Famke Janssen was born November 5, 1965, in Amersterdam, Netherlands, and has two other siblings. Moving to America in the 1980s, she modeled for Chanel in New York. Later, taking a break from modeling, she attended Columbia University, majoring in literature.

This model-turned-actress broke into Hollywood in the early 1990s. Her first film was Fathers & Sons; later, she became James Bond's enemy in GoldenEye. Her career has bloomed since then with her starring in such films as House on Haunted Hill, Hide and Seek, a reoccurring role on FX's Nip/Tuck and the blockbuster movies X-Men, X2, and X-Men: The Last Stand.
Her two sisters are blonde and blue-eyed, while she is the only brunette. Was cast as Serleena in Men in Black II but had to drop out due to a death in the family. Lara Flynn Boyle was cast in her place. Speaks Dutch, German, English, and French. Offered the lead female role in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, but turned it down. Sisters Antoinette Beumer and Marjolein Beumer are a director and actress respectively. Wears size 11 shoes. Because of their large size, her shoes had to be especially made for her for the film GoldenEye. In Love & Sex, Jon Favreau's character jokes about how big her character's feet were. Measurements: 36-24-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine). Provides the Dutch-language narration for the Studio Tram Tour at Disney parks. While appearing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien to promote her role of the sex-crazed assassin in the James Bond film GoldenEye, Famke gave Conan a first hand experience of her character's signature moves by performing them on him using the top of his desk. When she asked him if he would like the demonstration, Conan responded with "This is what we in the industry call a 'no-brainer'." Has a Boston Terrier named Licorice. Ranked #69 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women In The World." [2002] Her sister was visiting South-East Asia during the Tsunami on December 26th, 2004, and had to flee the water to save her life. Originally, Famke Janssen cast for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series after her work on the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Perfect Mate" and was to reprise her role as Kamala. However, she wanted to leave herself open for feature film work and turned the role down. Jadzia Dax's role was created to take the place of this character, performed by actress Terry Farrell. Ex-Sister-in-law of Director Joram Lürsen. Did all her own pool shots in Turn the River. Used to eat almonds and dried cranberries every day while filming X-Men: The Last Stand. Her favorite movies of her career are Love & Sex and Turn the River. Turn the River was written for her by her The Treatment co-star Chris Eigeman. Her favorite horror movie is The Shining. Is a fan of Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. She is against typecasting.