- Born
- Birth nameMadeleine Marie Stowe Mora
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Madeleine Stowe was born in Los Angeles, California, to Mireya Maria (Mora Steinvorth) and Robert Alfred Stowe, a civil engineer. Her mother was a from a prominent political family in Costa Rica. Stowe grew up in Eagle Rock, a working-class neighborhood of Los Angeles. At age ten she started practicing for a career as a concert pianist and trained every day for hours. However, when her instructor died in 1976 she more or less quit playing.
She went to University of Southern California and studied cinema and journalism before taking up acting at Beverly Hills' Solaris Theater. She made a few appearances in TV and on film but her breakthrough came in 1987 with Stakeout (1987). Other major credits include The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and Short Cuts (1993).
When not filming, she spends her time at her ranch in Texas, which she shares with her husband Brian Benben.
- IMDb mini biography by: Mattias Thuresson < mattias.thuresson@mbox300.swipnet.se>
- SpouseBrian Benben(August 8, 1986 - present) (1 child)
- ChildrenMay Theodora Benben
- ParentsMireya Maria Mora SteinvorthRobert Alfred Stowe
- Pretended to be a reporter just so she could meet John Travolta before she became famous.
- In 1982, she married Brian Benben after one year of dating. They met on the set of the NBC miniseries The Gangster Chronicles (1981).
- She and husband Brian Benben own a working cattle ranch outside of Fredericksburg, TX.
- Is a practitioner of Taekwondo, Tai Chi Chuan, Kickboxing, & Judo. She also enjoys Belly dancing, Salsa, & Sambo.
- Her father was from Oregon and had Dutch, German and English ancestry. Her mother was from a prominent political family in Costa Rica. One of Madeleine's maternal great-grandfathers was a German immigrant to Costa Rica, while one of her maternal great-great-grandfathers, Bruno Carranza, was President of Costa Rica (serving a term of several months).
- While it was nice working with a lot of those people, ultimately it was unsatisfying to play a victim, and I realized I couldn't do it anymore. It had to stop.
- [filming nude scenes (1994)] It was never the kind of situation where anybody said, 'You have to do this or you won't make this film.' No, I was always a very willing participant because it seemed sort of meaningless. But it's become much more personal, and it reminds me how dispensable women are.
- What I'm really interested in is erratic behavior. The world is so crazy that lately I've been observing the inconsistencies in people. You know, that's one of the things that is so lacking in women's roles, that you're not allowed to be inconsistent.
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