Liv Tyler was born July 1, 1977, in Portland, Maine. Her unique first name can be traced after her mother, model and former rock groupie Bebe Buell, saw Liv Ullmann on the cover of a TV Guide the week Liv was born. As for the roots of her last name, Liv always believed that her father was musician Todd Rundgren, who her mother had a long-term relationship with and who helped raise her. Although her birth certificate stated that Rundgren was indeed her father, a 10-year-old Liv became suspicious after meeting Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler at a Rundgren concert, and even more suspicious after seeing Tyler’s daughter Mia, who could have passed for Liv’s twin, at an Aerosmith concert.
Liv confronted her mother about the topic, and her mother told her the truth: Steven Tyler was her father (Liv was the product of an 8-month relationship between Tyler and Buell).
Liv made her biological father’s name her own at the age of 12, and 2 years later, mother and daughter headed to New York. While Liv grew into a statuesque, blue-eyed beauty (she had her father’s unmistakable pouty, Mick Jagger-like lips), she claims she was chubby and awkward while growing up.
But family friend Paulina Porizkova saw the beauty in Liv (as does everyone today), and encouraged her to start modeling. Indeed Liv did, and soon appeared in magazines such as Seventeen, YM and Mirabella.
But modeling became boring, and Liv wanted to start acting. She was offered a part in the 1994 film, Silent Fall, which came and went quietly, and she was also cast as Callie in 1995’s Heavy. Liv also starred in the 1995 bomb Empire Records, which was set in a record store, but she did attract attention while co-starring with Alicia Silverstone in dad’s video for Crazy.
Finally in 1996, Liv landed the lead role of Lucy in Bernardo Bertolucci’s exquisite film about a teen in search of finding her father and losing her virginity, Stealing Beauty. Although the film was not a moneymaker, it did raise eyebrows in film circles, especially the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
After a starring role in Tom Hanks’ film, That Thing You Do!, Liv was cast in 1997’s Inventing the Abbotts, in which she co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix, with whom she had a 2-year relationship.
After a tiny role in U Turn and an uncredited role in Can’t Hardly Wait, Liv starred as Bruce Willis’ daughter in the summer blow-up hit, Armageddon, which opened on her birthday.
In 1999, Liv rounded out a stellar cast in Cookie’s Fortune, appeared in Plunkett & Macleane, co-starred with Ralph Fiennes in Onegin, and appeared as herself in the documentary, Franky Goes to Hollywood.
Liv starred in the female star-studded Dr. T and the Women (along with fellow celebrity progeny Kate Hudson), and will next be seen in the comedy, One Night at McCool’s, as the scheming Jewel Valentine, as well as the first installment of the film trilogy, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, as Arwen Undomiel.
Liv will be keeping rock ‘n’ roll in the family and will now be a rocker wife, after her Valentine’s Day 2001 engagement to Royston Langdon, Spacehog’s lead singer and bass player, and her steady of 3 years.