Kate Beckinsale

First making an impression on international audiences with her role as the sweet, virginal Hero in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993), pale-skinned, fine-boned British actress Kate Beckinsale has since stepped beyond period pieces to prove that she is anything but a fragile English rose. ADVERTISEMENT
The daughter of a BBC casting director and famed television actor Richard Beckinsale (known for roles on Porridge and Rising Damp), Beckinsale was born July 26, 1973. After her father's death from a heart attack in 1979, the actress was raised by her mother. By her own account, Beckinsale's childhood and adolescence were fairly troubled, marked by struggles with anorexia. She decided to follow in her father's acting footsteps while still a teenager and in 1991, had her major television debut in Once Against the Wind, a World War II drama in which she played Judy Davis' daughter. The same year, Beckinsale enrolled at Oxford, to study French and Russian Literature, and pursued her education until committing herself full-time to acting.
In 1993, while still a student at Oxford, Beckinsale was cast in Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing. Her supporting role was a memorable one, winning the actress a limited amount of recognition amongst American audiences, but it was not until 1995, when she starred in John Schlesinger's adaptation of Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm, that her wattage began to increase, at least in art houses everywhere. The film, which was initially made for BBC television, proved to be a modest hit, bringing in respectable box office and glowing reviews. Beckinsale followed the film's success with another two years later, starring as an altruistic con artist in the quirky romantic comedy Shooting Fish. The film was an unqualified hit in its native country, becoming the third-highest grossing film in England for 1997. The same year, Beckinsale further increased her visibility with the title role in A&E's Emma.
She next graced American movie screens in Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco (1998). She received good reviews for her portrayal of a cool and catty WASP college graduate (for which she assumed an American accent), although the movie itself met with a deeply mixed reaction. The following year, Beckinsale, in addition to giving birth to a daughter (fathered by longtime boyfriend Michael Sheen), starred in her first big-budget Hollywood feature. Playing opposite Claire Danes in Brokedown Palace, the actress portrayed an American girl who, while on vacation with best friend Danes in Thailand, gets caught with heroin and is sentenced to 33 years in a Thai prison.
That mid-budgeted film, however, was nothing compared to her next major Hollywood production. After essaying roles in a television production of Alice Through the Looking Glass (1999) and the Merchant/Ivory production of Henry James' The Golden Bowl (2000), Beckinsale was plucked from relative obscurity by director Michael Bay for his lavish World War II epic, Pearl Harbor (2001). Boasting a record-setting, nine-digit price tag and one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns ever waged on the American public, the film featured the actress as Evelyn, a plucky nurse torn between the affections of two soldiers. Though a brief foray into Laurel Canyon found Beckinsale essaying the low-key role of a Harvard graduate gone astray after a taste of the wild side of life, she once again shifted into high gear for the big-budget vampire versus werewolf battle royal Underworld in 2003. Sporting the sort of gothic vinyl duds that had fanboys crooning, Beckinsale raised arms against a brutal breed of lycanthropes and few could argue that she looked good doing it. So good, in fact, that not only a sequel but a prequel detailing the age old struggle between the bloodsuckers and the full moon fiends. That same year, Beckinsale and Underworld director Len Wiseman announced their engagement. A role opposite a dwarfed (literally} Gary Oldman in Matthew Bright's Tiptoes was soon to follow, and soon thereafter the starlet was once again doing battle with the undead (opposite X-Men's Hugh Jackman) in the action horror adventure Van Helsing.
Kate Beckinsale was born 26 July 1973 in England, and has resided in London for most of her life. Her mother is Judy Loe, who has appeared in a number of British dramas and sitcoms, and continues to work as an actress, predominantly in British television productions. Her father was Richard Beckinsale, born in Nottingham, England, UK. He starred in a number of popular British television comedies during the 1970s, most notably the television series "Rising Damp" (1974), "Porridge" (1973) and Lovers, The (1973). He passed away tragically early in 1979 at the age of 32.
Kate attended the public (private school to U.S. readers) Godolphin and Latymer School in London for her grade and primary school education. In her teens, she twice won the British bookseller W. H. Smith Young Writers' competition--once for three short stories and once for three poems. After a tumultuous adolescence, (a bout of anorexia {cured} and a smoking habit which continues to this day) she gradually took up the profession of acting.
Her major acting debut came in a World War II television movie called One Against the Wind (1991) (TV), filmed in Luxembourg during the summer of 1991. It first aired on American television that December. Kate began attending Oxford University's New College in the fall of 1991, majoring in French and Russian literature. She had already decided that she wanted to act, but to broaden her horizons she chose university over drama school. While in her first year at Oxford, Kate received her big break in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1993). Kate worked in three other films while attending Oxford, beginning with a part in the medieval historical drama Prince of Jutland (1994), cast as Ethel. The film was shot during spring, 1993 on location in Denmark, and she performed her supporting part during New College's Easter break. Later in the summer of that year, she performed as the lead in the contemporary mystery drama Uncovered (1994). Before she went back to school, her third year at university was spent at Oxford's study-abroad programme in Paris, France, immersing herself in the French language, Parisian culture, and those awful French cigarettes.
A year away from the academic community and living on her own in the French capital caused her to re-evalate the direction of her life. She faced a choice: continue with school, or concentrate on her flourishing acting career. After much thought, she chose the acting career. In the spring of 1994 Kate left Oxford, after finishing three years of study. Kate appeared in the BBC/Thames Television satire Cold Comfort Farm (1995) (TV) filmed in London and East Sussex during late summer 1994. Cold Comfort Farm (1995) (TV) opened to spectacular reviews in the United States, grossing over US$5 million during its American cinema run. It was re-released to U.K. theatres in the spring of 1997.
Acting on the stage consumed the first part of 1995; she toured in England with the Thelma Holts Theatre Company production of Chekov's The Seagull. After turning down several mediocre scripts, "and going nearly berserk with boredom," she waited seven months before another interesting role was offered to her. Her big movie of 1995 was the romance/horror movie Haunted (1995), starring opposite Aidan Quinn and John Gielgud, and filmed in West Sussex. In this film, she wanted to play `an object of desire', unlike her past performances where her characters were much less the siren and more the worldly innocent. Kate's first film project of 1996 was the British ITV production of Jane Austin's novel Emma (1997) (TV). Her last film of 1996 was the comedy Shooting Fish (1997), filmed at Shepparton Studios in London during early fall. She played the part of Georgie, an altruistic con artist. She had a daughter, Lily, in 1999 with actor Michael Sheen.