Claire Danes Biography

Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress of television, stage, and film. She has appeared in roles such as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's [[Romeo + Juliet]], as Cosette in Les Misérables, as Yvaine in Stardust, and as Temple Grandin in the HBO TV film Temple Grandin. She stars as Carrie Mathison in the Showtime series Homeland. For her work, she has been awarded three Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards, among others.

Early life

Danes was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Her mother, Carla (née Hall), is a day-care provider, painter, and textile designer who later served as her daughter's manager, and her father, Christopher Danes (born May 6, 1944, in Austin, Texas), is a computer consultant and former architectural photographer. Danes has described her background as being "as WASPy as you can get"; her paternal grandfather, Gibson Andrew Danes (1910"1992 in Litchfield, Connecticut), was the dean of the art and architecture school at Yale University. She has an older brother, Asa (born 1973).

Danes attended the Dalton School in New York City, the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies (where one of her classmates was actress Morena Baccarin), the Professional Performing Arts School, and the Lycée Français de Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. In 1998, Danes went to Yale University, her father's alma mater. Director Oliver Stone wrote her letter of recommendation to Yale. After studying for two years as a psychology major, she dropped out of Yale to focus on her film career.

Television

Danes got her start as a guest star on Law & Order in a season 3 episode called "Skin Deep". She also appeared in an episode of HBO's Lifestories: Families in Crisis entitled "The Coming out of Heidi Leiter". In March 1993, a pilot episode was shot, when Danes was 13 years old. It would be almost another year and a half before broadcast; she then starred as the 15-year-old Angela Chase in the television drama series My So-Called Life, for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received an Emmy nomination. Despite being canceled after only 19 episodes, My So-Called Life has developed a large cult following.

In 2010, Danes starred in the HBO production of Temple Grandin, a biopic about the eponymous woman with autism. She won the 2010 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, the 2011 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Miniseries or Television Film and the 2011 Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries award. The film was well received and Grandin herself praised Danes's performance.

Since 2011, Danes has starred as Carrie Mathison in the Showtime series Homeland in which she plays an agent of the CIA who, unbeknownst to her employer, has bipolar disorder. Her character believes a United States Marine Corps war hero is planning a terrorist attack while being tapped for high profile government service. The series costars Mandy Patinkin and Damian Lewis. She won the 2013 Golden Globe and the 2012 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series for her performance. She also won the 2012 and 2013 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in Homeland. In 2012, TIME magazine named Danes one of the 100 most influential people in the World.

Film

Danes played Beth March in the 1994 film adaptation of Little Women. Although ABC canceled My So-Called Life in 1995, the show helped her to receive more film roles. She appeared as Holly Hunter's daughter in Home for the Holidays, which was directed by Jodie Foster. Danes appeared opposite French actress Jeanne Moreau, and Jude Law in 1995's I Love You, I Love You Not. She then played the role of Rachel in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday.

Danes first leading role on the big screen came in 1996. She portrayed Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film [[Romeo + Juliet]], co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo. Later that year, it was reported that she turned down the female lead role in Titanic. Danes, however, said that while she may have been considered for the part, she was never offered the role.

In 1997, Claire Danes also worked alongside two acclaimed directors. She played abused wife Kelly Riker in John Grisham's The Rainmaker directed by Francis Ford Coppola, as well as the trashy, dim-witted Jenny in Oliver Stone's noir U Turn. In 1998, she played several very different roles: Cosette in Bille August's film adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables, and the pregnant teenage daughter of Polish immigrants (played by Gabriel Byrne and Lena Olin) in Polish Wedding. In 1999, she made her first appearance in an animated feature with the English version of Princess Mononoke. That same year she played the role of Julie Barnes in the big screen adaptation of the 1970s TV show The Mod Squad, and took the lead role in Brokedown Palace, alongside Kate Beckinsale and Bill Pullman.

Danes left her career temporarily to attend Yale, having made 13 films in five years. In 2002, Danes returned to film. She starred alongside Susan Sarandon, Kieran Culkin, and Bill Pullman again, in Igby Goes Down. Later that year she co-starred as Clarissa Vaughan's (played by Meryl Streep) daughter in the Oscar-nominated, The Hours, with Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Ed Harris. The following year, she was cast in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, followed by Stage Beauty in 2004. She earned critical acclaim in 2005 when she starred in Steve Martin's Shopgirl alongside Martin and Jason Schwartzman, and in The Family Stone opposite Sarah Jessica Parker and Diane Keaton. In 2007, Danes appeared in the fantasy Stardust, which she described as a "classic model of romantic comedy", with Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, and Sienna Miller, the drama Evening, and appeared in The Flock, opposite Richard Gere. Claire was featured in the film Me and Orson Welles alongside Zac Efron and Ben Chaplin.

Theatre

Danes got her start in New York City theater appearing in performances of Happiness, Punk Ballet, and Kids Onstage for which she choreographed her own dance.

In April 2000, she appeared off Broadway in Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. In November of that same year, she appeared as Emily Webb in a one night only staged reading of Thornton Wilder's Our Town at All Saint's Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills. The production was staged by Bess Armstrong, who had played the mother of Danes's character on My So-Called Life. Also featured in the cast were several other My So-Called Life actors, including Tom Irwin, Devon Gummersall and Paul Dooley.

In September 2005, Danes returned to New York's Performance Space 122 where she had performed as a child. She appeared in choreographer Tamar Rogoff's solo dance piece "Christina Olson: American Model", where she portrayed the subject of Andrew Wyeth's famous painting Christina's World. Olson suffered from muscular deterioration that left her weak and partially paralyzed. "Tamar Rogoff uses her unique body-centric methodology to explore the ideas, spirit and physicality of a woman both rejected and revered." Danes was praised for her dance skills and the acting talent that she brought to the project.

In January 2007, Danes reunited with Rogoff and Rogoff's daughter and Danes's childhood friend Ariel Flavin to perform in Performance Space 122's "Edith and Jenny". In the two person dance performance, Danes and Flavin revisited their film and dance roots: "Danes and Flavin encounter their eleven year-old selves on screen, captured in their respective film debuts, Claire as Edith in Dreams of Love, and Ariel as Jenny in Coyote Mountain. Rites of passage unfold in fragments revealing the complexities of two fictional families. The lines between screen and stage, life and art, are blurred as Edith and Jenny, Danes and Flavin, form an alliance, stepping through and beyond their films and the fates of their families."

Later in 2007, Danes made her Broadway theatre debut as Eliza Doolittle in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, directed by David Grindley at the American Airlines Theatre.

In January 2012, Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals announced that they would honor Danes as their 2012 Woman of the Year.

Other work

In 1997, Danes wrote an introduction to Neil Gaiman's Death: The Time of Your Life.

In 2012, Danes's audiobook recording of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale was released at Audible.com. Her performance was nominated for a 2013 Audie Award in the Fiction category.

Personal life

Danes had her first onscreen kiss in an episode of My So-Called Life before she had one in real life. Later on, she met Australian singer Ben Lee at her birthday party and they dated for almost six years, their relationship ending in 2003.

Danes met actor Hugh Dancy on the set of Evening in Newport, Rhode Island, and they began dating. They announced their engagement in February 2009. The couple married in France in late August or early September 2009, in a ceremony not announced publicly. The two have a son, Cyrus Michael Christopher Dancy, born on December 17, 2012.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Little Women	Beth March
1995	How to Make an American Quilt	Glady Jo Cleary
	Home for the Holidays	Kitt Larson
1996	I Love You, I Love You Not	Daisy/Young Nana
	To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday	Rachel Lewis
	[[Romeo + Juliet]]	Juliet Capulet
1997	U Turn	Jenny
	The Rainmaker	Kelly Riker
1998	Les Misérables	Cosette
	Polish Wedding	Hala
1999	The Mod Squad	Julie Barnes
	Brokedown Palace	Alice Marano
	Princess Mononoke	San	Voice
2002	Igby Goes Down	Sookie Sapperstein
	The Hours	Julia Vaughn
2003	It's All About Love	Elena
	The Rage in Placid Lake	Girl at seminar
	Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines	Kate Brewster
2004	Stage Beauty	Maria
2005	Shopgirl	Mirabelle Buttersfield
	The Family Stone	Julie Morton
2007	Evening	Young Ann
	Stardust	Yvaine
	The Flock	Allison
2009	Me and Orson Welles	Sonja Jones
2013	As Cool As I Am	Lainee Diamond

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Law & Order	Tracy Brandt	Episode: "Skin Deep"
1994	Lifestories: Families in Crisis	Katie Leiter	Episode: "More Than Friends: The Coming Out of Heidi Leiter"
1994"1995	My So-Called Life	Angela Chase
2010	Temple Grandin	Temple Grandin
2011"present	Homeland	Carrie Mathison

Theater

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	The Vagina Monologues		Westside Theatre
2005	Christina Olson: American Model	Christina Olson	Performance Space 122
2007	Edith and Jenny	Edith	Performance Space 122
	Pygmalion	Eliza Doolittle	American Airlines Theatre

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Title of work	Result
1994	Golden Globe Award	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series Drama	My So-Called Life
1994	Primetime Emmy Award	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	My So-Called Life
1994	Young Artist Awards	Young Artist Award for Best Performance by a Youth Ensemble in a Television Series	My So-Called Life
1994	Chicago Film Critics Association	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress	Little Women
1994	Chicago Film Critics Association	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress	Little Women
1994	Young Artist Awards	Young Artist Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress Co-Starring in a Motion Picture	Little Women
1995	Young Artist Awards	Young Artist Award for Best Young Leading Actress " Feature Film	Home for the Holidays
1996	Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actress " Romance	[[Romeo + Juliet]]
1996	London Film Critics Circle Awards	London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year	[[Romeo + Juliet]]
1996	MTV Movie Award	MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance	[[Romeo + Juliet]]
1996	MTV Movie Award	MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss	[[Romeo + Juliet]]
1996	MTV Movie Award	MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo	[[Romeo + Juliet]]
1996	Young Artist Awards	YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama Film	[[Romeo + Juliet]]
1996	Young Artist Awards	Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film " Supporting Young Actress	To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday
1997	Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress " Drama	The Rainmaker
2002	Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards	Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast	The Hours
2002	Screen Actors Guild Award	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	The Hours
2005	Satellite Award	Satellite Award for Best Actress " Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	Shopgirl
2005	St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards	St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress	Shopgirl
2010	Primetime Emmy Award	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie	Temple Grandin
2010	Satellite Award	Satellite Award for Best Actress " Miniseries or Television Film	Temple Grandin
2010	Golden Globe Award	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Miniseries or Television Film	Temple Grandin
2010	Screen Actors Guild Award	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie	Temple Grandin
2011	Satellite Award	Satellite Award for Best Actress " Television Series: Drama	Homeland
2012	Golden Globe Award	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series: Drama	Homeland
2012	Critics' Choice Television Award	Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series	Homeland
2012	TCA Award	TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama	Homeland
2012	Primetime Emmy Award	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	Homeland
2012	Satellite Award	Satellite Award for Best Actress " Television Series: Drama	Homeland
2013	Golden Globe Award	Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series Drama	Homeland
2013	Screen Actors Guild Award	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series	Homeland
2013	Critics' Choice Television Award	Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series	Homeland
2013	Primetime Emmy Award	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	Homeland