Cate Blanchett (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
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Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett (born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actress, whose work has earned several accolades, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTAs, and an Academy Award.
She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and Golden Globe awards, and earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Blanchett appeared as the elf lady Galadriel in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy from 2001 to 2003. In 2004, Blanchett's portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator brought her numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Blanchett's other films include Babel (2006), Notes on a Scandal (2006), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Blanchett collaborated with director Peter Jackson again for The Hobbit (2012).
Early life and education
Blanchett was born in Melbourne, Victoria in the suburb of Ivanhoe. Her mother, June (née Gamble), was an Australian property developer and teacher, and her father, Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., was a Texas native who was a US Navy Petty Officer and later worked as an advertising executive. The two met while Blanchett's father's ship, USS Arneb, was in Melbourne. When Blanchett was ten, 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 Design in Architecture in April 2008.
Blanchett has described herself as being "part extrovert, part wallflower" during childhood. She attended a primary school in Melbourne at Ivanhoe East Primary 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 arts at the University of Melbourne before leaving Australia to travel overseas.
When she was eighteen, Blanchett went on a holiday to Egypt. A fellow guest at a 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 Egyptian actor Ahmad Zaki. Blanchett returned to Australia and later moved to Sydney, New South Wales to study at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1992 and beginning her career in the theatre.
Career
1993-2000
Her first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1992 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 TV miniseries Heartland opposite Ernie Dingo, the miniseries Bordertown, with Hugo Weaving, and in an episode of Police Rescue entitled "The Loaded Boy". She also appeared in the 1994 telemovie Police Rescue as a teacher taken hostage by armed bandits, and in the 50-minute drama Parklands (1996), which received a limited release in Australian cinemas. Also in 1994, she played a non-recurring role in an episode of the long-running Australian TV series GP, as Janie Morris, a woman living with her brother (Daniel Lapaine as Sean Morris) in a consensual incestuous relationship. Their relationship is torn apart when their mother comes to visit, and notices that only one bed appears to be slept in regularly.
Blanchett made her international film debut with a supporting role as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese Army during World War II, in Bruce Beresford's 1997 film Paradise Road, which co-starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand. Her first leading role, also in 1997, was as Lucinda Leplastrier, in Gillian Armstrong's production of Oscar and Lucinda, opposite Ralph Fiennes. Blanchett was nominated for her first Australian Film Institute Award as Best Leading Actress for this role, and lost out to Pamela Rabe in The Well. She did, however, win an AFI Award as Supporting Actress in the same year for her role as Lizzie in the romantic-comedy Thank God He Met Lizzie, co-starring Richard Roxburgh and Frances O'Connor. Her first high-profile international 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 Award (BAFTA) 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.
2000-2011
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 Galadriel in all three films. The trilogy holds the record as the highest grossing film trilogy of all time. 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 to garner an Academy Award for playing a previous Oscar-winning actor/actress. That same year, Blanchett won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress for her role as Tracy Heart, a recovering heroin addict in the Australian film Little Fish. Though lesser known globally than some of her other films, Little Fish received tremendous critical acclaim in Blanchett's native Australia.
In 2006, she starred in Babel opposite Brad Pitt, The Good German with George Clooney and Notes on a Scandal opposite Dame Judi Dench. Blanchett received her third Academy Award nomination for her performance in the film.
In 2007, Blanchett was named as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People In The 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 the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for portraying one of six incarnations of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' feature film I'm Not There and reprised her role as Elizabeth I in the sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age. At the 80th Academy Awards Blanchett received two Academy Award nominations; Best Actress for Elizabeth: the Golden Age and Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There, becoming the eleventh actor to receive two acting nominations in the same year and the first female actor to receive another nomination for the reprisal of a role.
As of 2011, Blanchett has been featured in seven films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: Elizabeth (1998), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001, 2002 and 2003), The Aviator (2004), Babel (2006), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Blanchett provided a voice for the film Ponyo, and appeared opposite Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, released on 14 May 2010. She attended the premiere of her film Hanna directed by Joe Wright at the Sydney Film Festival.
2012-present
It was announced that Blanchett will reprise her role as Galadriel in Jackson's upcoming films of The Hobbit in 2012 and 2013, filmed in New Zealand.
In 2012, Blanchett voiced the role of "Penelope" in the Family Guy episode "Mr. and Mrs. Stewie".
Blanchett is set to appear in two films directed by Terrence Malick, Lawless and Knight of Cups. Both are scheduled to be filmed in 2012. She is also confirmed to star in Carol, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, set to shoot in February 2013 in London and New York.
Blanchett will also star in another 2013 release directed by Woody Allen. The film will also star Louis C.K. and will be Allen's first film set in New York City since 2004's Melinda and Melinda.
Blanchett is also set to star in George Clooney's next directorial effort, The Monuments Men. The film will feature an ensemble cast including: Clooney, Daniel Craig, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Hugh Bonneville and Jean Dujardin. The synopsis of the film reads: "In a race against time, a crew of art historians and museum curators unite to recover renown works of art stolen by Nazis before Hitler destroys it."
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 on 29 December 1997 and have three sons: Dashiell John (born 3 December 2001), Roman Robert (born 23 April 2004), and Ignatius Martin (born 13 April 2008).
After making 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 home for her children, and to be closer to her family as well as a sense of belonging to the Australian (theatrical) community. She and her family live in Bulwarra, an 1877 sandstone mansion once owned by Halse Rogers Arnott, in the harbourside Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill. It was purchased for A$10.2 million in 2004 and underwent extensive renovations in 2007 in order to be made more "eco-friendly".
In 2006, a portrait of Cate Blanchett and family painted by McLean Edwards was a finalist in the Archibald Prize.
Blanchett is a Patron of the Sydney Film Festival. She works as the face of SK-II, the luxury skin care brand owned by Procter & Gamble. In 2007, Blanchett became the ambassador for the Australian Conservation Foundation's online campaign - trying to persuade Australians to express their concerns about climate change. She is also the Patron of the development charity SolarAid. Opening the 2008 9th World Congress of Metropolis in Sydney, Blanchett said: "The one thing that all great cities have in common is that they are all different."
In early 2009, Blanchett appeared in a series of special edition postage stamps called "Australian Legends of the Screen", featuring Australian actors acknowledged for the "outstanding contribution they have made to Australian entertainment and culture". She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Nicole Kidman each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once in character; Blanchett is depicted in character from Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
At the beginning of 2011, Blanchett lent her support for a Carbon Tax. She received some criticism for this, especially from conservatives.
Blanchett and her husband are currently artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company.
Filmography
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1994
Police Rescue: The Movie
Vivian
1996
Parklands
Rosie
1997
Oscar and Lucinda
Lucinda Leplastrier
Nominated - Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated - Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor - Female
Thank God He Met Lizzie
Lizzie
Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Supporting Actress
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress Empire Award for Best Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Most Promising Actor London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance - Female Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
1999
Bangers
Julie-Anne
'
Meredith Logue
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated - Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress
Pushing Tin
Connie Falzone
'
Lady Gertrude Chiltern
Nominated - Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
2000
'
Annabelle "Annie" Wilson
Nominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Actress
'
Lola
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated"Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress
2001
'
Petal Quoyle
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress
Charlotte Gray
Charlotte Gray
Nominated - Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
'
Galadriel
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Bandits
Kate Wheeler
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - American Film Institute Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
2002
'
Galadriel
Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Heaven
Philippa
2003
'
Galadriel
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast National Board of Review Award for Best Cast Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
'
Magdalena 'Maggie' Gilkeson
Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Actress
Coffee and Cigarettes
Herself & Shelly
Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Actor of the Year Nominated - Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female Nominated - Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
Veronica Guerin
Veronica Guerin
Nominated - Empire Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama Nominated - Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
2004
'
Jane Winslett-Richardson
Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Actor of the Year Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Actor of the Year Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Empire Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Nominated - Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
2005
Little Fish
Tracy Heart
Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role
Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast Palm Springs International Film Festival Award for Best Cast San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
'
Lena Brandt
Notes on a Scandal
Sheba Hart
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
2007
Hot Fuzz
Janine
Uncredited Cameo
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Queen Elizabeth I
Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Empire Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Volpi Cup Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Movie Villain Nominated - People's Choice Award for Female Action Star
'
Daisy Fuller
Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Actress Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Movie Actress: Action Adventure Nominated - Scream Awards for Best Fantasy Actress
2011
Hanna
Marissa Wiegler
Nominated - St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress
2012
'
Galadriel
2013
'
Post-production
2013
Blue Jasmine
Post-production
2014
'
Galadriel
Pickups/Post-production
Theatre credits
Year
Production
Location
Role
Notes
pre-1992
'
Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne
Unknown
Adaption of play by Norman Corwin
pre-1992
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne
Director
Directed fellow students in a production of an adaptation of the novel by Horace McCoy
1992
Electra
National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney
Electra
Lead
1992/1993
Top Girls
Sydney Theatre Company
Unknown
This play by Caryl Churchill was her first starring role there
1993
Oleanna
Sydney Theatre Company
Carol
Lead opposite Geoffrey Rush in David Mamet's play about a university professor who is accused of sexual harassment by a student. Won Rosemont Best Actress Award.
1994
Hamlet
Belvoir Street Theatre Company
Ophelia
Played opposite Geoffrey Rush. It was a Company B Production, directed by Neil Armfield.
1995
Sweet Phoebe
Sydney Theatre Company and Warehouse Theatre, Croydon
Helen
Played lead in the Belvoir Street Theatre/Playbox Theatre co-production, written and directed by Michael Gow. The Sydney production was the first ever, then transferred to the West End
1995
'
Belvoir Street Theatre Company
Miranda
A Company B Production, directed by Neil Armfield. Played alongside Duxton Chevalier.
1995
'
Belvoir Street Theatre Company
Rose Draper
Played alongside Hugo Weaving. A Stephen Sewell play. It opened on 15 August 1995, and closed on 10 September 1995. It was a Company B production, directed by Neil Armfield, with music composed by Paul Charlier.
1997
' a.k.a. The Seagull in Harry Hills
Belvoir Street Theatre Company
Nina
Lead in the Anton Checkov play. It opened on 4 March 1997, and closed on 13 April. It was a Company B Production, directed by Neil Armfield, music composed by Paul Charlier.
1999
Plenty
The Alemida Season at the Albery Theatre, London
Susan Traherne
Lead in play by David Hare, directed by Jonathan Kent. It opened on 27 April 1999, and closed on 27 July.
1999
'
Old Vic Theatre, London
Unknown
Ensemble; Took part in the show in February 1999, alongside other actors including Melanie Griffith.
2004
Hedda Gabler
Sydney Theatre Company
Hedda Gabler
Opened on 22 July 2004, and closed on 26 September 2004. She reprised her performance as Hedda in New York in March 2006, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre. On that occasion, she was awarded the Ibsen Centennial Commemoration Award.
2009
Sydney Theatre Company
Richard II, Lady Anne
Previewed from 5 January 2009; performed in two parts as part of the Sydney Festival 2009, 10-31 January; through 14 February 2009.
2009
'
Sydney Theatre Company
Blanche DuBois
The play was directed by actress Liv Ullmann and co-starred Joel Edgerton. 2009 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Non-Resident Production, Washington, DC
2010
Uncle Vanya
Sydney Theatre Company
Yelena
Adaptation by A. Upton; with Richard Roxburgh (Vanya), John Bell (Professor Serebryakov), Hugo Weaving (Astrov)
2011
Big and Small
Sydney Theatre Company
Lotte
Directed by Benedict Andrews; new translation by Martin Crimp of Botho Strauß's 1978 play Groß und klein; co-commissioned by the Barbican Centre, London 2012 Festival, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, Vienna Festival and Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen
2013
The Maids
Sydney Theatre Company
-
Played alongside Isabelle Huppert; directed by Benedict Andrews; new translation by Benedict Andrews and Andrew Upton of Jean Genet's 1947 play Les Bonnes