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Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December
12, 1970) is an Academy Award-winning American film
actress and former child model. Although she has been
working in the film industry since she was a teenager
and catapulted to fame on the basis of her appearances
in films like Labyrinth and Career Opportunities, she
did not receive wide exposure for her work until the
2000 drama Requiem for a Dream, and the 2001 biopic A
Beautiful Mind, for which she won an Oscar for Best
Supporting Actress.
Early life: Connelly was born in the Catskill
Mountains, New York, to Eileen, an antiques dealer, and
Gerard Connelly, who worked in the garment industry.
Connelly's paternal grandfather was Irish American and
her paternal grandmother was a Norwegian American; her
maternal grandparents were Jewish, their families having
come from Russia and Poland. Connelly was raised in
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, near the Brooklyn Bridge,
attending St. Ann's School, except for four years the
family spent living in Woodstock, New York. One of her
father's friends was an advertising executive, who
suggested that she audition at a modeling agency.
At the age of 10, her career started in newspaper and
magazine ads, then moved to television commercials.
These led to movie auditions and at the age of eleven,
her first film role was as "young Deborah
Gelly," a supporting role in Sergio Leone's 1984
gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in America. She next
starred in Italian horror director Dario Argento's
Phenomena (1985) and in the coming-of-age movie Seven
Minutes in Heaven.
Early career: Connelly became a star on her next
picture, the fantasy Labyrinth (1986) playing Sarah, a
teenager who wishes her baby brother into the world of
goblins ruled by goblin king Jareth (David Bowie). The
film disappointed at the box office.
Connelly made a Japanese pop record, an Italian
Balcannica record and starred in several obscure films,
such as Etoile (1988) and Some Girls (1988). The Dennis
Hopper-directed The Hot Spot (1990) was underwhelming,
both critically and commercially. Another film, Career
Opportunities, was more successful and is considered a
teen cult classic. It and Hot Spot threatened to
typecast her in the "sexpot" stereotype with
both films emphasizing her voluptuous figure,
particularly Hot Spot which contained her first topless
scene. It would be the first of seven movies in which
she appeared nude.
Connelly was featured on the cover of Esquire in August
1991, as part of the "Women We Love" feature.
She began studying English at Yale, and two years later
transferred to Stanford. The big-budget Disney film The
Rocketeer (1991) similarly failed to ignite Connelly's
career; after its failure she took some time off from
acting.
The 1996 indie film Far Harbor played her against type
and hinted at a much broader range than she had
previously shown. Connelly began to appear in smaller
but well-regarded films, such as 1997's Inventing the
Abbotts and 2000's Waking the Dead. She played a
collegiate lesbian in John Singleton's 1995 ensemble
drama, Higher Learning. The critically favored 1998
science fiction film Dark City afforded her the chance
to work with such actors as Rufus Sewell, William Hurt,
Ian Richardson and Kiefer Sutherland. Connelly revisited
her ingenue image, though in a more understated way, for
the 2000 Jackson Pollock biopic Pollock, in which she
played Pollock's mistress.
Breakthrough: Arguably, Connelly's big
breakthrough was the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream.
Connelly starred alongside Jared Leto and Marlon Wayans
as heroin addicts on the edge of a breakdown. The film
firmly established her as a serious actress.
Connelly next starred in Ron Howard's film A Beautiful
Mind (2001), essaying the role of Alicia Nash, the
long-suffering wife of the brilliant, schizophrenic
mathematician John Nash (played by Russell Crowe). The
film was a critical and commercial success and earned
Connelly an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Her appearance in A Beautiful Mind led to a featured
article in TIME magazine.
Connelly starred in two films in 2003: Hulk and House of
Sand and Fog. Hulk was something of a box office
disappointment, but afforded Connelly the chance to work
with noted director Ang Lee. House of Sand and Fog,
based on the novel by Andre Dubus III, was reminiscent
of much of her independent film work of the late 1990s.
Connelly appeared in the 2005 horror film Dark Water,
which was based on a Japanese film.
In 2006, Connelly appeared in two films,
both of which were nominated for multiple Academy
Awards. She played a major role in an adaptation of the
novel Little Children alongside Kate Winslet. Though her
role as Kathy Adamson was very important in the novel,
the director gave her character less screen time,
instead focusing on the characters played by Winslet and
Patrick Wilson. She also played a journalist in Blood
Diamond opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.
She turned down the leading role in The Ring due to
scheduling conflicts. She also turned down the role of
Katherine Thorn in The Omen because the original movie
disturbed her. The role of Veronica in Heathers was
written with her in mind but she turned it down. She
also lost out at the last minute to Ione Skye in Cameron
Crowe's Say Anything. As of now she is on set filming
Reservation Road with Joaquin Phoenix, planned for
release in the fall of 2007.
Personal life: She is an ethical vegan. Connelly
is married to the English actor Paul Bettany (born
1971), whom she met while working on A Beautiful Mind.
The couple's son, Stellan (named after actor Stellan
Skarsgård), was born on August 5, 2003. She also has a
son, Kai (born 1997), from her relationship with
photographer David Dugan.
Further reading: Three of her more
critically-acclaimed films (Dark City, Requiem for a
Dream, and House of Sand and Fog) feature very similar
scenes of Connelly standing alone on a pier overlooking
the ocean. According to the directors, this was entirely
a coincidence. Appeared alongside Jason Priestley in the
Roy Orbison music video for "I Drove All
Night" in 1992. |
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