Cate Blanchett

Cate Blanchett (born Catherine Élise Blanchett, 14.5.1969)

Cate Blanchett is an Oscar-winning Australian actress, and a theatre director.

Cate Blanchett: Childhood

Cate Blanchett was born in Ivanhoe, Melbourne, to June and Robert Blanchett. Her parents had met when Robert's US Navy ship was in Melbourne. Robert died of a heart attack when Cate was 10 years old.

Cate Blanchett attended Ivanhoe East Primary School and went on to study at the Methodist Ladies' College, where she became interested in drama and acting. When she graduated from the University of Melbourne, after studying Economics and Fine Arts, she travelled abroad.

In Egypt, a guest at her Cairo hotel asked her if she would like to be an extra in a film. The next day, she was part of a crowd scene in the film Kaboria. Upon her return to Australia, Cate moved to Sydney and attended the national Institute of Dramatic Art.

Cate Blanchett: Acting Career

Cate Blanchett initially started out working in theatre and her first major stage role was in the David Mamet play Oleanna. Her performance earned her the Sydney Theatre Critics' Best Newcomer Award. She went on to play Ophelia in the Company B production of Hamlet.

Blanchett worked in television, as well, featuring in the mini-series Heartland, with Ernie Dingo and Bordertown with Hugo Weaving. She also appeared in the TV film Police Rescue.

Cate Blanchett made her major film debut with a supporting role in 1997's Paradise Road, which starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand. Her first major lead role came the same year, when she played Lucinda in Oscar and Lucinda, which also starred Ralph Fiennes. Her performance was very highly regarded, as was its follow-up, when she played the lead in Thank God He Met Lizzie.

Blanchett's major breakthrough role came in 1998's Elizabeth, where she played the title role: Elizabeth I of England. She won a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance but the award went to Gwyneth Paltrow. She did, however, win the equivalent award at the BAFTAs and the Golden Globe Awards.

In 1999, Blanchett received another BAFTA nomination for her role in the Talented Mr. Ripley, which starred Matt Damon and Jude Law.

Blanchett went on to play the High Elf Queen Galadriel in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, based on the books by JRR Tolkein. The trilogy was a huge global success and also starred Liv Tyler, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and Sir Ian McKellan.

In 2005, Blanchett played the role of Katherine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. The film starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes and Blanchett won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

2006 saw Blanchett appearing in Babel, opposite Brad Pitt as well as Notes on a Scandal, opposite Judi Dench, earning herself her third Oscar nomination.

In 2007, Blanchett was one of a number of high profile actors to undertake the role of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' I'm Not There. She won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for her performance. She also reprised her role as Elizabeth I in Elizabeth: the Golden Age, earning herself yet another Best Actress Oscar nomination. She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress in I'm Not There.

Blanchett's next major role was in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

In 2008, she starred alongside Brad Pitt in the Oscar-nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. That same year, she was honoured with her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Cate Blanchett: Personal Life

Cate Blanchett is married to the playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton. They met when she performed in a production of The Seagull by Chekov. They married in 1997 and have three sons, Dashiell John, Roman Robert and Ignatius Martin.

In 2009, Cate Blanchett joined the likes of Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman in having their images used in a 'Legends of the Screen' series of Australian postage stamps.