Cate Blanchett - Definition and Overview

Cate Blanchett (born May 14, 1969) is an Australian actress. She was born as Catherine Elise Blanchett in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia as the daughter of a Texan naval petty officer who came ashore in Melbourne and met her mother, a Melbourne schoolteacher. Her father, Robert, later worked in advertising after marrying her mother, June. He died of a heart attack when Cate was only 10 years old. She has two siblings, the oldest, Bob, is a computer programmer, and her younger sister, Genevieve, is a set designer in the theatre.

Blanchett graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney in 1992, and began her career on the stage. Her first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1993 David Mamet play Oleanna. Her film debut was as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese in the Prisoner of War production directed by Bruce Beresford, Paradise Road, that co-starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand.

She married playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton, who she met back in 1996 while she was performing in a production of The Seagull. It was hardly love at first sight, however. "He thought I was aloof and I thought he was arrogant," Blanchett later remarked. "It just shows you how wrong you can be. But once he kissed me that was that." The two were married in 1997 and welcomed their first child, Dashiell John, in December 2001 and their second child Roman Robert was born in 2004.

Filmography

2006

• Golden Age – Elizabeth I
• Little Fish – Tracy Heart

2004

• The Life Aquatic – Jane Winslett-Richardson
• The Aviator – Katharine Hepburn

2003

• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Galadriel
• The Missing – Maggie
• Coffee and Cigarettes
• Veronica Guerin – Veronica Guerin

2002

• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Galadriel
• Heaven – Philippa

2001

• The Shipping News – Petal Bear
• Charlotte Gray – Charlotte Gray
• Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The – Galadriel
• Bandits – Kate Wheeler

2000

• The Gift – Annabelle 'Annie' Wilson
• The Man Who Cried – Lola

1999

• Bangers – Julie-Anne
• The Talented Mr. Ripley – Meredith Logue
• Pushing Tin – Connie Falzone
• An Ideal Husband – Lady Gertrude Chiltern

1998

• Elizabeth – Elizabeth I of England

1997

• Oscar and Lucinda – Lucinda Leplastrier
• Thank God He Met Lizzie – Lizzie
• Paradise Road – Susan Macarthy

1996

• Parklands – Rosie

1994

• Police Rescue – Vivian

Awards & Nominations

• Academy Award–Best Actress in a Leading Role–Nominated–Elizabeth (movie) (1998)

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Cate Blanchett

• Official Home Page (http://www.cateblanchett.net/)
• Cate Blanchett (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000949/) at the Internet Movie Database
• Cate Blanchett Directory (http://www.dmoz.org/Arts/Performing_Arts/Acting/Actors_and_Actresses/B/Blanchett,_Cate/)

Quotes

• "If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously"
• On the Lord of the Rings trilogy: "I had never done anything with blue screen before, or prosthetics, or anything like that. Lord of the Rings was like stepping into a videogame for me. It was another world completely. But, to be honest, I basically did it so that I could have the ears. I thought they would really work with my bare head."
• "If I had my way, if I was lucky enough, if I could be on the brink my entire life - that great sense of expectation and excitement without the disappointment - that would be the perfect state."