Charlize Theron Biography And Filmography:

South African actress Charlize Theron won Oscar and Golden Globe winning attention with heavy-duty dramatic roles which sometimes saw her under pressure to survive harsh situations. Theron’s own experiences with the the stress of an erratic childhood home gave her a strong perspective, as did the strong self-determination that moved her to move to Europe and start a professional modeling career while she was still a teenager. But if the 5’10” blonde was mistaken as just another actress turned model for her early supporting roles, that personality was blown away with a pair of Oscar Award nominated starring roles in “Monster” (2003) and “North Country” (2005); both portrayals of two women who came to deal with lower class citizen status in very different ways.

Charlize Theron was born on Aug. 7, 1975, and raised on a farm outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. Along with English, Theron grew up speaking the Afrikaans language of her parents and over a dozen local dialects she learned from employees of the farm and her father’s road construction company. An only child, Theron was an adventurous child who did her share of taking care of the family’s animals and farm chores. But Theron was also an instinctive entertainer, encouraged by her supportive mother to begin dance lessons at the age of seven. When she was thirteen, Theron left home to attend a private school in Johannesburg where she joined the meticulous dance training program. The tall, flexible teen had shown a great deal of potential as a dancer, but the move was also intended to remove Theron from an ever more difficult home life with an alcoholic father. While home on a school break during 1991, Theron’s parents blew up into a domestic dispute that ended in gunfire and the death of Theron’s father. Mother Gerda had fired in self-defense from her violent husband, and was not charged with any crime. The episode strengthened the mother-daughter bond even more.

Charlize Theron returned to boarding school and entered a modeling contest in Johannesburg. After winning first place, Theron was flown to Italy to represent her country in another contest. She was signed to an agency and swiftly quit school to travel Europe as a runway and advertising model. Modeling work took her to New York City, where she stayed even after her contract was over. It was there that she started dance training with the renowned Joffrey Ballet. In less than a year Theron suffered a serious knee injury that made her dance career an impossibility. Instead, Charlize retreated to the warm weather of Miami, FL, earning more money modeling before deciding to relocate to Los Angeles and try to break into the movie business as an actress.

In just six months, Charlize made her grand Hollywood appearance with a three second, unscripted role in the direct-to-video feature “Children of the Corn III” (1995). It was not much at the time, but fate was smiling on her when she next lost the lead in the doomed "Showgirls" (1995) to Elizabeth Berkley. Instead, Charlize was well on her way to defining an outstanding screen presence with a role as a sexy, Norwegian bad girl going head-to-head with Teri Hatcher and fellow killer James Spader in John Herzfeld's "2 Days in the Valley" (1996). 

Movie offers flooded in and Theron next appeared in Tom Hanks' film, "That Thing You Do!" (1996) with Liv Tyler. Gorgeous in her comedic role as a waitress who catches Jeff Daniels' love interest in Jonathan Lynn's "Trial and Error" (1997), Theron impressed with her earthy role as Keanu Reeves' wife in Taylor Hackford's thriller "The Devil's Advocate" (1997). Fighting against the stereotyping of her as “too beautiful for the movie,” Theron more than kept up against Al Pacino and Reeves – most visibly with her inspiring onscreen breakdown that sent her character to the nuthouse.

Woody Allen gave Theron the chance to parody her modeling experience as the sex addicted supermodel of "Celebrity" (1998), before she starred as an orphaned African girl who grows up with an orphaned gorilla in Disney’s movie "Mighty Joe Young" (1998). Charlize then took a starring role next to Johnny Depp in the sci-fi thriller "The Astronaut's Wife" (1999), about astronaut Spencer Armacoust who was on a mission when he suddenly lost contact. Theron then portrayed a young woman tempted by lust while her soldier boyfriend is away at war in "The Cider House Rules" (1999) with Tobey Maguire. She next tolerated freezing conditions and took on some stunt action for John Frankenheimer's "Reindeer Games" (1999) with Ben Affleck, where after assuming his dead cellmate's identity to get with his girlfriend, an ex-con finds himself the reluctant participant in a casino heist.

Directors continued to show faith in Theron’s skill by casting her opposite top Hollywood actors, even if the roles were sometimes of the little-seen “girlfriend” type. In 2000, Charlize played a heroin-addict with a romantic habit for ex-cons (Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix) in "The Yards." Theron went on to appear in "Men of Honor" (2000) starring Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr., the story of Carl Brashear, the first African American and first amputee US Navy Diver and the man who trained him.

A bigger role in Robert Redford’s "The Legend of Bagger Vance" (2000) with Matt Damon and Will Smith – saw the actress as the moving force of a golf tournament in 1930s Georgia. Theron finally took center stage as a terminally ill woman looking for love in “Sweet November” (2001), but unfortunately her partnering with Keanu Reeves in the deep romantic drama won only Razzie Awards. With Woody Allen’s “Curse of the Jade Scorpion” (2001) with Helen Hunt, Theron headlined her comedy talents as an opium smoking Hollywood super-star, but the film was a dud, as was the alarming drama "Trapped" (2002) with Kevin Bacon, in which Charlize played a kidnap victim alongside Stuart Townsend, with whom she would star a long-term romantic relationship. Charlize wrapped her year alongside Billy Bob Thornton and Patrick Swayze in the romantic comedy "Waking Up In Reno" (2002) about two trashy couples traveling to Reno to see a monster truck show.

In 2003, Theron was hired and cast in "The Italian Job” with Edward Norton and Mark Wahlberg, but her performance was soon left in the dust of her Oscar and Golden Globe winning role of convicted murderer Aileen Wuornos, one of America's first known female serial killers, in "Monster" (2003). Theron’s natural look and added weight were only part of the actress’s striking transformation into the intense Wuornos. Theron won nearly international praise and ended up on most critics' short lists for the best actress of the year. Charlize followed up with the wartime melodrama "Head in the Clouds" (2004) starring Penelope Cruz, before winning an Emmy nomination for her role in, "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" (2004), starring Geoffrey Rush.

The following year Theron was hired and cast in "North Country" (2005), which was inspired by the true events surrounding the first ever class action sexual harassment suit against an American corporation. Theron then starred as a mistreated, single mother of two who finds gratification and economic freedom as a miner, only to face the constant humiliation of sexual harassment on the job. Charlize won nominations from the Golden Globes and Academy Awards..

Theron’s good reputation for playing powerful women led her to take the sci-fi hero role in a live-action adaptation of the edgy "Aeon Flux" (2005). The movie did well at the box office but failed to attract critics or change the actress’s image into that of a Jennifer Garner styled action heroine. Charlize Theron did keep pushing the limitations of her image with a recurring role on the television comedy “Arrested Development” (2003-06), portraying a British schoolteacher who catches the eye of Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman). In 2007, Charlize co-starred in Stuart Townsend’s directorial debut “Battle in Seattle” (2007), and “In The Valley of Elah” (2007) with Susan Sarandon, about a career officer and his wife who work with a police detective to uncover the truth behind their son's disappearance following his return from a tour of duty in Iraq. 

Theron again received applause for portraying an abandoning mother in the family drama “Sleepwalking” (2008) with Nick Stahl, but the Sundance Festival screened independent received overall poor reviews. 

Theron returned to the big-screen in the summer of 2008 starring alongside Will Smith in “Hancock” (2008), about a hard-living superhero who has fallen out of favor with the public and enters into a questionable relationship with the wife of the public relations professional who's trying to repair his image. Next was the thriller "The Road" (2008) with Robert Duvall, a post-apocalyptic tale of a man trying to get his son to safety. Charlize then won the starring role next to Kim Basinger in the dramatic "The Burning Plain" (2009), a drama with a two-tiered storyline concerning a mother (Kim Basinger) and daughter (Charlize Theron) who try to form a bond after the young woman's difficult childhood. Theron wrapped the year working with Seth Green and Mark Wahlberg in the crime thriller "The Brazilian Job" (2009), where Charlie Croker and his fellow crew of expert thieves head to Rio de Janeiro to pull off another heist in this follow up to "The Italian Job" (2003).