Gwyneth Paltrow Biography:

Gwyneth Kate Paltrow was born on September 28, 1972, in Los Angeles, California. Raised in the City of Angels by her parents, actress Blythe Danner and television producer and director Bruce Paltrow, it was no shocker that the blue eyed blonde would seek a profession in acting.

The Paltrows moved to Manhattan, New York, when Gwyneth was twelve years old, and she spent most of her young years watching her Tony award winning mother perform at theater festivals.

While her mother was performing in summer stock theater in Berkshires, Massachusetts, Gwyneth became more than an audience member; she started to contribute, and even co-star with her mother in a few of the productions. After making her debut starring role in a production of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", she knew that acting was exactly what she was predestined to follow.

Gwyneth returned to Los Angeles to attend the University of California in Santa Barbara as an art history major. But the wannabe actress ultimately traded in her textbooks and classroom lectures for the hope of becoming a full time actor.

While her first film role was in the 1991 film "Shout" with John Travolta and Heather Graham, her big blockbuster came when at dinner one night with her father and family friends Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw. Uber director Steven Spielberg was in the casting phase of his 1991 film "Hook" and he offered Paltrow the role of Wendy, which she immediately accepted. This was an amazing opportunity for the young actress, working with such a huge management team lead by Spielberg in a smash hit movie about when Captain Hook kidnaps his children, an adult Peter Pan must return to Neverland and reclaim his youthful spirit in order to challenge his old enemy. The cast included heavy hitter sexy celebrities such as Robin Williams, Julia Roberts and Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook. 

After her role in "Hook" she was hired and cast as the lead role in the 1992 television mini series "Cruel Doubt", with her mother in a costarring role about a college student and two friends who are accused of murdering one's stepfather and injuring his mother who refuses to believe her son had anything to do with the attack.

The up-and-coming actress' resume was soon starting to grow with roles in "Malice" (1993) with Nicole Kidman Alec Baldwin and Anne Bancroft about a happily married couple who would like to have children but run into problems, "Flesh and Bone" (1993) featuring Meg Ryan and James Caan, a strange tale about a man who some thirty years after witnessing his father murdering a family, he runs into a woman, who happens to be the family's baby who was spared.

Next up for Paltrow was "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" (1994) with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Heather Graham, a biography about Dorothy Parker's memories of the heyday with the Algonquin Round Table, a circle of friends whose barbed wit, like hers, was fueled by alcohol and flirted with despair. and then in the leading role of Patsy in yet another biography "Jefferson in Paris" (1995). This flick starring Nick Nolte examined whether Thomas Jefferson, in the years before he became president, had an affair with (and fathered a child with) his 15-year-old slave Sally Hemings.

While audiences were beginning to take notice of Gwyneth, the film that pushed her into the limelight and status of sexy celebrity  was her role as Brad Pitt's girlfriend in the thriller "Se7en", at Police drama about two cops, one new and one about to retire (Morgan Freeman), after a serial killer uses the seven deadly sins as his MO. It was this flick where the Paltrow and Pitt met and fell madly in love.

Gwyneth's sexy celebrity status was on the rise, but she decided to look for roles in smaller, less conventional films rather than big-budget blockbusters. She costarred with David Schwimmer in 1996's "The Pallbearer", and that same year was cast in the title role in the period piece "Emma" starring Kate Beckinsale. Next up were "Hard Eight" (1996) and "Great Expectations" (1998) featuring Robert De Niro, where she was outstanding. Unfortunately, not many people saw the movie and it was a box-office failure.

Ending a busy 1998, Paltrow starred in "Sliding Doors" and costarred with Michael Douglas in "A Perfect Murder". This was an unusual match since Douglas, who was cast as Gwyneth's husband, is actually a friend of her parents. While most of Paltrows female counterparts were playing younger characters in teen movies, Gwyneth was being cast and choosing to play older, more mature characters.

Then came the role that turned Gwyneth Paltrow from actress to Academy Award winner. In  1998's "Shakespeare in Love", she played an aspiring stage actress, who was forced to camouflage herself as a male since the stage was no place for a woman in Elizabethan times. The flick also had a brief appearance by Ben Affleck.

She took home the 1999 Academy Award for Best Actress thanks to her flawless British accent and her brilliant portrayal as Shakespeare's cross-dressing love interest. This was the year she was also voted one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.

Gwyneth may have ended her engagement with Brad Pitt, but her career was still on the upswing. After a brief vacation, Gwyneth  Paltrow returned to the movie screen in rare form in the brilliantly produced "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999) working alongside an all-star cast including Matt Damon, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the cop-drama-thriller about Tom Ripley, a young underachiever, who is sent to Europe to retrieve a rich and spoiled millionaire playboy, named Dickie Greenleaf. But when the errand fails, Ripley kills the playboy and begins to assume his life.

Paltrow kept cranking out the films including 2000's "Duets", "Shallow Hal" in 2002 a hilarious comedy-fantasy-drama starring Jack Black, about a shallow man who falls in love with a 300 pound woman because of her "inner beauty" and can only see her has skinny and attractive. Next was "Possession" (2002), and 2003's "Sylvia" again working with her mother Blythe Danner.

After working through with the misfortune of her father's death in 2002, Gwyneth found love with Coldplay front man Chris Martin. The two were married in a secret ceremony in Southern California in 2003. Five months later, Gwyneth welcomed her daughter, Apple, into the world. Her second child, Moses, was born in 2006.

Since becoming a mother, Gwyneth has spent less time in the spotlight, relocating to London. While she reduced the number of films she works on, she did appear in the 2006 movie "Infamous" starring Sigourney Weaver and Sandra Bullock about how writer Truman Capote develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, and "Running with Scissors" a comedy-drama featuring Evan Rachel Wood. 

Next for Paltrow was the comedy film "The Good Night" (2007), about a former pop star who now writes commercial jingles for a living experiences a mid-life crisis, starring Penelope Cruz and Danny Devito, and "Dirty Tricks" (2008). 

Then it was onto more comedy for Paltrow with "Iron Man" (2008), with Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr. (as Ironman) and Hilary Swank about how wealthy industrialist Tony Stark is forced to build an armored suit after a life-threatening incident, he ultimately decides to use its technology to fight against evil. Paltrows latest project is "Two Lovers" (2008) - A Brooklyn-set romantic drama about a bachelor torn between the family friend his parents wish he would marry and his beautiful but volatile new neighbor.

• Also Credited As:
  Gwyneth Kate Paltrow
• Born:
  Gwyneth Kate Paltrow on 09/27/1972 in Los Angeles, California
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Singer

Family

• Brother: Jake Paltrow. born on September 26, 1975
• Cousin: Hillary Danner.
• Cousin: Katherine Moennig. born on December 19, 1976
• Daughter: Apple Blythe Alison Martin. born May 14, 2004 in London, England; father is Chris Martin
• Father: Bruce Paltrow. died while vacationing with his daughter during her 30th birthday
• Mother: Blythe Danner. appeared in a number of productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival with her daughter; has appeared in productions at the festival since the 70s
• Son: Moses Martin. born April 9, 2006 in New York; father, Chris Martin

Education

• University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California

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