Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett

Born 14 May 1969

Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett is an Australian actress and theatre director. She has won multiple acting awards, most notably two SAGs, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTAs, an Academy Award, as well as the Volpi Cup at 64th Venice International Film Festival.

Sexiness

Two form-fitting backless dresses were enough to convince us that Cate Blanchett has more than her acting talent to rely on. A blond Aussie, she plays on many of our fantasies with her varying roles -- some submissive, some controlling and others eccentric, yet it is her dangerously curvaceous body that mesmerizes us most of all.

Though subdued off-screen, Cate Blanchett still shows off this great body to the public and even offers a peek into her potential wild side. We might just have to venture Down Under real soon...


Quotes

"If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously!"

"I'm one of those strange beasts who really likes a corset."

"Believe it or not, I'm pretty good at just doing nothing. I'm either sitting very still or running very fast."

"If you have a good sex life, getting pregnant is bound to happen eventually."

"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."

"I just don't understand women who go out with men who are younger than them.... I would understand sleeping with a 60-year-old man more."

"Being an actress on a film is a bit like you're aging in dog years. (laughs) It's quite confronting. "

"The world is so massively overpopulated, but if you're halfway decent-looking and you make nice ones, then I think it's probably your responsibility to make more. That's why we just have to have more of them! "

"You know you've made it when you've been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls? It's a bit scary, actually."

"I certainly think that when I flick through all the magazines at the hairdressers I like to see and am drawn to images that have an intelligence and mind at work behind them."

"I'm a believer rather than a disbeliever. But I'm not particularly interested in knowing the future. I'd rather let life unfold. I'm not interested in controlling my environment."
- Cate Blanchett

Her first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1993 David Mamet play Oleanna, for which she won the Sydney Theatre Critics' Best Newcomer Award. She also appeared as Ophelia in an acclaimed 1994–95 Company B production of Hamlet, directed by Neil Armfield, starring Rush and Richard Roxburgh. Blanchett appeared in the TV mini-series Heartland opposite Ernie Dingo, the mini-series Bordertown, with Hugo Weaving, and in an episode of Police Rescue entitled "The Loaded Boy". She also appeared in the 1994 telemovie of Police Rescue as a teacher taken hostage by armed bandits and in the 50 minute drama Parklands (1996), which received a limited release in Australian cinemas.

Blanchett made her international film debut with a supporting role as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese Army during WW2 in Bruce Beresford's 1997 film Paradise Road, which co-starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand. Her first leading role, also in 1997, was as Lucinda Leplastrier in Gillian Armstrong's production of Oscar and Lucinda opposite Ralph Fiennes. Coincidentally, Peter Carey, the Booker Prize-winning Australian author of Oscar and Lucinda, had known Blanchett's father, Bob, when both worked in the advertising industry in Melbourne. Blanchett was nominated for her first Australian Film Institute Award as Best Leading Actress for this role but lost out to Pamela Rabe in The Well. She did, however, win an AFI Award as Supporting Actress in the same year for her role as Lizzie in the romantic-comedy Thank God He Met Lizzie, co-starring Richard Roxburgh and Frances O'Connor.

Her first high-profile international role was as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 movie Elizabeth, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Blanchett lost out to Gwyneth Paltrow for her role in Shakespeare in Love but won a British Academy Award (BAFTA) and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. The following year, Blanchett was nominated for another BAFTA Award for her supporting role in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Already an acclaimed actress, Blanchett received a host of new fans when she appeared in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. She played the role of Galadriel in all three films. The trilogy holds the record as the highest grossing film trilogy of all time.

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

In 2006, she starred in Babel opposite Brad Pitt, The Good German with George Clooney and Notes on a Scandal opposite Dame Judi Dench. Coincidentally, Dench won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for playing Elizabeth I, the same year Blanchett lost for playing the same historical figure, albeit in a different category. Blanchett received her third Academy Award nomination for her performance in the film (Dench was also Oscar nominated).

In 2007, Blanchett was named as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People In The World and also one of the most successful actresses by Forbes magazine.

In 2007, she won the Volpi Cup Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for portraying one of six incarnations of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' feature film I'm Not There and reprised her role as Elizabeth I in the sequel, Elizabeth: the Golden Age. At the 80th Academy Awards Blanchett received two Academy Award nominations; Best Actress for Elizabeth: the Golden Age and Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There, becoming the eleventh actor to receive two acting nominations in the same year and the first female actor to receive another nomination for the reprisal of a role.

Blanchett and her husband started three-year contracts as artistic co-directors of the Sydney Theatre Company in January 2008, with Giorgio Armani as its patron.

She next starred in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as the villanous KGB agent Col. Dr. Irina Spalko, and in David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, appearing on screen alongside Brad Pitt for a second time.

On 5 December 2008 Blanchett was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre.

As of 2008, Blanchett has featured in seven films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: Elizabeth (1998), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001, 2002 and 2003), The Aviator (2004), Babel (2006) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008).

Filmography
Actress:
1. The Dangerous Husband (2011)
2. North of Cheyenne (2011)
3. Indian Summer (2011) .... Lady Edwina Mountbatten
4. Robin Hood (2010) .... Maid Marian
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) .... Daisy
... aka The Curious Case (International: English title: informal short title)
6. Gake no ue no Ponyo (2008) (voice: English version) .... Gran Mamare
7. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) .... Irina Spalko
8. Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) .... Queen Elizabeth I
9. I'm Not There. (2007) .... Jude
... aka I'm Not There (Germany) (USA: poster title)
10. Hot Fuzz (2007) .... Jeanine
11. Notes on a Scandal (2006) .... Sheba Hart
12. The Good German (2006) .... Lena Brandt
13. Babel (2006) .... Susan Jones
... aka Babel (France)
14. Stories of Lost Souls (2006) .... Julie-Anne (segment "Bangers")
15. Little Fish (2005) .... Tracy
16. The Aviator (2004) .... Katharine Hepburn
17. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) .... Jane Winslett-Richardson
18. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) .... Galadriel
19. The Missing (2003/I) .... Magdalena Gilkeson
20. Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) .... Cate / Shelly (segment "Cousins")
21. Veronica Guerin (2003) .... Veronica Guerin
22. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) .... Galadriel
23. Heaven (2002/I) .... Philippa
24. The Shipping News (2001) .... Petal
25. Charlotte Gray (2001) .... Charlotte Gray
26. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) .... Galadriel
27. Bandits (2001) .... Kate Wheeler
28. The Gift (2000) .... Annabelle 'Annie' Wilson
29. The Man Who Cried (2000) .... Lola
30. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) .... Meredith Logue
31. Pushing Tin (1999) .... Connie Falzone
32. An Ideal Husband (1999) .... Lady Gertrude Chiltern
33. Bangers (1999) .... Julie-Anne
34. Elizabeth (1998) .... Elizabeth I
35. Oscar and Lucinda (1997) .... Lucinda Leplastrier
36. Thank God He Met Lizzie (1997) .... Lizzie
37. Paradise Road (1997) .... Susan Macarthy
38. Parklands (1996) .... Rosie
39. "Bordertown" (1995) TV mini-series .... Bianca
40. "G.P." .... Janie Morris (1 episode, 1994)
41. Police Rescue (1994) .... Vivian
42. "Heartland" (1994) TV mini-series .... Elizabeth Ashton
43. "Police Rescue" .... Mrs. Haines (1 episode, 1993)
- The Loaded Boy (1993) TV episode .... Mrs. Haines

Producer:

1. Stories of Lost Souls (2006) (producer) (segment "Bangers")
... aka Historias de almas perdidas (Argentina: DVD title)
2. Bangers (1999) (producer)

Archive Footage:

1. Oscar, que empiece el espectáculo (2008) (TV) .... Herself/Susan/Jude Quinn
2. Closing: Team Indy (2008) (V) .... Herself
3. 51 premis Sant Jordi de cinematografia (2007) (TV) .... Susan
4. "La tele de tu vida"
- Episode #1.7 (2007) TV episode .... Herself
5. Penélope, camino a los Oscar (2007) (TV) (uncredited) .... Herself
6. San Sebastián 2006: Crónica de Carlos Boyero (2006) (TV) .... Susan
7. "Sexes"
- El cos (2005) TV episode .... Elizabeth I
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (2004) (VG) .... Galadriel

Birthday: 5/14/1969
Nickname: The Queen
Birthname: Catherine Elise Blanchett
Hookups: Andrew Upton
Hometown: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Assets: classic beauty,
elegant,
special,
witty,
unafraid of elf ears
Vices: nothing-she's perfect
Sign: Taurus
Height: 5'8
Job: Actress
Hobbies: directing plays,
winning awards
Ethnicity: White
Country of Origin: Australia