Born in South Africa, Charlize Theron was a ballerina and model before getting attention as an actress in the Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do (1996) and the Woody Allen film Celebrity (1998). She played a New England ingenue in the 1999 art house hit The Cider House Rules, and by the year 2000 she was starring in big budget pictures like Reindeer Games (with Ben Affleck) and Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance (alongside stars Matt Damon and Will Smith). What made her a star was her transformation from offscreen beauty to onscreen nightmare as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003, co-starring Christina Ricci). She won an Oscar for best actress and was launched into the top tier of leading ladies. She won another Oscar nomination for North Country (2005), but the highly-anticipated Aeon Flux (2005) was raspberried by the critics and spurned by moviegoers. Her other films include The Italian Job (2003, starring Mark Wahlberg), the HBO movie The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004, she plays Britt Ekland) and the 2007 Paul Haggis film In the Valley of Elah (starring Tommy Lee Jones).
Theron was nearly cast to play Nomi, the role later taken by Elizabeth Berkley in the ill-fated movie Showgirls... The gossip sheets like to make hay out of the fact that Theron's mom shot and killed her dad back in 1991; the official story is that the dad was abusive and the mom was never prosecuted... Aeon Flux was a cartoon character from the early 1990s, created by Peter Chung.
Career Highlights: The Cider House Rules, The Yards, The Devil's Advocate
First Major Screen Credit: That Thing You Do! (1996)
Biography
As legend has it, Charlize Theron was discovered by an agent while fighting with a bank manager on Hollywood Boulevard. Eighteen and starving, Theron purportedly got into the argument after the manager refused to cash her check. The outburst caught the agent's attention, and eight months later Theron got her first acting job. She subsequently went on to become one of the hottest young actors in Hollywood, thanks to a fortuitous combination of talent and the blonde, statuesque good looks so fervently adored by the camera.
Born August 7, 1975, Theron was raised on a farm in Benoni, South Africa. Trained as a ballet dancer, she was sent to Milan at 16 to become a model following the death of her father (which, it was later revealed, occurred after he was shot by Theron's mother, who was defending herself from his drunken abuse). After tiring of modeling, Theron returned to her first love, dancing, which resulted in a move to New York to dance with the Joffrey Ballet. Unfortunately, her career was halted by a knee injury, which led Theron -- at her mother's behest -- to travel to Los Angeles to try her luck with acting. After a long, unprofitable struggle, fate smiled upon Theron in the form of the aforementioned bank encounter.
Following an inauspicious bit part in 1994's Children of the Corn III, Theron won her first dose of recognition with 2 Days in the Valley (1996). The film wasn't particularly successful, but it did give her both much-needed exposure and critical praise. The film also served as the stepping stone to her first leading role, that of Keanu Reeves' embattled wife in The Devil's Advocate (1997). The film drew poor reviews, but Theron managed to win widespread praise for her performance. Her next project, Trial and Error (1997), surfaced briefly before disappearing with nary a trace, but the subsequent Mighty Joe Young (1998) netted Theron more positive notices. Her ascent was confirmed with her casting in Celebrity, Woody Allen's 1998 cameo-fest that also featured turns from everyone from Kenneth Branagh to Winona Ryder to Leonardo DiCaprio to Isaac Mizrahi. In her portrayal of a perpetually aroused supermodel, Theron shone in a role seemingly designed to allow her to flaunt her natural attributes and little else. She was rewarded with more substantial -- not to mention multilayered -- work in The Cider House Rules (1999), Lasse Hallström's Oscar-winning adaptation of John Irving's novel. As a troubled young woman with secrets to hide, Theron received star billing alongside Michael Caine and Tobey Maguire.
None of this, however, nudged Theron from her A-list status, something that was confirmed by her casting in the flashy, star-studded 2003 remake of The Italian Job, a much-beloved 1969 comedy caper starring Michael Caine. The 2003 version featured Mark Wahlberg in the starring role, with Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green, and Mos Def, among others, backing him up. That same year, Theron switched gears and dove headfirst into the "serious actress" category with her starring role in Monster, the crime drama based upon the real-life story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who, in the late '80s, murdered seven men in Florida. Co-starring Christina Ricci as Wuornos' lover, the film promised to show audiences a side of Theron that certainly hadn't been hinted at in her previous portrayals of models, girlfriends, and Southern debutantes. It was evidently successful as Theron was showered with more than a dozen awards including an Oscar following her first-ever Academy Award nomination.
2005 would be a decidedly mixed year for Theron. She first appeared in the live-action adaptation of the cult animated series Aeon Flux, a film that was nearly unanimously maligned by critics and largely avoided by audiences. Luckily, she also starred in the well-received docudrama North Country. Playing a woman who successfully battled sexual harrassment, Theron was honored with her second Oscar nomination for the performance. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
At the age of 16, Theron traveled to Milan, Italy, on a one-year modeling contract, after winning a local competition. She went to New York with Pauline's Model Management. She decided to remain after her contract ended, attending the Joffrey Ballet School, where she trained as a ballet dancer. A knee injury closed this career path when Theron was 19.[4][5]
Unable to dance, Theron flew to Los Angeles on a one-way ticket her mother bought her.[4] During her early months there, she went to a bank to cash a check her mother had sent her to help with the rent. When the teller refused to cash it, Theron immediately started into a shouting match with her. Afterwards, a talent agent in line behind her handed her his business card and subsequently introduced her to some casting agents and also an acting school.[6][7] She later fired him as her manager after he allegedly kept sending her scripts for films similar to Showgirls and Species.[8] After eight months in the city, she was cast in her first film part, a non-speaking role in the direct-to-video film Children of the Corn III (1995). Larger roles in widely released Hollywood films followed, and her career skyrocketed in the late 1990s with box office successes like The Devil's Advocate (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and The Cider House Rules (1999). Theron appeared on the cover of the May 1999 edition of Playboy Magazine with an accompanying nude pictorial. Theron later claimed that the photographs had not been intended for publication and had appeared in the magazine against her wishes.[citation needed]
Theron was born in Benoni, South Africa, the daughter and only child of Charles and Gerda Theron (see her Family Tree for more detail), and is of German and French descent.[19] Theron's first language is Afrikaans; she is fluent in English and speaks some Zulu. "Theron" is an Occitan surname (originally spelled Théron) pronounced in Afrikaans as "Tronn", although she has said that she prefers the pronunciation "Thrown".[20]
Theron grew up on her parents' farm near Johannesburg (Benoni). She attended Putfontein Primary School (Laerskool Putfontein). At the age of 13, Theron was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School Of The Arts in Johannesburg. At 15, Theron witnessed the death of her father, an abusivealcoholic; Gerda shot him in self-defence when he attacked her. The police pressed no charges against her.[21]
Theron resides in Los Angeles, in the home of late actress Helen Twelvetrees,[citation needed] with Theron's long-time boyfriend Stuart Townsend, with whom she starred in the 2004 film Head in the Clouds, as well as in the 2002 film Trapped and 2005 Æon Flux. She, like Sarah Silverman[22] and Brad Pitt,[23] has said that she will not marry until same-sex couples are able to have their marriages recognized.[24] Townsend recently stated he considers himself and Theron to be husband and wife. "We didn't have a ceremony," he said. "I don't need a certificate or the state or the church to say otherwise. So no there's no big official story on a wedding, but we are married... I consider her my wife and she considers me her husband".[25]
While filming Æon Flux in Berlin, Germany, Theron had suffered a herniated disc in her neck, which occurred as a result of her suffering a fall while filming a series of back handsprings. This required her to wear a neck collar for a month.[26]
Theron became a naturalized citizen of the United States in May 2007.[27]
In July of 2009, Theron was diagnosed with a serious virus at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. The virus was thought to be contracted while traveling overseas.[28]
Promotional deals
Having signed a deal with John Galliano in 2004, Theron replaced Estonian model Tiiu Kuik as the spokeswoman in the J'ADORE advertisements by Christian Dior.[29] From October 2005 to December 2006, Theron earned $3,000,000 for the use of her image in a worldwide print media advertising campaign for Raymond Weil watches.[30] In February 2006, she and her loan-out corporation were sued by Weil for breach of contract.[30][31]
Activism
Theron is involved in women's rights organizations, and marched for abortion rights.[32] Theron is a supporter of animal rights and active member of PETA. She appeared in a PETA ad for their anti-fur campaign.[33] She is also an active supporter of Democracy Now! and Link TV.[34] She is a supporter of same sex marriage and attended the march in Fresno, California on 30 May 2009.
In May 2006, Maxim named Theron #25 in its annual "Hot 100" issue.[35] In October 2007, Esquire named Theron The Sexiest Woman Alive in its annual issue.[36]
