Arquette Fire

On September 11, 2016, performer Alexis Arquette (center), the second to the
youngest of the acting siblings, succumbed to cardiac arrest as the result of a
bacterial infection caused by HIV. Flanking her here are (left to right) David,
Rosanna, Richmond, and Patricia Arquette. This is the saga of the four-
generation family of entertainers.

The U.S. doesn't have a monarchy, but it has had its share of royal families, so to speak, not just in the political arena - the Adamses, Roosevelts, Kennedys - but on the entertainment stage.

Before he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, Maryland-born John Wilkes Booth was a talented performer in a prominent theatrical family, which included his brothers Junius Brutus Booth Jr. and Edwin Booth. All three were the illegitimate sons of noted Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and his mistress, who moved to the United States from England in 1821.

John Wilkes Booth, Edwin Booth, and Junius Brutus Booth Jr.
prepare for an 1864 staging of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar."

At one time a promising barrister in England, Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blythe became an actor and adopted the stage name Maurice Barrymore so as not to embarrass his parents before sailing to the United States, where he made his Broadway debut in 1875.

Maurice Barrymore, John Barrymore, John Drew Barrymore, Drew Barrymore

Maurice's children - Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, John Barrymore - were dubbed America's "Royal Family." John Barrymore's son, John Drew Barrymore, starred in several TV series, low-budget movies, and Italian sword-and-sandal adventures before becoming disenchanted with show business. His daughter, Drew Barrymore, was born in 1975.

Another standout in memorable Hollywood dynasties has to be the Hustons. Walter Huston, a prolific actor on Broadway and early Hollywood, won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," which was directed by his son, director-actor John Huston (who won Academy Awards for writing and directing "Treasure"). John Huston's children include screenwriter Tony Huston ("The Dead," which was the last film John directed), actress Anjelica Huston (Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for "Prizzi's Honor," directed by her father), and actor Danny Huston ("The Proposition," "The Constant Gardener"). John Huston's grandson, Jack Huston, starred in the title role of the recent remake of "Ben-Hur."

John Huston poses on the set of "The Dead" (1987) with children Tony Huston
(father of "Ben-Hur" star Jack Huston) and Anjelica Huston.

Henry Fonda was the patriarch of an acting family line, namely daughter Jane Fonda, son Peter Fonda, and Peter's daughter, Bridget Fonda.

Henry, Peter, and Jane strike
a Fonda family pose.

Likewise, Henry Fonda's costar in "Jesse James" and "The Grapes of Wrath," John Carradine, headed a long line of actors, including sons David Carradine (whose daughters Calista and Kansas dabbled in acting), Keith Carradine (whose daughters Cade and Sorel also dabbled in acting), Robert Carradine, and stepson Bruce Carradine. John Carradine's granddaughters Martha Plimpton (daughter of Keith) and Evers Carradine (daughter of Robert) have extensive acting credits. Actor Michael Bowen, best known for his role as Danny Pickett on "Lost," is the maternal half-brother of Robert and Keith Carradine.

(Left to right) Robert Carradine, David Carradine, and
Keith Carradine portray Bob Younger, Cole Younger,
and Jim Younger in "The Long Riders" (1980).

Tippi Hedren was discovered by Alfred Hitchcock, who, Svengali-like, molded her into what became known as the icy Hitchcock blonde with starring roles in "The Birds" (1963) and "Marnie" (1964). When she rejected his obsessive possessiveness, he virtually roadblocked her career as a major movie star by refusing to release her from her exclusive contract. Hedren's daughter, Melanie Griffith, earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role as an ambitious secretary with "a head for business and a bod for sin" in the 1988 romantic comedy "Working Girl." Dakota Johnson, Griffith's daughter, from her second of two marriages to actor Don Johnson, shot to international stardom in the kinky erotic drama "Fifty Shades of Grey" (2015) as Anastasia Steele, a role she will repeat in at least two sequels.

Three generations of blonde: Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith, Dakota Johnson

Our favorite acting families in the Moviehouse, however, are what we like to call hippie dynasties, or commune clans. The parents of Joaquin Phoenix (best known for "Gladiator," "Walk the Line," and "The Master") were members of a migratory religious group called The Children of God before leaving in disillusion and changing their last name to Phoenix, inspired by the mythical bird that rises from its own ashes, signifying a new beginning.

The third of five children, Joaquin changed his name to Leaf Phoenix because he wanted a flower-child-connected appellation like his siblings River, Rain, Liberty, and Summer, all of whom acted, as well. River Phoenix, whose breakthrough role was as rough-hewn Chris Chambers in 1986's "Stand by Me," collapsed outside a West Hollywood nightclub on Halloween night of 1993 and died of combined drug intoxication at the age of 23. For his breakout role as the high school student seduced by Nicole Kidman in 1995's "To Die For," Leaf changed his screen credit back to Joaquin Phoenix.

Leaf (the once and future Joaquin) Phoenix (center) joins cast mates Tate Donovan,
Lea Thompson, Kate Capshaw, Kelly Preston, and Larry B. Scott on a rogue space
shuttle in "SpaceCamp" (1986).

From age 7 to 22, multiple Emmy-Tony Award-winner and multi-Oscar-nominated Glenn Close lived with her parents in cultish communal centers. When she was 7, Winona Ryder (born in a farmhouse near Winona, Minnesota), moved with her family to Rainbow, a commune in Mendocino County, California, where they lived with seven other families on a 300-acre plot of land with no electricity and no plumbing. Dimple-chinned Rose McGowan (best known as the witch Paige Matthews on the WB series "Charmed"), spent her early childhood in European communes.

As evidenced in this early photograph, young Rose
McGowan's communal upbringing prevented her
from affording enough clothes.

Jared Leto, who garnered an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance as a transgender woman in 2013's "Dallas Buyers Club," was raised by his widowed mother in the hippie movement, growing up "around a lot of artists, musicians, photographers, painters and people that were in theater. Just having the art communal hippie experience as a child, there wasn't a clear line that was drawn. We celebrated creative experience and creative expression."

Jared Leto lives off the land with his mother, Constance Leto.

And then there are the Arquettes, five siblings - Rosanna, Richmond, Patricia, Alexis, and David, all actors - whose father, actor Lewis Arquette, managed The Second City improvisational comedy troupe in Chicago before moving the family to a commune in Front Royal, Virginia. Patricia Arquette remembered there was "no electricity, no bathroom. I don't think there was running water, even."

Lewis himself was the son of entertainer Cliff Arquette, who emerged from retirement in the late 1950s to popularize his most memorable and endearing persona, Charley Weaver, a sagacious jokester in a rumpled shirt, stubby tie, baggy pants, suspenders who wore a smooshed hat and little round spectacles and whose homespun, often corny wit made him an immensely popular presence on "The Tonight Show" with Jack Paar (pictured below).

"Sometimes his jokes are old," Jack Paar wrote in the introduction
to Arquette's book Charley Weaver's Letters from Mamma, "and I
live in the constant fear that the audience will beat him to the
punchline, but they never have...I would not like to say that all
his jokes are old, although some have been found carved in
stone. What I want to say is that in a free-for-all ad lib session,
Charley Weaver has and will beat the fastest gun alive."

Cliff Arquette

Cliff Arquette was born December 27, 1905. His father, Charles Augustus Arquette, was a vaudeville performer. Of French-Canadian descent, the family's surname was originally "Arcouet." Early in his career, Cliff was a nightclub pianist and joined jazz band leader Henry Halstead's orchestra in 1923.

Arquette was a busy performer in radio, theater, and TV. At one time, he was credited with simultaneously performing on 13 different radio programs at various radio stations in the Chicago market, getting from one station to another in motorboats on the Chicago River.

In the late 1930s, Cliff Arquette invented a flexible theatrical rubber prosthetic mask that allowed changing facial expressions while being porous enough to allow air to reach the actor's skin.

Arquette introduced what would become his trademark character on the radio program "Dave and Charley," cohosted by comedy character actor Dave Willock. The show became a TV series, which lasted for three months in 1952 (pictured below).

Dave Willock would recall Cliff Arquette as a skilled pianist, talented trumpet player, expert woodworker, artist, and student of history. In 1959, Arquette opened his own Civil War museum in Gettysburg in a building that served as headquarters for Union General O.O. Howard. The museum remained in operation for about a decade.

After introducing the character of Charley Weaver to a national audience as "the wild man from Mount Idy" on "The Tonight Show," Arquette rarely appeared in public as himself, although he did dress in drag (keeping his mustache) as Mrs. Butterworth in commercials for the pancake syrup. He had a recurring role on the short-lived 1962 variety series "The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show."

Most famously, of course, Arquette's Charley Weaver occupied a square on the original version of the classic game show "The Hollywood Squares" from 1965 to 1974, becoming one of the program's most popular go-to guests for contestants, along with regulars Paul Lynde, Wally Cox, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, and George Gobel.

As was the norm for half-hour game shows, a week's worth of five episodes of "The Hollywood Squares" were taped in a single day, and several celebrities were known to imbibe during the lunch break. Which is why the episodes taped for Thursday and Friday broadcasts were noticeably looser and more free-spirited than those aired earlier in the week. Jim Backus, who played millionaire Thurston Howell III on "Gilligan’s Island" and was himself a frequent celebrity "Square," recalled that Paul Lynde and Wally Cox "would go across the street from the studio to a bar, and both would come back loaded. I don’t think viewers ever realized that they were blind drunk, but they’d do the show absolutely loaded."

When Arquette appeared as Charley Weaver on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," the host asked him about his fondness for alcohol. Arquette replied, "I don't drink any more, Johnny." "You don't?" "No," Arquette said, "I don't drink any more...but I don't drink any less."

Cliff Arquette was frequently hospitalized during the 1970s due to heart disease. He suffered a stroke in 1973 that kept him off "The Hollywood Squares" for an extended period. Partially paralyzed and bound to a wheelchair, he returned to the game show, appearing gaunt but still with a ready smile and with wit still intact.

Cliff Arquette died from another stroke on September 23, 1974. He was 68.

Lewis Arquette

Best known as Jefferson Davis Pickett, the owner of a metal products factory on "The Waltons," a role he played from 1978 to 1981, Lewis Arquette, Cliff's son, was born in Chicago on December 14, 1935. Lewis would proudly claim he was related to explorer Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark fame), for whom he was named.

In Chicago, he managed The Second City theater for several years. He worked variously as a comedian, musician, and puppeteer. Arquette married the Jewish daughter of a Holocaust refugee from Poland; raised a Catholic himself, Lewis converted to Islam. In 1970, the family, including children Rosanna, Richmond, Patricia, and Alexis, to a commune in Front Royal, Virginia, which is where the fifth child, David Arquette, was born.

The Arquette children were raised in a dysfunctional environment. Their mother, who died from breast cancer in 1997, had been violently physically abusive to them in their childhood, while Lewis was an addict. Patricia Arquette later recalled, "When he was using substance, which was usually marijuana, he would also drink whiskey."

However, according to David Arquette, who was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in February 2011, "The beautiful story about that sad background is that my parents healed themselves. My father got sober. My mother became a marriage family counselor."

Despite his shortcomings as a parent, Lewis Arquette was frequently invited to appear in his kids' pictures. In 1986, he had a supporting a role in "Nobody's Fool," a quirky little romantic comedy featuring Eric Roberts and Rosanna Arquette (pictured below).

In 1997, Lewis and eldest son Richmond Arquette costarred as detectives in the little-seen film noir farce "Kiss & Tell," which featured cameos by Alexis and David Arquette. That same year, Lewis and Richmond had small roles in "The Alarmist," a dark comedy about unscrupulous home security salesmen starring David Arquette, Stanley Tucci, Kate Capshaw, and Ryan Reynolds.

The comedic misfire "Little Nicky" (2000), paired Adam Sandler as the pussycat among Satan's brood with Patricia Arquette as a clueless design student (pictured below), with Lewis Arquette appearing as the Cardinal.

Besides dealing with a copycat Ghostface killer in 1997's "Scream 2," David Arquette, as Deputy Sheriff Dewey Riley, had to contend with pop Lewis Arquette, cast as Chief Hartley (pictured below, with son David).

In "Ready to Rumble" (2000), the over-the-top-rope pro wrestling comedy starring David Arquette and Scott Caan, Lewis Arquette and veteran comedy character actress Kathleen Freeman (a hapless comic foil for Jerry Lewis in numerous movies) portrayed the parents of vanquished heavyweight champion Oliver Platt.

"Eight Legged Freaks" was originally titled "Arac Attack." The title was changed
when David Arquette ad libbed the phrase "eight legged freaks" in a scene.

Lewis succumbed to congestive heart failure on February 10, 2001. He was 65, three years younger than his father at his passing. The following year's "Eight Legged Freaks," the frenetic creature-feature comedy starring the hyperkinetic David Arquette, was dedicated to the "memory of Lewis Arquette."

Rosanna Arquette

Lewis Arquette's oldest child, Rosanna Arquette (pictured above), was born on August 10, 1959. Following roles in such made-for-television films and miniseries as "Having Babies II" (1977), "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home" (1978), and "Zuma Beach" (1978), she made her motion picture debut, as, coincidentally, "Girl in Commune," in 1979's "More American Graffiti," the much-maligned sequel to George Lucas' 1973 coming-of-age classic.

Rosanna Arquette sports the wispiest of '70s feathered do's
as a teenage beachcomber in the TV movie "Zuma Beach,"
co-scripted by future "Halloween," "The Fog," and "Escape
from New York" writer-director John Carpenter.

In 1979, Rosanna Arquette costarred with the Duke's son, Patrick Wayne, in the single-season series "Shirley," featuring future "Partridge Family" mom Shirley Jones. Rosanna garnered an Emmy nomination for her role in 1982's "The Executioner's Song" (pictured below), the television movie adaptation of Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about real-life death-row killer Gary Gilmore.

Long before he became the grumpy old man of character actors, 36-year-old
Tommy Lee Jones won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of convicted double-
murderer Gary Gilmore in "The Executioner's Song,'"

According to director Lawrence Schiller, Debra Winger ("Urban Cowboy," "An Officer and a Gentleman," "Terms of Endearment") was strongly favored for the Arquette role in "The Executioner's Song" but was turned down after being considered "too urban." Coincidentally, 20 years later, Winger, who had abruptly taken a hiatus from acting in 1995, was herself the subject of a 2002 documentary directed by Rosanna Arquette titled "Searching for Debra Winger."

Rosanna Arquette's first starring role in a major motion picture came in 1983's "Baby It's You" (pictured below), a small-movie romance between an upper-middle class Jewish girl (Arquette) and a blue-collar Italian boy (Vincent Spano) set in a New Jersey high school during the mid-1960s. Writer-director John Sayles ("Return of the Secaucus Seven," "Matewan," "Eight Men Out") said the film is "about firsts: first sex, first love, first drugs, first loss." Amy Robinson, who co-produced the movie with actor Griffin Dunne, noted, "We wanted to do the film from the point of view of the kids, not looking down at them or back at them. It's a love story, and a story about class differences and opportunity."

Without a doubt, the movie that secured Rosanna Arquette in the firmament of '80s cinema was "Desperately Seeking Susan" (1985), an MTV-generation comedy about two disparate women - a bored suburban housewife (Arquette) and a free-spirited drifter (Madonna) - whose lives become intertwined through personal ads in a New York City tabloid.

"Good goin', stranger!"

Roger Ebert called it "a screwball comedy based on several cases of mistaken identity." Commenting on "the different kinds of special appeal that Arquette and Madonna are able to generate," Ebert observed, "They are very particular individuals, and in a dizzying plot they somehow succeed in creating specific, interesting characters."

From the sublime to the submarined, four months after her breakout role in "Desperately Seeking Susan," Rosanna Arquette suffered the indignation of having a major portion of her part as, alternately, Kevin Kline's and Scott Glenn's love interest cut from writer-director Lawrence Kasdan's sweeping homage to Hollywood westerns, "Silverado" (1985), a bold, loud, flashy shoot-'em-up that strapped six-guns on the swaggering hips of larger-than-life cowboys played by Kline, Glenn, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, and Brian Dennehy.

Despite being in a $23 million movie and flanked by the studly likes of Scott Glenn
and Kevin Costner, Rosanna Arquette doesn't look happy about her best stuff in
"Silverado" ending up on the cutting-room floor.

Allegedly, a  lot of Arquette's contributions to "Silverado" didn't advance the story line. Arquette purportedly claimed she wanted to appear in "Silverado" even if her scenes got cut because she considered it her only opportunity to do a western. She needn't have been concerned, since six years later, she delivered a heartbreaking portrayal of Elizabeth "Libby" Custer, the devoted wife of George Armstrong Custer (pictured below), in the acclaimed 1991 miniseries "Son of the Morning Star," featuring Gary Cole ("Veep") as the dashing cavalry commander.

Rosanna Arquette, more or less, stayed below the radar in mainstream cinema. She did have supporting roles in "Hope Floats" (1998) and "The Whole Nine Yards" (2000), along with an uncredited part in "Joe Dirt" (2001).

Rosanna Arquette has a cameo as Charlene the Gator Farmer in "Joe Dirt."

She directed two documentaries. In "Searching for  Debra Winger" (2002), Arquette's interviewed several leading actresses about the professional and personal pressures they face as women working in the movie business. "All We Are Saying" (2005) featured intimate conversations with over 50 recording legends and industry insiders about what makes musicians tick.

In the mid-2000s, Arquette had a recurring role as bisexual Cherie Jaffe on the Showtime series "The L Word." In 2013, she returned to Showtime as Linda, a starlet-turned-screenwriter, in the hardboiled crime series "Ray Donovan," starring Liev Schreiber and Jon Voight (pictured below).

In 2016, she guest-starred as photographer Abby Van Ness on the Showtime series "Roadies," created by Cameron Crowe and co-executive produced by J.J. Abrams (pictured below).

Richmond Arquette

Of the Arquette siblings, Richmond Arquette, born on August 21, 1963, is probably the least known, but he has maintained a consistent career as a working actor. He made his screen debut in 1993's "The Pickle," a bumpy satire of the Hollywood filmmaking industry featuring Danny Aiello, Dyan Cannon, Shelley Winters, and Jerry Stiller. Written and directed by Paul Mazursky (best known for "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," "An Unmarried Woman," and "Moscow on the Hudson"), the movie, a box-office bomb, veritably killed Mazursky's career as a director.

Richmond Arquette had a small but memorable role as the schlemiel who delivers the box at the end of "Se7en" (1995), prompting Brad Pitt's anguished plea, "What's in the box?!" (pictured above). He was paired again with Brad Pitt, so to speak, in 1999's "Fight Club" as an intern (pictured below).

Richmond had a cameo in 2000's "Scream 3" (pictured below, dead center), which, of course, featured kid brother David Arquette...

In Rob Zombie's gory remake of "Halloween" (2007), Arquette played Deputy Charles (pictured below).

Patricia Arquette

When she was a child, Patricia Arquette, who was born on April 8, 1968, was offered the opportunity to get braces, but she refused, explaining she wanted to have flaws because it would help her with character acting. She made her motion picture debut in 1987's "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors." She was supposed to reprise her role in the 1988 sequel, "The Dream Master," but had to drop out when she became pregnant with her son, Enzo Rossi.

Patricia Arquette clowns around on the set of "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3."

In 1988, she appeared with formidable costars Jessica Lange, Tess Harper, and Charles Durning in screenwriter Sam Shepard's directing debut, "Far North," filmed on-location in Duluth, Minnesota. Patricia's big-screen follow-up in 1990, "Prayer of the Rollerboys" (pictured below), was probably not her finest hour as an actress, starring with Corey Haim in a futuristic melodrama about an undercover pizza delivery boy recruited by cops in ridiculous uniforms to infiltrate a gang of rollerblading paramilitary fascists.

Patricia Arquette's breakthrough screen role, Alabama Whitman, came in 1993's "True Romance," a violent dark comedy scripted by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott. While Tarantino said he wrote the role of Alabama for Joan Cusack, Drew Barrymore was the studio's first choice for the part but was unavailable. Tarantino had chosen the name "Alabama" as an homage to blaxploitation diva Pam Grier's character in 1971's "Women in Cages."

In The New York Times, critic Janet Maslin said Patricia Arquette played her role with "surprising sweetness," while Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers remarked, "Arquette delivers sensationally." The bloody, show-stopping brawl between Patricia Arquette and James Gandolfini as they trashed a motel room (pictured below) took five days to shoot.

Director Tony Scott gave Patricia the picture's featured Cadillac as a present at the end of filming (pictured below).

In a spectacular achievement for any actor, Patricia Arquette won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Boyhood," a film released in 2014 that had been filmed in segments from 2002 to 2014. Ostensibly a coming-of-age drama, the film focuses on the childhood and adolescence of the son of divorced parents in Texas. Ethan Hawke portrayed the errant father, while actor Ellar Coltrane literally grew up in the title role, from the age of six to eighteen.

Big sister Rosanna Arquette was Patricia Arquette's
date for the 87th Academy Awards, presented in
February of 2015, which bestowed Patricia with the
Best Support Actress Oscar for "Boyhood."

Director Richard Linklater reassembled the cast and crew for a few weeks' filming annually over a 12-year period. Throughout the same time span, from 2005 to 2011, Patricia Arquette starred in the series "Medium" as a psychic who works as a consultant for the Phoenix, Arizona district attorney's office. During this time, Linklater purposely asked Arquette to not have any plastic surgeries, since it would be out of character for her role in "Boyhood."

From 2013 to 2014, Arquette appeared in the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" as Sally West, the owner of a Tampa speakeasy (pictured above). In 2015, she starred in "CSI: Cyber" (pictured below, with Ted Danson). The CBS series was canceled after two seasons, ending the network's "CSI" franchise.

Alexis Arquette

Alexis Arquette was born Robert Arquette on July 28, 1969. In 1983, at age 12, he made his acting debut as, in his words, "this little kid who's on a ride with all these women" in the music video "She's a Beauty" by The Tubes.

On the big screen, Arquette made his debut in an uncredited role as "Alexis," the androgynous friend and bandmate of teenager Evan Richards' sexually ambivalent character, Max Whiteman, in "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" (1986), written and directed by the previously mentioned Paul Mazursky. Arquette's first major role, at 19, was as a transvestite named Georgette in the 1989 drama "Last Exit to Brooklyn," featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stephen Lang, Burt Young, and Jerry Orbach (pictured below). Patricia Arquette was originally cast in Leigh's role of the prostitute, Tralala, but she dropped out before filming began because she discovered she was pregnant.

In 1994, Arquette had a small role as the keyed up shooter whose bullets miraculously miss hitmen John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction" (pictured below). Big sister Rosanna Arquette also appeared in "Pulp Fiction," as Jody, the wife of drug dealer Lance (Eric Stoltz) with a fondness for piercings (or, as John Travolta's Vincent Vega describes her ("the one with all the shit in her face").

Arquette performed in nightclubs and cabarets, sometimes under the name Eva Destruction. In 2001, on two episodes of "Xena: Warrior Princess," he played the debauched emperor, Caligula (pictured below).

In a 1999 interview, Arquette said, "I enjoy being a character actor. I enjoy being different in everything. I want a private life. I want to be able to go to 7-Eleven and not get into a fight with a guy because he saw me in a movie, or not have people hitting on me simply because they saw me in a movie. You want to be wanted for who you are, not what you've done or who you've become."

The majority of Alexis Arquette's work was in low-budget and independent films, although he did appear as Jennifer Tilly's goth-wannabe boyfriend in 1998's "Bride of Chucky" (pictured below).

Also in 1998, Arquette played a Boy George impersonator in "The Wedding Singer," with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore (pictured below). She reprised the role, in a way, in the 2014 comedy "Blended," which reunited Sandler and Barrymore.

In her late 30s, Arquette transitioned from male to female in a sex reassignment surgery documented in the 2007 film "Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother." She was a regular on the sixth season of the VH1 reality series "The Surreal Life" and was praised for raising awareness of transgender performers and increasing their visibility.

On September 11, 2016, Alexis Arquette died of a heart attack caused by myocarditis which was caused by cardiomyopathy as a result of HIV, which Arquette had been fighting for nearly 30 years. She was 47.

David Arquette

David Arquette (pictured above, with Paul Reubens), the youngest of the siblings, was born on the family commune in Virginia on September 8, 1971. He made his motion picture debut in "Where the Day Takes You," a 1991 drama about a group of teen runaways trying to get by on the streets of Los Angeles. "It is not a poetic or pseudo-romantic view of runaway life," Roger Ebert commented. "It shows how young people need families and will form their own if they are failed by those they are born into."

The extended "family" in "Where the Day Takes You" featured Dermot Mulroney, Sean Astin, Balthazar Getty, Lara Flynn Boyle, Ricki Lake, Will Smith (in his film debut), Kyle McLachlan, and Alyssa Milano. The cast also included Laura San Giacomo, Stephen Tobolowski, and Christian Slater.

David Arquette undoubtedly achieved his biggest success in the four (to date) "Scream" pictures as Deputy Sheriff Dwight "Dewey" Riley (pictured above). During the filming of the first movie in 1996, he met his future wife, Courtney Cox. They were married in 1999. Their daughter, Coco, was born in June of 2004. David and Courtney were divorced in May 2013. On April 12, 2015, Arquette married "Entertainment Tonight" correspondent Christina McLarty, almost a year after the birth of their son, Charlie Arquette.

David Arquette, Oliver Platt, and Scott Caan star in "Ready to Rumble."

In 2000, after filming the World Championship Wrestling-financed comedy "Ready to Rumble," costarring Scott Caan, Oliver Platt, Joe Pantoliano, Rose McGowan, and Martin Landau, David Arquette was introduced into actual WCW scenarios. Forming an alliance with professional wrestlers Chris Kanyon and Diamond Dallas Paige, Arquette participated in a number of arena matches and somehow backed into claiming the title of WCW World Heavyweight Champion.

Mostly used as comic relief, Arquette's brief championship tenure has long been considered one of the main reasons behind the demise of the WCW, which was swallowed up in a purchase by the WWE in 2001.

With his nine month-old son Charlie at home with his fiancee,
David Arquette doesn't look pleased to be photographed by the
paparazzi alongside Chinese-born actress Bai Ling at the world
premiere of their silly erotic thriller "The Key" (2014).

Probably the most visible of the Arquette siblings - frequently for the wrong reasons and in the tabloids - David once declared, "I'm a little wild and a little nutty and a little self-destructive...I'm a free spirit...I'll jump from one ledge to another just to test myself."

A ledge best left un-jumped: tabloid photographers catch up
with David Arquette and Bai Ling again at another promo
 for "The Key," accompanied by director Jefery Levy and
co-executive producer Susan Traylor.  

Arquette checked into rehab for treatment of alcohol and substance abuse on January 1, 2011. He later said his trouble with alcohol and drugs began early in life. "I stole pot from my father when I was eight years old," he told Oprah Winfrey. "I seriously started drinking when I was about twelve." Later in 2011, Arquette announced on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" that he had been sober for over nine months.


Postscript: And Family of Siblings Sing Thee to Thy Rest

Reportedly, as she passed away in the company of her brothers and sisters, Alexis Arquette was serenaded by them singing David Bowie's "Starman." Patricia Arquette subsequently tweeted, "Breaking through the veil singing 'Starman.' To my first best friend - Cosmic Dancer."

Boy George, who inspired Alexis Arquette's character in "The Wedding Singer," posted a tribute on Twitter: "RIP my sister Alexis Arquette. Another bright light gone out far too soon."

In a statement released on Facebook, Richmond Arquette, speaking for the family and using more verbiage than he was ever called upon to utter in one of his roles, wrote, "Our brother Robert, who became our brother Alexis, who became our sister Alexis...passed this morning...He was surrounded by all of his brothers and sisters...As per his wishes, we cheered at the moment that he transitioned to another dimension."

Richmond pointed out, "Despite the fact there are few parts for trans actors, she refused to play roles that were demeaning or stereotypical. She was a vanguard in the fight for understanding and acceptance for all trans people."

Richmond added, "He was a force. He died as he lived, on his own terms...I am humbled and grateful to have been able to have been with him as he began his journey onward." According to Richmond, "She fiercely lived her reality in a world where it is dangerous to be a trans person."

In Richmond's words, "Alexis was born Robert, our brother. We loved him from the moment he arrived. But he came in more than a sibling - he came as our great teacher, she taught us tolerance and acceptance...teaching us what real love is...Alexis always had to do everything first. She left before we were ready to let her go."

Richmond Arquette's exhaustive missive was regarded critically by the LGBTQI community, which questioned the actor's references to Alexis as alternately he and she. More than likely, Richmond was simply using the pronouns Alexis would have wanted him to use to describe his passing. David Arquette told "Entertainment Tonight" that Alexis "was like, 'Yeah, sometimes I'll be a man. Sometimes I'll be a woman. I like to refer to myself as "gender suspicious."'" When David asked Alexis if that meant they were sister and brother, Alexis replied, "It depends on how I'm dressed."

David Arquette tweeted this to the sympathetic condolence offerers on Twitter: "Thank you all for your love and kind words about Alexis. My hero for eternity."

David Arquette, Alexis Arquette, Patricia Arquette,
Richmond Arquette, and Rosanna Arquette