Blanchett, Cate (1969– )

Australian actor. An accomplished and prolific talent, often cast as strong, heroic women, she received the 2005 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator (2004). She also received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance as Elizabeth I in Elizabeth (1998), reprising her role in the sequel Elizabeth: the Golden Age (2007). She gained further acclaim for her award-wining depiction of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes's ensemble film I'm Not There (2007).

She has starred in several literary adaptations, for example of Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda (1997), Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband (1999), E. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News (2001), and J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy (2000–03). She also starred in a number of thrillers, for example Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), Sam Raimi's, The Gift (2000), and Ron Howard's The Missing (2003). As an accomplished stage actor, her performances include The Blind Giant is Dancing (1996) and Plenty (1999).

Blanchett was born in Melbourne, Australia. After studying at Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Art, from which she graduated in 1992, she joined the Sydney Theatre Company. She starred in the play Top Girls (1992), the musical Kafka Dances (1993), and David Mamet's Oleanna (1993) opposite Geoffrey Rush, her future co-star in Elizabeth. Other stage roles include Helen in Sweet Phoebe (1994) and Miranda in The Tempest (1995). She was spotted by Australian director Bruce Beresford, who cast her in the war drama Paradise Road (1997). Other films include Joel Schumacher's biopic Veronica Guerin (2003), Wes Anderson's comedy adventure The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), Rowan Woods's Little Fish (2005), the acclaimed dramas Babel and Notes on a Scandal (both 2006), and Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) . She produced Dreamtime Alice (2000) and became a co-director with her husband, Andrew Upton, of the Sydney Theatre Company in 2008.