Arquette, Patricia (1968– )

US actor. Her cartoonish character in the Quentin Tarantino-scripted True Romance (1993) was the platform from which her career was launched. Since then she has appeared in a number of offbeat, quirky films from such groundbreaking directors as David Lynch (Lost Highway, 1997), Tim Burton (Ed Wood, 1994), and David O Russell (Flirting with Disaster, 1996), while also developing her talents as a dramatic actor, for example in her performance in the Edith Wharton adaptation, Ethan Frome (1993) and in the political drama Beyond Rangoon (1995).

Although her bubbly, naive screen persona has been compared favourably with that of Marilyn Monroe, there have also been elements of transgression and uninhibited sexuality in many of her film roles, for example in her performances in The Indian Runner (1991), True Romance, and Lost Highway.

The late 1990s saw Arquette at her most prolific, including performances in the post-war Western The Hi-Lo Country (1998), in which she plays the faithless wife of a cowboy, and the black comedy, Goodbye Lover (1999), another adulterous role as a sex-obsessed estate agent. Television work includes a starring role on the crime drama series Medium (2005– ).

Patricia is a member of the Arquette acting dynasty, which includes grandfather Cliff, father Lewis, sister Rosanna, and brothers David, Alexis, and Richmond. Raised on a hippie commune in Virginia, as a young teenager she ran away to Los Angeles to stay with her already-famous sister, Rosanna. Patricia made her own Hollywood debut as an 18-year-old in Pretty Smart (1986) and also featured in Nightmare on Elm Street 3 (1987). Her other films include In the Boom Boom Room (1999), Stigmata (1999), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), alongside her husband, Nicholas Cage, and the fast-food industry expose Fast Food Nation (2006).