Kirsten Dunst Biography:

A beautiful, bright blonde, Kirsten Dunst started appearing in televsision commercials at age four and made her feature film debut as Mia Ferrow's daughter in "Oedipus Wrecks", Woody Allen's slice of "New York Stories" (1989). Small parts in numerous films followed, despite the fact that many of the films like "The Bonfire of the Vanities" had little publicity and did poorly at the box office. Dunst also was hired and cast in a recurring role on the NBC series drama "Sisters" and had a guest appearance in one episode of  "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

Kirsten Dunst was shot into the spotlight with her spectacular work in Neil Jordan's "Interview With the Vampire" (1994). Only twelve years old at the time of production, she played what was the female lead opposite Tom Cruise, Christian Slater and Brad Pitt. Her Claudia, a young teen girl turned into a vampire and powerless to age through the years, looked like a child one moment and appeared, and acted, like a mature grown woman the next. Even though the film received good reviews, Dunst's amazingly mature performance gained her almost unanimous raves, earning her numerous media awards and a Golden Globe nomination. There was even talk of an Oscar nomination, but it did not happen. 

Nevertheless, the young actress continued to produce impressive work. She portrayed the younger version of Amy in "Little Women" (1994), appearing alongside Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon and working with the young  Christian Bale and Claire Danes.

Dunst cemented her sexy celebrity status co-starring with Robin Williams in the smash hit "Jumanji" (1995). Ready to make the move to adult roles, she jumped between television appearances and her high profile films. During the 1996-97 television season, Dunst had the recurring role of a hard-hitting, fast talking runaway who meets Dr. Doug Ross (George Clooney) in the hit NBC drama "ER". 

After lending her voice talents to the title character in Fox's animated "Anastasia" along side Meg Ryan, she got attention as a young teen girl hired to play an Albanian refugee in a fake war in the political satire "Wag the Dog" working with the famed Robert De Niro (1997). Dunst was then "Fifteen and Pregnant" in the real life television drama on the Lifetime network before returning to the movie screen in "Small Soldiers" and worked with a host of rising female stars like Heather Matarazzo and Monica Keena in the group cast of "Strike! The Hairy Bird" in 1998.

Dunst started to emerge from the pack of Hollywood stars to become a familiar actress and box office draw, starting with her clever comedy roles in the beauty pageant comedy "Drop Dead Gorgeous" with Kirstie Alley in 1999, and the wacky young teen girl meet Richard Nixon spoof "Dick" (1999) where Dunst and Michelle Williams were flawlessly cast as naive teenagers of the Watergate era. 

As she grew, Dunst also became a sex symbol for the teen boy set with roles in young teen romantic comedies. She played the courageous captain of a go-getting cheerleading squad in the amazingly catching "Bring It On" (2000), where she showed her ability to carry a feature film on her playful, every-day girl appeal, and she also did well in the teen romance "Get Over It" working with Carmen Electra in 2001. 

Kirsten Dunst showed she also had remarkable dramatic ability when she appeared as Lux, the oldest and most unruly of the ill-fated Lisbon sisters, in Sofia Coppola's much-admired directorial debut "The Virgin Suicides" working next to Hayden Christensen (1999), and was especially captivating in 2001's "Crazy Beautiful" as the psychologically disturbed daughter of a affluent congressman who threatens to ruin the rise of her lower class Latin boyfriend (Jay Hernandez).

It would be Dunst's bright, sexy and charming role of Mary Jane Watson, the romantic love interest of geek Peter Parker, in the big screen variation of the comic book superhero "Spider-Man" (2002) that would send her into full blown sexy celebrity Hollywood superstardom. Dunst's personality and strong chemistry with leading man Tobey Maguire turned "Spider-Man" into an action thriler blockbuster with a romantic center.  

That same year, Dunst had a amazing role in director Peter Bogdonavitch's early Hollywood rumor film "The Cat's Meow" while being too young to play early screen star Marion Davies, she gave a convincing performance centered around the character's amazingly authentic romance with media tycoon William Randolph Hearst (Edward Herrmann). She next appeared with an all-star cast in writer-director Ed Solomon's "Levity" (2003), playing a hurtful young woman who becomes dependent on the character played by Billy Bob Thornton. The strong supporting cast also included Holly Hunter and Morgan Freeman.

Dunst then teamed with Julia Stiles and Maggie Gyllenhaal as students of progressive and freethinking teacher Julia Roberts in "Mona Lisa Smile" (2003). Dunst then showed her tougher edge as the nasty, over fortunate senior Betty Warren who shows the most hostility to Roberts' ideas, using the student newspaper to disagree with her position that Wellesley women of the 1950's should hope for more from life than the task of a perfect housewife to a CEO. 

Next for Dunst was a crucial supporting role in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" with Kate Winslet (2004) as Mary, the young receptionist in the memory erasing office where brokenhearted Jim Carrey goes to have his ex-girlfriend removed from his thoughts. 

Then Dunst repeated her role as Mary Jane Watson, now a triumphant, busy actress but still longing for Peter Parker in the sequel "Spider-Man 2" (2004), followed by the United States release of France's first 3-D CGI animated film "Kaena: The Prophecy" (2004), in which she supplied the voice of the unruly young teen hero in the science fiction flight of the imagination.

Capitalizing from the accomplishment of the "Spider-Man" films, Dunst got her first full blown adult and mature leading lady role in the sexually charged romantic comedy "Wimbledon" (2004), warmly playing the tennis marvel Lizzie Bradbury, an easily sidetracked bad girl of tennis whose romance and love life with a washed up ex-star of the game (Paul Bettany) reunites his enthusiasm and sends him to tennis' most prominent competition.

Taking on one her most inspiring mature leading roles, Kirsten Dunst was spectacular and likable in her role as the constantly optimistic flight attendant Claire Colburn, who helps a unsuccessful pretty boy (Orlando Bloom) grieving his fathers reawakening to the joys of life and love in writer-director Cameron Crowe's charming, if bumpy, film "Elizabethtown" featuring Susan Sarandon and Jessica Biel in 2005.

Dunst's performance was well regarded even though the film was less than popular with viewers, but she had another smash hit on her hands with the 2007 release of Spider-Man 3, the third hit for the franchise making both Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire household names.
 

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