CATE BLANCHETT
Name: Catherine Élise Blanchett
Born: 14 May 1969 Melbourne, Australia
Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett (born May 14, 1969) is an Academy Award- and
Golden Globe Award-winning Australian actress. She has won various other awards,
most notably two SAGs and two BAFTAs, as well as the Volpi Cup at 64th Venice
International Film Festival.
She came to international attention in the 1998 film Elizabeth, directed by
Shekhar Kapur, in which she played Elizabeth I of England. She is also well
known for her portrayals of the elf queen Galadriel in Peter Jackson's The Lord
of the Rings trilogy and Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, a
role which brought her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Blanchett was born in Ivanhoe, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, the 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 who 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; her older brother, Bob, is a computer systems engineer, and her
younger sister, Genevieve, 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 cheering for an American boxer losing to an Egyptian in
the film Kaboria, starring the late Egyptian actor Ahmed Zaki. Blanchett
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.
Her first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1993 David Mamet
play Oleanna, for which she won the Sydney Theatre Critics' Best Newcomer Award.
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 an episode of Police Rescue entitled "The Loaded Boy". She
made her Australian movie debut in the 1994 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. Her first high-profile role was as Elizabeth
I of England in the 1998 movie Elizabeth, which earned her an Academy Award
nomination for Best Actress. Blanchett lost out to Gwyneth Paltrow for her role
in Shakespeare in Love but won 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. Already an acclaimed actress,
Blanchett received a host of new fans when she appeared in Peter Jackson's The
Lord of the Rings. 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 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.
In 2006 she starred in both Babel opposite Brad Pitt, and Notes on a Scandal
playing Sheba Hart opposite Dame Judi Dench. Coincidentally, 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. Blanchett received her third Academy Award nomination for her
performance in the film (Dench was also Oscar nominated).
In 2007, she won the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival for
portraying one of six incarnations of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' feature film I'm
Not There and also reprised her role as Elizabeth I in the sequel to Elizabeth
entitled Elizabeth: the Golden Age. At the 80th Annual Academy Awards
Blanchett received two Academy Award nominations including Best Actress for
Elizabeth: the Golden Age and Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There, making
Academy Awards history, as she became the eleventh actor to receive two acting
nominations in the same year and the first female actor to receive another Oscar
nomination for the reprisal of the same role in Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The
Golden Age.
Blanchett was named as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People In The
World in 2007 and also one of the most successful actresses by Forbes magazine.
Blanchett will next be seen on screen in the eagerly anticipated Indiana Jones
and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,
both will be released in 2008.
Blanchett and her husband have commenced their three-year contracts as artistic
co-directors of the Sydney Theatre Company from January 2008. Their contracts
include a clause that will allow either of them to take three months out of each
year to pursue other activities.
On 26 February 2008, Cate Blanchett was named as a member of the panel that will
select participants in Kevin Rudd's 2020 Summit of the best and brightest
Australians. Controversially, Blanchett was the only woman on the ten member
panel.
Name: Catherine Élise Blanchett
Born: 14 May 1969 Melbourne, Australia
Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett (born May 14, 1969) is an Academy Award- and
Golden Globe Award-winning Australian actress. She has won various other awards,
most notably two SAGs and two BAFTAs, as well as the Volpi Cup at 64th Venice
International Film Festival.
She came to international attention in the 1998 film Elizabeth, directed by
Shekhar Kapur, in which she played Elizabeth I of England. She is also well
known for her portrayals of the elf queen Galadriel in Peter Jackson's The Lord
of the Rings trilogy and Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, a
role which brought her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Blanchett was born in Ivanhoe, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, the 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 who 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; her older brother, Bob, is a computer systems engineer, and her
younger sister, Genevieve, 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 cheering for an American boxer losing to an Egyptian in
the film Kaboria, starring the late Egyptian actor Ahmed Zaki. Blanchett
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.
Her first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1993 David Mamet
play Oleanna, for which she won the Sydney Theatre Critics' Best Newcomer Award.
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 an episode of Police Rescue entitled "The Loaded Boy". She
made her Australian movie debut in the 1994 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. Her first high-profile role was as Elizabeth
I of England in the 1998 movie Elizabeth, which earned her an Academy Award
nomination for Best Actress. Blanchett lost out to Gwyneth Paltrow for her role
in Shakespeare in Love but won 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. Already an acclaimed actress,
Blanchett received a host of new fans when she appeared in Peter Jackson's The
Lord of the Rings. 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 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.
In 2006 she starred in both Babel opposite Brad Pitt, and Notes on a Scandal
playing Sheba Hart opposite Dame Judi Dench. Coincidentally, 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. Blanchett received her third Academy Award nomination for her
performance in the film (Dench was also Oscar nominated).
In 2007, she won the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival for
portraying one of six incarnations of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' feature film I'm
Not There and also reprised her role as Elizabeth I in the sequel to Elizabeth
entitled Elizabeth: the Golden Age. At the 80th Annual Academy Awards
Blanchett received two Academy Award nominations including Best Actress for
Elizabeth: the Golden Age and Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There, making
Academy Awards history, as she became the eleventh actor to receive two acting
nominations in the same year and the first female actor to receive another Oscar
nomination for the reprisal of the same role in Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The
Golden Age.
Blanchett was named as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People In The
World in 2007 and also one of the most successful actresses by Forbes magazine.
Blanchett will next be seen on screen in the eagerly anticipated Indiana Jones
and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,
both will be released in 2008.
Blanchett and her husband have commenced their three-year contracts as artistic
co-directors of the Sydney Theatre Company from January 2008. Their contracts
include a clause that will allow either of them to take three months out of each
year to pursue other activities.
On 26 February 2008, Cate Blanchett was named as a member of the panel that will
select participants in Kevin Rudd's 2020 Summit of the best and brightest
Australians. Controversially, Blanchett was the only woman on the ten member
panel.