Beckinsale, Kate (1973– )

English film and theatre actor. She is known for her delicate beauty and her versatile talent across a variety of genres. Her roles in the BBC television film Cold Comfort Farm (1995) and in the UK comedy Shooting Fish (1997) established her as one of the leading young British screen actors of the 1990s. This was followed by lead roles in the miniseries Jane Austen adaptation Emma (1997) and Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco (1998). Her leading role in the Hollywood blockbuster Pearl Harbor (2001) launched her to international stardom.

Beckinsale has worked in UK, US, and French cinema. She has also worked on the UK stage, in a 1995 adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull, as well as in several productions in London. Among her other screen roles is that of Alice in the Channel 4 Lewis Carroll adaptation Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998), and in the films Laurel Canyon (2002), Underworld (2003), Van Helsing (2004), and The Aviator (2004).

The daughter of actors Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe, she grew up in London, England. Her major acting debut was in the television film One Against the Wind (1991). While still studying French and Russian literature at Oxford University, England, she played Hero in Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare adaptation Much Ado About Nothing (1993).