Anna Thomson

Anna Thomson (born September 18, 1953)^[1] is an American actress known for roles in Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven and several films directed by the Israeli filmmaker Amos Kollek^[2]. Over the course of her career she was also credited as Anna Levine and Anna Levine-Thomson.

Thomson made her acting debut in the Off-Broadway play Kid Champion in 1975,^[3] and at the recommendation of her friend Christopher Walken, who she considered her "godfather in cinema"^[4]. She made her film debut in the 1979 war veteran drama Night-Flowers and made subsequent minor appearances in films including Heaven’s Gate, Desperately Seeking Susan, At Close Range, Something Wild, Wall Street and Fatal Attraction. On the New York stage she appeared in plays including Uncommon Women and Others, The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs and Barbarians.^[5]

High-profile film work continued into the 1990s, with Thomson cast in True Romance, The Crow and Bad Boys, and appearing in a major supporting role in Unforgiven as the prostitute whose disfigurement sparks the film’s story. Her television work includes portraying the role of Anna Rostov on The Colbys,^[6] and appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show^[7] and the HBO comedy sketch show Hardcore TV.^[8]

Her collaborations with the Israeli filmmaker Amos Kollek, among them Sue, Fiona and Fast Food Fast Women^[9], earned Thomson cult status in France.^[10] In 1999, she said in a rare interview that she had grown distant from the American film industry. "If Hollywood ignores me, it’s also because I’m not very good at public relations; I don't send Christmas cards to remind them of me ... apart from a little money, there's nothing Hollywood I miss."^[11] By 2001 she had parted ways with her US acting agent entirely.^[12] Thomson’s last major film performances were as an embittered transgender woman in François Ozon’s 2000 comedy Water Drops on Burning Rocks, and as a widowed single mother "sinking into alcoholism and despair"^[13] in 2002's Bridget, to date her final collaboration with Kollek.

Thomson was orphaned at an early age and adopted by fashion designer Beth Levine^[14][15] and business executive Herbert Levine^[16] before being raised between New York and France. She trained as a ballet dancer.^[17]

Thomson married actor Davidson Thomson in 1989, after meeting while working on the Off-off-Broadway play The Poets’ Corner.^[18] They had twin sons in 1992, and were married until Thomson’s death in 1993.^[19] She subsequently re-married, and now lives under the name Anna Thomson-Wilson.^[20]

• Anna Levine at IMDb