Cate Blanchett

Personal life

Blanchett was born the daughter of a United States Navy petty officer from Texas and of 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, Genevii¨ve, is a theatrical designer.

Her husband is playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton, whom she met in 1996 while she was performing in a production of The Seagull. It was not 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 on December 29, 1997. Their first child, son Dashiell John, was born on December 3, 2001; their second child, son Roman Robert, was born on April 23, 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 initial treatment there, Blanchett flew with him to London for further treatment.

After making England her main family home for most of the early 2000s, she and her husband returned to their native Australia In 2006. Blanchett said in a Vogue magazine interview of November 2006: "Andrew and I realized how much Australia meant to us. We saw the theater community in Sydney and we felt, well, we know you all; we have worked with many of you. We have tried to live a few other places, but something really hit us in the gut. It's just a feeling about what home is. It became clear to us, particularly after the children were born, that family and the theatrical community in Australia were a large part of who we are."

Career

Blanchett primary school in Melbourne at Ivanhoe East Primary School before completing secondary education at Methodist Ladies' College, where she explored her passion for acting. She studied economics and fine art at the University of Melbourne before leaving Australia to travel. She returned to Australia and later moved to Sydney to study at the National Institute of Dramatic Art; graduating in 1992 and beginning her career on the stage. Her first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1993 David Mamet play Oleanna. She also appeared as Ophelia in an acclaimed 1994-95 Company B production of Hamlet, directed by Neil Armfield, starring Richard Roxburgh and Geoffrey Rush.

She has also appeared in roles in Australian television. She appeared in the mini-series Heartland opposite Ernie Dingo, the mini-series Bordertown and in the Police Rescue episode, The Loaded Boy.

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.

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, losing to Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love but did win the British Academy Award and a golden globe award for best actress in a motion picture drama .

The following year, Blanchett was nominated at BAFTA award for her supporting role in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2005 for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. This made Blanchett the first person ever to garner an Academy Award for playing a previous Oscar-winning actor/actress.

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 High Elf Queen Galadriel in all three films.

Blanchett is currently reprising her role as Elizabeth I in the upcoming sequel tentatively entitled Golden Age, and is set to star as a young Bob Dylan in the upcoming feature I'm Not There.

As of 2008, she and her husband will commence three-year contracts as artistic co-directors of the Sydney Theatre Company. The contracts include a clause that will allow either of them to take three months out each year to pursue other activities.

Filmography

Awards won

Awards nominated