This engaging blonde Australian actress found herself thrust in the spotlight with her third feature, “Oscar and Lucinda” (1997), in which she starred opposite Ralph Fiennes. As the headstrong proto-feminist heiress whose penchant for gambling draws her to a clergyman with the same predilections, Cate Blanchett delivered a star-making performance. Possessing an innate intelligence and talent coupled with her malleable features—she can seem plain and then beautiful, sometimes in the same shot—the actress quickly rose to international fame.

A product of Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Arts where her performance as “Electra” has become something of a local legend, Blanchett found a berth at the Sydney Theatre Company, appearing in “Top Girls” and winning raves for her turn in “Kafka’s Dances”. She went on to earn accolades for her turn as the female student in David Mamet’s “Oleanna” (1993) opposite Geoffrey Rush, and later added the Shakespearean roles of Ophelia and Miranda to her credits. In 1997, she played Nina in “The Seagull” in Australia and made her London stage debut in 1999 in a revival of David Hare’s “Plenty”.

Blanchett made her film debut in the short “Parklands” (1996) but landed her first feature role as one of the females interned in a Japanese camp in Bruce Beresford’s WWII-era drama “Paradise Road” (1997). She further garnered attention (and the 1997 Australian Film Institute Best Supporting Actress Award) as one leg of a romantic triangle (completed by Richard Roxburgh and Frances O’Connor) in the darkly comic “Thank God He Met Lizzie” (also 1997). Her rising star status was confirmed when she landed the leading role of the Tudor monarch in the biopic “Elizabeth” (1998). Holding her own in a cast that included Geoffrey Rush, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Fiennes and Christopher Eccleston, Blanchett delivered a brilliant turn as the young woman who grows into the stature of her office. By turns an emotional girl and a driven women, her Elizabeth was a multi-dimensional creation that earned numerous accolades including an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

After carrying a major film, it perhaps came as a bit of a surprise that her follow-up roles were predominantly supporting ones Blanchett exhibited her comic side, replete with a New Jersey accent as the wife of air traffic controller John Cusack in “Pushing Tin” (1999). Later that same year, she was back in period clothes, first as the wife of a titled man being blackmailed in Oliver Parker’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband” and then as Meredith, a character created especially for the film “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, a 50s-era drama about a slick American (Matt Damon) who plots to kill a playboy (Jude Law) in order to assume his identity in Anthony Minghella’s adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel.

Blanchett continued to alternate between showy supporting roles and strong leads. She was terrific as a gold-digging Russian chorus girl in “The Man Who Cried” (screened at Venice in 2000 and released in the USA in 2001), and demonstrated her chameleonic abilities essaying a Southern widow with psychic abilities in the gothic thriller “The Gift” (2000). The latter was co-written by her “Pushing Tin” co-star Billy Bob Thornton who based her character on his own mother. The actress remained busy and constantly employed, reuniting with Thornton in the comedy “Bandits” and playing Kevin Spacey’s ex-wife in “The Shipping News”, as well as undertaking the title role in “Charlotte Gray” (all 2001), opposite Billy Crudup under Gillian Armstrong’s direction. Blanchett also squeezed in a turn as the elf queen Galadriel in the three films comprising “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy: “The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001), “The Two Towers” (2002) and “The Return of the King” (2003). Additionally, she acted opposite her “The Gift” co-star Giovanni Ribisi in “Heaven” (2002), Tom Tykwer’s English-language debut.

Blanchett next received rave reviews for her turn as the real-life crusading Irish journalist whose life is endangered when she pursues her mob investigation too far in “Veronica Geurin” (2003), and her dual performance as “herself” and a jealous relative was hailed as the best sequence in Jim Jarmousch’s long-awaited anthology “Coffee & Cigarettes” (2003). Blanchett, who Leonardo DiCaprio referred to as “the female Daniel Day-Lewis” for her chameleon-like qualities, tackled two wildly different roles in 2004: first she played a pregnant female journalist caught in a off-kilter romantic triangle between an undersea explorer (Bill Murray) and his possible son (Owen Wilson) in Wes Anderson’s comedy “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”. Next she captured the coltish, often haughty charisma and unforgettable New England cadences of Hollywood superstar Katharine Hepburn, one of Howard Hughes’ (DiCaprio) more serious paramours in director Martin Scorsese’s impressive Hughes biopic “The Aviator.” Blanchett was widely recognized for her performance and earned several nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role—including a Golden Globe nomination, and victories at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, BAFTA Awards and ultimately, the Oscar at the Academy Awards. Blanchett’s victory gave her the unique distinction of becoming the first actress to win an Oscar for playing an Oscar-winning actress.

• Also Credited As:Catherine Elise Blanchett
• Born:on 05/14/69 in Melbourne, Australia
• Job Titles:Actor

Family

• Brother: Robert Blanchett. older
• Father: Robert Blanchett. American (from Texas); met Blanchett’s mother while he was in the US Navy; died c. 1979
• Mother: June Blanchett. Australian
• Sister: Genevieve Blanchett. younger
• Son: Dashiell John Upton. born on December 6, 2001 in London, England

Significant Others

• Husband: Andrew Upton. married in June 1997

Education

• Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia, art history

Milestones

• 1992 Joined Sydney Theatre Company, appeared in “Oleanna”, starring opposite Geoffrey Rush
• 1993 Made TV debut in a commercial
• 1994 Co-starred in the Australian TV program “Heartland”
• 1994 TV acting debut in episodes of the Australian series “Police Rescue”
• 1996 Made film acting debut in the short “Parklands”
• 1997 Co-starred opposite Ralph Fiennes in “Oscar and Lucinda”, directed by Gillian Armstrong
• 1997 Feature film debut in “Paradise Road”
• 1997 Had featured role in the Australian film “Thank God He Met Lizzie”; won Best Supporting Actress Award from Australian Film Institute
• 1998 Played title role in “Elizabeth”, a film biography of Queen Elizabeth I; directed by Shekhar Kapur and co-starring Geoffrey Rush and Joseph Fiennes; received Best Actress Oscar nomination
• 1999 Had featured roles in Barry Levinson’s “Pushing Tin”, “An Ideal Husband”, directed by Oliver Parker, and “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, helmed by Anthony Minghella
• 1999 Made London stage debut in the Donmar revival of David Hare’s “Plenty”
• 2000 Cast as a Southern widow with psychic abilities in “The Gift”, co-written by Billy Bob Thornton
• 2000 Co-starred as a Russian chorus girl in “The Man Who Cried”; screened at Venice; released in USA in 2001
• 2001 Cast as Petal Bear, the wife of Quoyle (Kevin Spacey) in “The Shipping News”
• 2001 Co-starred with Thornton and Bruce Willis in “Bandits”
• 2001 Played the title character, a Scottish woman who agrees to be a spy in Vichy France during WWII, in “Charlotte Gray”, directed by Gillian Armstrong
• 2001 Portrayed the elf queen Galadriel in the Peter Jackson-directed “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings”
• 2002 Portrayed as slain Irish journalist Veronica Guerin in “Chasing the Dragon: The Veronica Guerin Story”; received a golden globe nomination for best actress in a drama
• 2002 Reprised Galadriel in “The Lord of the Rings; The Two Towers”
• 2002 Starred in “Heaven”, Tom Tykwer’s English-language directorial debut; reteamed on screen with “The Gift” co-star Giovanni Ribisi; was opening night selection at Berlin Film Festival
• 2003 Again portrayed Galadriel in “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
• 2003 Starred opposite Tommy Lee Jones in the suspense thriller “The Missing”, directed by Ron Howard
• 2004 Cast as a journalist opposite Bill Murray and Owen Wilson in “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” directed and written by Wes Anderson
• 2004 Cast in Jim Jarmusch’s “Coffee and Cigarettes” a series of short stories that all have coffee and cigarettes in common; received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female
• 2004 Portrayed legendary screen icon Katharine Hepburn opposite Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes in “The Aviator”; received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress
• Appeared as an extra in a film made in Egypt while visiting the country on holiday
• Attracted attention for her performance in “Electra” at the National Institute of Dramatic Art
• Born and raised in Melbourne
• Starred opposite Brad Pitt in “The Last Man” (lensed 2002), helmed by Darren Aronofsky
• Will co-star opposite George Clooney in “The Good German,” about an American journalist trying to solve a murder mystery in post-war Berlin; Steven Soderbergh will direct (lensed 2005)