Film & TV
Selma Blair
born 1972 · actress, author
Star of Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde and Hellboy, born in Southfield and educated at Hillel Day School and Cranbrook Kingswood.
- Born
Southfield, Michigan
age 54- Birth name
- Selma Blair Beitner
- Detroit years
- 1972–1990
- Field
- Film & TV
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Selma Blair Beitner was born in Southfield, the youngest of four daughters, and grew up in a Jewish family in Detroit's northern suburbs; both of her parents were lawyers and her father was active in Democratic Party politics. She attended Hillel Day School in Farmington Hills and then Cranbrook Kingswood in Bloomfield Hills, where she acted in a school production in 1990. After studying photography at Kalamazoo College and moving to New York, she came back to Michigan to finish at the University of Michigan, graduating magna cum laude in 1994 with majors in photography, psychology and English. Returning to New York, she worked her way through auditions to her breakthrough in Cruel Intentions (1999), followed by Legally Blonde and Hellboy. Since her 2018 multiple sclerosis diagnosis she has become a well-known advocate, and her 2022 memoir Mean Baby looks back on her Michigan childhood.
Highlights
- Breakthrough role in Cruel Intentions (1999)
- Vivian Kensington in Legally Blonde (2001)
- Liz Sherman in Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II (2008)
- Documentary Introducing, Selma Blair (2021) about life with MS
- Memoir Mean Baby (Knopf, 2022)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1970s–1980s
Hillel Day School
Jewish day school in Farmington Hills that Blair attended as a child.
Studied here · 1980s–1990
Cranbrook Kingswood
Private upper school on the Cranbrook campus, where Blair acted in a school production in 1990.