Cate Blanchett - Actresses
Summary
"Catherine Élise Blanchett" (born May 14, 1969), better known as "Cate Blanchett", is an Academy Award- and Golden Globe Award-winning Australian actress. She has also won various awards, most notably including two SAGs and two BAFTAs, as well as the volpi cup at 64th International Venice Film Festival, making her one of a few actors who won all major motion picture acting awards.
Blanchett made her debut success in the 1998 film "Elizabeth", directed by Shekhar Kapur, in which she played Elizabeth I of England. She is also known for her portrayals in "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy as the High elf queen Galadriel and in "The Aviator" as Katharine Hepburn, the latter brought her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Biography
Early life and education
Blanchett was born in Ivanhoe, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, daughter of June, an Australian property developer and teacher, and Robert Blanchett, a Texas-born United States Navy Petty Officer who met Blanchett's mother while stationed in Melbourne and later worked as an advertising executive. When Blanchett was 10, she lost her father to a heart attack. She has described herself during childhood as 'part extrovert, part wallflower'. She has two siblings; the older brother, Bob, is a computer systems engineer, and her younger sister, Geneviève, is a theatrical designer.
Blanchett attended primary school in Melbourne at Ivanhoe East Primary School before completing secondary education at Methodist Ladies' College, where she explored her passion for acting. She studied economics and fine art at the University of Melbourne before leaving Australia to travel. When she was 18, Blanchett went on a vacation to Egypt. A fellow guest at a cheap hotel in Cairo asked if she wanted to be an extra in a movie, and the next day she found herself in a crowd scene with childhood sweetheart Jamie Ross, cheering for an American boxer who was losing to an Egyptian. She walked off from the set. She returned to Australia and later moved to Sydney to study at the National Institute of Dramatic Art; graduating in 1992 and beginning her career in the theatre.
Career
Her first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1993 David Mamet play "Oleanna". She also appeared as Ophelia in an acclaimed 1994-95 Company B production of "Hamlet", directed by Neil Armfield, starring Rush and Richard Roxburgh. Blanchett appeared in the mini-series "Heartland" opposite Ernie Dingo, the mini-series "Bordertown" and in the "Police Rescue" episode, 'The Loaded Boy'. She made her Australian film debut in the 1994 feature film of "Police Rescue" as a teacher taken hostage by armed bandits.
Blanchett made her international film debut as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese in a production of "Paradise Road" directed by Bruce Beresford, co-starring Glenn Close and Frances McDormand. Blanchett's first high-profile role was as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 movie "Elizabeth". This role earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, losing to Gwyneth Paltrow for "Shakespeare in Love". However, Blanchett's performance won her a British Academy (BAFTA) Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama.
The following year, Blanchett was nominated for another BAFTA Award for her supporting role in "The Talented Mr. Ripley". In 2004 she played a pregnant journalist in the Wes Anderson film "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", yet again earning a nomination for BFCA award for Best Acting Ensemble. In 2005 she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator". This made Blanchett the first person ever to garner an Academy Award for playing a previous Oscar-winning actor/actress. Already an acclaimed actress, Blanchett received a host of new fans when she appeared in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movies. She played the role of the High Elf Queen Galadriel in all three films, which hold the record as the highest grossing film trilogy of all time.
In 2006 she starred in both "Babel" opposite Brad Pitt, and "Notes on a Scandal" playing Sheba Hart opposite Dame Judi Dench. Dench won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for playing Elizabeth I, the same year Blanchett lost for playing the same historical figure, albeit in a different category. She received her third Academy Award nomination for her performance in the film (Dench was also Oscar nominated). Blanchett reprised her role as Elizabeth I in the sequel to "Elizabeth" titled "Elizabeth: the Golden Age". Blanchett works as the face of SK-II, the luxury skin care brand owned by Procter & Gamble. In 2007, Blanchett was listed among Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World. Also in 2007, Blanchett was named one of the most successful actresses by Forbes.
Blanchett is set to star as one of six incarnations of Bob Dylan in the feature film "I'm Not There". As of 2008, she and her husband will commence three-year contracts as artistic co-directors of the Sydney Theatre Company. The contracts include a clause that will allow either of them to take three months out each year to pursue other activities. Blanchett also stars in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Personal life
Blanchett's husband is playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton, whom she met in 1996 while she was performing in a production of "The Seagull". They were married the following year 1997. It was not love at first sight, however. 'He thought I was aloof and I thought he was arrogant,' Blanchett later remarked. 'It just shows you how wrong you can be. But once he kissed me that was that.' The two were married on December 29, 1997. Their first child, Dashiell John, was born on December 3, 2001; their second child, Roman Robert, was born on April 23, 2004.
After making England her main family home for most of the early 2000s, she and her husband returned to their native Australia. In 2006, Blanchett said in a "Vogue" interview of November 2006:
In 2006 a portrait of Cate Blanchett and family painted by McLean Edwards was a finalist in the Archibald Prize. The prize is awarded for the 'best portrait painting preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics'.
Blanchett said she has a crush for Harrison Ford since her teenage years and finds him to be an attractive star.
In 2007, Blanchett supported the web-based campaign www.whoonearthcares.com - urging people to express their concerns about climate change in Australia.
At 38 years old, Cate is currently pregnant with her third child; she is due in April 2008.http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20155866,00.htmlhttp://www.reuters.com/article/peopleNews/idUSSYD14588820071104
External links
(Cate Blanchett) - Australian Film Commission
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Cate Blanchett.
