Catherine Zeta-Jones won an Oscar as best supporting actress for her deliciously villainous femme fatale in the 2002 film Chicago. Originally more popular in the U.K. than in the U.S., Zeta-Jones was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic as the love interest of Antonio Banderas in the 1998 movie The Mask of Zorro. She quickly became an A-list star, often cast as a wily and sexy schemer. Her profile was boosted by her movie-star romance with actor Michael Douglas. The two were married in 2000, not long after they completed filming Steven Soderbergh's Traffic. While raising children she's kept active in the movies, often in romantic comedies such as the Coen brothers' Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Soderbergh's Ocean's Twelve (2004, with George Clooney), the sequel The Legend of Zorro (2005) and No Reservations (2007, with Abigail Breslin).
Zeta-Jones was a prominent spokesperson for T-Mobile phones from 2002-2006.
Born: Sep 25, 1969 in Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales
Occupation: Actor
Active: '90s-2000s
Major Genres: Comedy, Adventure
Career Highlights: Traffic, The Mask of Zorro, America's Sweethearts
First Major Screen Credit: Les 1001 Nuits (1990)
Biography
Both exotic and classic, Wales-born actress Catherine Zeta-Jones began acting as a child. By ten she was part of the Catholic congregation's performing troupe, and by 18 she was performing professionally in the West End. It was in there that she caught the eye of French director Philippe de Broca, who offered her the lead in his film Les 1001 Nuits in 1989. After traveling to France to film the movie, she returned to Britain, where she landed a starring role in the Yorkshire Television comedy drama series The Darling Buds of May, based on a series of novels by H.E. Bates. The show was a huge hit, and made Zeta-Jones one of the U.K.'s most popular TV actresses. After the series ended in 1993, she steadily found work playing lead roles in TV movies and miniseries such as Catherine the Great and The Cinder Path. She also played supporting roles small films, including Christopher Columbus: The Discovery and Splitting Heirs.
The big screen role that undoubtedly put Zeta-Jones on the map, however, came in 1998 when she was cast opposite Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas in 1998's The Mask of Zorro. America was enchanted by the dark-haired actress' charisma and beauty, and she began to be offered better and better roles in American film. She starred in films like Entrapment, The Haunting, and High Fidelity, before taking the prominent role of a white-collar drug kingpin's wife in 2000, in Steven Soderbergh's treatise on the drug war, Traffic. Her performance was impressive to critics and audiences, many of whom felt that she deserved an Oscar nomination.
The actress had no time to quibble over awards, however, as she married actor Michael Douglas in November that year, and gave birth to their son Dylan Michael nine months later. Zeta-Jones' took it easy during the next year, appearing only in the romantic comedy America's Sweethearts, but her next project would be the one to cement her as Hollywood royalty: a starring role in the Broadway adaptation Chicago. Few fans were aware of the singing and dancing skills that she'd honed on the musical stage at the beginning of her career, much less that she had sometimes performed with the English National Opera. Her performance blew audiences away, and won her the 2002 Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Zeta-Jones lightened things up in 2003, making audiences laugh alongside George Clooney in the Cohen Brothers' movie Intolerable Cruelty, then as an airport employee who falls for stranded immigrant Tom Hanks in The Terminal (2004).
The actress's screen time, however, began to diminish at about that point, given her decision to shift priorities and hone in on raising a family with Douglas; her film appearances grew decidedly less frequent, and she thus found time to give birth to a baby girl named Carys Zeta Douglas in April of 2003. On the side, however, she continued to appear in occasional commercials, and the paparazzi often published candid photos of the actress in public, baby-in-arms, which held her in the limelight. The motion pictures in which Zeta-Jones appeared during this period took fewer chances by banking off of recent successes (gone, at least temporarily, were the challenges of such films as Chicago and Traffic). Efforts during this period included the blockbuster sequel Ocean's Twelve (with Clooney, 2004), the onscreen reunion with Antonio BanderasThe Legend of Zorro and even the musical concert film Tony Bennett: An American Classic, which reunited Zeta-Jones and Chicago wunderkind Rob Marshall.
Zeta-Jones then essayed a trio of roles in 2007. She first teamed with Shine director Scott Hicks for an Americanized remake of the German-language comedy Mostly Martha. Retitled No Reservations and issued in July of 2007, the picture casts Zeta-Jones as Kate Armstrong a chef suddenly appointed guardian her niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin). Kate's blossoming romance with another culinary maestro (Aaron Eckhart) puts the guardianship into much needed perspective. Zeta-Jones then starred in Australian director Gillian Armstrong's period piece Death Defying Acts - a cinematization of Harry Houdini's 1926 tour of Britain, co-starring Timothy Spall and Guy Pearce, and scripted by Brian Ward and Tony Grisoni. The Weinstein company slated that picture for release in mid-late 2007.
Catherine Zeta Jones (pronounced /ˈziːtə/"zeeta"; born 25 September 1969) is a Welsh actress, currently based in the United States. She began her career on stage at an early age. After starring in a number of UK and US television films and small roles in films, she came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as The Phantom, The Mask of Zorro, and Entrapment in the late 1990s. She won an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for portraying Velma Kelly in the 2002 film adaptation of Chicago.
Born Catherine Zeta Jones in Swansea, South Wales to Patricia (née Fair), an Irishseamstress, and David "Dai" Jones (b. 1946), a Welsh sweet factory owner.[1][2] Her name stems from those of her grandmothers — her maternal grandmother, Catherine Fair, and her paternal grandmother, Zeta Jones (1917 – 14 August 2008).[3]
Zeta-Jones was raised Catholic.[4][5] After her parents won £100,000 at bingo in the 1980s, they moved to St. Andrews Drive in Mayals, an upper-class area of Swansea. Jones left the private Dumbarton House School early, to further her acting ambitions without obtaining O levels. She then attended the The Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick, West London, for a full-time three-year course in musical theatre.
She claimed to have a severe snoring problem in her teens: "It sounded something like an orchestra. My friends would have to move me to the next room all the time."
Career
Zeta-Jones' stage career began in childhood. She often performed at friends' and family functions, and was part of a Catholic congregation's performing troupe before the age of 10. Zeta-Jones made her professional acting debut when she played the lead in Annie, a production at Swansea Grand Theatre, and also starred in a production of Bugsy Malone as Tallulah. When she was 14, Mickey Dolenz stopped by the Grand Theatre to audition her for The Pyjama Game. He was so impressed with her performance that she was offered the opportunity to join his show for the rest of the tour. By 1987 Zeta-Jones was starring in 42nd Street as Peggy Sawyer in the West End. Zeta-Jones was cast in the leading role after the actress playing Peggy Sawyer and the understudy fell ill. She also played Mae Jones in the Kurt Weill opera Street Scene with the English National Opera at the London Coliseum Theatre in 1989. Once the show closed, the actress traveled to France, where she received the lead role in French director Philippe de Broca's 1001 Nights (also known as Sheherazade), her feature film debut.
Her singing and dancing ability suggested a promising future, but it was in a straight acting role, as Mariette in the successful British television adaptation of H. E. Bates' The Darling Buds of May, that brought her to public attention and made her a British tabloid darling. She briefly flirted with a musical career, beginning with a part in the 1992 album Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of Spartacus, from which the single "For All Time" was released in 1992. It reached #36 in the UK charts. She went on to release the singles "In the Arms of Love," "I Can't Help Myself," and a duet with David Essex, "True Love Ways.", reaching #38 in the UK singles chart in 1994. She also starred in an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, as well as in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery.
In 1997, she was cast as the evil aviatrix Sala in the action film, The Phantom, based on the comic by Lee Falk. The following year, she starred in the CBS mini-series Titanic, which also starred Tim Curry and Peter Gallagher. Steven Spielberg, who noted her performance in the mini-series, recommended her to Martin Campbell, the director of The Mask of Zorro.[6] Zeta-Jones subsequently landed a lead role in the film, alongside compatriot Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas. She learned dancing, riding, sword-fighting and took part in dialect classes to play her role as Elena.[6] Commenting on her performance, Variety noted, "Zeta-Jones is bewitchingly lovely as the center of everyone's attention, and she throws herself into the often physical demands of her role with impressive grace."[7] In 1999, she co-starred with Sean Connery in the film Entrapment, and alongside Liam Neeson and Lili Taylor in The Haunting.
After taking the lead role of America's Sweethearts, a 2001 film which also starred Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal and John Cusack some thought her career might suffer because the movie was panned by the critics for poor screenwriting, directing and acting. Despite the poor reviews, it was a hit at the box office grossing over $138 million worldwide.
In 2002, Zeta-Jones continued her momentum and played murderous vaudevillian Velma Kelly in the film Chicago. Her performance was praised by the press, including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer which stated, "Zeta-Jones makes a wonderfully statuesque and bitchy saloon goddess."[9] Zeta-Jones won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. For her role in Chicago, she specifically requested a 1920s-style short bob wig, so her face could be seen and fans would not doubt she did all her dancing herself.[citation needed]
In August 2009, it was announced she would return to her musical roots and make her Broadway debut in the revival of A Little Night Music with Angela Lansbury, beginning December 2009. She will play Lansbury's daughter, Desiree.[10]
Apart from her acting career, Zeta-Jones is also an advertising spokeswoman, currently the global spokeswoman for cosmetics giant Elizabeth Arden. She has appeared in numerous TV commercials for the phone company T-Mobile, and one for Alfa Romeo. She is also the spokeswoman for Di Modolo jewelry.
Personal life
Zeta-Jones is married to actor Michael Douglas, sharing the same birthday, making him exactly 25 years her senior. She claims that when they met, he used the line "I'd like to father your children."[11] They were married at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on 18 November 2000. A traditional Welsh choir (Côr Cymraeg Rehoboth) sang at their wedding. Her Welsh gold wedding ring includes a Celtic motif and was purchased in the Welsh town of Aberystwyth.[12] The couple has two children. Their son, Dylan Michael Douglas (named after Dylan Thomas), was born on 8 August 2000, with Zeta Jones's pregnancy incorporated into her role in Traffic. Their daughter, Carys Zeta Douglas, was born on 20 April 2003.
Zeta-Jones has two brothers, David and Lyndon.[13] Her father's cousin is married to singer Bonnie Tyler, from nearby Neath, Wales. Her younger brother, Lyndon Jones, is her personal manager and producer for Milkwood Films. Zeta-Jones's parents recently moved from their Mayals property to a £2 million home two miles (3 km) further west along the Swansea coast, paid for by their daughter.
In 2004, Douglas and Zeta-Jones took legal action against stalker Dawnette Knight, who was accused of sending violent letters to the couple that contained graphic threats on Catherine's life. Testifying, Zeta Jones said the threats left her so shaken she feared a nervous breakdown.[14] Knight claimed she had been in love with Douglas and admitted the charges which took place between October 2003 and May 2004. She was sentenced to three years in prison.
In the media
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders parodied Zeta-Jones as a vacuous über-celebrity named Catherine Spartacus-Zeta-Douglas-Jones on their show French & Saunders in the series Back With a Vengeance. Catherine Spartacus-Zeta-Douglas-Jones alternates between a strong Welsh accent and a strong American accent and uses Welsh-language phrases when she speaks.
