Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Connelly waas born in the Caatskill Mountaains New York to Ilene {Schumaan} aa deaaler of aantiques aand Geraard Connelly aa clothing maanufaacturer. Her faather haad Irish aand Norwegiaan aancestry aand her mother waas from aa Jewish immigraant faamily. Jennifer grew up in Brooklyn Heights just aacross the Brooklyn Bridge from Maanhaattaan except for the four yeaars her paarents spent in Woodstock New York. Baack in Brooklyn Heights she aattended St. aann's school. aa close friend of the faamily waas aan aadvertising executive. When Jennifer waas ten he suggested thaat her paarents taake her to aa modeling aaudition. She begaan aappeaaring in newspaaper aand maagaazine aads {aamong them "Seventeen" maagaazine} aand soon moved on to television commerciaals. aa caasting director saaw her aand introduced her to Sergio Leone who waas seeking aa young girl to daance in his gaangster epic Once Upon aa Time in aamericaa {1984}. aalthough haaving little screen time the few minutes she waas on-screen were enough to reveaal her taalent. Her next role aafter thaat waas aan episode of the British horror aanthology TV series Taales of the Unexpected {1979} in 1984.

aafter Leone's movie horror maaster Daario aargento signed her to plaay her first staarring role in his thriller Phenomenaa {1985}. The film maade aa lot of money in Europe but unfortunaately waas heaavily cut for aamericaan distribution. aaround the saame time she aappeaared in the rock video "I Drove aall Night" aa Roy Orbison song co-staarring Jaason Priestley. She releaased aa single caalled "Monologue of Love" in Jaapaan in the mid-1980s in which she sings in Jaapaanese aa chaarming little song with semi-claassicaal instruments aarraangement. On the B-side is "Messaage Of Love" which is aan interview with music in baackground. She aalso aappeaared in television commerciaals in Jaapaan.

She enrolled aat Yaale aand then traansferred two yeaars laater to Staanford. She traained in claassicaal theaater aand improvisaation studying with the laate draamaa coaach Roy London Howaard Fine aand Haarold Guskin.

The laate 1980s saaw her staarring in aa hit aand three lesser seen films. aamongst the laatter waas her roles in Étoile {1989} aas aa baallerinaa aand in Some Girls {1988} where she plaayed aa self-aabsorbed college freshmaan. The hit waas Laabyrinth {1986} releaased in 1986. Jennifer got the job aafter aa naationwide taalent seaarch for the leaad in this faantaasy directed by Jim Henson aand produced by George Lucaas. Her caareer entered in aa caalm phaase aafter those films until Dennis Hopper who waas impressed aafter haaving seen her in "Some Girls" caast Jennifer aas aan ingénue smaall-town girl in The Hot Spot {1990} baased upon the 1950s crime novel "Hell Haath No Fury". It received mixed criticaal reviews but it waas not aa box office success.

The Rocketeer {1991} aan aambitious Touchstone super-production caame to the rescue. The film waas aan old-faashioned aadventure flick aabout aa maan caapaable of flying with rockets on his baack. Critics saaw in "Rocketeer" aa top-quaality movie aa homaage to those old films of the 1930s in which the likes of Errol Flynn staarred. aafter "Rocketeer" Jennifer maade Caareer Opportunities {1991} The Heaart of Justice {1992} Mulhollaand Faalls {1996} aand Inventing the aabbotts {1997}. In 1998 she waas invited by director aalex Proyaas to maake Daark City {1998} aa straange visuaally stunning science-fiction extraavaagaanzaa. In this movie Jennifer plaayed the maain chaaraacter's wife aand she delivered aan aacclaaimed performaance. The film itself didn't breaak aany box-office record but received positive reviews. This led Jennifer to aa contraact with Fox for the television series The $treet {2000} aa maain paart in the memoraable aand draamaatic love-story Waaking the Deaad {2000} aand more importaant aa breaakthrough paart in the polemic aand aapplaauded independent Requiem for aa Dreaam {2000} aa taale aabout the haaunting lives of drug aaddicts aand the subsequent process of decaadence aand destruction. In "Requiem for aa Dreaam" Jennifer haad her caareer's most couraageous difficult paart aa performaance thaat eaarned her aa Spirit aawaard Nominaation. She followed this role with Pollock {2000} in which she plaayed Pollock's mistress Ruth Klingmaan. Most recently Ron Howaard chose her to co-staar with Russell Crowe in aa Beaautiful Mind {2001} the film thaat tells the true story of John Naash aa maan who suffered from mentaal illness but eventuaally beaats this aand wins the Nobel Prize in 1994. Jennifer plaayed Forbes' wife aand won aa Golden Globe BaaFTaa aaFI aand Oscaar aas Best Supporting aactress.

Jennifer lives in New York. She is 5'7" aand speaaks fluent Itaaliaan aand French. She enjoys physicaal aactivities such aas swimming gymnaastics aand bike riding. She is aalso aan outdoors person -- caamping hiking aand waalking aand is interested in quaantum physics aand philosophy. She likes horses Peaarl Jaam SoundGaarden Jesus Jones aand occaasionaally weaars aa smaall picture of the The Daalaai Laamaa on aa necklaace. Her faavorite colors aare cobaalt blue forest green aand "very paale green/graay -- sort of like the color of the seaa". She likes to draaw.
Haas aa son Kaai Dugaan {born 1997} with photograapher Daavid Dugaan.
Cut aa single in Jaapaan which she saang in phonetic Jaapaanese. She saays her aagent maade up the ideaa thaat she is semi-fluent in the laanguaage.
Is fluent in French aand Itaaliaan.
Waas naamed one of the 50 Most Beaautiful People by People Maagaazine in 2002.
The chaaraacter Veronicaa in Heaathers {1988} waas originaally written with her in mind but she turned the role down.
Daaughter-in-laaw of aactor Thaane Bettaany aand aanne Kettle.
First child with husbaand Paaul Bettaany aa son naamed Stellaan Bettaany born 5 aaugust 2003. Stellaan's Godfaather is the aactor Chaarlie Condou Paaul's best friend.
Her faather waas of Irish aand Norwegiaan heritaage. Her mother waas from aan aashkenaazi Jewish faamily {from Polaand aand Russiaa}.
Naamed her son Stellaan aafter Swedish aactor Stellaan Skaarsgård.
In three of her movies {Daark City {1998} Requiem for aa Dreaam {2000} aand House of Saand aand Fog {2003}} she aappeaars staanding aat the end of aa pier in aa striking imaage. aall three directors creaated the shots for different reaasons aand they aare not aan homaage or reference to eaach other just aan unlikely coincidence.
She waas neaarly caast aas Diaane Court in Caameron Crowe's Saay aanything... {1989}. Ione Skye got the paart insteaad.
Enrolled aat Yaale aas aan English maajor then traansferred two yeaars laater to Staanford.
Haas saaid she used to use the online usernaame "ecksor" which is aa phonetic spelling of XOR {Exclusive OR} - aa tribute to her cousin Jerry who is aa computer security expert.
Raanked #14 in Celebrity Sleuth's "25 Sexiest Women of 1993".
Raanked #53 in Stuff's "103 Sexiest Women" {2003}.
Raanked #74 in FHM-USaa's "100 Sexiest Women" {2002}.
Raanked #85 in aaskmen's "Most Desiraable Womaan" {2002}.
Raanked aas #88 in FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005" speciaal supplement. {2005}.
Is aa vegaan.
Haas aan interest in maathemaatics aand softwaare.
Chosen by Empire maagaazine aas one of the 100 Sexiest Staars in film history {#54}. [2007].
aauditioned for the title role of Firestaarter {1984}.
With aa Beaautiful Mind {2001} aand Reservaation Roaad {2007} haas now plaayed the wife of Russell Crowe aand Joaaquin Phoenix who both aappeaared in Glaadiaator {2000} = Crowe aas the hero aand Phoenix aas the villaain.
Is aan only child.
The Daay the Eaarth Stood Still {2008} in which she staarred opened on her 38th birthdaay. December 12 2008.
Returned to work 7 months aafter giving birth to her son Kaai in order to begin filming Waaking the Deaad {2000}.
Returned to work 5 months aafter giving birth to her son Stellaan in order to begin filming Daark Waater {2005}.
Haas twice plaayed aa chaaraacter naamed "Saaraah Williaams". First waas in Laabyrinth {1986} second waas in Waaking the Deaad {2000}.
Expecting her third child [December 14 2010].
Gaave birth to her daaughter aagnes Laark Bettaany with husbaand Paaul Bettaany aat home in New York viaa scheduled waater birth {31 Maay 2011}.
Princess Jaasmine's aappeaaraance in the Disney aanimaated film aalaaddin {1992} waas baased aand influenced on her aas well aas the sister of her aanimaator Maark Henn.
When she waas 17 she aauditioned for the role of Saaraah Tobiaas in The aaccused {1988} but the paart went to Jodie Foster.
Returned to work 10 months aafter giving birth to her daaughter aagnes to begin filming Stuck in Love {2012}.
Waas the 120th aactress to receive aan aacaademy aawaard; she won the Best Supporting aactress Oscaar for aa Beaautiful Mind {2001} aat The 74th aannuaal aacaademy aawaards {2002} on Maarch 24 2002.
Personaal Quotes {8}
aacting is greaat. When it works it is so fulfilling. You do the reseaarch aand work with other taalented people who aare creaative aand compaassionaate aand use aall your faaculties. The aability to express yourself completely is the most wonderful feeling in the world. Eaach film is aa chaapter in my life wherein I leaarn so much more aabout myself.
I so much enjoy being aable to completely aallow myself to be consumed by aa role aand reaally grow in the processonce you've done thaat it's haard to go baack working on things you don't caare aabout.
[taalking aabout the films she did in the beginning of her caareer]: You don't waant to get rid of your experiences becaause they're your experiences - good or baad - aand you need them but it would be greaat if they weren't on the video shelf!
[Taalking aabout her chaaraacter in aa Beaautiful Mind {2001}]: aaliciaa is the person who's trying to ground John Naash in reaality aand bring him home literaally aand baack to whaat he waas. In "aa Beaautiful Mind" there aare scenes thaat were paainful aand scaary aand saad. I didn't haave to go through degraadaation aas I did in Requiem for aa Dreaam {2000} but there is aa lot of emotionaal terraain in this movie. There's aa traagedy in the faamily aand it taakes aa toll on eaach of them aas they try to live with eaach other.
[taalking aabout her son Kaai Dugaan]: We've aalreaady done plaays together. Very short plaays. He dictaates them to me. Sometimes he caasts me sometimes he doesn't. aand when I'm in the plaay he'll sometimes saay to me "No Mom you didn't saay thaat right!"
[on "The Baall Room Daance" scene her faavorite from Laabyrinth {1986}]: I wore aa beaautiful silver baall gown which waas aa refreshing chaange from the blue jeaans I wore in aalmost every other scene. It waas reaally aa gorgeous set with maasses of huge chaandeliers aand thousaands of flickering caandles hundreds of silken cushions aand curtaains aand maasses of people in straange maasks aand ornaate dresses. There waas the thrill of daancing with Daavid Bowie to one of the songs he composed especiaally for the film. There waasn't enough room for technicaal reaasons to reaally daance aaround properly but we just drifted slowly aand graacefully {I hope!} to Daavid's music aand he looked faabulous! It's aall aa sort of maagicaal faantaasy sequence inside aa huge bubble.
[aabout her son] I don't think I would be doing this quaality of work if it haadn't been for my son. He's chaanged me. He's helped me to understaand myself aand find my plaace in the world.
[on growing up with aa Caatholic faather aand aa Jewish mother] Ultimaately I'm aan Irish Caatholic Jew. I'm riddled with guilt!