Mia Farrow's Real Name: Maria de Lourdes Villiers Farrow

Quick answer: Mia Farrow was born Maria de Lourdes Villiers Farrow on February 9, 1945, in Los Angeles. Mia is a nickname for Maria. The daughter of director John Farrow and actress Maureen O'Sullivan, she starred in Peyton Place and Rosemary's Baby (1968) and in 13 Woody Allen films, and she has long worked as a humanitarian advocate (Britannica; Library of Congress).

Real name and early life

Britannica gives her name in full as Maria de Lourdes Villiers Farrow. The Library of Congress name authority files her as "Farrow, Mia, 1945-," with the cross-reference "Farrow, Maria de Lourdes Villers, 1945-," a spelling without the second "i" that comes from a publisher's record. One LOC citation gives her birth as "February 9, 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA."

Britannica says she was one of seven children of John Farrow and Maureen O'Sullivan. At nine she contracted polio and was kept in isolation while she recovered, and four years later her 19-year-old brother died in a plane crash. She had an uncredited part in her father's John Paul Jones (1959). After he died in 1963, her mother moved the family to New York, where Mia modeled and was soon cast as Cecily in an Off-Broadway The Importance of Being Earnest.

Career highlights

From 1964 to 1966 Farrow played Allison MacKenzie on the prime-time drama Peyton Place. She was briefly married to Frank Sinatra (1966–68). Her breakout film was Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, in which she played a young wife who fears her neighbors have sinister plans for her unborn child. She played Daisy Buchanan opposite Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby (1974). Her 1970s marriage to composer André Previn produced three sons, and they adopted three daughters; they divorced in 1979.

Farrow began a relationship with Woody Allen in 1980. She appeared in 13 of his films, including Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo, and Hannah and Her Sisters. Their relationship ended in 1992, when she learned of his affair with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, whom he later married. A custody battle followed, along with allegations by their daughter Dylan that Allen had abused her. A Connecticut prosecutor said in 1993 that he had probable cause but declined to file charges to spare the child a trial, the Los Angeles Times reported. Allen has long denied the allegations, AP reports. Farrow won custody.

She became a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in 2000 and has spoken out on Darfur. In 2024 she earned a Tony nomination for The Roommate with Patti LuPone. Her son Ronan Farrow is a journalist.

Name notes for searchers

Mia is a family nickname for Maria. Britannica spells her third name Villiers; one library record spells it Villers. Farrow is her father's surname, and she kept it through her marriages.