Danielle Harris

Early life

Harris was born in Plainview, New York and was raised by her mother Fran, along with her sister Ashley. Harris is Jewish. When she was two years old, she relocated with her mother and sister to Daytona Beach, Florida. During elementary school, Harris won a beauty contest, winning a trip to New York City for ten days. While there, she was offered various modeling jobs, but turned them down because they were all far from her home. Her mother was eventually transferred back to New York for work and Harris began work as a model. She also began appearing in television commercials.

Career

1985–1989: Early roles and Halloween

In 1985, at age seven, Harris was cast in the role of Samantha "Sammi" Garretson in the ABC soap opera One Life to Live and stayed on the program for three years. Her character was considered a "miracle child", extracted as an embryo from the womb of her deceased mother and implanted in a family friend, whom her father later married. In 1987, Harris made a guest appearance in the series Spenser: For Hire.

Following her early television work, Harris successfully auditioned for the role of Jamie Lloyd in the fourth edition of the Halloween franchise, beating out several other young actresses, Melissa Joan Hart among them. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers was released in October 1988, grossing over $17 million on a $5 million budget. On doing this type of film at such a young age, Harris said:

It was fun for me. I knew we were making a movie and I knew that it was make believe. I was more worried about being a good, little actress and being able to cry and scream really good. I think everybody made such an amazing effort to make sure that I knew that it wasn't real. In between takes we would joke around and it was just fun. It didn't really bother me until I got to be older.

Harris returned the following year for the sequel, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, which did not perform as well as its predecessor at the box office. Harris portrayed Jamie Lloyd once again, this time her character being traumatized and mute for the first half of the film. Critics cited Harris' performance as one of the strongest aspects of the film.

1990s: Film, television and voice work

In 1990, Harris appeared in Marked for Death as protagonist John Hatcher (Steven Seagal)'s niece Tracey. The action film had a $12 million budget and earned $43 million domestically and $57 million worldwide. 1991 saw Harris partake in several film and television projects, including the made-for-television films Don't Touch My Daughter, as a young girl who is kidnapped and molested, and The Killing Mind, in which she portrayed main character Isobel as a child. Later that year, Harris made an appearance in the sketch-oriented show In Living Color.

Harris' next film role was in the 1991 comedy Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, as Melissa Crandell, with the story revolving around five siblings whose mother goes to Australia for two months, only to have her children's babysitter die. The young protagonists choose not to tell their mother and attempt to live on their own. The same year, Harris had a guest role in the series Eerie, Indiana, portraying a character who receives a heart transplant then begins to act like the heart's original owner, and also guest starred in an episode of Growing Pains, as Susie Maxwell. Harris had the role of Darian Hallenbeck in the 1991 action film The Last Boy Scout, alongside Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans. The film grossed $7,923,669 in its opening weekend, and the total gross was $59,509,925. Reviews were mixed, and some critics cited the Christmastime release for such a violent film as a reason for its underwhelming box office.

1992 saw Harris participate in the pilot for the potential CBS series 1775, although it was not picked up. Between 1992 and 1993, Harris had the recurring role of Molly Tilden on the sitcom Roseanne (which she would reprise in a 2021 episode of Roseanne sequel series The Conners), then joined Roseanne Barr again in 1993 for the television film The Woman Who Loved Elvis, this time as the title character's daughter Priscilla Jackson. She appeared in an episode of Jack's Place the same year, portraying a teenage runaway. Also in 1993, Harris portrayed Gwenie in the film Free Willy, which had a US gross of $7,868,829 in its opening weekend, and went on to make $77,698,625 in the US and $153,698,625 worldwide. In 1994, she appeared on the drama series The Commish, playing the role of Sheri Fisher for one episode. The same year, Harris portrayed the main character's daughter Jessica in the television film Roseanne: An Unauthorized Biography, based upon her former co-star Roseanne Barr. She then guest starred in the sitcom Boy Meets World, as Theresa "T.K." Keiner.

2000s: Continued work and return to Halloween

Harris had a supporting role in the crime and comedy film Poor White Trash in 2000 and went on to star in the 2001 comedy Killer Bud. Between 2000 and 2002, Harris was a cast member of the series That's Life. Her character, Plum Wilkinson, featured in all but eight episodes and was involved in a romantic relationship with Kevin Dillon. Her animated series The Wild Thornberrys had spin-off movies in the early 2000s: the television film The Origin of Donnie from 2001 was followed by the 2002 theatrical release of The Wild Thornberrys Movie, which grossed $40,108,697 in the US, and a further film, Rugrats Go Wild, dealt with the Thornberrys meeting the characters from the popular series Rugrats. Released in 2003, it opened at #4 at the box office and grossed $39 million in the US, about the same as the Thornberrys Movie. Harris also appeared in an episode of The West Wing, had a supporting role as Leila in the 2003 television film The Partners and was in the theatrically released films Debating Robert Lee and Em & Me (both 2004). From 2004 to 2005, she was a main cast member of the animated sitcom Father of the Pride, appearing in all 14 episodes.

In January 2007, it was announced that Harris was cast as Annie Brackett in the remake of horror landmark Halloween. This marked Harris' first participation in the Halloween franchise since The Revenge of Michael Myers eighteen years prior. The remake, also called Halloween and directed by Rob Zombie, had Scout Taylor-Compton and Malcolm McDowell in main roles. Harris has revealed that Zombie wanted no one from previous Halloweens in the film, but, once she auditioned, he changed his mind. The film, which cost $15 million to make, opened at #1 at the box office and went on to gross $80,253,908 worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing Halloween in unadjusted U.S. dollars, which it remained as for more than a decade. Unlike in the original version, Annie Brackett survives, after Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) tries his hand at torture instead of killing her quickly. Annie encounters her attacker very much exposed, having undressed from the waist up, which marked Harris' first onscreen nudity. Harris admits that she refused the offers to cover her body while the cameras were not rolling, to better portray a vulnerable Annie against the monster. On facing Michael Myers once again and at the same time doing her first nude scene, she also commented:

I had a harder time emotionally with Rob Zombie's Halloween and H2 than I did when I was a kid. When I was a kid, it was totally fun and I didn't understand when I did Rob's Halloween, why it was so hard for me to shake it off. I'm like, "I'm an actress! Why am I getting a feeling like I want to cry? This is weird! I did enough crying when I was there [on set]. I don't know why I'm still feeling this way". I think it was because it was the first time I was ever physically touched by him. As a little girl, as Jamie, he never got me, ever. Now as an adult, I don't have my clothes on, doing scenes I've never done before as an actor, and I'm actually being attacked. Even though I should know the guy by now, it's still a weird thing that happens with your psyche I think.

2010–present: Numerous horror films and directorial debut

Harris continued to develop her "scream queen" identity with growing genre credits. She starred alongside Lance Henriksen, Bill Moseley, AFI's Davey Havok and Nicki Clyne in the illustrated film series Godkiller. Beginning with 2010's Hatchet II, Harris has taken over the leading role of Marybeth in the Hatchet series, after Tamara Feldman declined to reprise her character. Further genre credits include Jim Mickle's second feature film, the vampire/post-apocalyptic epic Stake Land, Cyrus: Mind of a Serial Killer, ChromeSkull, Havenhurst and Michael Biehn's The Victim, with lead roles in Shiver, See No Evil 2, Inoperable, Camp Cold Brook and others. She equally provided the voice and basis for an animated Barbara in Night of the Living Dead: Darkest Dawn, director Zebediah de Soto's prequel/re-telling of George A. Romero's 1968 original. Work in other types of films includes dramas like The Trouble with the Truth and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Harris made her directorial debut with the horror comedy Among Friends, in which she also has an appearance. The film, which was picked up for distribution by Lionsgate, was released on August 27, 2013.

Since the 2010s, Harris has had guest appearances in the television shows Psych (as a murder suspect), Bones (as a murder victim), as herself in Holliston and Naked Vegas, and also returned to voice Debbie Thornberry for a saucy Robot Chicken parody of The Wild Thornberrys, among others.

On April 3, 2022, Harris appeared as a guest for the 2022 Dead Meat Horror Awards along with other horror film stars such as Tony Todd, Bonnie Aarons, Ray Chase and Heather Langenkamp. In 2021, she started a podcast with longtime friend and Halloween co-star Scout Taylor-Compton called Talk Scary to Me, which can be heard on any podcast platform, with new episodes airing each Tuesday.

Public image

Harris has been referred to as "horror's reigning scream queen" by the New York Daily News and various other outlets, and was called "the Natalie Portman of Horror" by director Sylvia Soska. She has provided the cover feature for such publications as Girls and Corpses, Gorezone magazine, Invasion magazine and Scream Sirens as well as a subject for the photo-book The Bloody Best Project, a collection of artistic pictures showcasing the celebrities of the horror film industry. Harris was also featured in Five Finger Death Punch's first music video, "The Bleeding", in 2007. In 2011, Harris won the Best Actress Award at the Shockfest Film Festival for her starring role in the short Nice Guys Finish Last. The 2012 Burbank International Film Festival gave Harris its Best Actress Award for her portrayal of literary heroine Wendy Alden in Shiver.

Personal life

In 2013, Harris became engaged to David Gross. The couple married in a private ceremony in Holualoa, Hawaii, on January 4, 2014, and had a son in 2017. Their second son was born in late 2018.

Stalking incident

Harris was stalked in 1995 by an obsessed fan, Christopher Small, who wrote letters threatening to kill her. Small was later arrested after taking a teddy bear and a shotgun to her home. On January 29, 2007, Harris appeared on an episode of the Dr. Phil show, sharing her experience with other equally affected people. The stalker was obsessed with her character of Molly Tilden from the television series Roseanne. In October 2009, Harris was granted a restraining order against Small, who began sending her messages on Twitter.

Filmography