Her self-deprecating candor can be traced back to her Toronto middle school, where, she says, "I was the class dog. I swear the boys used to bark at me." But these days, Holden, 28, is more likely to get wolf whistles from the legions of male X-Files fans smitten by her femme-fatale smolder. "Laurie Holden is like a classic movie star," raves David Duchovny. "She's smoky, dangerous, sexy, reserved and has so much in reserve. I'm hoping Mulder gets a little closer to Covarrubias."
X-philes also like to get close to Holden. "People are always asking me very intricate questions about the plot," she says. Why, for example, did Marita fall into a coma last March? And will she recover by this week's season finale, May 17 (9 p.m. ET), a springboard for the X-Files movie due out June 19? Holden shrugs. "All I can say is 'Keep watching,' because I don't know any more than anyone else."
Holden's own life has been equally unpredictable. Laurie and her younger brother Christopher, now 23, were born in Los Angeles to Larry Holden, a Hollywood character actor who played Marilyn Monroe's boyfriend in 195O's The Fireball, and Adrianne Ellis, a stage and film actress. Her parents divorced when Laurie was 5, and after her mom remarried—to director Michael Anderson (Around the World in 80 Days)—she and Chris spent most of their childhood in Toronto, their stepfather's home, while making frequent visits to their dad back in L.A.
She was just 10, visiting the set of the 1980 miniseries The Martian Chronicles (which Anderson was directing) in Malta, when a child actress suddenly bailed out. "Everyone looked at me and said, 'Can she act?' " recalls Holden. "All of a sudden, I'm Rock Hudson's daughter."
But it wasn't until after her freshman year at Montreal's McGill University, where she'd planned to major in economics, that "it became very clear to me that acting was what I had a passion for." Transferring to UCLA, she graduated in 1993 with a B.A. in theater arts and soon began winning roles in Canada-based TV movies (HBO's Past Perfect) and series (CBS's Due South). She got the call to audition for The X-Files in 1996, and executive producer Chris Carter hired her after only a brief meeting.
In early 1997, just as she was cast as spunky Mary Travis in the pilot of The Magnificent Seven, Holden learned that her father, who had been diagnosed with cancer two years earlier, had now taken a turn for the worse. "I promised him I would never leave him in a hospital to die," says Holden. She moved to Houston, where she and a half sister helped take care of him for five months, until his death last August at 74. "As excruciatingly painful as it was," says Holden, "it was also a rewarding time because my father was my best friend, and I was able to spend time with him."
"There's one word that describes Laurie: loyalty," says her friend, actress Christina Moore, who lives next door to Holden's modest one-bedroom San Fernando Valley apartment. "Only now is she really starting to enjoy herself again," hiking and dining out with friends.
And though she's not currently dating anyone, Holden is getting some perspective on her inauspicious childhood love life. "There was this guy in sixth grade who used to chase me to school with a baseball bat every day," says Holden. "When I ran into him [a few years ago], I said, 'Why did you hate me so much?' He said, 'Laurie, I had such a crush on you and I didn't know how to tell you.' " Holden shakes her head. "I'm thinking: 'Why didn't you just buy me a Popsicle or something? Wouldn't that have been easier?' "
Michael A. Lipton
Craig Tomashoff in Los Angeles
- Contributors:
- Craig Tomashoff.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
