The British-American actress Mischa Anne Marsden Barton, who was born on January 24, 1986, is a theater, television, and movie actress. She is well-known for playing Marissa Cooper in the television series "The O.C."
At the Lincoln Center in New York City, Barton made her stage debut in James Lapine's Twelve Dreams and Tony Kushner's Slavs!, which served as the beginnings of her acting career. She debuted on television in 1996 with a cameo on the American soap opera All My Children and a voice role in the Nickelodeon animated series KaBlam! (1996–97).
She played the lead in the 1997 drama Lawn Dogs alongside Sam Rockwell, marking her first significant acting role. She made notable film appearances in works like M. Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller The Sixth Sense and the 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill. She also starred in the 1999 independent crime drama Pups. Barton later starred as Evan Rachel Wood's girlfriend on ABC's Once and Again and the indie drama Lost and Delirious (2001). She portrayed Marissa Cooper in the 2003–2006 season of the Fox television series The O.C., for which she won two Teen Choice Awards. Barton became well-known thanks to the part, and Entertainment Weekly named her the year's "It Girl" in 2003.
Since then, Barton has acted in the drama Closing the Ring (2007), the comedy remake St. Trinian's (2007), and the drama Assassination of a High School President (2008), all of which were directed by Richard Attenborough (2008). She made a comeback to television by starring in the brief CW series "The BeautifulLife," which was produced by Ashton Kutcher (2009). She made a stage comeback in 2012 by appearing in the Irish production of Steel Magnolias. Additionally, she co-starred with Martin Sheen in Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain (2014). For her parts in independent movies, she has received favorable reviews, with the Los Angeles Times praising her "standout" performance in Starcrossed (2014). Barton was cast in The Hills: New Beginnings (2019–2021), an MTV series that is a reboot of The Hills.
Where is Mischa Barton from?
Barton was born at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, London, to an English father, Paul Marsden Barton, a foreign exchange broker from Manchester, and an Irish mother, Nuala Quinn-Barton, a producer.
At Queen's University Belfast, her maternal grandfather taught Irish language courses. She has two sisters: the younger Hania and the older Zoe, the latter of whom practices law in London.
According to Barton, she briefly attended St. Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith before her family was relocated to New York City when Barton was five years old due to her father's job. She retained her British citizenship after becoming a naturalized American citizen in 2006. By virtue of her mother, she can also obtain Irish citizenship.
After Sir Richard Attenborough directed her in Closing the Ring, Barton attended the Professional Children's School in Manhattan, where she earned her diploma in 2004. In the summer of 2006, she enrolled in a short course called "Acting Shakespeare" at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
What is Mischa Barton renowned for?
The O.C., a drama about wealthy teenagers with turbulent personal lives who live in picturesque Orange County, California, made its television debut on Fox in August 2003. Due to the show's substantial fan base, which caused it to become an overnight success, Barton's fame increased as a result of her performance as Marissa Cooper. In May 2006's third-season finale, Barton left the show.
Barton won several Teen Choice Awards while she was a cast member of the show. Additionally, Glamour hailed her as the "Next Big Thing." The OC's third and fourth seasons saw a sharp decline in viewership before it was canceled in early 2007.
Barton served as a guest host on the British comedy variety show The Friday Night Project in July 2006. Barton co-starred with Hayden Christensen in the 2007 films Virgin Territory and The Oh. She also appeared in Richard Attenborough's war drama Closing the Ring alongside Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer. Attenborough commended her and said, "Her ability to convey pain and sadness, hopefulness and fear, is riveting."
She "lends her character a beguiling vulnerability," The Independent added. She also made an appearance in the 2007 British comedy St. Trinians as a former head girl of the school, giving advice on style and fashion to the current senior students. The movie had its world premiere in May 2008 at the Cannes Film Festival and was released in Russia in 2011.
Personal Life
At the age of nineteen, Barton bought a home in Beverly Hills, which she later sold in 2016. She has dated men like musician Cisco Adler, oil heir Brandon Davis, and Australian model James Abercrombie in the past. In 2017, Barton successfully sued her ex-boyfriend Jon Zacharias for revenge porn, preventing him from making and selling a sex tape of her.
In a guest essay that appeared in Harper's Bazaar in 2021, Barton stated that she felt "sexualized" in her earlier film roles, even going as far as to become a "strange sex symbol" at the age of 13 in Asia, where her film Pups attracted a lot of attention. When she joined the cast of The OC at the age of 18, the character she played was sexually active, and she admitted that she felt pressured to lose her virginity.
Barton also disclosed that she suffered from PTSD as a result of the persistent press coverage and paparazzi intrusion. Barton claimed in a 2005 article that a Hollywood publicist had advised her to sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio when she was only 18 years old in order to advance her career. The claim gained notoriety in 2023.
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