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Renée Kathleen Zellweger (born April
25, 1969) is an Academy Award-winning American-Norwegian
film actress.
Early life: Zellweger was born in Baytown, Texas.
At the age of 9 years old, her family moved to Katy,
Texas. She is the daughter of Emil Eric Zellweger (a
Swiss immigrant and mechanical / electrical engineer)
and Kjellfrid Iren Andreassen (a Norwegian immigrant of
Sami origin from Tromsø), and graduated from Katy High
School in Katy, a suburb of Houston in 1987.
She was a cheerleader and gymnast, and
participated in the drama club. After high school, she
went to the University of Texas at Austin to major in
English. Though she took a drama class only because she
needed a fine arts credit to complete her degree, it
made her appreciate how much she loved acting. During
this time, she supported herself by taking a series of
waitressing jobs in Austin, Texas.
Film career: After Zellweger graduated from
college she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in
acting. She won supporting roles in films such as
Reality Bites, Empire Records, The Whole Wide World, 8
Seconds, and Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Zellweger first became widely known to audiences around
the world with her role in the 1996's Jerry Maguire,
where she played the romantic interest of Tom Cruise's
character. Since then Zellweger has won acclaim in roles
such as One True Thing opposite William Hurt and Meryl
Streep and in Neil LaBute's Nurse Betty opposite Morgan
Freeman. The role garnered the actress her first of
three Golden Globe Awards. (She was in the bathroom when
future costar Hugh Grant announced her name for Nurse
Betty. Zellweger later protested, "I had lipstick
on my teeth!")
However it wasn't until her role in Bridget Jones's
Diary that she caught the attention of the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For her performance as
a lonely British singleton in the 2001 film, Zellweger
received her first Best Actress Academy Award
nomination. During casting for this film, Zellweger was
told she was too skinny to play the chubby Bridget, but
she managed to gain the required weight very quickly
(Zellweger's dramatically yo-yoing weight has been the
subject of much media interest since the release of
Bridget Jones's Diary).
Up until she appeared opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry
Maguire (1996), Renee Zellweger's name was almost
unknown outside of Hollywood and the independent film
circuit. The beauty and natural ability that Zellweger
exhibited as Cruise's love interest caught the attention
of critics and audiences alike. Though she was passed by
at that year's Oscars, she won several other awards for
her work, including the title of Best Breakthrough
Performer by the National Board of Review.
Of Swiss and Norwegian parentage, the willowy,
strawberry blonde actress was born in Katy, TX, a small
town located near Houston. The town was so small that it
possessed neither cable television nor a movie theater.
As a result, Zellweger reportedly did not see her first
art film until she was a student at the University of
Texas in Austin. Her career at U.T. was an exceptional
one; a regular on the dean's list, she graduated a year
early with a B.A. in Radio, Film, and Television.
While in college, Zellweger took an acting class and
discovered a knack for performing; following graduation,
she made her feature-film debut with a bit part in
Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993). She had
her first real role playing a whacked-out waitress in
Love and a .45 (1994), for which she won her first
Independent Spirit Award nomination; she won a second
nomination for The Whole Wide World (1996), earning
additional acclaim at various film festivals.
Following the tremendous success of Jerry Maguire,
Zellweger went on to prove herself as a versatile
actress able to play roles ranging from an ambitious
journalist (who temporarily shelves her career to care
for her mother) in One True Thing (1998) to a rebellious
Hassidic Jew in Boaz Yakin's A Price Above Rubies
(1998). She then exhibited a capacity for romantic
comedy in The Bachelor (1999), starring as the
long-suffering girlfriend of a serial commitment-phobic
Chris O'Donnell. Zellweger's second role as a
whacked-out waitress in Nurse Betty won her the Best
Actress in a Comedy Award at the 2000 Golden Globes.
Nominated for yet another Golden Globe the following
year for her memorable performance in Bridget Jones'
Diary, that same role also earned Zellweger her maiden
Oscar nod. The following few years found Zellweger's
leading lady status growing and numerous lucrative film
offers flowing in, and the release of White Oleander
(2002) the starlet recieved numerous positive reviews
despite the films lackluster performance.
Later that same year, Zellweger was on top of the world
when she recieved rave reviews for her role in Chicago.
Based on the popular Broadway musical of the same name,
director Rob Marshall's flashy cinematic extravaganza
recieved nearly unanimous praise accompanied by multiple
Academy Award nominations, including a second Best
Actress in a Leading Role nod to Ms. Zellweger for her
lively performance.
Though Zelleger would ultimately be beaten out for the
Oscar by Nicole Kidman, there evidently weren't any hard
feelings as the two starred together in Anthony
Minghella's Cold Mountain. The performance netted
Zellweger her third Oscar nomination in as many years,
and on February 29, 2004, her losing streak ended as she
took home the award for Best Actress in a Supporting
Role.
Attempting to keep up the momentum, Zellweger returned
to the character that earned her her first Academy Award
nomination, starring in the sequel to Bridget Jones's
Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. After a
limited release in December 2004, the film is slated to
open wide in early 2005.
In 2002, she starred with Michelle Pfeiffer in White
Oleander and in Rob Marshall's Best Picture winning film
Chicago opposite Catherine Zeta Jones, Richard Gere,
Queen Latifah, and John C. Reilly. Zellweger earned her
second Academy Award nomination as Best Actress, as well
as the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Award. In
2004, Zellweger finally received an Academy Award, this
time as Best Supporting Actress in Anthony Minghella's
Cold Mountain opposite Jude Law and Nicole Kidman.
Zellweger has since starred in the sequel to Bridget
Jones' Diary in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, lent
her voice to the animated feature Shark Tale, and
starred in the 2005 Ron Howard film Cinderella Man
opposite Russell Crowe and Paul Giamatti. Her most
recent film is Miss Potter, based on the life story of
acclaimed author Beatrix Potter, with Emily Watson and
Ewan McGregor. The film was released in January 2007.
On May 24, 2005, Zellweger received her star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Personal life: Past boyfriends include
actor/comedian Jim Carrey. The relationship ended in a
broken engagement in December 2000. Zellweger notably
poked fun at the prior relationship when she ended her
opening monologue on Saturday Night Live by reading an
entry from her own "diary", marked "Dear
Diary, I can't believe I am dating Jim Carrey."
She also dated The White Stripes singer Jack White for a
period of time.
On May 9, 2005, Zellweger married singer Kenny Chesney
in a ceremony at the island of St. John. They had met in
January at a tsunami relief benefit concert. Zellweger
missed out on the engagement ring since the wedding was
planned over a short span of time. On September 15,
2005, after only four months of marriage, they announced
their plans for an annulment. Zellweger cited fraud as
the reason in the related papers. After media scrutiny
of her use of the word "fraud", she released
the following statement: "(The term is) simply
legal language and not a reflection of Kenny's
character. I would personally be very grateful for your
support in refraining from drawing derogatory, hurtful,
sensationalized or untrue conclusions. We hope to
experience this transition as privately as
possible." The annulment was finalized in late
December 2005. When interviewed on Late Night with David
Letterman in December 2006, she was still reluctant to
answer questions over the relationship.
Zellweger, together with Marc Forster, took part in the
2005 HIV prevention campaign of the Swiss federal health
department. Zellweger was the subject of the famous
Israeli pop song Renée by Ariel Horowitz. In the song
Horowitz describes his love to Zellweger, and says he'd
like to marry her and bring her back to Israel with him. |
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