Olivia Williams Movies and Career Information

Olivia Haigh Williams (born 26 July 1968) is an English film, stage and television actress who has appeared in British and American films. Williams was born in Camden Town in London, England. Both her parents are barristers. She graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge with a degree in English literature, then studied drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for two years and spent three years at the Royal Shakespeare Company. After graduation, Williams worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company in both Stratford-upon-Avon and London and in 1995 toured the United States in a production of Shakespeare's Richard III starring Ian McKellen. Her first significant appearance before the cameras was as Jane Fairfax in the British TV film Emma (1996), based on Jane Austen's 1816 novel. Williams made her film debut in 1997's The Postman, after doing a screen test for Kevin Costner. She later won the lead role of Rosemary Cross in Wes Anderson's Rushmore (1998). She then starred as Bruce Willis' wife in the blockbuster The Sixth Sense (1999), a film she would later parody during her brief appearance in British sit-com Spaced. Since then, Williams has appeared in several British films,