Patricia Arquette (born April 8, 1968, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.) is an American actress whose performance in Richard Linklater’s film Boyhood (2014)—filmed in increments over a 12-year period—was praised for its naturalism and lack of vanity. She won a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her role as a divorced single mother who grows into herself as she raises her children.
Arquette was born into a performing-arts family, and all four of her siblings (Rosanna, Richmond, David, and Alexis Arquette) became actors. After an unconventional childhood that included a period spent on a commune, Arquette left home at the age of 15 to move in with her sister Rosanna, who was already an established film actress. Patricia Arquette made her film debut in the horror movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and worked steadily thereafter, taking guest roles in TV shows and larger parts in minor films. Arquette won praise for her performances as the naïve girlfriend of a former convict in The Indian Runner (1991), Sean Penn’s debut as a director, and as an abused hearing-impaired girl in the 1991 TV movie Wildflower, directed by Diane Keaton, before her breakout role as the charming prostitute Alabama Whitman in True Romance (1993), written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott.
Arquette played opposite Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994) and took the lead role in the political drama Beyond Rangoon (1995). She made notable appearances in David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997), Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead (1999), the children’s film Holes (2003), and Linklater’s Fast Food Nation (2006). She acted in the latter film while already working with Linklater on Boyhood. Arquette’s later movies included Permanent (2017), a coming-of-age tale set in 1983, and Otherhood (2019), a comedy in which three empty nesters attempt to reconnect with their adult children.
Arquette was also a noteworthy television actress. Her portrayal of a crime-solving psychic on the show Medium (2005–11) earned her a 2005 Emmy Award for best lead actress in a drama series, and she had a recurring part (2013–14) as the owner of a Florida speakeasy in the series Boardwalk Empire. Arquette later starred in the short-lived CSI: Crime Scene Investigation spin-off CSI: Cyber (2015–16). She then portrayed a weary employee of a maximum-security prison who helps two inmates break out in the miniseries Escape at Dannemora (2018), which was based on true events. For her performance, Arquette won a second Golden Globe Award. In 2019 she assumed another real-life disquieting figure for The Act, a limited series in which she played an abusive mother who submits her daughter to a variety of unnecessary medical treatments. Arquette was praised for her ability to infuse the character with humanity and was awarded an Emmy and a Golden Globe. She later appeared in the sci-fi series Severance (2022– ), in which employees can undergo a procedure that separates their work and personal lives.