Best Known As: Penny Lane in the movie Almost Famous
Kate Hudson's breakthrough movie was the 2000 rock 'n roll memoir Almost Famous; she played Penny Lane, the groupie with a heart of gold. (The character was inspired in part by real-life groupie Pamela Des Barres.) The film catapulted Hudson to instant stardom; she was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe as best supporting actress. Hudson has a Hollywood pedigree: her mother is actress Goldie Hawn, and her father is singer and comedian Bill Hudson of the Hudson Brothers. Her other films include 200 Cigarettes (1999), Dr. T and the Women (2000), Raising Helen (2004, with Abigail Breslin), The Skeleton Key (2005) and You, Me and Dupree (2006, with Owen Wilson). She has twice starred in romantic comedies with Matthew McConaughey: How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) and Fool's Gold (2008).
Hudson married Chris Robinson, singer for the rock group Black Crowes, on New Years' Eve of 2000. Their son, Ryder, was born in 2004. Hudson and Robinson separated in 2006 and were divorced in 2007.
Career Highlights: Almost Famous, Desert Blue, The Skeleton Key
First Major Screen Credit: Desert Blue (1998)
Biography
The daughter of Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson bears more than a passing resemblance to her famous mother in both looks and onscreen vivacity. Born in Los Angeles on April 19, 1979, Hudson made her screen debut in 1998. She first earned notice for her work in 200 Cigarettes (1999), an ensemble film that cast her as naive Cindy out on a date with caddish Jack (Jay Mohr). Although the film proved to be a substantial critical and commercial disappointment, Hudson's performance was singled out for some of the scant praise the film did receive. The following year, she could be seen starring opposite fellow up-and-comer Joshua Jackson in Gossip, a drama centered on the disastrous side effects of rumor-mongering on a college campus.
If critical recognition had eluded her in the past, it certainly caught-up with her at the 2000 Golden Globe Awards, where she took home the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. Engulfed in the Hollywood hype machine following her winning role in Almost Famous, it seemed as if Hudson was set to follow her mother in taking the film industry by storm. After soaking in her nowfound fame in the early years of the new millennium, Hudson emerged from a whirlwind schedule of fashion shoots and awards shows to appear in the romanticwar dramaThe Four Feathers in 2002. Though The Four Feathers was quickly and unceremoniously relegated to box-office obscurity, Hudson fired back with an almost surefire hit when she starred opposite quirky heartthrob Matthew McConaughey in the romantic comedyHow to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003). While subsequent roles in Alex and Emma, Le Divorce, and Raising Helen did little to elevate Hudson's already-comfortable star status, a venture into the unknown in the curiously original but largely underseen Skeleton Key at least showed the actress' willingness to explore new territory onscreen.
Back in the realm of comedy, Hudson would do her best to tolerate onscreen husband Matt Dillon's eccentric best-friend when the down-on-his-luck Dupree (Owen Wilson) arrives on their doorstep looking for a place to stay in the farcical summer comedy You, Me and Dupree. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Kate Hudson was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of Academy Award-winning actress Goldie Hawn and Bill Hudson, an actor, comedian, and musician.[1] Kate Hudson's parents divorced eighteen months after her birth; she and her brother, actor Oliver Hudson, were raised in Colorado by her mother and her mother's long-time boyfriend, actor Kurt Russell.[2] Kate Hudson has stated that her biological father "doesn't know me from a hole in the wall", and that she considers Kurt Russell to be her father.[3] Hudson has described her mother as "the woman that I've learned the most from, and who I look up to, who has conducted her life in a way that I can look up to".[4] She has three half-siblings, Emily and Zachary Hudson, from her biological father's subsequent marriage to actress Cindy Williams, and Wyatt, from her mother's relationship with Kurt Russell. Kate Hudson is of English, Italian, and HungarianJewish descent,[5] and was raised in her maternal grandmother's Jewish religion;[6][7] her family also practiced Buddhism. Hudson graduated from Crossroads, a performing school in Santa Monica, in 1997. She was accepted to New York University, but chose to pursue an acting career instead of an undergraduate degree.[2]
Career
Kate Hudson's breakthrough was as Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture.[2] She had previously appeared in the lesser-known films Gossip, a teenage drama, and 200 Cigarettes, a New Year's-set comedy with a large cast of actors. Regarding her early career and success, Hudson has noted that she is a "hard worker", and did not want to be associated with her well-known parents, wishing to avoid the perception that she "rode on somebody's coattails".[2]
In 2002 Kate Hudson starred in the remake of the historical romance The Four Feathers, a film which was not well received by critics or audiences. Her next film, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, a romantic comedy, became a big success at the box office, grossing over $100 million after its February 2003 release. Hudson subsequently appeared in several romantic comedies, including Alex and Emma and Raising Helen; the films met with varying degrees of success.
Hudson headlined a thriller called The Skeleton Key in 2005. The film, which had a production budget of $43 million, enjoyed boxoffice success, grossing over $91.9 million worldwide ($47.9 million in North America).[8] Her later film, a comedy titled You, Me and Dupree and co-starring Owen Wilson and Matt Dillon, grossed $21.5 million on its opening weekend of July 14, 2006.[9]
In 2008, she appeared in Fool's Gold, a romantic comedy released on February 8th, and her second film to co-star Matthew McConaughey. She had been certified in scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef for the movie's underwater scenes. Her latest film, another romantic comedy, titled My Best Friend's Girl, was released in September.
Kate Hudson married Chris Robinson, the frontman for The Black Crowes, on December 31, 2000 in Aspen, Colorado.The couple lived in a house that was once owned by director James Whale and traveled together during Hudson's film shoots or Robinson's music tours.[2] On January 7, 2004, Hudson gave birth to son Ryder Russell Robinson. On August 14, 2006, Hudson's publicist announced that Hudson and Robinson had separated. On November 18, 2006, Robinson filed divorce papers, citing "irreconcilable differences".[11] The divorce was finalized on October 22, 2007.[12] Currently Hudson is dating New York Yankeesthird basemanAlex Rodriguez.[13]
Hudson has also said that she does not enjoy seeing herself on screen, specifying that she "gets cold... shakes and... sweats" when watching her performances for the first time.[4] In July 2006, Hudson sued the British version of the National Enquirer after they had stated that she has an eating disorder and described her as "painfully thin." Hudson said that the tabloid's actions were "completely inappropriate" and a "blatant lie," and specified her concern relating the impressions about weight that she feels the tabloid could have on young girls.[14]
