Biography
Actress Rose McGowan was a fixture of late 1990s genre and independent films, playing dangerous vixens in films like "The Doom Generation" (1995) and "Scream" (1996) before moving into television stardom with "Charmed" (The WB, 1998-2006) and becoming a key figure in the #MeToo movement of the late 2010s. Born Rose Arianna McGowan on September 5, 1973 in the Tuscan town of Certaldo, Italy, she was one of six children by creatively inclined parents - her father, Daniel, was an artist, while her mother, Terri, was a writer - who were also members of the religious cult the Children of God. Her early childhood was spent traveling to the group's communes throughout Europe, though she also spent time as a child model and appearing in layouts for various Italian fashion publications. When she turned 10 years of age, McGowan's family split with the group and relocated to Eugene, Oregon; there, her parents divorced and she lived with her father in Seattle, Washington and then her grandmother until an accusation of drug use led to a period of homelessness in Portland, Oregon. At the age of 15, McGowan emancipated herself from her parents and moved to Los Angeles, California. There, she experienced considerable emotional turmoil - she suffered from a severe eating disorder and was left devastated by the murder of her boyfriend, club owner Brett Cantor, in 1993 - before launching her acting career with minor roles in the film "Class of 1999" (1990). Her breakout role came three years later in Gregg Araki's dark comedy "The Doom Generation" (1995), for which she played a sardonic young woman who joins a boyfriend (James Duval) and a drifter (Johnathon Schaech) on a killing spree. The film's abundant sex and violence polarized audiences, but McGowan's audacious performance won critical praise, as well as a nomination for Best Debut Performance at the 11th Independent Spirit Awards. She soon settled into a string of appearances, largely as sharp-tongued femme fatales, in studio films as Wes Craven's "Scream" (1996) and Darren Stein's "Jawbreaker" (1999), though the majority of her c.v. was devoted to indie efforts like Araki's "Nowhere" (1997). She also maintained a consistent media presence thanks to modeling work for companies like Bebe, appearances in music videos and a high-profile romance with the musician Marilyn Manson. Her devil-may-care screen persona and off-camera life soon began to overshadow some fine character turns in films like "Southie" (1998), and for a period of time, she seemed consigned to playing noirish vixens in films like "Going All the Way" (1997) and "Roads to Riches" (2002). Television provided her with a new showcase, beginning in 2001 when she replaced Shannen Doherty as one of the leads on "Charmed" (The WB, 1998-2006). As Paige, long-lost sister to twenty-something witches Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs, McGowan lent humor and spunk to the series, and the mainstream exposure gave her career a much-needed boost in the form of supporting roles in projects like the miniseries "Elvis" (CBS, 2005), which cast her as actress Ann-Margret, and Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia" (2006). When "Charmed" ran its course in 2006, McGowan returned to features, where she earned a jaw-dropping showcase as an exotic dancer turned zombie fighter - complete with a prosthetic machine-gun leg - in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's "Grindhouse" (2008). Though the subject of considerable media attention, the film was only a modest success, and McGowan's subsequent film efforts -including the indie thriller "50 Dead Men Walking" (2008) and the action-fantasy "Conan the Barbarian" (2011) - failed to find an audience. She was soon back to television as a guest player and recurring performer on the Crackle series "Chosen" (2013-14), but these efforts were largely overwhelmed by the media attention afforded to her comments in interviews and on social media. She appeared to criticize the gay community for a perceived lack of support for women's rights, lambasted what seemed to be a sexist casting call for an Adam Sandler comedy, and allegedly leveled criticism at Caitlyn Jenner for being named "Woman of the Year" by Glamour. In 2017, she was named as one of several women who had received settlements from producer Harvey Weinstein as part of a sexual harassment case. McGowan would later assert that Weinstein had raped her in 1997, and media coverage of his past actions revealed that he had hired an intelligence agency to spy on her. For her willingness to come forward about Weinstein, Time acknowledged her as one of the Silence Breakers - women in the entertainment industry and elsewhere that had spoken out about sexual harassment - to whom it awarded the 2017 Person of the Year. McGowan continued to address her experiences through a memoir, Brave (2018) and a four-part documentary series, Citizen Rose (E!, 2018)
