CateBlanchett
CatherineÉlise "Cate" Blanchett (5' 8½" (1.74 m) born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actress. Shecame to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the1998 film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and TelevisionArts (BAFTA) and Golden Globe Awards, and received her first Academy Awardnomination for Best Actress. Blanchett appeared as the elf queen Galadriel inPeter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy from 2001 to 2003, and she is toreprise her role in the upcoming Hobbit films. In 2004 Blanchett's portrayal ofKatharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator brought her numerous awards,including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Blanchett's other filmsinclude Babel (2006), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Indiana Jones and the Kingdomof the Crystal Skull (2008), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).
Blanchett'swork has earned her several accolades, including a Star on the Hollywood Walkof Fame, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTAs,and an Academy Award.
Blanchettand her husband, Andrew Upton, are currently artistic directors of the SydneyTheatre Company.
Blanchettwas born in Ivanhoe, a suburb of Melbourne, the daughter of June, an Australianproperty developer and teacher, and Robert "Bob" Blanchett, aTexas-born US Navy Petty Officer who later worked as an advertising executive.The two met while Blanchett's father's ship, USS Arneb, was in Melbourne. WhenBlanchett was 10, she lost her father to a heart attack. She has two siblings;her older brother, Bob, is a computer systems engineer, and her younger sister,Genevieve, worked as a theatrical designer and received her Bachelor of Designin Architecture in April 2008.
Blanchetthas described herself during childhood as "part extrovert, partwallflower". She attended a primary school in Melbourne at Ivanhoe EastPrimary School. For her secondary education, she attended Ivanhoe Girls'Grammar School and then Methodist Ladies' College, from which she graduated,where she explored her passion for acting. She studied Economics and Fine Artsat the University of Melbourne before leaving Australia to travel overseas.
When shewas 18, Blanchett went on a vacation to Egypt. A fellow guest at a hotel inCairo asked if she wanted to be an extra in a movie, and the next day she foundherself in a crowd scene cheering for an American boxer losing to an Egyptianin the film Kaboria, starring the Egyptian actor Ahmad Zaki. Blanchett returnedto Australia and later moved to Sydney to study at the National Institute ofDramatic Art, graduating in 1992 and beginning her career in the theatre.
Her firstmajor stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1993 David Mamet playOleanna, for which she won the Sydney Theatre Critics' Best Newcomer Award. Shealso appeared as Ophelia in an acclaimed 1994–95 Company B production ofHamlet, directed by Neil Armfield, starring Rush and Richard Roxburgh.
Blanchettappeared in the TV miniseries Heartland opposite Ernie Dingo, the miniseriesBordertown, with Hugo Weaving, and in an episode of Police Rescue entitled"The Loaded Boy". She also appeared in the 1994 telemovie of PoliceRescue as a teacher taken hostage by armed bandits, and in the 50-minute dramaParklands (1996), which received a limited release in Australian cinemas.
Blanchettmade her international film debut with a supporting role as an Australian nursecaptured by the Japanese Army during World War II in Bruce Beresford's 1997film Paradise Road, which co-starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand. Herfirst leading role, also in 1997, was as Lucinda Leplastrier in GillianArmstrong's production of Oscar and Lucinda opposite Ralph Fiennes.Coincidentally, Peter Carey, the Booker Prize-winning Australian author ofOscar and Lucinda, had known Blanchett's father, Bob, when both worked in theadvertising industry in Melbourne. Blanchett was nominated for her firstAustralian Film Institute Award as Best Leading Actress for this role but lostout to Pamela Rabe in The Well. She did, however, win an AFI Award asSupporting Actress in the same year for her role as Lizzie in theromantic-comedy Thank God He Met Lizzie, co-starring Richard Roxburgh andFrances O'Connor.
Her firsthigh-profile international role was as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 movieElizabeth, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.Blanchett lost out to Gwyneth Paltrow for her role in Shakespeare in Love, butwon a British Academy Award (BAFTA) and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actressin a Motion Picture Drama. The following year, Blanchett was nominated foranother BAFTA Award for her supporting role in The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Already anacclaimed actress, Blanchett received a host of new fans when she appeared inPeter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. She played the role of Galadriel in allthree films. The trilogy holds the record as the highest grossing film trilogyof all time.
In 2005,she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing KatharineHepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. This made Blanchett the first personto garner an Academy Award for playing a previous Oscar-winning actor/actress.
In 2006,she starred in Babel opposite Brad Pitt, The Good German with George Clooneyand Notes on a Scandal opposite Dame Judi Dench. Blanchett received her thirdAcademy Award nomination for her performance in the film (Dench was also Oscarnominated).
In 2007,Blanchett was named as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People InThe World and also one of the most successful actresses by Forbes magazine.
In 2007,she won the Volpi Cup Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival and theBest Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for portraying one of sixincarnations of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' feature film I'm Not There andreprised her role as Elizabeth I in the sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Atthe 80th Academy Awards Blanchett received two Academy Award nominations; BestActress for Elizabeth: the Golden Age and Best Supporting Actress for I'm NotThere, becoming the eleventh actor to receive two acting nominations in thesame year and the first female actor to receive another nomination for thereprisal of a role.
She nextstarred in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the CrystalSkull as the villainous KGB agent Col. Dr. Irina Spalko, and in David Fincher'sThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button, appearing on screen with Brad Pitt for asecond time.
On 5December 2008 Blanchett was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fameat 6712 Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre.
As of 2010,Blanchett has been featured in seven films that were nominated for the AcademyAward for Best Picture: Elizabeth (1998), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001,2002 and 2003), The Aviator (2004), Babel (2006), and The Curious Case ofBenjamin Button (2008).
Blanchettprovided a voice for the film Ponyo , and appeared opposite Russell Crowe inRidley Scott's Robin Hood, released on 14 May 2010.
It wasannounced that Blanchett will reprise her role as Galadriel in Jackson'supcoming films of The Hobbit in 2012 and 2013, filmed in New Zealand.
Blanchett'shusband is playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton, whom she met in 1996 whileshe was performing in a production of The Seagull. It was not love at firstsight, however; "He thought I was aloof and I thought he wasarrogant", Blanchett later remarked. "It just shows you how wrong youcan be, but once he kissed me that was that." They were married on 29 December1997 and have three sons: Dashiell John (born 3 December 2001), Roman Robert(born 23 April 2004), and Ignatius Martin (born 13 April 2008).
Aftermaking Brighton, England, their main family home for much of the early 2000s,she and her husband returned to their native Australia. In November 2006,Blanchett stated that this was due to a desire to decide on a permanent homefor her children, and to be closer to her family as well as a sense ofbelonging to the Australian (theatrical) community. She and her family live in "Bulwarra",an 1877 sandstone mansion in the harbourside Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill. Itwas purchased for $10.2 million Australian dollars in 2004 and underwentextensive renovations in 2007 in order to be made more"eco-friendly".
In 2006, aportrait of Cate Blanchett and family painted by McLean Edwards was a finalistin the Archibald Prize, which is awarded the "best portrait paintingpreferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science orPolitics".
Blanchettis a Patron of the Sydney Film Festival. She works as the face of SK-II, theluxury skin care brand owned by Procter & Gamble. In 2007, Blanchett becamethe ambassador for the Australian Conservation Foundation's online campaignwww.whoonearthcares.com – trying to persuade Australians to express theirconcerns about climate change. She is also the Patron of the developmentcharity SolarAid. Opening the 2008 9th World Congress of Metropolis in Sydney,Blanchett said: "The one thing that all great cities have in common is thatthey are all different."
In early2009, Blanchett appeared in a series of special edition postage stamps called"Australian Legends of the Screen", featuring Australian actorsacknowledged for the "outstanding contribution they have made toAustralian entertainment and culture". She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe,and Nicole Kidman each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and oncein character; Blanchett is depicted in character from Elizabeth: The GoldenAge.
