Biography

Misty Upham

Jump to

Misty Anne Upham, born in Kallispell, Montana, grew up in south Seattle, the fourth of five children. She began her career at the age of thirteen when she joined a community theater group, Red Eagle Soaring. What began as a summer workshop soon turned into a full-time job. By the age of fourteen she was writing and directing short skits and performing on tours throughout the northwest. In the next four years she would be accepted to several Seattle theater companies, all while attending high school. Her first break came in 2001 when she landed the role of Mrs. Blue Cloud in Chris Eyre's sophmore project Skins (2002), where she portrayed a victim of domestic abuse on the Pine Ridge reservation. She also had a large role in the family drama August: Osage County (2013), playing Johnna Monevata, a live-in housekeeper.

Misty died in 2014, in Auburn, Washington, of blunt-force trauma.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

On October 5, 2014, she was seen at her apartment in Auburn, Washington. Her father called police on October 6th saying that she was missing. Police stopped her father from going after her, instead they searched her apartment and felt that she left of her own volition; and have not officially declared her missing. As of October 12, 2014 she had not contacted family or friends. On October 16, 2014, family and friends found a body in a ravine that they believed to be hers. Despite pleas from the family the police refused to help with search and rescue efforts. She was one of a 1000+ missing Native women whom the police never searched for.
Misty was multilingual. She spoke Latin, French, Spanish, British English and her Native Language ( Blackfeet). She also spoke in several accents including: Spanish, Irish, Japanese, Australian, British English and Native American.
Gained forty pounds and had a significant amount of her hair cut for her role as Lila, a new mom/widow in Frozen River. Her trademark long and thick hair was previously waist-length.
She was the subject of a documentary by Ali Talis of New York City, following her career and life as an actress/artist.
She played classical guitar and studied classical voice.

I would love to do a film like Howard's End, which is one of my favorites. I would love to do a film like Sense & Sensibility, but until society changes, the only roles I'd get to play in movies like that would be either as a maid, or a prisoner, which totally sucks.
I don't like interviews. I hate them. I always feel so stupid. I just go blank, even with the simplest questions. I guess it's to do with the fact that I'm a perfectionist. I don't want to say anything that I'll regret in ten years time. And I'm also painfully shy in real life. When I'm in front of the camera, or talking to people as an actress, and not as myself, it's like I become another person. Somehow possessed with somebody who is worth talking to. Because at home people could care less about what I have to say.
I just do shit so I don't have to stop and think about shit.

Suggest an edit or add missing content