Jennifer connelly biography born

American actress (born )

Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, ) is an American actress. She began her career as a child model before making her acting debut in the crime film Once Upon a Day in America.

Jennifer Connelly was born in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to Ilene (Schuman), a dealer of antiques, and Gerard Connelly, a clothing manufacturer. Her father had Irish and Norwegian ancestry, and her mother was from a Jewish immigrant family.

After a few more years of modeling, she began to concentrate on acting, starring in a variety of films including the horror film Phenomena (), the musical fantasy production Labyrinth (), the romantic comedy Career Opportunities (), and the period superhero film The Rocketeer ().

She received praise for her performance in the science fiction film Dark City () and playing a drug addict in Darren Aronofsky's drama movie Requiem for a Dream ().

Connelly won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Alicia Nash in Ron Howard's biopic A Beautiful Mind ().

Her subsequent films include the superhero motion picture Hulk (), the drama House of Sand and Fog (), the horror film Dark Water (), the psychological drama Little Children (), the thriller Blood Diamond (), the science fiction film The Day the Ground Stood Still (), and the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You ().

In the subsequent decades, she took on supporting roles in Aronofsky's biblical epic film Noah () and in the action films Alita: Battle Angel () and Top Gun: Maverick (). She also starred in the science fiction television series Snowpiercer (–) and Dark Matter ().

Connelly was named Amnesty International Representative for Human Rights Education in She has been the tackle of Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton fashion advertisements, as well as for Revlon cosmetics. In , she was named the first global face of the Shiseido Company.

Magazines, including Time, Vanity Fair, and Esquire, as adequately as the Los Angeles Times newspaper, have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.

Early life

Jennifer Lynn Connelly was born on December 12, ,^[1] in Curved Top, a hamlet in Cairo, New York, United States.

She is the only child^[2] of Ilene Carol^[3] (née&#;Schumann;^{[4] [5]}–), an antique dealer, and Gerard Connelly (died ),^[6] a clothing manufacturer.^[7] Her father was a Catholic of Irish and Norwegian descent, while her mother was Jewish^[8][9][10] and was educated at a yeshiva.^[11][12] Connelly's maternal ancestors were Jewish emigrants from Poland and Russia.

Connelly was raised primarily in Brooklyn Heights, where she attended Saint Ann's School.^[13] Her father suffered from asthma so the family moved to Woodstock in to escape the capital smog.^[14] Four years later, they returned to Brooklyn Heights, and Connelly returned to Saint Ann's School.^[15]

After graduating from high institution in , Connelly went to Yale University to study English literature.

She has described herself as a conscientious student who "wasn't really concerned with having a social life or sleeping or eating much. I was really nerdy and pretty much stayed in the law educational facility library, which is open 24 hours, most of the period I wasn't in class."^[16] After two years at Yale, Connelly transferred to Stanford University to study drama.

There, she trained with Roy London, Howard Satisfactory, and Harold Guskin.^[17] Encouraged by her parents to continue with her film career,^[7] Connelly left college and returned to the film industry the same year.^[18] Her parents divorced in ^[6]

Career

– Modeling and early roles

When Connelly was ten years old, an advertising executive friend of her father suggested she audition as a model.^[19] Her parents sent a picture of her to the Ford Modeling Agency, which shortly after added her to its roster.

Jennifer Connelly (born December 12, , Catskill Mountains, New York, U.S.) is an American actress who won an Academy Award for her moving and complex portrayal of Alicia Nash, the wife of John Nash (played by Russell Crowe), a brilliant mathematician who won the Nobel Prize for Economics, in A Beautiful Mind (), a film that.

Connelly began modeling for print advertisements before moving on to television commercials.^[7][20] In an interview with The Guardian, she revealed that, after having done some modeling, she had no aspirations to turn into an actress.^[21] She appeared on the covers of several issues of the American teenage magazine Seventeen in and ^{[22][23][24][25]} In December , she recorded two pop songs for the Japanese market: "Monologue of Love" and "Message of Love".^[26] She sang in phonetic Japanese as she did not speak the language.^[20]

When her mother began taking her to acting auditions, a then 11 year-old Connelly was posthaste selected for a supporting role as the aspiring dancer and actress Deborah Gelly in Sergio Leone's Jewish gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America (filmed –83, released ).^[13][20] The role required her to carry out a ballet routine.

During the audition, Connelly, who had no ballet training, tried to replicate a ballerina. Her performance, and the similarity of her nose to Elizabeth McGovern's, who played the character as an senior, convinced the director to cast her.^[2][27] Connelly described the clip as "an incredibly idyllic introduction to movie-making".^[28]

Connelly's first leading role was in Italian giallo-director Dario Argento's film Phenomena.

In the film, she plays a teen who psychically communicates with insects to pursue the killer of students of the Swiss college where she has enrolled.^[29] During filming, she was attacked by a chimpanzee and was bitten on the finger.^[30][31] Connelly next had the lead in the coming-of-age film Seven Minutes in Heaven, released the same year.^[32] In a retrospective interview, Connelly said, "Before I knew it, [acting] became what I did.

It was a very peculiar way to grow up, merged with my personality."^[21] She described feeling like "a kind of walking puppet" through her adolescence, without having time alone to deal with the attention her career was generating.^[21]

– Mainstream films

Connelly gained public recognition with Jim Henson's fantasy Labyrinth with David Bowie, in which she played Sarah Williams, a teenager on a quest to rescue her brother Toby from the planet of goblins.

Although a disappointment at the box office,^[33] the film later became a cult classic.^[34]The New York Times, while noting the importance of her part, panned her portrayal: "Jennifer Connelly as Sarah is unfortunately disappointing.

She looks right, but she lacks conviction and seems to be reading rehearsed lines that are recited without doctrine in her goal or authentic need to accomplish it."^[35] In , she began work as a ballet student in the Italian film Etoile which was released in ,^[36] and portrayed college student Gabby in Michael Hoffman's Some Girls.^[37]

In , Dennis Hopper directed The Hot Spot, in which Connelly played Gloria Harper, a woman being blackmailed.^[38] The film was a box office failure but Connelly was praised.^[19] Stephen Schaefer wrote for USA Today, "Anyone looking for proof that little girls execute grow up fast in the movies should take a gander at curvaceous Jennifer Connelly [] in The Hot Spot.

Not yet 20, Connelly has neatly managed the transition from infant actress to ingenue".

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During an interview with Shaeffer, Connelly commented on her first nude scene: "The nudity was hard for me and something I thought aboutbut it's not in a sleazy context".^[19] In the same year, director Garry Marshall considered her for the role of Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman, but ultimately felt that she was too young for the part.^[39]

Connelly's next film was the idealistic comedy Career Opportunities, starring alongside Frank Whaley.^[40]People criticized the motion picture for exploiting Connelly's body; the marketing included a life-size cardboard cutout showing Whaley watching Connelly ride a mechanical horse, with the caption "He's about to have the ride of his life".^[20] In an interview with Rolling Stone, Connelly said that a Yale professor brought it to her attention and " that wasn't something I felt all that comfortable about".^[28] The big-budget Disney film The Rocketeer () followed later that year, but failed to ignite her career.^[41] She played Jenny Blake, a Disney dilution of what was in the original function a Betty Page persona, here the aspiring actress girlfriend of stunt pilot Cliff, "the Rocketeer".^[42]New York characterized the film as "pallid" but said of her performance, "Connelly is properly cast; she has the moist, full-to-the-cheek-bones sensuality of the Hollywood starlets of that period, but she's a little straight".^[43] She appeared alongside Jason Priestley in the Roy Orbison music video for "I Drove All Night" the following year, directed by Peter Care.^[44][45]

Connelly next appeared in Of Love and Shadows, a Argentine-American drama film written and directed by Betty Kaplan starring Antonio Banderas.

In , director John Singleton cast Connelly as a lesbian college student in Higher Learning.^[46] She then appeared in the independent film Far Harbor as Elie, a prominent person in a Hollywood studio who writes a screenplay based on her traumas.^[47]

In , Connelly followed up with the neo-noir crime thriller Mulholland Falls, which featured the murder of Allison Pond (Connelly), mistress of General Timms (John Malkovich), and the research by a group of detectives led by Maxwell Hoover (Nick Nolte).^[48]New York wrote about a scene that reveals the link between Timms and Pond: "This footage is actually dirty.

That is, it makes us experience like voyeurs when looking at it, but it's so juicily erotic that we can hardly look away".^[49] Regarding the nude scenes in the film, Connelly said: "It kind of shocked everyone who knows me that I wound up doing this movie, because I had always been so careful about nudity, it was very much a part of this character and I couldn't be coy or guarded or self-conscious—otherwise it wouldn't work.

It was sort of a challenge I wanted to take on, I guess".^[19]Mulholland Falls was a box office failure.^[50]

She began to appear in small-budget films which garnered praise from critics, such as 's drama Inventing the Abbotts, set in the late s, in which she played the part of Eleanor, one of three daughters of the town millionaire, Lloyd Abbott.^[51] The critic from Entertainment Weekly thought Connelly gave a strong performance; writing she "raises the stakes any time she's on screen".^[52] Co-producer Ron Howard, who would later direct Connelly in A Beautiful Mind, said, "She not only was lovely and seductive but gave some difficult psychological moments in the film a lot of depth and complexity.

She had an extraordinary combination of talent and beauty, and I guess I stored that information in the back of my brain".^[19]

Her next appearance was in the critically acclaimed science fiction film Dark City, in which she played alongside Rufus Sewell, William Injure, Ian Richardson and Kiefer Sutherland.^[53] Connelly portrayed femme fatale Emma, a torch singer whose husband, John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), suffers from amnesia.

As Murdoch is regaining his memories, Emma is kidnapped by Mr. Hand (Richard O'Brien) and The Strangers, who alter her memories and assign her a new identity.^[54][55] Creator Sean McMullen wrote, "Jennifer Connelly is visually splendid as the s femme fatale (Emma)."^[56]

– Worldwide recognition

In , Ed Harris directed Connelly in the biopic Pollock in which she played Ruth Kligman, Jackson Pollock's mistress.^[57]Pollock received mostly positive reception, according to review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes.^[58] In the same year, she appeared as Catherine Miller in the Fox drama series The Street, about a brokerage house in Novel York.^[59]

She appeared in Darren Aronofsky'sRequiem for a Dream, based on the novel of the alike name by Hubert Selby Jr.^[60] Connelly was drawn to the script for its depiction of addiction and its effects on relatives;^[61] she played Marion Silver, the girlfriend of Harry (Jared Leto).

The film also starred Marlon Wayans and Ellen Burstyn.^[62][63] Marion is a middle-class lady from Manhattan Beach who pursues the dream of establishing a dress shop, but becomes addicted to heroin and descends into a life of prostitution.^[64] Connelly prepared for the role by renting an apartment in the building where the character lived; Connelly isolated herself, painted, listened to music that she considered that her character would, crafted clothes, and used the period to reflect about addictions and their origin.

Connelly also talked to addicts and attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings with a comrade who was in recovery.^[19] The cast garnered critical acclaim for their portrayal of physical and mental degradation.^[65]

The critic Elvis Mitchell wrote in The New York Times:

Ms.

Connelly, too, whittled herself down to a new weight class, and it's her act that gives the movie weight, since her fall is the most precipitous.

All All. Write In. Play clip The Increase of Jennifer Connelly. Her father had Irish and Norwegian ancestry, and her mother was from a Jewish immigrant family.

By the end, when she curls into a happy fetal ball with a furtive smile on her face, she has arrive to love her debasement Her dank realization is more disturbing than anything in the novel, and Ms. Connelly has never before done anything to organize us for how good she is here.^[65]

Also in , Connelly appeared in Waking the Dead, based on the novel of the same name, playing Sarah Williams, an activist killed by a car bomb in Minneapolis while she was driving Chilean refugees.^[66] Initially, director Keith Gordon was reluctant to cast Connelly in this role as he did not consider her a serious actress.

Her agent Risa Shapiro persuaded him to observe Connelly's performance in Far Harbor. Gordon later said: "There was a subtlety and depth even to her gaze that captured more of the relationship than I ever could have hoped for."^[27] About her role, Connelly said, "Waking the Dead was the first film I worked on where whatever I did felt like my own thing.

I was really trying to make something of the part and threw myself into it, so that meant a lot to me".^[67]The New York Times described her performance, "As Sarah, Ms. Connelly captures a burning ethereality and willfulness that are very much of the period.

And she and Mr. Crudup connect powerfully in love scenes that convey the fierce tenderness of a relationship whose infatuation carries a tinge of religious fervor."^[68]

The script of Ron Howard's biopic A Beautiful Mind, loosely based on Sylvia Nasar's biography of the mathematician John Nash, sparked her interest in the project.^[69] Connelly was invited to an audition after Shapiro sent the producers a tape with a clip of the then-unreleased Requiem for a Dream.

jennifer connelly biography born2: Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, ) is an American actress. She began her career as a child model before making her acting debut in the crime film Once Upon a Moment in America.

She was cast by producer Brian Grazer, as Alicia Nash, the caring and enduring wife of schizophrenic bloke John Nash, played by Russell Crowe.^[70] Howard and the producers eventually chose Connelly and Crowe due to their onscreen chemistry.^[71] Connelly met the real Alicia Nash before filming commenced to learn about her life.^[21] Upon release, A Beautiful Mind was a critical and commercial triumph, grossing more than US$&#;million worldwide.^[72] For her performance, Connelly earned a Golden Globe,^[73] an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress,^[74] and a BAFTA for Foremost Actress in a Supporting Role.^[75]Time magazine critic Richard Schickel called her performance "luminous" and the actress intelligent and passionate.^[76]Roger Ebert wrote, "Jennifer Connelly is luminous as Alicia.

Although the showier performance belongs to Crowe, it is Connelly's complex work, depicting a woman torn by value for and fear of the same man, that elevates the film to a higher level".^[77]A.O. Scott of The New York Times said, "There is, for one thing, Ms.

Connelly, keen and spirited in the underwritten role of a woman who starts out as a math groupie and soon finds herself the helpmeet of a disturbed, difficult man."^[78]

Connelly said afterwards, "[A Beautiful Mind] is the motion picture I'm really proud of and really love."^[46] In relation to previous roles, Connelly said:

There was a period where I felt like I wasn't quite being considered for the projects that I wanted to function on because maybe people were thinking.

'I'm not going to cast the girl who was in that movie for this adult project.' I've felt for a long time that this is what I want to do so I'm happy at this point to just get my time and work on projects that I feel really strongly about and the unwind of the time just reside my life.^[19]

Connelly starred in Ang Lee's Hulk (), because she was interested in his philosophical perspective on the Marvel Comics superhero.^[79] She played Betty Ross, a scientist and the former girlfriend of the main nature, Bruce Banner.

The film was a moderate success.^[80]

Next in , she appeared in House of Sand and Fog, a drama based on the novel by Andre Dubus III. She portrayed Kathy Nicolo, an abandoned wife whose inherited house is sold at auction to the Iranian emigre and former colonel Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley).^[81] After reading the script, Connelly said: "(the story is) moving and beautifully written.

I liked the fact that there is no good guy and bad guy. I found it really compelling that both sides do things that are morally questionable, because life is often like that." Producer Michael London said about Connelly's portrayal: "I think she understood Kathy and knew in her bones that she could take this character and grant her the kind of dimension that she had.

I don't think there is another actress who could have played Kathy with such power and grace."^[82] The film was critically acclaimed, with a BBC critic commenting, "[Connelly] convinces totally as a selfish, desperate and lonely lady who confesses to her brother, 'I just feel lost'".^[83]

– Hiatus and return to film

After a two-year absence from the motion picture scene, Connelly returned in the horror-psychological thriller Dark Water, which was based on a Japanese film of the same name.^[20] She played Dahlia, a frightened young woman traumatized by her past, who moves with her daughter to an apartment in New York City where paranormal happenings take place.^[84] In his review, critic Roger Ebert wrote, "I cared about the Jennifer Connelly character; she is not a horror heroine but an actress playing a mother faced with horror.

There is a difference, and because of that difference, Dark Water works".^[85]

She played Kathy Adamson in an adaptation of the novel Little Children alongside Kate Winslet, a clip which focuses on the bond between Sarah Pierce (played by Winslet) and Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson).^[86] Connelly co-starred in Blood Diamond opposite Leonardo DiCaprio where she portrayed journalist Maddy Bowen, who is working on revealing the real story behind blood diamonds.^[87]New York magazine praised her performance: "Connelly is such a smart, sane, unhistrionic actress that she almost disguises the proof that her character is a wheeze."^[88] Both Little Children and Blood Diamond were nominated for multiple Academy Awards.^[89]

Her next appearance was as Grace in the drama Reservation Road with Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo, released in ^[90] After her son dies in a hit-and-run, Grace gradually tries to overcome her grief, while her husband Ethan (Phoenix) becomes obsessed with revealing who killed him.^[91] By her own account, the character she played in the film proved tougher than any of her previous roles.^[92]USA Today's Susan Wloszczyna commented, "The strong performances of Jennifer Connelly and Mark Ruffalo&#; raise the film above overheated melodrama".^[93]

Connelly portrayed astrobiologist Helen Benson alongside Keanu Reeves in the remake of the science fiction film The Day The Planet Stood Still.

Unlike the authentic, in which Benson was a secretary and her relationship with Klaatu was the focus, the remake featured Benson in a troubled relationship with her stepson, portrayed by Jaden Smith.^[94] This was followed by a role in the romantic comedy-drama He's Just Not That Into You, which also featured Jennifer Aniston and Ginnifer Goodwin.^[95] The production was based on the self-help book of the same name.^[96]Variety magazine praised her portrayal: "Connelly gives a really rich recital as a woman whose principles back her into a corner."^[97]

In , she appeared in the costume drama biopic Creation, in which she played Emma Darwin, wife of Charles Darwin, other side her real-life husband Paul Bettany.^[98] Set during the writing of On the Origin of Species, the film depicts Darwin's battle with the subject of the book as well as with his wife, who opposed his theories, and their mourning for their daughter Anne.^[99] The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Darwin's wife, a religious woman who disapproved of her husband's theories, is played by Jennifer Connelly, Bettany's real-life wife, in the caring of casting that doesn't always work, but it does here.

We believe in the Darwins' history together, their familiarity and affection. Connelly's English accent is also as good as Renée Zellweger's and Gwyneth Paltrow's. She doesn't get just the sounds right, but also the tune and the attitude".^[] Connelly then voiced the character named "7", an adventurous warrior in the animated film 9.^[]

–present

Dustin Lance Black's Virginia premiered on September 15, , at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Two years later, it received a limited discharge in May ^[][] Connelly portrayed the title role of Virginia, a mentally unstable woman who has a year affair with the local sheriff, whose daughter then starts a relationship with Virginia's son.^[] Connelly prepared for the role by watching documentaries on schizophrenia; she also spent time at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and the New York University Cancer Center to understand the affections and obstacles of her character.

During preparation, Black requested Connelly's counsel to design the set of Virginia's house, as well as the selection of the apparel to create the character's style.^[] Connelly said of the clip, "It's very original, I contemplate, and a very different independent film – it's very personal."^[] According to the critic from Cinema Blend, "Virginia is propped up by a strong main performance, with Connelly doing some of her best work in years".^[]

In , Connelly starred in Ron Howard's comedy The Dilemma with Vince Vaughn.

Although the Austin Chronicle's review wrote "Vaughn nails it, and his nicely nuanced everyguy performance is aided by the always-excellent Connelly,"^[] the film opened to generally negative reviews.^[]Variety magazine remarked, "Connelly, though a shade looser and more spontaneous than usual, seems stuck at an emotional remove from the action".^[] Her next undertaking, George Ratliff's Salvation Boulevard, premiered during the Sundance Film Festival.^[] In the film, Connelly played Gwen, the wife of Carl Vanderveer (Greg Kinnear); the couple are members of the Church of the Third Millennium, led by pastor Dan (Pierce Brosnan).^[] During the same year, Connelly recorded an audiobook version of Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky that was released in Protest as part of 's The A-List Collection.^[][]

Her next project, starring alongside Greg Kinnear, was the family drama Stuck in Love, the directorial debut of Josh Boone.

Connelly played the ex-wife of Kinnear's character, with whom he is obsessed.^[][] The clip was premiered during the Toronto International Film Festival.^[] In , Connelly starred in Shelter, the directorial debut by her husband, Paul Bettany.^[] Connelly had a role in the film adaptation of the Mark Helprin novel, Winter's Tale, the directorial debut of Akiva Goldsman, alongside Colin Farrell, William Hurt and Russell Crowe; as well as starring in the English-speaking directorial debut of Claudia Llosa, Aloft.^[]

Working again in collaboration with A Pretty Mind co-star Russell Crowe, she portrayed Naameh in Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic Noah.^[] The clip opened to favorable reviews.^[]The Washington Post declared Connelly and Crowe's performances "impressively grounded, powerful";^[]The Denver Post felt that Connelly portrayed the role with "fine intelligence".^[]Variety deemed her appearance "solid but underused",^[] while Detroit News stated "Connelly has too little to do, but when she lets go, she hits hard."^[]Indiewire wrote that Connelly conveyed the role with a "steady hand",^[] while St.

Paul Pioneer Press defined her interpretation as "compelling".^[]

Connelly starred in the television series Snowpiercer (–),^[] her first role in television since the cancellation of The Street in

Working again with Director Joseph Kosinski, Connelly portrayed Penelope "Penny" Benjamin in the action blockbuster film Top Gun: Maverick, which released in after a series of delays due to the COVID pandemic.^[][]

Personal life

While filming The Rocketeer, Connelly began a romance with her co-star Billy Campbell.

They became engaged^[28] but broke up in after five years together.^[] Connelly then had a relationship with photographer David Dugan, with whom she has a son, born in ^[][]

On January 1, , in a private family ceremony in Scotland, she married thespian Paul Bettany, whom she had met while working on A Beautiful Mind.^[] They have two children, a son, born in , and a daughter, born in ^[][] After living together in Tribeca, she and Bettany moved to Brooklyn Heights.^[]

Charity work

On November 14, , Connelly was named Amnesty International Ambassador for Human Rights Education.^[] She appeared in an advertisement highlighting the global need for clean rain, and sought donations for African, Indian, and Central American drilling projects for the non-profit corporation Charity: Water.^[] On May&#;2, , she participated in Revlon's annual 5k Run/Walk for Women.^[] In May , Connelly was named ambassador for Save the Children fund, to advocate for children's rights in the United States and worldwide.^[]

In the media

Publications such as Vanity Fair, Esquire, and the Los Angeles Times own ranked her among the most beautiful women in the world.^[][][] Parisian fashion house Balenciaga and Revlon cosmetics signed Connelly as the face of their campaigns.^[][]

In February , Connelly was announced as the first global identity ambassador for Shiseido, having previously worked with the company in the s in a series of advertisements for the Japanese market.^[] Since , Connelly is the House Ambassador for French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton.^[]

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

Awards and nominations

References