Liliane Rudabet Gloria Elsveta "Leelee" Sobieski (born June 10, 1983 in New York City) is an American artist and retired actress of Polish, Ashkznazi Jewish and Swiss descent.
She is best known for her roles in such movies as Deep Impact, Never Been Kissed, Eyes Wide Shut, Joy Ride, The Glass House, and Public Enemies. She also played a rookie cop on the short-lived NYC 22, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for the role of Joan of Arc in the 1999 CBS/CBC miniseries.
She got engaged to fashion designer Adam Kimmel in 2009, and they have two children.
In 2012, Sobieski announced her retirement from acting, saying that she wanted to raise her children in peace and that she had become disillusioned after seeing several women's roles become overly sexualized. Nowadays, she works as an artist under the name Leelee Kimmel.
Filmography (partial):
- Jungle 2 Jungle (1997)
- Deep Impact (1998)
- Joan of Arc (1999)
- Never Been Kissed (1999)
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
- My First Mister (2001)
- Joy Ride (2001)
- The Glass House (2001)
- Max (2002)
- Hercules (2005)
- The Wicker Man (2006)
- In the Name of the King (2007)
- 88 Minutes (2008)
- Public Enemies (2009)
- Branded (2012)
Related tropes:
- Dyeing for Your Art: The multiple facial piercings her character has in My First Mister were real — after filming completed, she let them all close up, but kept the jewelry as a memento.
- One-Woman Song: "Why Leelee Won't Love Me" by Primitive Whore.
- Star-Derailing Role: Fresh off the momentum of Never Been Kissed and Eyes Wide Shut, and being promoted as the next "It Girl", The Glass House was her first headlining role. The film was a critical and commercial failure; it currently stands at 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, and grossed $23.6 million against a $30 million budget, which many attributed to the film opening the week after 9/11 did not help. She's been pretty low-profile since, to the point of ending her acting career in 2012.
- Statuesque Stunner: She's 5'10".
