Ashley Judd

Ashley Judd is an American actor and political activist. She grew up in a family of performing artists: she is the daughter of the late country music singer Naomi Judd and the half-sister of country music singer Wynonna Judd. Her acting career has spanned more than three decades, and she has also become increasingly involved in global humanitarian efforts and political activism.

Judd has starred in many films that have been well received as well as films that have been box office successes including: Ruby in Paradise (1993), Heat (1995), Norma Jean & Marilyn (1996), A Time to Kill (1996), Kiss the Girls (1997), Double Jeopardy (1999), Where the Heart Is (2000), Frida (2002), High Crimes (2002), Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood (2002), De-Lovely (2004), Twisted (2004), Bug (2006), Dolphin Tale (2011), Olympus Has Fallen (2013), Divergent (2014), Dolphin Tale 2 (2014), Big Stone Gap (2014), Barry (2016), and A Dog's Way Home (2019). She starred as Rebecca Winstone in the 2012 television series Missing, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

Family

Judd was born Ashley Tyler Ciminella in Granada Hills, Los Angeles. Her parents are the late country music singer and motivational speaker Naomi Judd and Michael Charles Ciminella, a marketing analyst for the horse racing industry. Ashley's elder sister, Wynonna, is also a country music singer. Her paternal grandfather was of Sicilian (Italian) descent, and her paternal grandmother was a descendant of Mayflower pilgrim William Brewster. At the time of her birth, her mother was a homemaker; she did not become well known as a singer until the early 1980s. Judd's parents divorced in 1972. The following year, Naomi Judd took her daughter to Naomi's native Kentucky, where Ashley spent the majority of her childhood.

In December 1999, Judd became engaged to Scottish racing driver Dario Franchitti, who was driving in CART. They married in December 2001 at Skibo Castle in Scotland. They had no children together because Judd is an antinatalist: "It's unconscionable to breed with the number of children who are starving to death in impoverished countries." They divorced in 2013.

All of the above text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.

Sources

• Ancestry.com. California Birth Index, 1905-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.
  • Name: Ashley T Ciminella; Birth Date: 19 Apr 1968; Gender: Female; Mother's Maiden Name: Judd; Birth County: Los Angeles.
• Ancestry.com. U.S., Index to Public Records, 1994-2019 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2020.
  • Name: Ashley Tyler Judd; Birth Date: Apr 1968.
• "Ashley Judd." Wikipedia, revision of 7 May 2022. < link > Accessed 8 May 2022.
• "Ashley Judd weds in Scotland." CNN, published 12 December 2001. < link > Accessed 8 May 2022.
• Gluck, Jeff. "Ashley Judd, Dario Franchitti announce plan to divorce." USA Today, published 29 January 2013. < link > Accessed 8 May 2022.