Film and TV femme fatales: Where are they now?

By Marisa Laudadio 8:17am PST, Mar 8, 2019

They're gorgeous, cunning and seductive — and any man who underestimates them had better beware. Find out what happened to the actresses who played some of the most charming, mysterious and dangerous femme fatales over the decades, starting with Sharon Stone — who turns 61 on March 10, 2019. Sharon starred as serial killer Catherine Tramell opposite Michael Douglas in the 1992 neo-noir erotic thriller "Basic Instinct." She also made the most of a smaller femme fatale role when, two years earlier, she played the duplicitous wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in the sci-fi classic "Total Recall." Keep reading to find out what she and more actresses who played unforgettable femme fatales are up to now…

Sharon Stone's career took off after "Basic Instinct." She earned a Golden Globe nod — her first of four — for her sinister, seductive turn as Catherine Tramell and three years later in 1996 won a Globe (and scored an Oscar nomination!) for her starring turn in "Casino." She also appeared in a slew of popular films in the '90s (like "The Quick and the Dead" and "Sphere") and though she acted plenty in the aughts and '10s, she did some of her best work not in films but on television, winning a best guest actress Emmy for her performance on "The Practice" in 2004, the same year her divorce from her second husband, former San Francisco Chronicle executive editor Phil Bronstein, was finalized. The couple adopted a son together; Sharon went on to adopt two more boys on her own. In 2001, she almost died when she suffered a stroke followed by a cerebral hemorrhage that lasted nine days. "I learned so much from having been so ill, and regaining the gratitude for the simple things — for being able to see, for being able to talk, for being able to walk," she told People magazine in 2018. "I was ashamed that it took something so big. I was really ashamed of myself. I lost everything — my marriage, my career, my kids, everything." Now, however, "This is a very good period of my life … my life is happy," she added. Sharon, who in recent years has dated several younger men including actor David DeLuise, model Martin Mica and real estate mogul Angelo Boffa, will next appear on HBO's "The New Pope" (a sequel to "The Young Pope") with Jude Law and John Malkovich, followed by "Ratched," Ryan Murphy's star-studded "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" prequel series for Netflix.

Kathleen Turner launched her career starring as sexy, manipulative temptress Matty Walker opposite William Hurt's lawyer Ned Racine in the steamy 1981 film noir classic "Body Heat." "I didn't realize I was being viewed in a sexual way until the film came out. While doing the movie, I used to literally have nightmares that I would tell [director Lawrence Kasdan] about. I dreamt I'd throw a smoldering look at Bill [Hurt] and then the audience would start to giggle," Kathleen told Radio Times in 2017. "I just thought, 'They're never going to buy this. They're never going to buy me.' But they did!"

After "Body Heat," which earned her the first of five Golden Globe nominations (she won two), Kathleen Turner's career took off. The gravel-voiced actress drew rave reviews in '80s projects including "Romancing the Stone" and "Jewel of the Nile" as well as "Prizzi's Honor," "Peggy Sue Got Married" (which earned her a best actress Oscar nod) and "The War of the Roses" and seduced us as the voice of curvaceous cartoon Jessica Rabbit in 1988's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Her career declined in the '90s as a result of a devastating condition: Kathleen was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 1992 and turned to alcohol to cope with the pain. After years of declining health, new treatments led her arthritis to go into remission in the early 2000s, which is when she also sought treatment for alcohol issues. In 2001, Kathleen delivered a memorable performance as Chandler Bing's drag queen father, Charles Bing, aka Helena Handbasket, on "Friends." She was also lauded for her theater work over the years and earned Tony nominations in 1990 and 2005, respectively, for her performances in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" She's worked steadily on and off Broadway and in London's West End over the last two decades with occasional appearances in films and on television, including on "Californication." She married real estate entrepreneur Jay Weiss in 1984, welcomed daughter Rachel in 1987 and divorced 20 years later. In 2008, Kathleen released her memoirs, "Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles," and in 2018, the outspoken actress released the book "Kathleen Turner on Acting: Conversations about Film, Television and Theater."

Sean Young played replicant femme fatale Rachael opposite Harrison Ford in the 1982 Ridley Scott sci-fi classic "Blade Runner." She also had a memorable (that limo scene, anyone?) if short-lived role as sexy, manipulative femme fatale Susan Atwell opposite Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman in the 1987 political thriller "No Way Out."

Sean Young's career was on fire in the '80s thanks to her work in other acclaimed projects like "Stripes," "Dune" and "Wall Street." But by the late '80s, her career imploded in part due to her allegedly difficult behavior, seemingly misogynistic treatment at the hands of some male colleagues and a scandal related to an alleged affair gone wrong with James Woods while making 1988's "The Boost" that led the actor to file a $6 million harassment lawsuit against Sean amid claims she'd stalked him and his then-fiancée, which she denied. She was nominated for seven Razzie Awards in the '90s and embarrassingly and publicly campaigned to be cast as Catwoman in Tim Burton's 1992 movie "Batman Returns" (the part went to Michelle Pfeiffer). In the 2000s, she went to rehab and started popping up on a few high-profile TV series like "ER" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," but by 2010, she was appearing on daytime soap opera "The Young and the Restless." She made her stage debut in 2015 in Northport, New York, and in 2017 told Out that she'd moved to Austin, Texas, where she was working for a production company, and had launched a YouTube channel, msyPARIAH. In 2018, Sean delivered a solid performance on TNT's acclaimed period thriller "The Alienist." But in August 2018, she once again found herself in an embarrassing situation after she was accused of stealing laptops from the production offices of a movie from which she'd been fired. (She returned them after claiming she thought they were her property.) As for her personal life? Sean married actor-composer Robert Lujan in 1990 and they had two sons, Rio and Quinn Lujan — who are now actors — before divorcing in 2001. It's unclear if she's romantically involved with anyone now.

Glenn Close delivered a legendary performance in 1987's "Fatale Attraction" as Alex, a publishing editor whose affection for Dan (Michael Douglas), a married man with whom she has a weekend fling, takes a dark turn after he tries to end their affair. During casting, filmmakers didn't see Glenn in the role. "I just wanted a character that would demand more of me. I'd never played a character who was supposed to be sexy. I knew I could do it. They were so sure I was wrong," Glenn told The New York Times. Director Adrian Lyne later admitted that after seeing Glenn and Michael together, she became Alex. "When she and Michael tested, an extraordinary erotic transformation took place," he told People magazine. "She was this tragic, bewildering mix of sexuality and rage — I watched Alex come to life."

Glenn Close's performance as Alex in "Fatal Attraction" earned her a fourth Oscar nomination. Three more Academy Award nods followed: in 1989 for her work in "Dangerous Liaisons," in 2012 for "Albert Nobbs," and in 2019 for "The Wife," a performance that also won her a best actress Golden Globe. Fun fact: Glenn is currently the most nominated actor without an Academy Award who is still living. The 14-time Emmy nominee has consistently delivered delicious performances in a variety of projects over the three decades since she helped bring "bunny boiler" into the lexicon, in everything from 1996's "101 Dalmatians" to TV's "The Shield" and "Damages," for which she won the best actress Emmy in 2008 and 2009. She'll tempt Oscar voters again when she stars as Norma Desmond in the upcoming film "Sunset Boulevard" (her performance in the stage version won the Broadway talent a Tony Award — her third — in 1995). As for her personal life, Glenn's been married three times. Her second marriage, to businessman James Marlas, ended the same year "Fatal Attraction" hit theaters. She welcomed actress daughter Annie Starke with producer John Starke in 1988, but the relationship ended 1991. Other romances followed, including one that led to her third marriage, to venture capitalist David Evans Shaw, in 2006. They divorced in 2015.

Faye Dunaway played tragic femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray opposite Jack Nicholson's Detective J.J. Gittes in "Chinatown," Roman Polanski's 1974 film noir. The performance earned her a second best actress Oscar nomination (her first was for 1968's "Bonnie and Clyde") and her fourth Golden Globe nod.

After "Chinatown," Faye Dunaway — who to this day has a reputation for being notoriously difficult and eccentric — spent the next few years delivering strong performances in high-profile projects like "The Towering Inferno" in 1974 (the same year she married J. Geils Band singer Peter Wolf), "Three Days of the Condor" in 1975, "Network" in 1976 — a performance that won her a best actress Oscar and Golden Globe — and "Mommie Dearest" in 1981. After her first marriage fell apart, she had son Liam Dunaway O'Neill, an actor, in 1980 with photographer Terry O'Neill. They married in 1983 and split just four years later. In 2003, Terry claimed their son had been adopted and was not their biological child as Faye had long maintained. The '80s and '90s saw Faye tackle more award-worthy roles with success — she earned her eighth of 11 Golden Globe nods for 1988's "Barfly" and found TV success when she won a Primetime Emmy for her performance on the detective drama "Columbo" in 1994. She also worked in the theater and continued to take TV guest-star roles and act in films, though nothing as notable as her previous work. 2017 was a big year for Faye: After taking an eight-year break from feature films, she came back with the commercially successful horror-thriller "The Bye Bye Man" and reunited with her "Bonnie and Clyde" co-star Warren Beatty on the Oscars stage to present the best picture prize. She famously announced the wrong winner, "La La Land" instead of "Moonlight," due to an envelope mix-up (and described it as "one of the worst moments I've ever had"). She and Warren returned to the Oscars stage in 2018 for a joke-filled do-over. As for her dating life, "I'm very much a loner," she told People magazine in 2016. "I always think I would like to have a partner in life, and I would — if I could find the right person, I think."

Dutch model-turned-actress Famke Janssen starred as Soviet fighter pilot-turned-assassin Xenia Onatopp, a ruthlessly and lethal femme fatale, opposite Pierce Brosnan in the 1995 James Bond movie "GoldenEye." She scored the role not long after she graduated from Columbia University.

After playing a Bond girl in "GoldenEye," Famke Janssen told the Los Angeles Times, it was a "bit tricky" to convince filmmakers she wasn't just a pretty face. "All of a sudden people would go, 'She is so exotic. She's so foreign or whatever.'" So she took on smaller supporting roles in films like "City of Industry," "The Gingerbread Man" and "Monument Ave." She also appeared in horror movies like "Deep Rising," "The Faculty" and "House on Haunted Hill." But her most famous character made her debut in 2000 when Famke began playing mutant Jean Grey in the "X-Men" movie franchise. Though Famke also appeared in another notable film series — the "Taken" franchise with Liam Neeson — she's also done some great work on television on shows including "Nip/Tuck," "Hemlock Grove," "The Blacklist: Redemption" and "How to Get Away With Murder." She married writer-director Kip Williams the same year "GoldenEye" came out and they divorced five years later. She's reportedly been in a relationship with actor-producer Cole Frates since 2006.

Linda Fiorentino played darkly manipulative and murderous Bridget Gregory (aka Wendy Kroy) in the 1994 neo-noir erotic thriller "The Last Seduction."

On the heels of "The Last Seduction," Linda Fiorentino played medical examiner-turned-special agent in 1997's hit movie "Men in Black" and appeared in Kevin Smith's "Dogma" in 1999 as an abortion clinic worker who might be descended from Jesus. But after that, she only appeared in five more movies, retreating from acting in 2009. Around the same time, Linda — who divorced writer-director John Byrum in 1993 — made headlines when it was revealed that an FBI agent she'd reportedly been dating, Mark Rossini, had been arrested for using bureau computers to illegally search for files that might aid the case of Anthony Pellicano, a notorious Hollywood private investigator who's currently at the tail end of a 15-year prison sentence for wiretapping. Even stranger? Mark allegedly passed the files he accessed to Linda, who then reportedly gave them to Anthony's lawyers to help the P.I.'s defense. Other than that, little has been heard from Linda, seen here at the National Italian American Foundation's 35th Anniversary Awards Gala in late 2010. In 2015, TMZ reported that she'd just sold her Westport, Connecticut, farmhouse for $1.1 million.

Kim Novak played icy blonde Madeleine Elster (as well as Judy Barton) opposite James Stewart's troubled former detective Scottie Ferguson in "Vertigo," Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 masterpiece.

Kim Novak, who won two Golden Globes in the 1950s before "Vertigo" came out, continued to deliver acclaimed performances for a few years but in the mid-'60s made an unexpected choice amid all her wild success: She all but abandoned her acting career and took a step back after growing increasingly unhappy with the life of a movie star. Around the same time, in 1965, she married her British "The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders" co-star Richard Johnson and divorced him the following year — the same year that she lost her Los Angeles home in a mudslide, prompting her to move away from Hollywood and settle in Big Sur, California. She continued to embrace her artistic side, becoming a painter, poet and even a lyricist (Harry Belafonte and the Kingston Trio performed some of her music). Kim — who'd famously dated well-known men including Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, Richard Beymer, Michael Brandon and even the son of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo — only occasionally appeared in select acting projects for the next several decades, memorably joining the cast of popular nighttime soap "Falcon Crest" in 1986 but retired from acting after 1991's "Liebestraum." In 1976, she married her current husband, veterinarian Robert Malloy, with whom she has two stepchildren. In the late '90s, they moved to a 43-acre ranch in Oregon that was destroyed — reportedly along with almost all her paintings and the only draft of her in-progress autobiography — in 2000. Ten years later, Kim successfully battled breast cancer. She continues to paint and occasionally attends industry events — like the 2014 Oscars, where she was a presenter. After she was criticized for her appearance — people speculated that she'd had too much plastic surgery — she hit back with an open letter to her "bullies," writing, "We can't let people get away with affecting our lives."

Isabella Rossellini played tortured nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens opposite Kyle Maclachlan's Jeffrey Beaumont in David Lynch's 1986 neo-noir mystery "Blue Velvet." She won a Film Independent Spirit Award for her performance.

Isabella Rossellini — the daughter of film legends Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini — continued to make interesting choices after "Blue Velvet." She appeared in "Cousins" in 1989, "Wild at Heart" in 1990, "Death Becomes Her" in 1992, "Immortal Beloved" in 1994, played Ross's dream woman on "Friends" in 1996 and earned two big award nominations for her TV work in 1997 — a Golden Globe nod for her performance in "Crime of the Century" and an Emmy nod for her guest-starring work in "Chicago Hope." In the aughts, the longtime Lancome model and spokeswoman memorably appeared on "Alias" and played Alec Baldwin's character's stunning and sophisticated ex-wife on "30 Rock." For years, Isabella (who's also occasionally worked in the theater) has helped raise or train guide dogs for the blind and in recent years, she's been working on a master's degree in animal behavior at New York City's Hunter College. She starred on the Hulu series "Shut Eye" in 2016 and in 2019 will voice a character in the animated film "Naya Legend of the Golden Dolphin." As for her personal life, Isabella wed former model and Harvard alum Jon Wiedemann, the father of her model daughter Elettra, in the early '80s after divorcing her first husband, filmmaker Martin Scorsese, then embarked on a serious romance with director David Lynch in the late '80s and early '90s, which is also when she adopted her second child, photographer-model son Roberto. It's unclear if there's a special someone in her life these days.

Anne Parillaud played the titular anarchistic teen-turned-trained assassin in Luc Besson's 1990 French film "La Femme Nikita," the acclaimed movie that spawned an American remake and a TV series.

The year after "La Femme Nikita" came out, star Anne Parillaud won a best actress César Award — her native France's version of an Oscar. It's also the same year she and her director, Luc Besson — who share actress daughter Juliette — divorced after five years of marriage. After "Nikita," Anne made a few high-profile films aimed at American audiences including 1992's "Innocent Blood," 1993's "Map of the Human Heart" and 1998's "The Man in the Iron Mask" but they were not as successful as filmmakers hoped. She continued to act in French cinema for years and in 2005 married composer Jean Michel Jarre, whom she reportedly divorced in 2010. Anne is seen here at a Dior fashion show in Paris in 2018.

Peta Wilson played the titular killer on The WB's "La Femme Nikita" — which was the highest rated drama on basic cable for its first two seasons — from 1997 to 2001.

After starring on TV's "La Femme Nikita," Australian actress Peta Wilson continued to appear in films and on television in projects including "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," "Superman Returns" and even an episode of "CSI: Miami" but never recreated the success of "Nikita." In 2012, she launched a successful lingerie line, Wylie Wilson. Peta is also a mom: She was in a serious relationship with British director Damian Harris, the son of actor Richard Harris (and brother of "Mad Men" star Jared Harris), from 1997 to 2002 — the same year they welcomed son Marlowe. She was last publicly romantically linked to Kiwi actor Aaron Jeffery in the late aughts.

Laura Harring plays the amnesiac survivor of a Hollywood Hills car crash who assumes the name Rita opposite Naomi Watts's actress Betty in David Lynch's 2001 psychological thriller "Mulholland Drive."

Mexican-American actress Laura Harring — who, 16 years before "Mulholland Drive" was released, had become the first Hispanic woman to be crowned Miss USA — delivered more great performance in projects with more big names during the rest of the aughts. She made "Derailed" with Jean-Claude Van Damme, "John Q" with Denzel Washington, "The Punisher" with John Travolta, "The King" with William Hurt, "Nancy Drew" with Emma Roberts and "Love in the Time of Cholera" with Javier Bardem. The same decade, she also enjoyed great roles on television on "The Shield" and "Gossip Girl." Though she's still acting, her roles since have been less high-profile, but she's fine with that, she told Vulture in 2015. "I'm very happy being under the radar, doing character roles, not being filmed everywhere I go." In 2017, she shared the same sentiment with the Independent: "I left my mark in Hollywood. I'm in a classic," she said of "Mulholland." "It's a meaningful film that is timeless." Fun fact: Though Laura doesn't use the title, technically, she's an aristocrat: From 1987 to 1989, she was married to Count Carl-Eduard von Bismarck-Schönhausen, the great-great-grandson of famed European statesman Otto von Bismarck, who was the very first chancellor of the German empire — so she retains the title of Countess von Bismarck-Schönhausen.

Sherilyn Fenn starred as red-hot teen femme fatale Audrey Horne (seen here with Lara Flynn Boyle as Donna Hayward and James Marshall as James Hurley) on David Lynch's surreal mystery-crime drama "Twin Peaks" in 1990 and 1991, a role she reprised when Showtime rebooted the TV series in 2017. Her performance earned her Golden Globe and Emmy nods.

Sherilyn Fenn's career was on fire in the years immediately following the original "Twin Peaks." She starred in "Diary of a Hitman," "Of Mice and Men," "Boxing Helena," "Fatal Instinct," played the titular screen goddess in the 1995 NBC TV movie "Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story" and starred on the Showtime series "Rude Awakening" from 1998 to 2001. (She even popped up on "Friends" in 1997 as Chandler Bing's girlfriend Ginger.) Since then, she's mostly worked on TV, memorably appearing on "Dawson's Creek," "Boston Public," "Gilmore Girls," "Magic City," "Ray Donovan," Shameless," "S.W.A.T." and, of course, the "Twin Peaks" reboot. After high-profile romances with Prince and Johnny Depp in the '80s, Sherilyn welcomed son Myles with musician and part-time film technician Toulouse Holliday in 1993; they married a year later and eventually split. More than a decade later in 2007, Sherilyn welcomed a second son, Christian, with boyfriend Dylan Stewart. In 2016, Stellar magazine reported, she wrote a children's book about a boy with autism, "No Man's Land," which was inspired by her second son's diagnosis.

Kim Basinger played Lynn Bracken, a stunning, scheming Veronica Lake look-alike actress-turned-prostitute, opposite Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey's cops in Curtis Hanson's 1997 neo-noir crime thriller "L.A. Confidential." The performance won her an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Though Kim Basinger continued to take on notable roles in the decade after her comeback in "L.A. Confidential" in projects like "I Dreamed of Africa," "8 Mile" (as Eminem's mom!), "Cellular" and "The Sentinel," she might actually have made more headlines for her contentious 2000 split and ongoing child custody battle with second husband Alec Baldwin. Kim then took a step back from acting again to focus on raising daughter Ireland Baldwin, now a model, with only the occasional onscreen appearance. But in 2016, she and Russell Crowe reunited in 2016's "The Nice Guys," and in 2018, Kim earned a Razzie Award for worst actress for playing Christian Grey's "Mrs. Robinson," Elena Lincoln, in "Fifty Shades Darker." After two decades of friendship, the longtime vegetarian and animal-rights advocate reportedly started dating her hairdresser, Mitch Stone, in 2014. He was by Kim's side when she, along with Priscilla Presley and other animal lovers, protested Korea's dog meat trade outside the nation's Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles in July 2018.