
Alison Doody
Acting
Biography
Alison Doody (born November 11, 1966) is an Irish actress and model. She is the youngest of three children. She was educated in a convent, where she gained a passion for the arts. She later studied at the National College of Fine Arts in Dublin, but left because she lacked the motivation and thought she would take a year off to think it out. Meanwhile, while sitting in a café with friends, she was approached by a still photographer who asked her if she would be interested to model. Thinking she could use the pocket money, she said yes. Modeling proved to be both fun and lucrative, and very soon she did it professionally. Her modeling contracts led to commercial work, which would take her around the world. One day, a casting director saw her work and suggested she try acting instead. She was sent to London at age 19, where she quickly won an audition to appear in the new James Bond film, A View to a Kill (1985). She so loved acting that she pursued a career in that direction. After her first film, she shot a few TV dramas in London and in Dublin, but her big break came when she was cast as Austrian seductress Dr. Elsa Schneider in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Apparently she made a huge impression on Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who loved her great sense of humor and her Grace Kelly looks. After Indiana Jones, which introduced her to Hollywood and to the United States, she was chosen to replace Cybill Shepherd as spokeswoman for L'Oréal. After that she shot a few B-movies in the United States, but at one point felt she missed Ireland too much, so she went back to Dublin. In 1994, she put her career on hold to spend more time with media heir Gavin O'Reilly, whom she had been dating for two years. In 1996 they married, and later had two children. In 2002, she was asked to cameo in the 'Michael Caine (I)_ comedy Les acteurs (2003), and there she regained a lust for the movie industry. The following summer, she shot Allan Quatermain et la pierre des ancêtres (2004) with co-starPatrick Swayze, and it's then that the whole ball started rolling again. In 2005, she and her husband divorced and she decided to re-launch her stalled career, but she quickly realized how difficult it was to break into this kind of business for a second time, especially after ten years away from the camera. Recently she appeared in the short film Benjamin's Struggle (2005), directed by newcomer James Breese, and played a role in the well-known British series Meurtres en sommeil (2000). In a recent interview, she said she was thrilled to be acting again, but added that she wasn't willing to accept anything for the sake of working. She is determined to find the right part, but she also wants to do different things: "I'm fed up playing the nasty Nazi. I'd like to do something quite extreme."
Known For

Chat show hosted by Terry Wogan, featuring live studio interviews with famous and notable personalities.
Wogan

A detective team apply new techniques to old crimes as they solve cold cases.
Waking the Dead

A fictional history of two legendary revolutionaries' journey away from home before they began fighting for their country in the 1920s.
RRR

In 1938, an art collector appeals to eminent archaeologist Dr. Indiana Jones to embark on a search for the Holy Grail. Indy learns that a medieval historian has vanished while searching for it, and the missing man is his own father, Dr. Henry Jones Sr.. He sets out to rescue his father by following clues in the old man's notebook, which his father had mailed to him before he went missing. Indy arrives in Venice, where he enlists the help of a beautiful academic, Dr. Elsa Schneider, along with Marcus Brody and Sallah. Together they must stop the Nazis from recovering the power of eternal life and taking over the world!
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

The Storyteller, aided by his cynical dog, narrates classic folk tales, fables, and legends.
The Storyteller

A newly-developed microchip designed by Zorin Industries for the British Government that can survive the electromagnetic radiation caused by a nuclear explosion has landed in the hands of the KGB. James Bond must find out how and why. His suspicions soon lead him to big industry leader Max Zorin who forms a plan to destroy his only competition in Silicon Valley by triggering a massive earthquake in the San Francisco Bay.
A View to a Kill

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.
Hallmark Hall of Fame

Renowned safari hunter Allan Quatermain is lured back into the unknown recesses of the African jungles to find a man who disappeared while searching for the fabled King Solomon's Mines--a destination of legendary riches from which no soul has ever returned alive.
King Solomon's Mines

After losing in the ALCS the year before, the Cleveland Indians are determined to make it into the World Series this time! However, they first have to contend with Rachel Phelps again when she buys back the team.
Major League II

Follows the adventures of the modern-day descendants of the Four Musketeers, who help protect the honor of the innocent.
Ring of the Musketeers

A bored U.S. housewife trades places in London with her jet-set twin, and one of them winds up dead.
Deceptions

Three British graduates blag jobs at an elite American summer camp. The guys want a summer of fun, but they have to set an example to the gorgeous teenage offspring of California's rich and powerful.
Beaver Falls

In 1981, Gerd Heidemann, a bloodhound reporter for the German magazine Stern, believes he's stumbled onto the greatest literary find of the century: the personal diaries of Adolf Hitler. Shrouded in secrecy, Heidemann and the men of Stern attempt to pull off the greatest scoop in publishing history, blinded by their greed to the fact that the diaries are, in fact, crude forgeries.
Selling Hitler

A group of aging London gangsters go on a vigilante killing spree when one of their number is murdered by a street gang.
We Still Kill the Old Way

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg tell the struggles and the passion for making the Indiana Jones Trilogy.
Indiana Jones: Making the Trilogy

During the 13th century, a small village fights for freedom in the frontier landscape of the Carpathian Mountains against Mongolian invaders.
The Rising Hawk

Martin, an I.R.A. hitman, is seen by a Catholic priest while carrying out a hit. He grows a bond with the priest and his niece. But his past and his former employers put all their lives in danger.
A Prayer for the Dying

When a small Irish town is terrorized by a corrupt business syndicate, a lone hero wages an all out war.
Taffin

When a spoiled English girl living in 19th century India loses both parents in a cholera epidemic, she is sent back to England to live in a country mansion. The lord is a strange old man-- frail and deformed, immensely kind but so melancholy. She wishes to discover what has caused him so much sorrow and to bring joy back to the household. It all must have something to do with the screams and wails which echo through the house at night and no one wants to talk about.
The Secret Garden

Twin sisters -- one a European jet-setter, the other an unhappy New Jersey housewife -- impulsively decide to swap lives and identities for a week, with unforseen results.