Fairuza Balk

Former child actress Fairuza Balk started her screen career at the age of 11 when she starred as Dorothy in Return to Oz (1985). A sweet-faced child with dark hair and striking blue eyes, Balk &#8212 whose first name means "turquoise" in Persian &#8212 was summarily typecast in sugary roles in television movies. She spent some time in England making films and got a chance at more adult fare in 1989 when she played easily deflowered convent girl Cecile DeVolanges in Milos Forman's Valmont . Balk… Show more subsequently returned to the U.S. and, at the age of 18, she earned some of the greatest acclaim of her young career for her portrayal of Shade, a sensitive girl growing up in a dead-end New Mexico town, in Gas, Food, Lodging (1992), the esteemed directorial debut of Alison Anders. Following further TV and film work, Balk earned a certain degree of cult status with her starring role as a psychotic teenage witch in The Craft (1996). In keeping with the goth image fostered by her role in the film, Balk subsequently bought Panpipes, a famed Hollywood occult shop. In 1998, the actress ventured into more mainstream territory as the girlfriend of Adam Sandler in the smash comedy The Waterboy . That same year, she earned plaudits playing another girlfriend, this time in American History X, which cast her as the love interest of a neo-Nazi (Edward Norton). As the 2000's unfolded, Balk would continue to appear on screen in movies like Almost Famous, Wild Tigers I Have Known, and Humboldt County. ~ Rovi

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