Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen (born 3 July 1965 in Frederikshavn, Denmark) is a Danish actress.
She began her acting career working alongside her mother, and traveled to Paris at the age of 18 to work as an actress and model. Her first English-language film role was in The Devil's Advocate, as Christabella Andreoli, before she gained international recognition as Lucilla in Ridley Scott's film Gladiator, alongside Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. Most recently, she's played the mother of Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, Queen Hippolyta, in the DC Extended Universe.
She is not related to Leslie Nielsen. Or Brigitte Nielsen.
Nielsen is the mother of two sons from different relationships. One was fathered by Lars Ulrich, whom she dated from 2004 to 2012.
Selected Filmography
- How Did You Get In? We Didn't See You Leave (1984) as Eva
- The Devil's Advocate (1997) as Christabella Andreoli
- Rushmore (1998) as Mrs. Calloway
- Soldier (1998) as Sandra
- Mission to Mars (2000) as Terri Fisher
- Gladiator (2000) as Lucilla
- One Hour Photo (2002) as Nina Yorkin
- The Hunted (2003) as Abby Durrell
- Basic (2003) as Osborne
- The Great Raid (2005) as Margaret Utinsky
- The Ice Harvest (2005) as Renata Crest
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2006) as Detective Danielle Beck
- Battle In Seattle (2007) as Jean
- Perfect Sense (2011) as Jenny
- Boss (2011-12) as Meredith Kane
- Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012) as Tall Blonde Woman
- Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013) as Joe's Mother
- 3 Days to Kill (2014) as Christine Renner
- The Following (2014) as Lily Gray
- The Good Wife (2014-15) as Ramona Lytton
- DC Extended Universe as Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons
- Wonder Woman (2017)
- Justice League (2017)
- Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
- Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
- The Catcher Was a Spy (2018) as Koranda
- FBI (2018) as Special Agent-in-Charge Ellen Solberg
- I Am the Night (2019) as Corinna Hodel
- Sea Fever (2019) as Freya
- Inheritance (2020) as Catherine Monroe
- Nobody (2021) as Becca Mansell
- The Dreamer - Becoming Karen Blixen (2022) as Karen Blixen
Tropes in her work include:
- Actor-Shared Background: More than one of her characters has mentioned she's from Denmark originally, even if they became US citizens and such later.
- Cunning Linguist: She's fluent in Danish, English, Swedish, Norwegian, French, German, Italian and Spanish and will occasionally show off her skills in said languages in roles.
- Fake American: She's played American characters over the course of her career mostly.
- Ms. Fanservice: Multiple works have had her show off her good looks with revealing clothes or sometimes nudity and sex scenes.
- Statuesque Stunner: She's very beautiful and stands at an impressive 5'10.
