Kate Beckinsale Biography
Petite and pretty, with dark hair, pale skin and flashing eyes, Kate Beckinsale made a strong film debut as the virginal Hero in Kenneth Branagh’s sun-dappled adaptation of “Much Ado About Nothing” (1993). Although she was a screen novice, the actress projected the requisite intelligence and star quality that deemed her one to watch. As the daughter of comic Richard Beckinsale (who died when she was five years old) and actress Judy Loe, it was perhaps inevitable that she would eventually find her way to the limelight. Beckinsale, however, spent a good portion of her teen years struggling with an eating disorder (of which she has spoken frankly in interviews) before she decided to try her hand at acting. After a bit part in the BBC mystery “Devices and Desires” (1991), she landed the pivotal role of the rebellious daughter of a British woman (Judy Davis) involved with the French Resistance during WWII in “One Against the Wind” (CBS, 1991). Once she had become established as an ingenue with “Much Ado About Nothing”, Beckinsale carefully crafted a career path that would not find her typecast.
Simultaneous to pursuing her education at Oxford, Beckinsale continued to find challenging roles. In “Royal Deceit/The Prince of Jutland” (1994), which was based on the Danish prince whose life inspired Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, she starred opposite Christian Bale. A lighter, more charming side to the actress was displayed in “Marie-Louise, or The Leave” (1995), in which she played a young woman searching for her lover in a crowded train station. Beckinsale delivered a strong turn as the meddlesome orphan taken in by eccentric relatives in the brittle comedy “Cold Comfort Farm” (also 1995). As Flora Poste, she anchored the film and managed to make a busybody character seem charming, and in some ways it was a warm-up for her tackling “Jane Austen’s Emma” (BBC/AE, 1996). Although Douglas McGrath’s feature version starring Gwyneth Paltrow had opened on American screens first, this version found its partisans who felt it was more faithful to the spirit of Austen.
Capitalizing on the sass and intelligence she had projected in both “Cold Comfort Farm” and “Jane Austen’s Emma”, Beckinsale shone as an aristocratic med student who falls in with two charming con men (Dan Futterman and Stuart Townsend) in the underrated caper flick “Shooting Fish” (1997). Adopting a flawless American accent, the actress next registered as the bitchy junior publishing executive seeking fun and perhaps Mr. Right in Whit Stillman’s “The Last Days of Disco” (1998). The following year, Beckinsale retained the Americanisms to portray a mousy tourist in Thailand who falls for a slick Australian, dragging herself and her traveling companion (Claire Danes) into accusations of drug smuggling in “Brokedown Palace”. After time out for motherhood, she returned to the big screen as Nick Nolte’s daughter in the Merchant Ivory adaptation of Henry James’ “The Golden Bowl” (2000).
The attractive actress finally had a shot at more mainstream success with two high profile leading roles in 2001. In the big-budget epic “Pearl Harbor”, she was cast as a US Navy nurse who falls in love with a dashing pilot (Ben Affleck) but when news of his death arrives turns to his best friend (Josh Hartnett) for comfort. And Beckinsale was cast opposite John Cusack in the mildly engaging romantic comedy “Serendipity”, playing a woman who believes more in fate than love at first sight and faces a long but seemingly inevitable road to romance. The actress surfaced again in 2003 in the arty indie “Laurel Canyon” as the icy fiancee of an L.A. native (Christian Bale) who returns to his eclectic mother’s home in Laurel Canyon, where Beckinsale’s character slowly becomes seduced by the sultry Los Angeles lifestyle.
Her highest profile role to date came in “Underworld” (2003), a glossy supernatural thriller with Romeo-and-Juliet overtones, in which Beckinsale played Selene, a vampire emobroiled in her kind’s long feud with a werewolf clan who falls in love with one of her blood enemies (Scott Speedman). Beckinsale followed up with another action-packed supernatural thriller, teaming with Hugh Jackman for “Van Helsing” (2004), in which she played Anna Valerious, a vampire slayer from a long line committed to ending the reign of Count Dracula who teams with the count’s longtime human foe. The actress was better served by her next project, director Martin Scorses’s Howard Hughes glamorous and visually arresting biopic “The Aviator” (2004), in which the actress provided a sultry spark as the firey film icon Ava Gardner, Hughes’ (Leonardo DiCaprio) most challenging, yet sympathetic, paramour.
- Born:on 07/26/73 in London, England
- Job Titles:Actor, Waitress
Family
- Daughter: Lily Sheen. born on January 31, 1999; father, Michael Sheen
- Father: Richard Beckinsale. born in 1947; died of a heart attack in 1979
- Half-sister: Samantha Beckinsale. older
- Mother: Judy Loe. born c. 1948
- Step-siblings: has five
Significant Others
- Companion: Edmund Moriarty. dated while at Cambridge
- Companion: Michael Sheen. born on February 5, 1969; acted together on stage in “The Seagull” (1995); no longer together as of January 2003
Education
- New College, Oxford University, Oxford, England, French and Russian, 1991-94
Milestones
- 1991 Co-starred in CBS TV-movie “One Against the Wind”, playing the rebellious daughter of Judy Davis
- 1991 Played small role in British TV-miniseries “Devices and Desires” (shown on PBS’ “Mystery!” in USA)
- 1993 Acted opposite Christian Bale in “The Prince of Jutland/Royal Deceit”, purportedly the real-life story of the Danish prince upon which “Hamlet” is based; played character of Ethel who is the Ophelia figure
- 1993 Made feature film debut as Hero in Kenneth Branagh’s film version of “Much Ado About Nothing”
- 1994 Played female lead in “Marie-Louise or The Leave”
- 1995 Made stage acting debut in “The Seagull” in Chester, England
- 1995 Portrayed the orphan Flora Poste who goes to live with her relatives at “Cold Comfort Farm” (shot in 1994 for BBC; released theatrically in USA in 1996)
- 1996 Appeared in London stage productions “Sweethearts” and “Clocks”
- 1997 Co-starred with Stuart Townsend and Dan Futterman in “Shooting Fish”
- 1997 Had lead in British TV version of Jane Austen’s “Emma” (aired in Great Britain on ITV; shown in USA on A&E)
- 1998 Appeared in Whit Stillman’s ensemble drama “The Last Days of Disco”
- 1998 Played Alice in British TV production of “Alice Through the Looking Glass”
- 1999 Co-starred with Clare Danes in the prison drama “Brokedown Palace”
- 2000 Portrayed Nick Nolte’s daughter in the Merchant-Ivory adaptation of Henry James’ “The Golden Bowl”
- 2001 Acted with John Cusack in the romantic comedy “Serendipity”
- 2001 Portrayed a 1940s army nurse who becomes involved in a love triangle with two pilots in “Pearl Harbor”
- 2003 Cast as Christian Bale’s love interest in “Laurel Canyon”
- 2004 Cast as Anna opposite Hugh Jackman in horror thriller “Van Helsing”
- 2004 Cast as Ava Gardner opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s “Aviator”
- Became anorexic as a teenager; underwent four years of five-day-per-week analysis
- Will play the romantic lead opposite Adam Sandler in the comedy “Click” (lensed 2005)