Cate Blanchett Biography
This engaging blonde Australian actress found herself thrust in the spotlight with her third feature, "Oscar and Lucinda" (1997), in which she starred opposite Ralph Fiennes. As the headstrong proto-feminist heiress whose penchant for gambling draws her to a clergyman with the same predilections, Cate Blanchett delivered a star-making performance. Possessing an innate intelligence and talent coupled with her malleable features—she can seem plain and then beautiful, sometimes in the same shot—the actress quickly rose to international fame.
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.