Liv Tyler Biography And Filmography:

Possessing the same, sensual, full-lipped mouth as her famous rock singer father Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, the tall and lanky Liv Tyler initially followed in her mother Bebe Buell's footsteps and began a modeling career at the tender young age of fourteen, though she soon soured on that profession. Raised by Buell and rock musician Todd Rundgren, Liv Tyler did not learn the true identity of her biological father until she was eleven, but it was her appearance as a young teen beauty, along with future star Alicia Silverstone, in Aerosmith's "Crazy" video in 1994 that really put Liv on the map. 

That same year, Liv Tyler made a feature debut in the role of a young teen girl who kills her sexually abusive father and compliant mother when she discovers him molesting her brother, and then comes on to her therapist (Richard Dryfuss) in Bruce Beresford's thriller "Silent Fall" (1994). Tyler followed with roles as the object of a pizza chef's (Pruitt Taylor Vince) crush in James Mangold's "Heavy" (1995) and as a twenty something freeloader who was not as perfect as she seemed in Allan Moyle's "Empire Records" (1995) with Renee Zellweger.

Bernardo Bertolucci had searched for a young girl who could star in his "Stealing Beauty" (1996), a young actress who could represent innocence and sexual lust, knowledge, and a virgin filled with desire. He had almost given up hope of finding the right actress when he met Liv Tyler. "I felt immediately that I'd found a kind of miracle." Paralleling her own background, the film cast Liv as a young American girl who arrives in Italy knowing one father but leaves knowing another. At the erotic center of Bertolucci's reflection on the various forms of love and sex, Liv Tyler cleverly captured the passage from childhood to adulthood, and Jeremy Irons was touching as the dying novelist renewed by his contact with her.

Equally enthused was the director himself who indulged in one close-up after another, allowing Tyler to bask alone onscreen for much of her star-making role. Woody Allen also cast Liv but later cut her cameo in the musical "Everyone Says I Love You", and so she appeared in Tom Hanks' directorial debut, "That Thing You Do!" (both in 1996), when a Pennsylvania band scores a hit in 1964 and rides the star-making machinery as long as it can, with lots of help from its manager.  

After starring in another young teen coming-of-age tale, Pat O'Connor's rather anemic "Inventing the Abbotts" (1997) with Jennifer Connelly, in which Tyler created the meatiest of the three Abbott sisters, Liv started on "Armageddon" (1998) featuring Billy Bob Thornton, her first commercial blockbuster film among a steady run of art-house films. Playing Bruce Willis' daughter and Ben Affleck's love interest, Liv Tyler got her first taste of the kind of story that can make hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to Disney's marketing muscle. The film tells the story about when an asteroid the size of Texas is headed for Earth, and the world's best deep core drilling team is sent to nuke the rock from the inside.

Liv Tyler then returned to more familiar ground for her three movies released in 1999. Tyler joined an all-star cast that included Patricia Neal, Glenn Close, Julianne Moore and Charles S Dutton for Robert Altman's southern gothic comedy "Cookie's Fortune", where conflict arises in the small town of Holly Springs when an old woman's death causes a variety of reactions among family and friends. Tyler was also in the casts of Jake Scott's "Plunkett & Macleane" (1999), and Martha Fiennes' "Onegin" (1999)

Liv Tyler was the love object of three men (Matt Dillon, John Goodman and Paul Reiser) who all tell their tale of woe sitting around the bar in Harald Zwart's "One Night at McCool's" (2001), produced by Michael Douglas who also acted in the film. Tyler reteamed with Altman and "Cookie's Fortune" screenwriter Anne Rapp as one of the many women of "Dr T and the Women" (2000), starring Richard Gere and featuring Kate Hudson, as the gynecologist, surrounded by the likes of Helen Hunt, Laura Dern, Farrah Fawcett and Shelley Long, among others.

She Tyler took off for New Zealand to play Arwen, Queen of the Fairies, in Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, an undertaking employing 20,000 extras and 1200 state-of-the-art computer-generated effects. First of the series was "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001) with Orlando Bloom,  Cate Blanchett and Elijah Wood as "Frodo Baggins" and set in a small village in the Shire where a young Hobbit named Frodo has been entrusted with an ancient Ring. He must embark on an Epic quest to the Cracks of Doom in order to destroy it. 

Second in the series was "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (2002) where Frodo and Sam continue on to Mordor in their mission to destroy the One Ring. While their former companions make new allies and launch an assault on Isengard. The last in the trilogy was "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003) where the former Fellowship of the Ring prepare for the final battle for Middle Earth, while Frodo and Sam approach Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring. 

After the first two installments of the "The Lord Of The Rings" films, Liv Tyler was again cast opposite Ben Affleck, this time along with his real-life fiancée Jennifer Lopez, in writer-director Kevin Smith's comedy "Jersey Girl" (2004) where after his career is sidelined from an unexpected tragedy and a personal blowup, a single man must take care of his precocious daughter. Tyler then was cast and hired for the romantic comedy "Lonesome Jim" (2005) when failing to make it on his own, 27-year-old Jim moves back in with his parents and deals with crippling family obligations. 

After taking a year off, Tyler reappeared in the dramatic "Reign Over Me" (2007) starring Adam Sandler, a funny story about a man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City and runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief. Tyler ended the year with another romantic comedy titles "Smother" (2007) with Dax Shepard and Diane Keaton, where after he's fired from his job, an everyday guy (Dax Shepard) faces pressure from his wife to have a baby and from his mom, who has decided to move in with the young couple. 

Tyler ended the year with the horror thriller "The Strangers" (2008) starring Scott Speedman, about a young couple staying in an isolated vacation home who are terrorized by three unknown assailants.

Then Liv Tyler hit pay-dirt with the summer release, and blockbuster smash hit, "The Incredible Hulk" (2008) starring alongside Edward Norton and Robert Downey Jr., in the Marvel Comics adaptation of the classic comic book hero Physicist Bruce Banner, who takes flight in order to understand, and hopefully cure, the condition that turns him into a monster.