Toni French

About Toni French

Born Toni Lynn French in Spokane, Washington, to Dorothy "Joyce" Finch and Phillip Norman French. Toni's mother grew up on a cattle ranch in Wyoming, raised a grand champion steer at State Fair, and graduated as Valedictorian of her High School Class. She then received a full scholarship to the University of Wyoming, but chose to give it up and put herself through college and Nurses Training in Washington State. Her father graduated from high school early with honors and joined the Air Force. It was not until he was in his 40s that he learned he had been awarded an appointment to West Point. Her parents met while both were training to become missionaries at the Navigator Headquarters in Colorado Springs. Toni's mother is of English and Welsh ancestry, and her father is of Scottish, Irish, Dutch, German, Choctaw Indian and Israeli descent. In fact, Toni's mother's ancestor may be descended from or related to Anne Parr, one of King Henry VIII wives. One of her paternal great grandmother was full-blood Choctaw (part of the Five Civilized Tribes). The country did not recognize Indians as people, Toni hopes to confirm her tribal roots in time. Toni is honored to continue the Choctaw bloodline. After moving to L.A., Toni learned that another great grandmother was full-blood Israeli.Just after Toni's first birthday, her brother Todd was born in Seattle. A short time later, the family moved cross country to Indianapolis, Indiana, where her sister Traci was born and her father worked as a top draftsman for Mr. Best of Best Lock. In fact, one of his last assignments was to design the "unpick-able lock." At age four, Toni's parents moved to her grandfather's cattle ranch in Encampment, Wyoming. Her father cared for 1800 head of cattle and performed the role of mechanical wizard since he could fix everything and build absolutely anything. Her mother chose not to work outside the home while the three siblings were growing up, but instead tirelessly taught each one to read before they went to school and a host of other life skills. They gardened, made jelly, dried jerky, and canned goods from the garden. Toni's mother also shared myriad tips from her nursing days. The three siblings spent almost 8 years enjoying their rural upbringing in Wyoming. Life on the ranch was full and interesting, and Toni would not have traded the experience for anything in the world.Her artistic talents began surfacing in infancy. Her parents remember that Toni had a voracious appetite for learning, and wanted to know what everything was called. At 6 months, her mother was amazed at the size of her vocabulary. She was sure that her daughter had been gifted with a photographic mind because Toni would immediately master something after seeing it performed or hearing it spoken only once. Before her first birthday, her mother submitted a baby photo for consideration in the Gerber Baby campaign. Had the family pursued it, their lives might have gone a very different direction. Instead, life remained rather simple and Toni expressed herself in a variety of other ways. At age 3, she was discovered drawing on her bedroom walls instead of napping. She loved to color and spent hours and hours at that task. With a vivid imagination, she began directing her siblings to act out scenes with their Barbies and dolls. In first or second grade, Toni's mom encouraged her to enter a poster campaign contest. She won for both slogan and artwork, and consistently made top grades throughout schoo...

Movies Appeared in

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Art of Film: Accents, Dialects and Acting with Saoirse Ronan & Toni Collette

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