Biography of Kate Beckinsale

Kate Beckinsale Born: 26 July 1973

Kate Beckinsale aAttending public school at Godolphin and Latymer, Kate Beckinsale was a bright student, tomboyish and encouraged to be foul-mouthed by Battersby, a working-class Londoner who found it hilarious to hear a posh girl swear. But Kate Beckinsale fury at her father's death gradually turned inwards, making her troubled and withdrawn, with a paranoid fear of illness, till she reached breakdown in the form of anorexia - anorexia, as she says, being "the mode of nervous breakdown most available to teenage girls". By the age of 15, Kate Beckinsale weighed just five stone yet, with the support of Loe and Battersby, and the aid of five years of Freudian analysis, eventually recovered. Now she claims that anorexia and the learning process it forced upon her were "the best thing that ever happened to me".

Throughout this crisis, though, Kate Beckinsale passion and creativity were undimmed (she proudly claims the same birthday as Jung, Aldous Huxley and George Bernard Shaw). Kate Beckinsale won the prestigious WH Smith's Young Writers competition two years running, once for her short stories, once for poetry. And, having been asked all her life whether she would follow her parents into acting, she decided that she would. She'd always enjoyed theatre, once following The Rocky Horror Show round the country, all togged up and hurling obscenities and tampons at the stage. Now, she joined a youth theatre near her home in Chiswick, and began seeking employment.

Parts came relatively quickly. Kate Beckinsale first professional performance was a small voiceover as the tormented Alice Mair in a TV adaptation of PD James' Devices And Desires. There was Rachel's Dream, a 30-minute short for Channel 4, concerned with environmentalism and capitalist wickedness, in which Kate Beckinsale headlined along with Christopher Eccleston. And the first big break, when she appeared in One Against The Wind, starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill. Here Davis played a Red Cross worker helping the Allies in Occupied France in WW2, with Beckinsale as her daughter, engaging in a treacherous affair with a Nazi officer.

With all going so well, Kate Beckinsale considered enrolling in drama school, but instead decided to widen her horizons by enrolling at New College, Oxford, to study French and Russian Literature (this would also, she reasoned, allow her to act in several different countries). Yet Kate Beckinsale continued to act, joining in with student community theatre groups, appearing notably in a presentation of Arthur Miller's A View From The Bridge. And it was here that, having mostly kept away from boys, she began her first serious affair, with fellow student actor Edmund Moriarty - the pair first meeting when engaging in an increasingly torrid onstage kiss.

Still pursuing professional roles, Beckinsale had her ups and downs. One major down was missing out on the part of Cathy in Wuthering Heights, Juliette Binoche at the last minute nabbing the chance to haunt poor Ralph Fiennes. Yet there was also a most excellent up (dude) when she passed an audition to play along Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington and Emma Thompson in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing, her first celluloid venture. Filming in Tuscany in the summer break of 1992, she shared a villa with Reeves and Robert Sean Leonard, but still managed to concentrate on work enough to avoid turning her character, Hero, into the usual wimp. "I don't want to play drippy women", Kate Beckinsale explained later "because I don't know any".

Somehow managing to maintain her studies, in the Easter holiday of 1993, Kate Beckinsale went to Copenhagen to film Prince Of Jutland. Directed by Gabriel Axel, of Babette's Feast fame, this was a retelling of Hamlet that returned to the original Danish source material, and starred Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren and Christian Bale. Kate Beckinsale worked again in the summer, filming Uncovered, a now-hard-to-find thriller about a picture-restorer who accidentally discovers a clue to an unsolved murder. She also appeared as main guest in Headcase, the first episode of the Imogen Stubbs-starring crime series Anna Lee.

Kate Beckinsale 's third year of college was to be spent in Paris. Kate Beckinsale enjoyed her freedom here, particularly the break from Oxford life which she now found too empty and frivolous. But her acting career was now taking over from academia. Kate Beckinsale won the lead in a French movie, Marie-Louise Ou La Permission, and attempted to score the part of Flora Poste in a BBC production of Cold Comfort Farm. Considered too young for the role, Kate Beckinsale revealed her acumen and ambition by writing to director John Schlesinger, asking to try out for him again when they were both in Paris. Kate Beckinsale achieved her goal and, having left university early in the spring of 1994, found herself filming alongside Ian McKellan and Rufus Sewell by late summer. Cold Comfort Farm was the BBC's standard-bearer on New Year's Day, 1995 but, more importantly, when released to American art cinemas the next year, it was an underground smash, grossing $5 million and forcing a UK cinema release in 1997.

Meanwhile, Kate Beckinsale was having a rough ride. Tired of playing young innocents, she took the part of the mischievous and possibly malevolent siren in Haunted. Directed by Lewis Gilbert, who'd helmed Alfie and Educating Rita, and co-starring Aidan Quinn and Anthony Andrews, this was a superior ghost story but Beckinsale - quite reasonably - had a problem with the nudity and sex. Though originally a tiny part of the screenplay, this exponentially expanded as shooting began. "I despise that", she said later, just as she despised it at the time, demanding the use of a body double.

Next would come Pearl Harbour, where Kate Beckinsale took her first major starring role, as Ben Affleck's lover, nurse Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale actually got the part when Charlize Theron pulled out to do Sweet November). For this Kate Beckinsale took no fee from producers Disney, instead agreeing to a percentage of profits. Quickly she moved on to rom-com Serendipity where, Christmas shopping in New York City, Kate Beckinsale met and fell for John Cusack. Obsessed by Fate, she wrote her details in a book and sold it, the assumption being that if they were meant to be together Destiny would drop the book back into Cusack's eager hands. Years later, when both are attached to others but still bemoaning Destiny's tardiness, things begin to happen.

2002 would bring an onscreen lull as Kate Beckinsale appeared only in Laurel Canyon. Here Kate Beckinsale and Christian Bale were Harvard lovers who move in with Bale's music producer and sexually liberated mother, Frances McDormand, at the time working and sleeping with Brit rock star Alessandro Nivola. This pervy pair then decide to include a curious Kate Beckinsale in a sexy triangle, while Bale seeks his kicks elsewhere. Other than this, Kate Beckinsale would be seen only in a Gap ad called Denim Invasion, paired with Orlando Bloom and directed by Cameron Crowe.

But seismic changes were on the way for Kate Beckinsale . On the set of her next picture, Underworld, she fell for director Len Wiseman and ended her 7-year relationship with Michael Sheen (he'd go on to appear in Bright Young Things, Timeline, and alongside Julianne Moore and Pierce Brosnan in Laws Of Attraction). The tabloids were incensed. Not only was Kate Beckinsale failing to behave like a traditional English Rose, she appeared to be doing exactly what Kate Winslet had done when achieving Hollywood success several years before. On top of this, Sheen was actually IN Underworld. During the press tour for the film, the new couple were careful to say very little about the split. Instead they purposefully promoted the movie, a crazy take on Romeo And Juliet in a world where vampires battle endlessly against werewolves, Kate Beckinsale playing the fearless vampire warrior Selene. Togged up in the tightest of rubber cat-suits, Kate Beckinsale character's name just had to be a reference to Michelle Pfeiffer's Selena Kyle/Catwoman in Batman Returns. The suit certainly fitted her well - the film's poster would make her a bona fide sex symbol before the movie was ever released.

With offers now pouring in, Kate Beckinsale began to really mix it up. Her next outing was in Tiptoes, a freaky romantic comedy where she played the pregnant girlfriend of Matthew McConaughey. Given that McConaughey's brother, Gary Oldman, is a dwarf, the couple at first fear that latent genes might restrict their baby's size. Then, to complicate matters further, Kate begins to fall for little Gary.

2004 would see her really hit the heights. First she returned to the world of vampires in Van Helsing, Stephen Sommers' big budget follow-up to the successful Mummy movies. Here Kate Beckinsale played Anna, the genteel but tough sidekick to Hugh Jackman's titular vampire hunter, joining in the mayhem as he visits Eastern Europe to do wage war against Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein's Monster. Kate Beckinsale'd back this up with her most challenging role to date, playing Ava Gardner in The Aviator, Martin Scorsese's long-awaited biopic of Howard Hughes, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role. With Cate Blanchett taking on Katherine Hepburn, another of Hughes' lovers, the onscreen competition would be fierce. Many wondered whether the slight Kate Beckinsale could ever match Gardner's mighty charisma - the woman did, after all, torment Frank Sinatra so intensely that he blubbed like a little girl and pretended to commit suicide.

Kate Beckinsale was taking one of the biggest gambles in recent screen history. Already a headlining star after Underworld, she would now either win everlasting respect as a big-screen actress or be laughed at for years. The girl certainly has guts. And more. Smart and funny, she's still her father's daughter. But now Richard Beckinsale is Kate Beckinsale's dad.

Filmography of Kate Beckinsale

• Underworld Evolution (2005) (pre-production) Kate Beckinsale plays Selene
• Aviator, The (2004) (completed) Kate Beckinsale plays Ava Gardner
• Van Helsing (2004) Kate Beckinsale plays Anna Valerious
• Tiptoes (2003) Kate Beckinsale plays Carol
  ... aka Tiny Tiptoes (2003) (France)
• Underworld (2003/I) Kate Beckinsale plays Selene
• Laurel Canyon (2002) Kate Beckinsale plays Alex 'Al'
• Serendipity (2001) Kate Beckinsale plays Sara Thomas
• Pearl Harbor (2001) Kate Beckinsale plays Nurse Lt. Evelyn Johnson
  ... aka Pearl Harbour (2001) (UK: promotional title)
• Golden Bowl, The (2000) Kate Beckinsale plays Maggie Verver
  ... aka Coupe d'or, La (2000) (France)
• Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael (1999) (V) Kate Beckinsale plays Girl ('Waltz Away Dreaming' video)
• Brokedown Palace (1999) Kate Beckinsale plays Darlene Davis
• Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998) (TV) Kate Beckinsale plays Alice
• Last Days of Disco, The (1998) Kate Beckinsale plays Charlotte Pingress
• Shooting Fish (1997) Kate Beckinsale plays Georgie
• Emma (1997) (TV) Kate Beckinsale plays Emma Woodhouse
• Haunted (1995) Kate Beckinsale plays Christina Mariell
• Marie-Louise ou la permission (1995) Kate Beckinsale plays Marie-Louise
• Cold Comfort Farm (1995) (TV) Kate Beckinsale plays Flora Poste
• Uncovered (1994) Kate Beckinsale plays Julia
  ... aka Tabla de Flandes, La (1994) (Spain)
• Prince of Jutland (1994) Kate Beckinsale plays Ethel
  ... aka Amled, prinsen af Jylland (1994) (Denmark)
  ... aka Prinsen af Jylland (1994) (Denmark: video title)
  ... aka Royal Deceit (1994) (USA)
• Much Ado About Nothing (1993) Kate Beckinsale plays Hero
• Rachel's Dream (1992) (TV) Kate Beckinsale plays Rachel
• One Against the Wind (1991) (TV) Kate Beckinsale plays Barbe Lindell
• "Devices and Desires" (1991) (mini) TV Series (voice) Kate Beckinsale plays Young Alice Mair

Photo gallery of Kate Beckinsale

Kate Beckinsale in Van Helsing and Underworld Photo Gallery

News, Gossip and Trivia Kate Beckinsale

Kate Beckinsale Gossip

On the set of the 2003 vampire action flick "Underworld," sexy Kate Beckinsale ditched co-star husband Michael Sheen (with whom she had a 2-year-old daughter, Lily) after falling for handsome young director Len Wiseman. Kate Beckinsale has said of new sweetheart Wiseman, whom she married in May, "We agree on pretty much everything." Presumably, that includes not casting jilted hubby Sheen in the "Underworld" sequel.

Breast implants for Kate Beckinsale

Actress Kate Beckinsale's agent denied the Van Helsing star has breast implants, a claim made by fellow British actress Sienna Guillory.

Sienna Guillory, star of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, used Kate Beckinsale as an example of how Hollywood can force changes, including plastic surgery, on actresses, World Entertainment News Network reported Tuesday.

In Hollywood, women hate each other. Everyone is so bitchy and they don't want younger actresses coming in and taking their roles. You only have to look at what it's done to Kate Beckinsale. Kate Beckinsale used be cool. Now I've heard Kate Beckinsale's got a clause in her contract saying that Kate Beckinsale can't be filmed bending over at more than a 45-degree angle because her boob implants slide up onto her collar bone, Sienna Guillory said.

Jane Brand, Kate Beckinsale's agent, scoffed at Sienna Guillory's comments.

I do her contracts and this is absolutely untrue. ... Kate Beckinsale has no such clause in her contracts and she has categorically not had breast implants, Brand said.

Kate Beckinsale's agent denies 'breast implants contract'

Kate Beckinsale has been accused of turning into a diva by fellow British actress Sienna Guillory - who claims the 'Pearl Harbor' star has a contract clause to disguise her alleged boob job.

Sexy Sienna Guillory, who stars in new movie 'Resident Evil 2', has slammed the brunette beauty - who now lives in Los Angeles with director husband Len Wiseman - for letting Hollywood change her.

British actress Sienna Guillory is claiming that Kate Beckinsale is hell bent on acquiring a diva status, and to ensure it, she ( Kate Beckinsale) has had a clause put into her contract that forbids disclosure of the Pearl Harbour star having undergone breast implants.

Sienna Guillory, who stars in upcoming film Resident Evil 2 , has criticised Kate Beckinsal for "giving in to the superficial world of Hollywood".

"In Hollywood, women hate each other. Everyone is so bitchy, because it's all about looking pretty and they don't want younger actresses coming in and taking their roles," Femalefirst quoted Sienna Guillory as saying.

"You only have to look at what it has done to Kate Beckinsal. Kate Beckinsal used to be cool. Now I've heard she's got a clause in her contract saying she can't be filmed bending over at more than a 45 degree angle because her boob implants slide up to her collar bone," she added.

Kate Beckinsale's agent, Jane Brand, however, has rejected Sienna Guillorya's allegations as baseless and unfounded.

Kate Beckinsale Natural Breasts

Rubbishing rumours of her undergoing plastic surgery, actress Kate Beckinsale has said that she has never tried any nip and tuck method.

Kate Beckinsale is rumoured to have had breast implants and Botox injections since moving to Hollywood and a a plastic surgery website recently announced that she was the owner of the "Ugliest Breasts In Hollywood" and pointed to her stretch marks as evidence of a surgery.

"A friend of mine kindly sent me those cuttings. But I've not had a breast job. The moment those rumours started was when people saw my stretch marks," the Glamour magazine quoted the 'Pearl Harbour' actress as saying.

"I don't know how people think you can go from eight-and-a-half stone to over 12 stone when you're pregnant and not get them. I've got stretch marks everywhere," Kate Beckinsale added.