Cate Blanchett

A product of Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Arts where her performance as "Electra" has become something of a local legend, Blanchett found a berth at the Sydney Theatre Company, appearing in "Top Girls" and winning raves for her turn in "Kafka's Dances". She went on to earn accolades for her turn as the female student in David Mamet's "Oleanna" (1993) opposite Geoffrey Rush, and later added the Shakespearean roles of Ophelia and Miranda to her credits. In 1997, she played Nina in "The Seagull" in Australia and made her London stage debut in 1999 in a revival of David Hare's "Plenty.

Blanchett made her film debut in the short "Parklands" (1996) but landed her first feature role as one of the females interned in a Japanese camp in Bruce Beresford's WWII-era drama "Paradise Road" (1997). She further garnered attention (and the 1997 Australian Film Institute Best Supporting Actress Award) as one leg of a romantic triangle (completed by Richard Roxburgh and Frances O'Connor) in the darkly comic "Thank God He Met Lizzie" (also 1997). Her rising star status was confirmed when she landed the leading role of the Tudor monarch in the biopic "Elizabeth" (1998). Holding her own in a cast that included Geoffrey Rush, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Fiennes and Christopher Eccleston, Blanchett delivered a brilliant turn as the young woman who grows into the stature of her office. By turns an emotional girl and a driven women, her Elizabeth was a multi-dimensional creation that earned numerous accolades including an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

After carrying a major film, it perhaps came as a bit of a surprise that her follow-up roles were predominantly supporting ones Blanchett exhibited her comic side, replete with a New Jersey accent as the wife of air traffic controller John Cusack in "Pushing Tin" (1999). Later that same year, she was back in period clothes, first as the wife of a titled man being blackmailed in Oliver Parker's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband" and then as Meredith, a character created especially for the film "The Talented Mr. Ripley", a 50s-era drama about a slick American (Matt Damon) who plots to kill a playboy (Jude Law) in order to assume his identity in Anthony Minghella's adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel.

Blanchett continued to alternate between showy supporting roles and strong leads. She was terrific as a gold-digging Russian chorus girl in "The Man Who Cried" (screened at Venice in 2000 and released in the USA in 2001), and demonstrated her chameleonic abilities essaying a Southern widow with psychic abilities in the gothic thriller "The Gift" (2000). The latter was co-written by her "Pushing Tin" co-star Billy Bob Thornton who based her character on his own mother. The actress remained busy and constantly employed, reuniting with Thornton in the comedy "Bandits" and playing Kevin Spacey's ex-wife in "The Shipping News", as well as undertaking the title role in "Charlotte Gray" (all 2001), opposite Billy Crudup under Gillian Armstrong's direction. Blanchett also squeezed in a turn as the elf queen Galadriel in the three films comprising "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy: "The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001), "The Two Towers" (2002) and "The Return of the King" (2003). Additionally, she acted opposite her "The Gift" co-star Giovanni Ribisi in "Heaven" (2002), Tom Tykwer's English-language debut.

Blanchett next received rave reviews for her turn as the real-life crusading Irish journalist whose life is endangered when she pursues her mob investigation too far in "Veronica Geurin" (2003), and her dual performance as "herself" and a jealous relative was hailed as the best sequence in Jim Jarmousch's long-awaited anthology "Coffee & Cigarettes" (2003). Blanchett, who Leonardo DiCaprio referred to as "the female Daniel Day-Lewis" for her chameleon-like qualities, tackled two wildly different roles in 2004: first she played a pregnant female journalist caught in a off-kilter romantic triangle between an undersea explorer (Bill Murray) and his possible son (Owen Wilson) in Wes Anderson's comedy "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou." Next she captured the coltish, often haughty charisma and unforgettable New England cadences of Hollywood superstar Katharine Hepburn, one of Howard Hughes' (DiCaprio) more serious paramours in director Martin Scorsese's impressive Hughes biopic "The Aviator." Blanchett was widely recognized for her performance and earned several nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role - including a Golden Globe nomination, and victories at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, BAFTA Awards and ultimately, the Oscar at the Academy Awards. Blanchett's victory gave her the unique distinction of becoming the first actress to win an Oscar for playing an Oscar-winning actress.

Blanchett was little-seen on the big screen for most of 2005, though she did star in the Australian-made thriller "Little Fish", playing a recovering drug addict trying to get her life back in order when a criminal kingpin (Sam Neill) forces her to confront her greatest fear. She next starred in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s complex "Babel" (2006), a dense and heartbreaking look at confusion, fear and the depths of love. Set on different continents - Asia, Africa and North America - "Babel" told three separate stories brought together by a single random act of violence. Blanchett played an American tourist traveling with her husband (Brad Pitt) in Morocco when a stray bullet from a rifle crashes through their bus window, seriously wounding her and touching off a series of events - including the couple’s Mexican housekeeper (Adriana Barraza) trying to cross the border, a neglected Japanese girl (Rinko Kikuchi) scouring Japan for love in all the wrong places, and two Moroccan boys (Said Tarchani and Boubker Ait El Caid) dealing with their culpability in the shooting - that underscore the fear and confusion brought about by the failure to communicate.

She next starred in "The Good German" (2006), playing the former lover of a U.S. Army war correspondent (George Clooney) in post-war Berlin who is trying to escape the war’s aftermath - and her own dark past - before being discovered. Blanchett next costarred in "Notes on a Scandal" (2006), playing an attractive new art teacher at a London high school engaging in an illicit affair with a 15-year-old student (Andrew Simpson) whose secret is guarded by the school’s obsessively voyeuristic history teacher (Judi Dench), a role that earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. Though she lost out to newcomer Jennifer Hudson, Blanchett was given a shot at redemption by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Meanwhile, in the summer of 2006, Blanchett finished shooting "Elizabeth: The Golden Age", Shekhar Kapur’s sequel to "Elizabeth" that focused on the Virgin Queen’s relationship with Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen).