Topic: Geena Davis

Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis (born January 21, 1956) is an American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist. She is known for her roles in The Fly, Beetlejuice, Thelma and Louise, and The Accidental Tourist, for which she won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2004, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for her role in Commander in Chief.

Davis was born in Wareham, Massachusetts, the daughter of Lucille, a teacher's assistant, and William Davis, a civil engineer; she has a brother named Dan. At an early age, she became interested in music. She learned piano and flute and played organ well enough as a teenager to serve as an organist at her church in Wareham. Davis attended Wareham High School and while an exchange student in Sandviken, Sweden, she became fluent in Swedish. Enrolling at New England College, Davis eventually graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from Boston University in 1979. Davis is also a member of Mensa, a social organization whose members are in the top 2% of intelligence as measured by an IQ test entrance exam.

After graduating, Davis served as a window mannequin for Ann Taylor until signing with New York's Zoli modeling agency in 1979. Davis auditioned for roles in many popular movies, including The Terminator’s Sarah Connor, which went to Linda Hamilton. She was working as a model when director Sydney Pollack spotted her and cast her in Tootsie (1982) as a soap opera actress. She followed this up with the part of Wendy Killain in the short-lived television series Buffalo Bill, which aired from June, 1983, to March, 1984. She also wrote the Buffalo Bill episode entitled "Miss WBFL." During the run of Buffalo Bill, in 1983, Geena also appeared as Grace Fallon in an episode of Knight Rider entitled "K.I.T.T the Cat". Her television credits from the mid-1980s also include one episode of Riptide, two episodes of Family Ties, and an episode of Remington Steele. This was followed up by a series of her own, Sara, which lasted thirteen episodes.