Selma Blair Parents: All About Molly Ann Cooke and Elliot I. Beitner

Selma Blair was born Selma Blair Beitner on June 23, 1972, in Southfield, Michigan, to parents Molly Ann Cooke and Elliot I. Beitner. The Legally Blonde and Cruel Intentions actress has been open about her difficult relationship with her father, while describing her mother as her “first person” and a lifelong source of inspiration.

Molly Ann Cooke: The Judge Who Shaped Her

Molly Ann Cooke was a prominent Detroit-area lawyer and workers’ compensation magistrate. She graduated from the University of Detroit-Mercy School of Law and practiced for more than 50 years. Cooke was a member of the Workers’ Compensation Hall of Fame and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Polish American Legal Society for her 32 years of public service.

Blair has frequently credited her mother as a central figure in her life. In her memoir Mean Baby, Blair described Cooke as her “role model and confidante,” despite the sometimes harsh truths she dispensed. Cooke died in May 2020 at age 82 at her home in Michigan.

In a tribute posted after her mother’s death, Blair wrote: “My mother was a brilliant judge and one of the only women in her law school class. She was my first style icon, my muse, my prize.”

Elliot Beitner: The Father She Cut Out

Elliot I. Beitner was Blair’s father. Blair legally dropped his surname after her parents divorced when she was 23. She has stated publicly that she had nothing to do with her father and that he was out of her life.

The estrangement stemmed from a series of “poison pen letters” sent to Drew Barrymore that were signed with Blair’s name. Blair discovered that someone connected to her father was behind the letters, which caused her to lose jobs and damaged her reputation. When her father was confronted with the information, Blair said he chose the other person over her.

Blair later learned her father knew about the letters and allowed them to continue. She told Drew Barrymore in a 2022 interview: “He did something so unthinkable to me. I would never call him dad again, really.” Elliot Beitner died in 2012, and Blair has said the two never had a real reconciliation.

Three Older Sisters

Blair is the youngest of four daughters. She has three older sisters: Katherine, Elizabeth, and Marie. Katherine Beitner works as a book publicist. Blair referenced her sisters as “Lizzie, Katie, Mimi” in her tribute to their mother in 2020.

Blair was raised in a Jewish household in Michigan. She attended Hillel Day School, a Jewish day school in Farmington Hills, and later Cranbrook Kingswood in Bloomfield Hills. She spent her freshman year at Kalamazoo College before transferring and ultimately graduating magna cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1994 with a BFA in photography.