Offbeat, unconventionally pretty, and utterly mesmerizing, Ellen Barkin was born in 1954 of Jewish parentage, the daughter of a chemical salesman and hospital administrator. Raised in the South Bronx and Queens, New York area, she wanted to be an actress as early as her teens and was eventually accepted into Manhattan's High School of the Performing Arts.

Barkin then attended Hunter College and received her degree after double majoring in history and drama. At one point she wanted to teach ancient history, but instead turned her thoughts back to her first love - acting. Barkin then continued her education at New York's Actor's Studio. Fearful of the auditioning process, she studied acting for seven years before finally landing her first audition. While continuing her studies, she worked as a waitress at the avant-garde Ocean Club. Performing off-Broadway in such plays "Shout Across the River" (1979), "Extremities" (1983), "Fool for Love" (1984) and "Eden Court" (1985), she was applauded across the board for her first film lead in Diner opposite Mickey Rourke and Daniel Stern, and pursued tough-cookie sex status thereafter with such quirky roles in The Big Easy starring Dennis Quaid and Siesta with Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, whom she married in 1987 and separated from in 1993 after producing a son and daughter. She and Byrne divorced in 1999.

With trademark squinting eyes and slightly off-kilter facial features, Barkin continued the fascination of her seamy/steamy girl-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks status most notably opposite Al Pacino in the thriller Sea of Love. In addition, she was well cast as Robert De Niro's abused wife in This Boy's Life, and portrayed Calamity Jane in Wild Bill with earnest. Other impressionable offbeat projects included roles in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Mercy. On TV she was well cast in the mini-movie Clinton and Nadine and won an Emmy award for her gripping performance in Before Women Had Wings opposite Oprah Winfrey as another abused wife who, in this case, turns her violent anger on her own daughters.

In 2000 Barkin married billionaire Ron Perelman, eleven years her senior and chairman of the Revlon company, and put her career relatively on hold. They went through an acrimonious divorce in 2006.

Just prior to her divorce, in late 2005 Barkin ventured into independent film production with Applehead Pictures, a company she set up with brother George Barkin, who is a scriptwriter and former editor-in-chief of National Lampoon and High Times, and former Independent Film Channel executive Caroline Kaplan.

In her first major acting appearance since her divorce from Perelman, Barkin co-starred in Ocean's Thirteen with George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and former co-star Pacino.

She currently (2007) lives with her two teenage children in Manhattan.
Has one son, Jack (b. 1989), and one daughter, Romey Marion (b. 1992). Ex-husband Ron Perelman is the billionaire owner of the Revlon company. Measurements: 34C-25-34 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine) Size 9-9 1/2 shoe. (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine) Once admitted in an interview that she often has to wear glasses because she has a condition that is causing her to lose some vision in one eye. She studied in New York at the High School of the Performing Arts, Hunter College and the Actor's Studio. She was born and raised in the Bronx in a "middle class Jewish home" and describes her childhood as quite happy. Considered for role in Brazil that went to Kim Greist. Director Terry Gilliam has said that he regrets not casting Barkin. Vital statistics at age 36: 36-24-36 Christie's sold off the jewelery given to her by her ex-husband Ron Perlman. Sister of George Barkin. Friend of Julianne Moore. Although she separated from first husband Gabriel Byrne in 1993, she did not file for divorce until May 1999. Her favorite actor to work with is Al Pacino.