Gillian Leigh Anderson (born August 9, 1968) is an American actress. After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. Her film work includes The House of Mirth (2000), The Mighty Celt (2005), The Last King of Scotland (2006), and two X-Files films, The X-Files (1998) and The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008).
Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Rosemary Anderson (née Lane), a computer analyst, and Edward Anderson, who owned a film post-production company.Her father was of English descent, while her mother was of Irish and German ancestry. Soon after her birth, her family moved to Puerto Rico for 15 months; her family then moved to the United Kingdom where she lived until she was 11 years old. She lived for five years in Rosebery Gardens, Crouch End, London, and for 15 months in Albany Road, Stroud Green, London, so that her father could attend the London Film School.
She was a pupil of Coleridge Primary School. When Anderson was 11 years old, her family moved again, this time to Grand Rapids, Michigan. She attended Fountain Elementary and then City High-Middle School, a program for gifted students with a strong emphasis on the humanities; she graduated in 1986.
Along with other actors (notably Linda Thorson and John Barrowman) Anderson is bidialectal. With her English accent and background, Anderson was mocked and felt out of place in the American Midwest and soon adopted a Midwest accent. To this day, her accent depends on her location — for instance, in an interview with Jay Leno she spoke in an American accent, but shifted it for an interview with Michael Parkinson.
Anderson was interested in marine biology, but began acting her freshman year in high school productions, and later in community theater, and served as a student intern at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre & School of Theatre Arts. She attended The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago (formerly the Goodman School of Drama), where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990. She also participated in the National Theatre of Great Britain's summer program at Cornell University.
Anderson's brother died in 2011 of a brain tumor, at the age of 30.
Anderson married her first husband, Clyde Klotz, The X-Files series assistant art director, on New Year's Day, 1994, in Hawaii in a Buddhist ceremony. They had a daughter, Piper Maru (born September 1994), for whom Chris Carter named the X-Files episode of the same name, and divorced in 1997.] In December 2004, Anderson married Julian Ozanne, a documentary filmmaker, on Lamu Island, off the coast of Kenya. Anderson announced their separation on April 21, 2006.
Anderson and former boyfriend, Mark Griffiths, have two sons: Oscar, born November 2006 and Felix, born October 2008. She ended their relationship in 2012. In March 2012, Anderson told Out magazine about her past relationship with a girl while in high school.
In 1997, she was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. Askmen listed her at No. 6 on their Top 7: '90s Sex Symbols. In 2008, she was listed 21st in FHM's All Time 100 Sexiest Hall of Fame.
Organised, relentless, productive with high willpower, determination and an intense need to be constantly ‘on the go,’ the ENTJ personality type will not sit back and see what life brings but will proactively go make it happen. Rarely intimidated and with a restless desire to achieve and with no problems going against the grain or being very direct with people. This is of course not intentional, but they can display a lack of patience with those who don’t grasp things as quickly as they do, or who appear to be blocking the plan, and can be seen at times as intimidating overbearing and a bit of a ‘know-it-all.’
The ENTJ is the natural leader - just ask them! They are confident, authoritative and will take the lead in situations, especially one which calls for organisation and marshalling the troops. They don’t hesitate, and their directness can often leave others reeling in their wake as the ENTJ will have little time for anything they see as woolly or obtrusive. As their least developed function is ‘F’ they may not truly comprehend the impact their behaviour has on others, often coming across as overly task driven, insensitive and impatient, and a bit bossy. (The ENTJ would take these as compliments!) Their desire to get the job done, moving from A-Z in the shortest possible time-frame, and using the quickest possible route may mean that the ENTJ may neglect the niceties of thanking people and showing them that they are in fact appreciated, again not intentionally, it is just another part of the ENTJ focus and robustness. The masters of change, ENTJs see what needs to be done and have the confidence and capability to get on and do it, often taking harsh or courageous decisions even against the grain; the ENTJ has no problems bucking authority, indeed they’d secretly (or perhaps not so secretly), relish it! Rarely intimidated or feeling out of their depth, the ENTJ is always looking at ways of doing it better and in so doing increasing their own store of knowledge and experience.
Always on the go, ENTJs have a restless and unquenchable desire to fill the unforgiving minute. This particular trait means that the ENTJ is often difficult to push off-course once they are running towards the goal. Any deviation would have to be eloquently and robustly argued and even then, may not be enough to turn the juggernaut around so determined are they to get there. If you want to find the ENTJ then go where the action is, and you’ll probably find they’re leading it! Others may disagree with that direction, but no-one will be in any doubt where the future lies. This can, at times, make the ENTJ appear confrontational and overly dominant. However, enjoying intellectual debate, the best way to resolve this would be to challenge back. Being an ‘N’ and a ‘J,’ the ENTJ is the action-oriented, conceptualist, almost a contradiction in terms. They love theories and ideas, abstracts and concepts, but then want to move quickly to implement. They clearly articulate the vision of the future but have the 'J' quality to relentlessly make sure it gets done. This can be a handicap as the ENTJ may not take time to understand the smaller issues, the nuances, as they want to get on with it.
Suggesting that, 'this is the way it's always been done,' will not push an ENTJ's buttons. Indeed, it would be seen as a challenge and provoke an energetic robust response. ENTJs love the new, the untried, the unexplored, as they are essentially future-oriented. ENTJs are decisive - boy are they decisive! They are tough-minded and resolute in their beliefs (because their beliefs are ‘of course’ based on what ‘obviously’ needs to be done) I asked an ENTJ at a job interview if he upsets folk. ‘Of course I do, you have to if you want to get things done!’ No equivocating there then!
Choose another celebrity type to compare side by side the different approaches work, attitudes to conflict and the way they engage with others.