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Catherine Zeta-Jones (born September 25, 1969) is an Academy Award-winning Welsh actress based predominantly in the United States. She began her career on stage at an early age. After starring in a number of UK and US television films and small roles in films, she came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as The Phantom, The Mask of Zorro, and Entrapment in the late 1990s. Welsh-born actress Catherine Zeta-Jones first captivated U.S. film audiences with her swashbuckling turn in “The Mask of Zorro” (1998) leaving moviegoers so mesmerized by her ebony-tressed old Hollywoodesque beauty, it was a wonder she was able to move beyond all the comparisons to Ava Gardner and Vivien Leigh – enough to garner respect as a serious actress. It was her impressive turn in “Traffic” (2000) and Oscar-winning scenery-chewing for her musical showstoppers in “Chicago” (2002) which firmly established her as a Hollywood A-lister. That, and a fairytale-likened marriage to one of the industry’s most respected actors-producers, Michael Douglas; thusly, entry into one of Hollywood’s most famous and respected families. Though critics and audiences alike were bowled over the exotic glamour and the fabled marriage, it was Zeta-Jones’ boldness and inherent working-class sass which figured just as heavily into her versatile appeal. Not to mention, having been raised in musical theater, Zeta-Jones – on top of all she had been blessed with could trip the light fantastic and sing her heart out like any stage hoofer from movie musical days past. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for portraying Velma Kelly in the 2002 film adaptation of Chicago, making her the first and only Welsh actress to win in that category. Zeta-Jones is married to Michael Douglas, with whom she shares a birthday. They have two children - Dylan (named after Dylan Thomas) and Carys. Zeta-Jones was born Catherine Zeta Jones in Swansea, a maritime city located on the southern coast of Wales. Her mother, Patricia (née Fair), was an Irish seamstress, and her father, David "Dai" Jones, was a Welsh sweet factory owner. Zeta-Jones had one older brother, David A Jones, and one younger, Lyndon. Her father's cousin is married to singer Bonnie Tyler, who is also from Swansea, Wales. Her uncle owns Swansea's Škoda car dealership as well as Llanelli A.F.C. football club. Her name stems from those of her grandmothers her maternal grandmother, Katherine Fair, and her paternal grandmother, Zeta Jones (the name "Zeta" is of Greek origin). Her mother Patricia was an Irish seamstress; her Welsh father Dai ran a confectionary company. Dai’s mother’s name Zeta would prove a helpful addition to her name when the aspiring actress began a career in a world full of Catherine Joneses. But that career would not begin for about five long years after Zeta-Jones was born in the Welsh seaside town of Swansea. She started taking dance classes at the age of four, and by the age of 10, was performing regularly with the local church-sponsored theater group and already harboring dreams of a career singing and dancing onstage. Unfortunately, she contracted a viral infection that not only kept her offstage and out of school for a period, it impaired her breathing and required a tracheotomy traces of which would remain visible in the form of a tiny scar on her neck. Following her recovery, Zeta-Jones was enrolled in a private school to help her catch up on her missed studies – a move enabled in no small part by her parents netting a sizeable winning in a local lottery. The Jones’ moved to a nicer neighborhood, but their newly minted prep schooler was still an incurable performer. When she was not in local productions she was belting out Broadway numbers from atop the kitchen table for friends and family. Zeta-Jones’ father doubled as a supportive coach, taking her to auditions in London where the teen landed roles in productions of “Bugsy Malone” and “Annie.” Zeta-Jones was raised Catholic. After her parents won £100,000 at bingo in the 1980s, they moved to St. Andrews Drive in Mayals, an upper class area of Swansea. Zeta-Jones attended Dumbarton House School in Swansea. Welsh comedian and actor Rob Brydon also went there. She left school early to further her acting ambitions without obtaining O levels and went on to attend The Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick for a full-time three year course in musical theatre. When Zeta-Jones was 14, a traveling musical theater production helmed by former Monkee Mickey Dolenz came to Swansea, casting local talent to participate in the chorus. Not only was Zeta-Jones chosen to perform, but producers cast her in a touring production of “The Pajama Game,” at which point she quit school, moved to London, and got her Actor’s Guild card. Camped out in the spare room of a former acting tutor, the promising newcomer lucked into the lead in a revival of “42nd Street” after her fill-in performance blew away producers and audiences. She logged an impressive schedule of eight shows per week for two years, and by the time she was 19, Zeta-Jones was ready for a change of pace. In 1989, she left London for a year of exploring Paris. While there, director Philip de Broca gave Zeta-Jones and her unbelievable exotic looks a screen debut in the feature “Sheherazade: 1001 Nights” (1990). Zeta-Jones' stage career began in childhood. She often performed at friends and family functions when she was younger. She was a part of a Catholic congregation's performing troupe before she was 10. During this time Zeta-Jones made her professional acting debut when she played the lead in Annie, a production at Swansea's Grand Theater. She also starred in a version of Bugsy Malone. At 14, Mickey Dolenz (of "The Monkees" fame) was visiting Wales and stopped by the Grand Theater to audition her for The Pyjama Game. He was so impressed with her performance that she was offered the opportunity to join his show for the rest of the tour. By 1987 Zeta-Jones was starring in 42nd Street as Peggy Sawyer in the West End. She also played Mae Jones in a Kurt Weill opera called Street Scene with English National Opera at the London Coliseum in 1989 . Once the show closed, the actress travelled to France, where she received the lead role in French director Philippe de Broca's 1001 Nights (also known as Sheherazade), her feature film debut. Her Welsh and exotic looks, along with her singing and dancing ability, suggested a promising future, but it was in a straight acting role, as Mariette in the successful British television adaptation of H. E. Bates' The Darling Buds of May, that brought her to public attention. She briefly flirted with a musical career, beginning with a part in the 1992 album: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of Spartacus, from which the single "For All Time" was released in 1989. It failed to chart. She went on to release the singles "In the Arms of Love," "I Can't Help Myself," and a duet with David Essex, "True Love Ways." The duet was her only chart single, reaching #38 in the UK singles chart in 1994. She also starred in an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, as well as in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery. In 1991, Zeta-Jones returned to England and was offered a co-starring role as the eldest daughter in a boisterous farm family in the British TV series "The Darling Buds of May" (Yorkshire TV, 1991-93). The show was a hit, and its three-year run turned Zeta-Jones into a bona fide TV star in the UK. She began to land offers in the U.S., appearing in the TV film "Christopher Columbus: The Discovery" (1992) and an episode of “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” (ABC, USA, 1992-96). The newcomer turned out memorable performances in the Eric Idle comedy flop "Splitting Heirs" (1993) and the "Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation of "The Return of the Native" (CBS, 1994) before making a return to the stage in Kurt Weill’s “Street Scenes” with the British National Opera in 1994. She continued to find moderate success with a number of television projects, including The Return of the Native (1994) and the mini-series Catherine the Great (1995). She also appeared in Splitting Heirs (1993), a comedy starring Eric Idle, Rick Moranis and John Cleese. In 1996, she was cast as the evil aviatrix "Sala" in the action film, The Phantom, based on the comic created by Lee Falk. Her character did her best to kill Billy Zane's Phantom, while assisting villain Xander Drax (Treat Williams) in taking over the world with a weapon of doom. With her extensive performing background and certifiable star status in the UK, Zeta-Jones could take any path she wanted from stage to screen. She chose to move to Los Angeles and take a crack at American film stardom. “Blue Juice” (1995) and "The Phantom" (1996) failed to garner much notice but a supporting role in the CBS miniseries, "Titanic" (1996), caught the eye of filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who shared news of his find with director Martin Campbell. Campbell, blown away but her timeless beauty and its similarities to 1940s screen goddess Hedy Lamarr – once called “the most beautiful woman in the world back in the day” – cast Zeta-Jones in “The Mask of Zorro” (1998). The film was an instant hit and star-making role for Zeta-Jones, whose swordplay, horseback riding and flamenco dancing was imbued with a sexual charge that audiences found irresistible. American entertainment magazines were abuzz over this latest overseas import with her onscreen Castilian lisp and off-screen Hollywood glamour that earned comparisons to legendary radiant beauties like Lamarr and Gardner. Though she did not know it yet, this hard working, ambitious, exceedingly talented woman was about to become the epitome of the phrase – “the woman who has it all.” The following year, she starred in the CBS mini-series Titanic, which also starred Tim Curry and Peter Gallagher. Steven Spielberg, who noted her performance in the mini-series, recommended her to Martin Campbell, the director of The Mask of Zorro. Zeta-Jones subsequently landed a lead role in the film, alongside fellow Welsh compatriot Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas. She learnt dancing, riding, sword-fighting and took part in dialect classes in order to play her role as Elena. Commenting on her performance, the Variety wrote, "Zeta-Jones is bewitchingly lovely as the center of everyone's attention, and she throws herself into the often physical demands of her role with impressive grace." In 1999, she co-starred with Sean Connery in the film Entrapment, and alongside Liam Neeson and Lili Taylor in The Haunting. In 2000, she starred in the critically-acclaimed Traffic with future husband Michael Douglas. Traffic earned praise from the wide press, and the Dallas Observer called the movie "a remarkable achievement in filmmaking, a beautiful and brutal work". Zeta-Jones performance earned her her first Golden Globe nomination, as Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. Trumpeted as the next big thing, Zeta-Jones dazzled opposite Sean Connery in the romantic thriller "Entrapment" in 1999, for which she did many of her own stunts. But her onscreen May-December match-up with the aging Connery mimicked a real-life romance with actor-producer Michael Douglas, the dashing Hollywood heavyweight 25 years her senior. After seeing Zeta-Jones onscreen in “Zorro,” Douglas reportedly turned to a friend and said, “I don’t know who she is, but I’m gonna marry that woman.” Taking off like gangbusters, the two became parents and subsequently married in 2000, culminating in a reportedly $1 million dollar ceremony at New York’s Plaza Hotel. Anyone who was anyone was in attendance. Unfortunately the ceremony was overshadowed by high profile lawsuits concerning photo rights for the affair. Prior to the nuptial circus, Zeta-Jones’ talents were criminally underused in the 1999 remake of "The Haunting," but she had a memorable cameo as the free-wheeling former girlfriend of John Cusack's central character in "High Fidelity" (2000). But it was with director Stephen Soderbergh’s epic “Traffic” (2000) that Zeta-Jones was first able to change public perception by gaining universal acclaim for her portrayal of a drug dealer’s wife who transforms from innocent bystander to business partner — a role she played while pregnant with she and Douglas’ first child. The stunning performance caused an outcry when Zeta-Jones was overlooked come Oscar time. In 2001, Zeta-Jones was featured in "America's Sweethearts," a romantic comedy about a high-profile Hollywood couple, but that was soon forgotten when she displayed heretofore unseen (on the big screen) singing and dancing chops as the murderess Velma Kelly in the film version of the Broadway musical "Chicago” (2002). Her captivating performance earned Zeta-Jones an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical. That same year, Zeta-Jones, named as one of People magazine’s “Most Beautiful People” signed on as the global spokeswoman for Elizabeth Arden cosmetics. After a much-followed awards season that dovetailed with her second pregnancy, the actress returned to the screen in the dark Coen Brother comedy "Intolerable Cruelty" (2003), which, despite starring she an equally attractive and charismatic George Clooney, fell flat with audiences and critics. At that time, the beaming mother of two had also signed on as a spokesmodel for T-Mobile cellular phones. 2003, Zeta-Jones played Velma Kelly in the film Chicago. Velma Kelly, her character, is a glamorous Chicago jazz stage performer who has to do time after killing her sister and her husband. Her performance was praised by the press, among them were the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which wrote, "Zeta-Jones makes a wonderfully statuesque and bitchy saloon goddess." Subsequently, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. On 22 October 2005, she referenced her award, as guest host on the television show Saturday Night Live, surrounded by four male dancers, mimicking the Bob Fosse-inspired Chicago-style dancing, suggesting in song that, no matter how bad she might be that night, "They Can't Take My Oscar Away." For her role in Chicago, she specifically requested a 1920s-style short bob wig, so her face could be seen and fans wouldn't doubt she did all her dancing herself. In 2003, she voiced Marina in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas opposite Brad Pitt, as well as starring in Intolerable Cruelty with George Clooney. In 2004 she was in The Terminal, as well as Ocean's Twelve, the sequel to Ocean's Eleven. In 2005, she reprised her role as Elena in The Legend of Zorro, the sequel to The Mask of Zorro. In 2007, she starred in the romantic comedy No Reservations, a remake of the German film Mostly Martha. She stars in and produces the rugby union-related comedy, Coming Out. The film is produced by her company Milkwood Films. Following her starring role as a chef in the predictable but moderately popular romantic comedy “No Reservations” (2007) Zeta-Jones was slated to enjoy her first producer credit with Milkwood’s debut, “Coming Out” (2008), a comedy in which Alan Cumming plays the gay coach of a Welsh Rugby team. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders parodied Zeta-Jones as a vacuous über-celebrity named Catherine Spartacus-Zeta-Douglas-Jones on their show French & Saunders in the series Back With a Vengeance. Catherine Spartacus-Zeta-Douglas-Jones alternates between a strong Welsh accent and a strong American accent and uses Welsh-language phrases when she speaks. Zeta-Jones is married to actor Michael Douglas. She claims that when they met, he used the line "I'd like to father your children". They were married at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on 18 November 2000. A traditional Welsh choir (Côr Cymraeg Rehoboth) sang at her wedding. Her Welsh gold wedding ring includes a Celtic motif and was purchased in the Welsh town of Aberystwyth. Their son, Dylan Michael Douglas, was born 8 August 2000. Their daughter, Carys Zeta Douglas, was born April 20, 2003. Her elder brother, David A. Jones (also known as Cameron Jones), is Vice President of the film company, Initial Entertainment. He was an executive producer of Gangs of New York. Her younger brother, Lyndon Jones, is her personal manager and producer for Milkwood Films. Zeta-Jones's parents recently moved from their Mayals property to a £2 million home two miles further west along the Swansea coast, paid for by their daughter. Apart from her acting career, Zeta-Jones is also an advertising spokeswoman, currently the global spokeswoman for cosmetics giant Elizabeth Arden. She has appeared in numerous TV commercials, as well, for the cell phone company T-Mobile. Zeta-Jones lives predominantly with Douglas and the children in Bermuda but they are regular visitors to the new family home in Swansea, Wales, they also maintain a residence on the north shore of the Spanish island of Majorca. |
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