Profile of Cate Blanchett on Famous Like Me

Cate Blanchett (born May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian Oscar-winning actress. She was born Catherine Elise Blanchett, the daughter of a Texan naval petty officer of distant French descent who came ashore in Melbourne and met her mother, a Melbourne schoolteacher. Her father, Robert, later worked in advertising after marrying her mother, June. He died of a heart attack when Cate was 10 years old. She has two siblings; the elder, Bob, is a computer programmer, and her younger sister, Genevieve, is a theatrical designer.

Blanchett graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney in 1992, and began her career on the stage. Her first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1993 David Mamet play Oleanna.

She had roles in Australian television drama mini-series. She appeared as 'Elizabeth Ashton' in the mini-series Heartland opposite Ernie Dingo ("Heartland" is known as "Burned Bridges" in the United States), and she appeared as Bianca in the mini-series Bordertown.

Her film debut was as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese in the prisoner of war production of Paradise Road directed by Bruce Beresford, that co-starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand.

She married playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton, whom she met back in 1996 while she was performing in a production of The Seagull. It was hardly love at first sight, however. "He thought I was aloof and I thought he was arrogant," Blanchett later remarked. "It just shows you how wrong you can be. But once he kissed me that was that." The two were married in 1997 and welcomed their first child, Dashiell John, in December 2001; their second child, Roman Robert, was born in 2004. The younger son received a minor burn injury on May 15, 2005 while the family was in Marrakech, Morocco, for the filming of the movie Babel. After treatment there, Blanchett flew with him to London for further treatment.

Blanchett is perhaps best known for her role as Elizabeth I, Queen of England in the 1998 movie Elizabeth. This role earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, which she was widely considered to be likely to win (however the award instead went to Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love). Blanchett later won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2005 for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorcese's The Aviator.

Already an acclaimed actress, Blanchett received a host of new fans when she appeared in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies. She played the role of the elf Galadriel in all three films.

Filmography

2006

• Golden Age – Elizabeth I

2005

• Little Fish – Tracy Heart

2004

• The Life Aquatic – Jane Winslett-Richardson
• The Aviator – Katharine Hepburn - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress

2003

• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Galadriel
• The Missing – Maggie
• Coffee and Cigarettes
• Veronica Guerin – Veronica Guerin

2002

• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Galadriel
• Heaven – Philippa

2001

• The Shipping News – Petal Bear
• Charlotte Gray – Charlotte Gray
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Galadriel
• Bandits – Kate Wheeler

2000

• The Gift – Annabelle 'Annie' Wilson
• The Man Who Cried – Lola

1999

• Bangers – Julie-Anne
• The Talented Mr. Ripley – Meredith Logue
• Pushing Tin – Connie Falzone
• An Ideal Husband – Lady Gertrude Chiltern

1998

• Elizabeth – Elizabeth I of England

1997

• Oscar and Lucinda – Lucinda Leplastrier
• Thank God He Met Lizzie – Lizzie
• Paradise Road – Susan Macarthy

1996

• Parklands – Rosie

1994

• Police Rescue – Vivian

Awards & Nominations

• Academy Award - Nominated for Best Actress for Elizabeth (1998)
• Academy Award - Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator (2004)
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts - Best Actress for Elizabeth (1998)
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts - Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator (2004)
• Golden Globe Awards - Best Actress, Drama, for Elizabeth (1998)
• Golden Globe Awards - Nominated for Best Actress, Musical or Comedy, for Bandits (2001)
• Golden Globe Awards - Nominated for Best Actress, Drama, for Veronica Guerin (2003)
• Golden Globe Awards - Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator (2004)
• Screen Actors Guild Awards - Best Ensemble Cast for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• Screen Actors Guild Awards - Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator (2004)

Quotes

• "If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously"
• On the Lord of the Rings trilogy: "I had never done anything with blue screen before, or prosthetics, or anything like that. Lord of the Rings was like stepping into a videogame for me. It was another world completely. But, to be honest, I basically did it so that I could have the ears. I thought they would really work with my bare head."
• "If I had my way, if I was lucky enough, if I could be on the brink my entire life - that great sense of expectation and excitement without the disappointment - that would be the perfect state."

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Cate Blanchett