Few
actresses enjoy the kind of success Keira Knightley saw
in 2003. First, her major picture starring debut, Pirates Of The
Caribbean,
entered the all-time Top 20 of box-office hits. Then, due to this
success, her earlier low-budget effort, Bend It Like Beckham, already
a cult smash, found its release widened dramatically, taking it into
undreamed of profit. Following these with Love, Actually, the latest
cute rom-com from Richard "Notting Hill" Curtis, her rise
in a few short months would be nothing short of phenomenal. And still
she was only 18.
Yet, despite her tender years, Keira
Knightley already had a fair amount of working experience. Like such American
actresses as Kirsten
Dunst and Julia Stiles, she had begun her career at an absurdly young age.
Unlike them, though, she had not done so through the actions of "pushy" parents.
Knightley's focus was all her own, and had first become apparent
at the absurdly young age of 3.
She was born Kiera Knightley on the 22nd
of March, 1985, in Teddington, south-west London. Her name would
become Keira as her Hollywood career
took off, the change shamelessly breaking the golden rule of "I
before E except after C" but making the name more easily pronounceable
on a worldwide basis. Her father was stage actor Will Knightley,
who'd make the occasional foray into television, such as starring
as Mr Glegg in the BBC's 1997 production of The Mill On The Floss.
Her Ayrshire-born mother, Sharman MacDonald, had also been a stage
and TV actress (she once appeared in Shoestring). Having joined the
Drama Society at Edinburgh University in 1972, then worked as a go-go
dancer to pay her Drama School fees, she'd battled against stage
fright for 12 years. Eventually, pregnant with Keira and having borne
son Caleb five years earlier (he'd go on to teach music to underprivileged
kids), in 1984 she gave up acting and concentrated on her family.
She also took up a career in playwriting and, after debuting with
When I Was A Girl I Used To Scream And Shout, she proceeded to deliver
such notable efforts as After Juliet, All Things Nice, The Brave,
Sea Urchins, Shades and The Winter Guest, the last being taken to
the big screen by Alan Rickman. On top of this, she'd write Wild
Flowers and The Music Practice for TV, and a BBC documentary would
be made about her, called Mindscape and featuring the young Keira.
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Actress
Teri Hatcher Desperate Housewives
Teri Hatcher began her performing
career as a young girl taking ballet lessons at the San
Juan Girls' Ballet Studio in downtown Los Altos, California.
She later studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater.
One of her early jobs (in 1984) was as a cheerleader with
the San Francisco 49ers. Teri
Hatcher Bio and Photos |
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Actress
Erica Durance Smallville
Born in Calgary, Erica Durance was raised in Three Hills, Alberta. After
graduating from high school, Durance moved to Vancouver, British Columbia,
to pursue her interest in acting professionally. "I wanted to get
my feet wet in a smaller area than Los Angeles when I gave it a try",
Durance has said. Erica
Durance Bio and Photos |
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Movie
and Television Actress Alyssa Milano
In 1983, at age 10, she landed her breakthrough role on the new sitcom "Who's
the Boss?" as Tony Danza's saccharine sweet daughter, Samantha Micelli,
a kid whose native Brooklyn accent rivaled her TV dad's. Alyssa
Milano Bio and Photos |
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Movie
Actress Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz left school at 16 to become a model. For the next five years,
she traveled the globe, working in Japan, Australia, Mexico, Morocco, and
Paris. As a model for the Elite Agency, she did commercial work for such
products as Coke, Nivea, and L.A. Gear. Cameron
Diaz Bio and Photos |
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Movie
Actress Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon has been featured
four times in the annual "100 Most Beautiful" issues
of People magazine. In 2007, she was selected by People
and the entertainment news program Access Hollywood as
one of the best dressed female stars of the year. Reese
Witherspoon Bio and Photos |
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Movie
Actress Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba's first film role,
in the 1994 film Camp Nowhere, came her way by chance.
She was cast with a bit part in the film after one of the
characters dropped out of the production. Dark-haired Jessica
was cast as the replacement, thanks to the fact that her
hair matched that of the original actress. Jessica
Alba Photos |
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Television
Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jennifer Love Hewitt has been in
front of the camera ever since she was nine when she joined
a Show Team in Texas, this was a dance team that traveled
to Russia and Denmark. When she was ten she was an international
spokesperson for LA Gear shoes. Jennifer
Hewitt Bio and Pictures |
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