Cate Blanchett biography

Synopsis

Born in 1969 in Melborne, Australia, Cate Blanchett studied at Australia's National Insittute for Dramatic Art. She graduated in 1992. Her first film debut was in 1997's Paradise Road. She's gone on to star in a number of well-received films, including The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Aviator, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and two films about Queen Elizabeth in which Blanchett holds the title role. She won an Oscar in 2005 for her role in The Aviator.

Early Career

Born Catherine Élise Blanchett in Melbourne, Australia, on May 14, 1969, Cate Blanchett began making a name for herself in theater soon after graduating from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992. She quickly won roles with the Sydney Theater Company, first in its production of Top Girls and then in Kafka Dances. For her latter performance, Blanchett won the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Newcomer Award in 1993. She also received critical acclaim for roles in the theater productions of Hamlet, The Tempest and The Seagull.

Award-Winning Actress

Blanchett went on to land various parts on Australian and American television series, and then made her feature film debut in 1997's Paradise Road. Later that year, she grabbed Hollywood's attention with her performance opposite Ralph Fiennes in Oscar and Lucinda (1997). In 1998, Blanchett's Golden Globe-winning portrayal of England's Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth earned the actress her first Academy Award nomination. She was 29 years old at the time.

Blanchett turned in a superb supporting performance in 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley, a film also featuring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law. In 2000, she starred as a psychic woman in a small Southern town in the thriller The Gift, starring alongside Katie Holmes and Greg Kinnear. The following year, Blanchett co-starred with Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton in the comic caper Bandits, and with Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore in The Shipping News. Additionally, she headlined the World War II-era drama Charlotte Gray, playing a British woman who is drawn into the French resistance movement.

The following year, Blanchett appeared the first installment of The Lord of the Rings franchise, directed by Peter Jackson and based on the novel by author J.R.R. Toklien; she played the royal elf Galadriel in The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Blanchett returned to the character for the second and third installments of the film trilogy (reuniting with Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler, among other recurring Lord of the Rings cast members): The Two Towers, released in 2002, and The Return of the King, released in 2003. 

In 2005, Blanchett garnered her biggest cinematic accolade to date; she earned an Academy Award (best actress in a supporting role) for her portrayal of the legendary Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic, The Aviator.

Two years later, Blanchett returned to one of her most famous characters, Queen Elizabeth I, in the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). Picking up a later chapter in the life of Elizabeth I, the film explores how the queen handled threats to her rule and her relationship with explorer Sir Walter Raleigh.

Blanchett earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination and Golden Globe nomination for her performance as the famous monarch.

That same year, the actress took another big portrayal: She was one of the actors to portray music legend Bob Dylan in the acclaimed biopic I'm Not There, directed by Todd Haynes. For her performance as the iconic American singer-songwriter, Blanchett earned another Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as well as a Golden Globe nomination in the supporting actress categories. Also in 2007, the actress was named one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People In The World."

In 2008, Blanchett starred alongside Brad Pitt in the acclaimed film Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Directed by David Fincher, the movie's screenplay was inspired by a story originally written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the early 20th century.

In 2012, Blanchett returned to the character Galadriel yet again, this time for a new Peter Jackson-directed series: The Hobbit. Similar to The Lord of the Rings, Jackson's newest franchise is a trilogy and is based on the work of author J.R.R. Tolkien. Additionally, The Hobbit's cast includes many of the same actors from the Lord of the Rings films. The series' first installment (starring Blanchett), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, was released in December 2012, and second and third installments, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smog and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, are slated to hit theaters in 2013 and 2014, respectively; Blanchett has been cast in each installment.

Personal Life

Blanchett and her husband, screenwriter Andrew Upton, have three sons: Dashiell John (born in 2001), Roman Robert (born in 2004) and Ignatius Martin (born in 2008). Blanchett and Upton met and wed in 1997.