LIFE & TIMES: Liv Tyler

Currently starring in Gunpowder (9.10pm, BBC1), actress Liv Tyler has a family background to rival the plot of many a melodrama, and did much of her growing up on screen…

Rock ’n’ roll pedigree: Liv was born in New York in 1977. Her father is Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith, while her mother is model Bebe Buell. Bebe was in a relationship with musician Todd Rundgren when she fell pregnant during a fling with Tyler; she returned to Rundgren after the birth. The truth about Liv’s paternity was not made public until 1991. Star turn: After a brief modelling career as a teenager, Liv turned to acting at 15, and soon appeared in Silent Fall (1994), Empire Records (1995) and That Thing You Do! (1996). But it was her critically acclaimed turn in Stealing Beauty (1996) that was to be her breakthrough. Next, blockbuster Armageddon (1998) was followed by Onegin, Cookie’s Fortune (both 1999), Dr T & The Women (2000), the Lord Of The Rings trilogy (2001-03), Jersey Girl (2004), Reign Over Me (2007), The Strangers and The Incredible Hulk (both 2008).

Off-screen: Her first husband was Royston Langdon, lead singer of Spacehog. They divorced in 2008, and share a son, Milo. Now 40, Liv has two further children with her current partner, sports and entertainment manager David Gardner – son Sailor Gene and daughter Lula Rose. A practitioner of transcendental meditation, she claims: ‘It helps me make better decisions and be a better mother and deal with the daily stress of the modern world. It helps with everything.’