Cate Blanchett (born May 14, 1969) is an Australian actress. She was born Catherine Elise Blanchett in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, the daughter of a Texan naval petty officer who came ashore in Melbourne and met her mother, a Melbourne schoolteacher. Her father, Robert, later worked in advertising after marrying her mother, June. He died of a heart attack when Cate was only 10 years old. She has two siblings; the elder, Bob, is a computer programmer, and her younger sister, Genevieve, is a set designer in the theatre.

Blanchett graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney in 1992, and began her career on the stage. Her first major stage role was opposite Geoffrey Rush in the 1993 David Mamet play Oleanna. Her film debut was as an Australian nurse captured by the Japanese in the prisoner of war production of Paradise Road directed by Bruce Beresford, that co-starred Glenn Close and Frances McDormand.

She married playwright and screenwriter Andrew Upton , who she met back in 1996 while she was performing in a production of The Seagull. It was hardly love at first sight, however. "He thought I was aloof and I thought he was arrogant," Blanchett later remarked. "It just shows you how wrong you can be. But once he kissed me that was that." The two were married in 1997 and welcomed their first child, Dashiell John, in December 2001 and their second child Roman Robert was born in 2004.

Blanchett is perhaps best known for her role as Elizabeth I, Queen of England in 1998's Elizabeth, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Blanchett later won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2005 for playing Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorcese's The Aviator.

Cate Blanchett on the cover of Vogue

Filmography

2006

• Golden Age – Elizabeth I
• Little Fish – Tracy Heart

2004

• The Life Aquatic – Jane Winslett-Richardson
• The Aviator – Katharine Hepburn

2003

• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Galadriel
• The Missing – Maggie
• Coffee and Cigarettes
• Veronica Guerin – Veronica Guerin

2002

• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Galadriel
• Heaven – Philippa

2001

• The Shipping News – Petal Bear
• Charlotte Gray – Charlotte Gray
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Galadriel
• Bandits – Kate Wheeler

2000

• The Gift – Annabelle 'Annie' Wilson
• The Man Who Cried – Lola

1999

• Bangers – Julie-Anne
• The Talented Mr. Ripley – Meredith Logue
• Pushing Tin – Connie Falzone
• An Ideal Husband – Lady Gertrude Chiltern

1998

• Elizabeth – Elizabeth I of England

1997

• Oscar and Lucinda – Lucinda Leplastrier
• Thank God He Met Lizzie – Lizzie
• Paradise Road – Susan Macarthy

1996

• Parklands – Rosie

1994

• Police Rescue – Vivian

Awards & Nominations

• Academy Award - Nominated for Best Actress for Elizabeth (1998)
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts - Best Actress for Elizabeth (1998)
• Golden Globe Awards - Best Actress, Drama, for Elizabeth (1998)
• Golden Globe Awards - Nominated for Best Actress, Musical or Comedy, for Bandits (2001)
• Golden Globe Awards - Nominated for Best Actress, Drama, for Veronica Guerin (2003)
• Golden Globe Awards - Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator (2004)
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts - Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator (2004)
• Screen Actors Guild Awards - Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator (2004)
• Academy Award - Best Supporting Actress for The Aviator (2004)

External links

• An unofficial fan site
• Cate Blanchett Directory

Quotes

• "If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously"
• On the Lord of the Rings trilogy: "I had never done anything with blue screen before, or prosthetics, or anything like that. Lord of the Rings was like stepping into a videogame for me. It was another world completely. But, to be honest, I basically did it so that I could have the ears. I thought they would really work with my bare head."
• "If I had my way, if I was lucky enough, if I could be on the brink my entire life - that great sense of expectation and excitement without the disappointment - that would be the perfect state."