Worlds Celebrities

Overview

Date of Birth: 12 December 1970, Catskill Mountains, New York, USA

Birth Name: Jennifer Lynn Connelly

Nicknames: Jenny C

Height: 5' 6½" (1.69 m)

Trade Mark: Dark, thick eyebrows

Dark hair and green eyes

Curvaceous, buxom figure

Deep sultry voice

Freckle on her upper lip

Spouse: Paul Bettany (1 January 2003 - present) (2 children)

Bio Data: Jennifer Connelly was born in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to Ilene (Schuman), a dealer of antiques, and Gerard Connelly, a clothing manufacturer. Her father had Irish and Norwegian ancestry, and her mother was from a Jewish immigrant family. Jennifer grew up in Brooklyn Heights, just across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan, except for the four years her parents spent in Woodstock, New York. Back in Brooklyn Heights, she attended St. Ann's school. A close friend of the family was an advertising executive. When Jennifer was ten, he suggested that her parents take her to a modeling audition. She began appearing in newspaper and magazine ads (among them "Seventeen" magazine), and soon moved on to television commercials. A casting director saw her and introduced her to Sergio Leone, who was seeking a young girl to dance in his gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Although having little screen time, the few minutes she was on-screen were enough to reveal her talent. Her next role after that was an episode of the British horror anthology TV series Tales of the Unexpected (1979) in 1984.

After Leone's movie, horror master Dario Argento signed her to play her first starring role in his thriller Phenomena (1985). The film made a lot of money in Europe but, unfortunately, was heavily cut for American distribution. Around the same time, she appeared in the rock video "I Drove All Night," a Roy Orbison song, co-starring Jason Priestley. She released a single called "Monologue of Love" in Japan in the mid-1980s, in which she sings in Japanese a charming little song with semi-classical instruments arrangement. On the B-side is "Message Of Love," which is an interview with music in background. She also appeared in television commercials in Japan.

She enrolled at Yale, and then transferred two years later to Stanford. She trained in classical theater and improvisation, studying with the late drama coach Roy London, Howard Fine, and Harold Guskin.

The late 1980s saw her starring in a hit and three lesser seen films. Amongst the latter was her roles in Étoile (1989), as a ballerina and in Some Girls (1988), where she played a self-absorbed college freshman. The hit was Labyrinth (1986), released in 1986. Jennifer got the job after a nationwide talent search for the lead in this fantasy directed by Jim Henson and produced by George Lucas. Her career entered in a calm phase after those films, until Dennis Hopper, who was impressed after having seen her in "Some Girls", cast Jennifer as an ingénue small-town girl in The Hot Spot (1990), based upon the 1950s crime novel "Hell Hath No Fury". It received mixed critical reviews, but it was not a box office success.

The Rocketeer (1991), an ambitious Touchstone super-production, came to the rescue. The film was an old-fashioned adventure flick about a man capable of flying with rockets on his back. Critics saw in "Rocketeer" a top-quality movie, a homage to those old films of the 1930s in which the likes of Errol Flynn starred. After "Rocketeer," Jennifer made Career Opportunities (1991), The Heart of Justice (1992), Mulholland Falls (1996), and Inventing the Abbotts (1997). In 1998, she was invited by director Alex Proyas to make Dark City (1998), a strange, visually stunning science-fiction extravaganza. In this movie, Jennifer played the main character's wife, and she delivered an acclaimed performance. The film itself didn't break any box-office record but received positive reviews. This led Jennifer to a contract with Fox for the television series The $treet (2000), a main part in the memorable and dramatic love-story Waking the Dead (2000) and, more important, a breakthrough part in the polemic and applauded independent Requiem for a Dream (2000), a tale about the haunting lives of drug addicts and the subsequent process of decadence and destruction. In "Requiem for a Dream," Jennifer had her career's most courageous, difficult part, a performance that earned her a Spirit Award Nomination. She followed this role with Pollock (2000), in which she played Pollock's mistress, Ruth Klingman. Most recently, Ron Howard chose her to co-star with Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind (2001), the film that tells the true story of John Nash, a man who suffered from mental illness but eventually beats this and wins the Nobel Prize in 1994. Jennifer played Forbes' wife and won a Golden Globe, BAFTA, AFI and Oscar as Best Supporting Actress.

Jennifer lives in New York. She is 5'7", and speaks fluent Italian and French. She enjoys physical activities such as swimming, gymnastics, and bike riding. She is also an outdoors person -- camping, hiking and walking, and is interested in quantum physics and philosophy. She likes horses, Pearl Jam, SoundGarden, Jesus Jones, and occasionally wears a small picture of the The Dalai Lama on a necklace. Her favorite colors are cobalt blue, forest green, and "very pale green/gray -- sort of like the color of the sea". She likes to draw.

Trivia: Has a son, Kai Dugan (born 1997), with photographer David Dugan.

Cut a single in Japan, which she sang in phonetic Japanese. She says her agent made up the idea that she is semi-fluent in the language.

Is fluent in French and Italian.

Was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People Magazine in 2002.

The character Veronica in Heathers (1988) was originally written with her in mind, but she turned the role down.

Daughter-in-law of actor Thane Bettany and Anne Kettle.

First child with husband Paul Bettany, a son named Stellan Bettany, born 5 August, 2003. Stellan's Godfather is the actor Charlie Condou, Paul's best friend.

Her father was of Irish and Norwegian heritage. Her mother was from an Ashkenazi Jewish family (from Poland and Russia).

Named her son Stellan after Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård.

In three of her movies (Dark City (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), and House of Sand and Fog (2003)), she appears standing at the end of a pier in a striking image. All three directors created the shots for different reasons, and they are not an homage or reference to each other, just an unlikely coincidence.

She was nearly cast as Diane Court in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything... (1989). Ione Skye got the part instead.

Enrolled at Yale as an English major, then transferred two years later to Stanford.

Has said she used to use the online username "ecksor", which is a phonetic spelling of XOR (Exclusive OR) - a tribute to her cousin Jerry who is a computer security expert.

Ranked #14 in Celebrity Sleuth's "25 Sexiest Women of 1993".

Ranked #53 in Stuff's "103 Sexiest Women" (2003).

Ranked #74 in FHM-USA's "100 Sexiest Women" (2002).

Ranked #85 in Askmen's "Most Desirable Woman" (2002).

Ranked as #88 in FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005" special supplement. (2005).

Is a vegan.

Has an interest in mathematics and software.

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#54). [2007].

Auditioned for the title role of Firestarter (1984).

With A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Reservation Road (2007), has now played the wife of Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix, who both appeared in Gladiator (2000) = Crowe as the hero and Phoenix as the villain.

Is an only child.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), in which she starred, opened on her 38th birthday. December 12, 2008.

Returned to work 7 months after giving birth to her son Kai in order to begin filming Waking the Dead (2000).

Returned to work 5 months after giving birth to her son Stellan in order to begin filming Dark Water (2005).

Has twice played a character named "Sarah Williams". First was in Labyrinth (1986), second was in Waking the Dead (2000).

Expecting her third child [December 14, 2010].

Gave birth to her daughter Agnes Lark Bettany, with husband Paul Bettany, at home in New York via scheduled water birth (31 May 2011).

Princess Jasmine's appearance in the Disney animated film Aladdin (1992) was based and influenced on her, as well as the sister of her animator, Mark Henn.

When she was 17 she auditioned for the role of Sarah Tobias in The Accused (1988), but the part went to Jodie Foster.

Returned to work 10 months after giving birth to her daughter Agnes to begin filming Stuck in Love (2012).

Was the 120th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for A Beautiful Mind (2001) at The 74th Annual Academy Awards (2002) on March 24, 2002.

Personal Quotes: Acting is great. When it works it is so fulfilling. You do the research and work with other talented people who are creative and compassionate and use all your faculties. The ability to express yourself completely is the most wonderful feeling in the world. Each film is a chapter in my life wherein I learn so much more about myself.

I so much enjoy being able to completely allow myself to be consumed by a role, and really grow in the process,once you've done that, it's hard to go back working on things you don't care about.

[talking about the films she did in the beginning of her career]: You don't want to get rid of your experiences, because they're your experiences - good or bad - and you need them, but it would be great if they weren't on the video shelf!

[Talking about her character in A Beautiful Mind (2001)]: Alicia is the person who's trying to ground John Nash in reality and bring him home, literally, and back to what he was. In "A Beautiful Mind", there are scenes that were painful and scary and sad. I didn't have to go through degradation as I did in Requiem for a Dream (2000), but there is a lot of emotional terrain in this movie. There's a tragedy in the family and it takes a toll on each of them as they try to live with each other.

[talking about her son Kai Dugan]: We've already done plays together. Very short plays. He dictates them to me. Sometimes he casts me, sometimes he doesn't. And when I'm in the play, he'll sometimes say to me, "No Mom, you didn't say that right!"

[on "The Ball Room Dance" scene, her favorite from Labyrinth (1986)]: I wore a beautiful silver ball gown, which was a refreshing change from the blue jeans I wore in almost every other scene. It was really a gorgeous set, with masses of huge chandeliers and thousands of flickering candles, hundreds of silken cushions and curtains, and masses of people in strange masks and ornate dresses. There was the thrill of dancing with David Bowie to one of the songs he composed especially for the film. There wasn't enough room, for technical reasons, to really dance around properly, but we just drifted slowly and gracefully (I hope!) to David's music, and he looked fabulous! It's all a sort of magical fantasy sequence inside a huge bubble.

[about her son] I don't think I would be doing this quality of work if it hadn't been for my son. He's changed me. He's helped me to understand myself and find my place in the world.

[on growing up with a Catholic father and a Jewish mother] Ultimately I'm an Irish Catholic Jew. I'm riddled with guilt!

 

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