Julie Cypher (born August 24, 1964) is an American film director best known for being the former partner of musician

Melissa Etheridge Melissa Lou Etheridge (born May 29, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and guitarist. Her eponymous debut album was released in 1988 and became an underground success. It peaked at No. 22 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and its lead ...

and former spouse of

Lou Diamond Phillips Louis Diamond Phillips ( born Upchurch; February 17, 1962) is a Filipino-American actor and film director. His breakthrough came when he starred as Ritchie Valens in the biographical drama film '' La Bamba'' (1987). For ''Stand and Deliver'' (198 ...

Biography

Cypher was born in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

, to Dick and Betty (' Jackson) Cypher, and has an older sister named Melanie. She attended the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

studying television and film. She married actor

on September 17, 1987. Two years later, she met Etheridge while assisting on the music video for the single " Bring Me Some Water", and split with Phillips in 1990 to start a relationship with Etheridge. Cypher directed the 1995 film ''

Teresa's Tattoo ''Teresa's Tattoo'' (also known as ''Natural Selection'') is a 1994 American action comedy- crime film directed by Julie Cypher. The film stars C. Thomas Howell, Nancy McKeon, Lou Diamond Phillips, Melissa Etheridge, who also performed songs for ...

'', starring Phillips,

C. Thomas Howell Christopher Thomas Howell (born December 7, 1966) is an American actor. He has starred in the films '' Soul Man'', '' The Hitcher'', '' Grandview U.S.A.'', ''Red Dawn'', ''Secret Admirer'' and '' The Outsiders''. He has also appeared in '' Gett ...

, and

Kiefer Sutherland Kiefer William Sutherland (born 21 December 1966) is a British-Canadian actor and musician. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox drama series '' 24'' (2001–2010, 2014), for which he won an Emmy Award, a Golden Glo ...

Personal life

After originally spending roughly three years in a marriage with Lou Diamond Phillips, Cypher was a

gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 3 ...

advocate, and became famous for being one half of one of the first publicly lesbian celebrity couples. In 1995 she and Etheridge appeared in a "We'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" poster campaign for

PETA Peta or PETA may refer to: Acronym * Pembela Tanah Air, a militia established by the occupying Japanese in Indonesia in 1943 * People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an American animal rights organization * People Eating Tasty Animals, an ...

. During her partnership with Etheridge, Cypher gave birth to two children via

artificial insemination Artificial insemination is the deliberate introduction of sperm into a female's cervix or uterine cavity for the purpose of achieving a pregnancy through in vivo fertilization by means other than sexual intercourse. It is a fertility treatme ...

: a daughter, Bailey Jean, born in February 1997, and a son, Beckett, born November 1998. Although initially reluctant to discuss it, the couple eventually revealed that the biological father of both children was musician

David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...

; however, Cypher later told Etheridge in a 1999 therapy session that she was "not gay", and the couple split in September 2000. Cypher went on to marry Matthew Hale in 2004. On May 13, 2020, Etheridge announced via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that their son, Beckett, died at age 21.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cypher, Julie 1964 births Living people Bisexual women LGBT rights activists from the United States LGBT people from Kansas LGBT film directors People from Wichita, Kansas Moody College of Communication alumni American women film directors 21st-century American women