30 Most Intriguing Facts About Julie Bowen That Every Fan Should Know

3 April 2019, 3:21 pm EDT By Ruby Karnick

Julie Bowen, who gained worldwide recognition for playing Aunt Gwen in the 2000's "Dawson's Creek," has two Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series to her name, along with four other nominations. Here are some interesting facts about American actress and model:

She was born Julie Bowen Luetkemeyer on March 03, 1970, in Baltimore, Maryland and is the middle daughter of Suzanne and John Luetkemeyer Jr., a real estate developer.
Her older sister Molly Luetkemeyer is an interior designer in Los Angeles and younger sister Annie is a doctor in San Francisco. She spent her junior year in Florence, Italy, and became fluent in Italian.
She is of German, as well as Scottish, Irish, Welsh, English, and French descent. Her great-great-grandfather, John Valcoulon LeMoyne, was a U.S. representative from Illinois, and her great-great-great-grandfather, Magnus Miller Murray, was a Mayor of Pittsburgh.
Bowen attended Calvert School in Baltimore, Garrison Forest School, Maryland, and Roland Park Country School. She moved on to St. George’s School, in Newport, Rhode Island and then attended Brown University, graduating with a Bachelors of Arts in Renaissance Studies.
During her college days Bowen acted in stage production such as ‘Guy’s and Dolls’ ‘Lemon Sky’ and ‘Stage Door.’ After graduation she relocated to New York and studied at the legendary Actors Studio.
Bowen made her debut with the independent film as Doris in ‘Five Spot Jewel’ before graduating from college. Later she starred in a soap opera ‘Loving’ in 1992 and in an episode of college drama ‘Class of 96’ in 1993.
In the comedy crime TV series ‘Boston Legal,’ she was in the tail end of filming her fake labor scene in 2004, when she actually went into labor with her son Oliver.
Bowen has a pacemaker since her early twenties, to ensure that her heartbeat doesn’t drop to dangerously low. She is suffering from a condition known as bradycardia, which is when a person’s resting heartbeat is under 60 beats per minute while resting, which is less than optimal. She also practices yoga to help this condition.
In 2018, during a talk show in ‘Busy Tonight,’ she revealed in a shocking and hilarious confession, how she got so high and starting crawling on the ground, pretending to search her husband. On the advice of her therapist she bought a pack of ‘Scooby Snacks’ and got stoned for about five to eight hours.
She played the lead in the Joe Dante’s ‘Runaway Daughters,’ as part of the anthology series Rebel Highway that was originally aired on the cable television network Showtime.

In 1996, she played the character Virginia Venit, the romantic interest of title character in the sports comedy film ‘Happy Gilmore.’ She revealed on Access Hollywood that there is a deleted segment of the film where she made out with the dwarf dressed like a cowboy.
She started appearing regularly in late 90s, in films such as ‘Multiplicity’ as Robin, ‘Confession of a Sleep Addict’ as P.J, co-starring with Drew and in ‘An American Werewolf in Paris’ as Amy Finch.
In the 1997, film ‘An American Werewolf in Paris,’ she was cast with Tom Everett Scott, as a party girl who became a victim to one of the werewolves. Incidentally the character played by Tom had the name ‘Andy McDermot’ which was similar to her role name in the series ‘Extreme’ earlier.
In same year in 1997 she played a couple of guest roles in television series ‘Strange Luck’ and ‘Party of Five.’ But her popularity reached its zenith with her portrayal of Roxanne Please in ‘ER’ from 1998 to 1999 and in the role of a high school teacher teaching English in another series ‘ED’ which ran from 2000 to 2004.
As Carol Vessey, the love interest of the title character, Ed Stevens, she had good chemistry with her co-stars and shined in the role. The show’s co-creator, Rob Burnett, told Neal Justin of the Star Tribune, ‘She’s this odd combination of beauty and humor and intelligence, which is hard to find. We had auditioned every actress in Hollywood for the role until Julie came in at the end of a long day when we were practically asleep and then suddenly she knocked us off.
The success of her work in ‘Ed’ led to an endorsement deal for Bowmen. In 2001 she signed on to be a spokesperson for Neutrogena products. She appeared in print ads and television commercials for various skin and makeup products for the company and more recently advertising for the Pure Glow products.
Bowen continued to move between film and television. She appeared in two episodes of TV series ‘Three’ as Amanda Webb, then as Hope Chayse, in TV movie ‘The Last Man on Planet Earth.’ She also appeared in two guest roles in 2000 as Nikky in ‘Oh Baby’ and in ‘Dawson’s Creek’ as Aunt Gwen.
In 2005, Bowen joined the cast of hit show ‘Boston Legal’ in its second season as Denise Bauer, a strong lawyer with a soft side. According to her the role was reflective of her own personality. She told the New Zealand Herald, ‘Whenever I get into a fight with my husband he always says, ‘You stop being a lawyer,’ this was well before I ever played one.
Since 2009, Bowen had starred as Claire Dunphy on the ABC sitcom ‘Modern Family’ in all 232 episodes. Bowen was pregnant with twins during the pilot.
In the sitcom Modern Family, Bowen is technically the step-daughter of Gloria, played by Sofia Vergara. In both real life and the show, Bowen is older than Sofia. She is extremely close to Sarah and Ariel, her daughters in play and considers them to be her daughters for real.

Bowen won nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series six times consecutively for the role of Claire Dunphy in Modern Family and has won the award twice in the year 2011 and 2012.
She has also bagged the Screen Actors Guild awards for the same role in the same television series which has been running since 2009.
On September 09, 2004, she married Scott Phillips, a real estate investor and software developer. The couples have three sons, the first born in April 2007, and twins in May 2009.
While on her honeymoon to Costa Rica, she and her husband helped newly-hatched baby turtle crawl from their nest to the ocean, ensuring that the group survived instead of being attacked by predators.
Bowen officially called quits with her husband of 13 years effectively from February 17, 2017. The divorce was formally finalized on September 13, 2018 and Bowen has split $25 million in assets with ex-husband.
She has stated that motherhood has made her a lot more conservative. Bowen has always been a liberal including her views on gay marriage, but recently her views are changing now that she has kids.
In 2002, she donated $1,000 to the campaign of Republican Helen Delich Bentley for Maryland’s 2nd district in the United States House of Representatives.
She had in 2016 appeared in ‘Fight Song,’ a Pitch Perfect inspired music video, shown at the Democratic National Convention, in support of candidate Hillary Clinton.
There have been rumors that she and her co-star in Modern Family, Sofia Vergara, are at logger-heads, which she rubbished it and actually the two women are very good friends.
She has been lending her voice for the animated series such, ‘Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated,’ for Marion Spartan, in ‘Family Guy,’ for Claire Dunphy, in ‘Tangled: The Series,’ ‘LA to Vegas,’ and in ‘DuckTales’ for Lieutenant Penumbra.