Liv Tyler

Biography:

Liv Tyler was born Liv Rundgren on July 1, 1977, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She is the only child of singer and model Bebe Buell (Playboy’s Miss November 1974) and Steven Tyler, lead vocalist of Aerosmith. Buell named her after Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann, inspired by Ullmann’s appearance on the cover of a March 1977 issue of TV Guide. Tyler’s heritage includes Italian, Polish, German, English, Ukrainian, and African-American ancestry. She has three half-siblings: Mia Tyler, Chelsea Anna Tyler Foster, and Taj Monroe Tallarico. Her maternal grandmother, Dorothea Johnson, founded the Protocol School of Washington.

From 1972 to 1979, Buell was in a relationship with musician Todd Rundgren. During a brief separation, she became pregnant by Steven Tyler. Rundgren signed Liv’s birth certificate and raised her as his own, covering her education and acting as a father figure. Tyler has often expressed deep affection for Rundgren, calling him her “spiritual father.”

At around age 10 or 11, Liv noticed her resemblance to Steven Tyler and eventually learned the truth about her paternity. The revelation became public in 1991, when she changed her surname to Tyler, keeping Rundgren as her middle name. Buell explained that she originally concealed Steven’s paternity because of his drug addiction at the time of Liv’s birth. Liv has since built a close relationship with her biological father, appearing in Aerosmith’s 1993 music video Crazy and later connecting with him again when Aerosmith contributed music to Armageddon (1998), in which she starred.

Tyler attended several schools, including the Congressional School of Virginia, Breakwater School, and Waynflete School in Maine before moving back to New York at 12. She later studied at York Preparatory School in Manhattan, where her mother enrolled her to support her ADHD needs, and at the Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in California. She graduated in 1995, choosing to pursue acting.

Her first modeling opportunity came at age 14 when Paulina Porizkova photographed her for Interview magazine. After a brief modeling career and commercial work, she turned to acting without formal training. Her screen debut was in Silent Fall (1994), followed by Empire Records (1995), Heavy (1995), and her breakout role in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty (1996). She went on to appear in That Thing You Do! (1996), Inventing the Abbotts (1997), and achieved mainstream recognition with Armageddon (1998).

Her career spanned diverse roles: period drama (Onegin, 1999), Robert Altman ensembles (Cookie’s Fortune, 1999; Dr. T & the Women, 2000), and comedy (One Night at McCool’s, 2001). Tyler reached global fame as Arwen Undómiel in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003). Later roles included Jersey Girl (2004), Lonesome Jim (2005), Reign Over Me (2007), and The Strangers (2008). She also portrayed Betty Ross in The Incredible Hulk (2008).

On television, she starred in HBO’s The Leftovers (2014–2017), BBC/HBO’s Gunpowder (2017), Hulu’s Harlots (2018), and Fox’s 9-1-1: Lone Star (2020). Her film projects included Ad Astra (2019) alongside Brad Pitt and Wildling (2018), which she also produced. In 2025, she reprised her role as Betty Ross in Captain America: Brave New World, 15 years after her Marvel debut.

Beyond acting, Tyler has worked as a spokesperson for Givenchy perfumes and cosmetics since 2003, and even inspired a Givenchy rose. She co-authored Modern Manners (2013) with her grandmother Dorothea Johnson and participated in humanitarian efforts, including fundraising for the David Lynch Foundation. She practices transcendental meditation.

Her personal life includes high-profile relationships: she dated Joaquin Phoenix (1995–1998), married musician Royston Langdon in 2003 (divorced 2008), and later became engaged to British sports manager David Gardner, with whom she has two children. She also has a son from her marriage to Langdon. Since 2018, Tyler has resided mainly in London with her family, though she also owns property in Malibu, California.