, Bulletproof Monk had received mostly negative reviews from critics, who cited that the fight scenes were not as well choreographed or directed as those other genre films, and that the alternating comedic and action scenes were jarring.^[18] Despite those negative reviews, Bulletproof Monk was nominated for "Choice Movie in a Drama/Action Adventure" award at the Teen Choice Awards. Late 2003 saw King in Robbie Williams' music video for "Sexed Up" and on the cover artwork for the single's release.^[16] In 2004, King appeared in the comedy White Chicks, playing Heather Vandergeld, with actress Brittany Daniel as her sister Megan Vandergeld, a parody on socialites Paris and Nicky Hilton. White Chicks was also negatively reviewed by critics, receiving five nominations at the Razzie Awards in the categories for "Worst Actress", "Worst Director", "Worst Picture", "Worst Screen Couple" and "Worst Screenplay". Despite the multiple Razzie Awards nominations, White Whicks received "Outstanding Directing for a Box Office Movie" and "Outstanding Writing for a Box Office Movie " at the BET Comedy Awards.^[19]

Breakthrough, 2005

2005 saw King in a variety of film and television roles. She first appeared in the independent black comedy and satire Pretty Persuasion, playing a small role as Kathy Joyce, the step mother of Evan Rachel Wood's character. Afterwards, she gained lead roles in the film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel Sin City. She had met with director Robert Rodriguez, who was a fan of her work, and was unaware that he wanted her involvement in the film. Eventually, "we started reading [the Sin City graphic novel], and it was really fun".^[4] King portrayed Goldie and Wendy, the twin prostitutes in charge of the girls of Old Town. King acted as the twin characters in the segment The Hard Goodbye opposite Mickey Rourke, however, because the twins never appeared in the same frame together, CGI was not needed to composite two images of King. Sin City featured a large ensemble cast of well known actors which included Rosario Dawson and Jessica Alba, whom King had "kinda grew up together" with in New York.^[4] Sin City had opened to wide critical and commercial success, gathering particular recognition for the film's unique coloring process, which rendered most of the film in black and white but retained coloring for select objects; King was one of the few in the black and white film to have color, that being, red lips and blonde hair when acting as Goldie. The film was screened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival in-competition and won the Technical Grand Prize for the film's "visual shaping."^[20] The family comedy Cheaper by the Dozen 2 featured King as Anne Murtaugh in the large ensemble cast, and the Al Pacino drama Two for the Money as Alexandria. Both films had negative critical and box office reception. In television, she had a one episode guest appearance on the teen drama The O.C. and a recurring role on the short-lived situation comedy Kitchen Confidential. Also, King was featured in the Zach Braff directed music video for Gavin Degraw's "Chariot".^[16]

Recent and future roles, 2006-present

In 2006, King appeared in the films The Alibi as Heather and True True Lie as Nathalie. Her largest role that year was in the David Arquette horror film The Tripper as Samantha; Arquette had, in addition to directing the film, had also produced, written, and was featured in it. King had a recurring role on the short lived comedy The Class, which ended its run on television after an announcement in May 2007. The Class had been nominated for an Emmy in 2007, and won the People's Choice Award for "Favorite New TV Comedy".^[21]

In 2007, King filmed They Wait, an upcoming Canadian horror-thriller film inspired by true events.^[22] She stars as a mother attempting to find the truth and save her son when threatened by spirits during the Chinese tradition of Ghost Month. It was featured in the 2007 Toronto Film Festival, but will not make a theatrical release until 2008.

Currently, King has five films in production that have release dates estimated for 2008 and 2009. The first of three to be released in 2008 is the Starwars-themed comedy Fanboys, which recently had its release date pushed to January 14, 2008. This was due to additional funding given to director Kyle Newman to shoot new scenes, however, the busy schedules of the actors only allowed for filming in September 2007, thus moving the release date to accommodate that.^[23] The Pardon, a film based on the true life story of Toni Jo Henry, the first and only woman to be electrocuted by the State of Louisiana, will star King as Toni Jo Henry. The last film is the Jim Kouf comedy, A Fork in the Road, that will have King portraying the character of April Rogers along side Daniel Roebuck. 2009 will see the release of The Spirit and Sin City 2, both of which are in pre-production. King confirmed her role in The Spirit, a live-action film adaptation based on the 1940s newspaper strip The Spirit, created by Will Eisner, in October 2007. King will portray Lorelei Rox, "a modern-day siren with a voice that could kill". The role will reunite King with Sin City writer, Frank Miller, who is attached to write and direct The Spirit. Filming is slated to begin in October 2007, with a release date in January 2009.^[24] King's other 2009 film will also be written by and co-directed by Miller, in the film Sin City 2. She will reprise her role as twins Goldie and Wendy in the part sequel and part prequel.

Personal life

During her first job modeling, King was turned onto heroin and had an addiction to the drug from age fourteen to nineteen. In 1997, her boyfriend, twenty one year old fashion photographer Davide Sorrenti, had died from what was thought be a kidney ailment brought on by excessive heroin use.^[7] Following his death, King became sober,^[8] and went to rehabilitation at age nineteen for her addictions to both heroin and alcohol.^[25] In 2006, she commented that her past reputation as a "party girl" is "like another lifetime" and she now thinks of herself as a different person.^[4]

In September 2000, King dated Kid Rock and the couple made an appearance on a recording of the Howard Stern Show.^[26] In 2005, King dated Bradley Cooper whom she met while working on the television series Kitchen Confidential. She is currently engaged to Kyle Newman whom she met working on the film Fanboys that he was directing.^[27]

King enjoys surfing and claims to be friends with numerous musicians.^[1] In an interview published in 1996, King, after retiring from modeling, plans to be a writer or possibly a photographer.^[2] King currently resides in Los Angeles, California.^[28]

Selected filmography

See also

• Heroin chic
• Goldie and Wendy - King's role in Sin City

References

External links

• Jaime King at IMDb
• "James is a Girl" - New York Times Magazine cover article
• "James is a Girl" -- New York Times Magazine cover photo
• King at the Fashion Model Directory

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