Early life

The youngest of three children, she was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her mother, Joan, was a beauty therapist, and her father, Patrick, worked in the property business and farmed. Doody attended Mount Anville Secondary School

Mount Anville Secondary School

Mount Anville Secondary School is a Roman Catholic, private all-girls post-primary school in Goatstown in Ireland. It was originally an all-boarding school, but in recent years due to decreased demand for such schools it has become a day-school...

.

Career

Approached by a photographer, Doody took up modeling, which turned into a career in commercial modeling as she stringently avoided glamour and nude work—a clause which she extended to her acting career. She came to the attention of the casting director of a new James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 film and accepted a part as Jenny Flex in 1985's A View to a Kill

A View to a Kill

A View to a Kill is the fourteenth spy film of the James Bond series, and the seventh and last to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the fourth Bond film after The Spy Who Loved...

. Doody was listed as one of 12 "Promising New Actors of 1986" in John Willis' Screen World, Vol. 38. [1986].

Still only 18 when she appeared as Jenny Flex, she was - and remains - the youngest Bond girl

Bond girl

A Bond girl is a character or actress portraying a love interest, of James Bond in a film, novel, or video game. They occasionally have names that are double entendres or puns, such as "Pussy Galore", "Plenty O'Toole", "Xenia Onatopp", or "Holly Goodhead"...

. Her character, a dedicated horse rider, was famously killed when a bomb planted by the villainous Max Zorin

Max Zorin

Max Zorin is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the James Bond film A View to a Kill. He was portrayed by Academy Award winner Christopher Walken...

 (Christopher Walken

Christopher Walken

Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...

) flooded the mine where he was plotting to cause an even bigger explosion.

She then had a non-speaking role in the 1987 television adaptation of The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden (1987 film)

The Secret Garden is the 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV film adaptation of the novel The Secret Garden, aired on CBS November 30, 1987 and produced by Rosemont Productions Limited, who also produced Back to the Secret Garden. The movie starred Gennie James, Barret Oliver, Jadrien Steele, Billie...

 with Derek Jacobi

Derek Jacobi

Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE is an English actor and film director.A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in...

 appearing as Archibald Craven's wife, Lilias, in his dream. Her next role was playing the lead in Jim Henson

Jim Henson

James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...

's The Storyteller

The Storyteller

The StoryTeller is a live-action/puppet television series. It was an American/British co-production which originally aired in 1988 and was created and produced by Jim Henson....

 as Sapsorrow opposite John Hurt

John Hurt

John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...

, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders

Jennifer Saunders

Jennifer Jane Saunders is an English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress. She has won two BAFTAs, an International Emmy Award, a British Comedy Award, a Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival Award, two Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards, and a Peoples Choice Award.She first came into...

.

Taking up acting professionally, Doody appeared in various television dramas in London including Selling Hitler

Selling Hitler

Selling Hitler is a 1991 ITV television drama-documentary mini-series about the Hitler Diaries hoax and was based on Robert Harris's 1986 book Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries.-Plot:...

, playing Gina Heidemann opposite Jonathan Price

Jonathan Price

Jonathan Price is an American composer who is best known for his musical Lao Jiu and for the film scores to Cyber Wars and Rustin.- Musicals :*Escape From Eldorado , Bar Harbor, The Unusual Cabaret...

. One of her first movie roles was playing the part of Siobhan Donovan alongside Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson

Liam John Neeson, OBE is an Irish actor who has been nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and three Golden Globe Awards.He has starred in a number of notable roles including Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List, Michael Collins in Michael Collins, Peyton Westlake in Darkman, Jean Valjean in Les...

 in the movie A Prayer for the Dying

A Prayer for the Dying

A Prayer for the Dying is a 1987 thriller film about a former IRA member trying to escape his past. The film was directed by Mike Hodges, and stars Mickey Rourke, Liam Neeson, Bob Hoskins, and Alan Bates...

 with Mickey Rourke

Mickey Rourke

Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke, Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter and retired boxer, who has appeared primarily as a leading man in action, drama, and thriller films....

. She also played opposite Pierce Brosnan

Pierce Brosnan

Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...

 in the film Taffin

Taffin

Taffin is a 1988 Irish thriller film directed by Francis Megahy and starring Pierce Brosnan in the title role of Mark Taffin. It also featured Ray McAnally, Alison Doody and Jeremy Child...

 before taking her most memorable role as Austrian

Austrians

Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....

 Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

-sympathiser and archaeologist

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 Dr. Elsa Schneider in 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, from a story co-written by executive producer George Lucas. It is the third film in the Indiana Jones franchise. Harrison Ford reprises the title role and Sean Connery plays Indiana's father, Henry...

 playing opposite Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...

.

She subsequently relocated to Hollywood. Chosen to replace Cybill Shepherd

Cybill Shepherd

Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L...

 as spokeswoman for L'Oréal

L'Oréal

The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company. With its registered office in Paris and head office in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, it has developed activities in the field of cosmetics...

, she then went on to play opposite Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen

Carlos Irwin Estevez , better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen....

 in Major League II

Major League II

Major League II is a 1994 sequel to the 1989 film Major League. Major League II stars most of the same cast from the original, including Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and Corbin Bernsen. Absent from this film is Wesley Snipes, who played Willie Mays Hayes in the first film and who by 1994 had become...

 as Flannery, his girlfriend/agent. During filming, she became engaged and decided to move back to Ireland and start a family. She was chosen as one of People Magazines 50 Most Beautiful People In the World in 1992.

Director Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson

Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...

 offered her the role of "Éowyn" in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...

 (2003), but she declined due to her impending pregnancy with the 18-month on-location production these movies required. The role eventually went to Miranda Otto

Miranda Otto

Miranda Otto is an Australian actress. The daughter of actors Lindsay and Barry Otto and the sister of actress Gracie Otto, she began acting at age eighteen, and has performed in a variety of independent and major studio films....

.

Doody returned to acting with a small role in the British comedy movie The Actors

The Actors

The Actors is a 2003 film written and directed by Conor McPherson and starring Dylan Moran and Michael Caine. In supporting roles are Michael Gambon, Miranda Richardson and Lena Headey ....

 with Michael Caine

Michael Caine

Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....

, in which she played herself in an award ceremony scene; the part apparently made her realise how much she missed the business. She played alongside Patrick Swayze

Patrick Swayze

Patrick Wayne Swayze was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best known for his tough-guy roles, as romantic leading men in the hit films Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries. He was named by People magazine as its "Sexiest...

 in a television movie adaptation of King Solomon's Mines

King Solomon's Mines (2004 film)

King Solomon's Mines is a 2004 two-part TV miniseries loosely based on the novel King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard and previous film versions...

 and also starred in a short called Benjamin's Struggle (2005), a pamphlet about the Holocaust

The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

 and in the British TV series Waking the Dead

Waking the Dead (TV series)

Waking the Dead is a British television police procedural crime drama series produced by the BBC featuring a fictional Cold Case Unit comprising CID police officers, a psychological profiler and a forensic scientist. A pilot episode aired in September 2000 and there have been a total of nine series...

 (in a two-part episode called "The Fall") in 2007. Doody recently shot a part in the latest Danny Dyer

Danny Dyer

Danny Dyer is an English actor, media personality, and chairman of Greenwich Borough, a non-League football team.-Biography:Daniel John Dyer was born in Custom House, an area of East London, to Antony and Christine Dyer...

 film, called The Rapture. She is currently guest starring in RTÉ

RTE

RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

's medical drama The Clinic

The Clinic (TV series)

The Clinic is an award-winning Irish primetime television medical drama series produced by Parallel Film Productions for RTÉ. It debuted on RTÉ One in 2003 to positive reviews and proved to be one of the network's most popular shows. The show ran for seven seasons between September 2003 to November...

. In October 2009, it was announced that she would have a starring role in the 2011 remake of the 1970s horror cult classic The Asphyx

The Asphyx

The Asphyx is a 1972 British horror film directed by Peter Newbrook. Also known as Spirit of the Dead and The Horror of Death, it stars Robert Stephens and Robert Powell.-Plot:...

.

Personal life

Having been dating Gavin O'Reilly

Gavin O'Reilly

Gavin Karl O'Reilly is a Dublin-born businessman with Irish and Australian citizenship, the second son and fourth child of Irish media magnate Tony O'Reilly and Australian Susan Cameron...

, CEO of the Independent News & Media

Independent News & Media

Independent News & Media plc , is a media organisation based in Dublin, Ireland, with interests in 22 countries on 4 continents worldwide. The company owns over 200 print titles, more than 130 radio stations, over 100 commercial websites and many billboard locations, and is a leading press player...

 of Ireland and son of media magnate Tony O'Reilly

Tony O'Reilly

Sir Anthony Joseph Francis O'Reilly is an Irish businessman and former international rugby union player. He is known for his involvement the Independent News & Media Group, which he led from 1973 to 2009, and as former CEO and Chairman of the H.J. Heinz Company. He was the leading shareholder of...

, since 1992, she planned to put her career on hold. The couple married on 25 June 1994, at the O'Reilly family residence Castlemartin

Castlemartin House and Estate

Castlemartin is the name of a historic house and estate, and the townland in which they sit, on the banks of the River Liffey in Kilcullen, County Kildare, Ireland...

, with 560 guests present. The couple made their home at Bartra House, a 10000 square feet (929 m²) home overlooking the sea in Dalkey

Dalkey

Dalkey is suburb of Dublin and seaside resort in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County, Ireland. It was founded as a Viking settlement and became an important port during the Middle Ages. According to John Clyn, it was one of the ports through which the plague entered Ireland in the mid-14th century...

, their neighbours included singer Enya

Enya

Enya is an Irish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to...

 and U2

U2

U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...

 guitarist The Edge

The Edge

David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...

. The marriage produced two daughters (Alanna in 1996; Lauren in 1999). She separated from O'Reilly in 2004.

External links