Kate Hudson Biography And Filmography:

A beloved female lead in romantic comedies for her friendly comedic qualities and magnetism, Kate Hudson stayed away from the dangers of a Hollywood childhood and famous parents; instead earning her own success on the big screen. During the year 2000 Hudson was Hollywood's Queen new-age hip chick, a emotional response passed along from flower power mom Goldie Hawn and added to by her Oscar nominated part as a 1970's rock and roll wannabe in “Almost Famous” (2000) and marriage to Black Crows musician Chris Robinson. Hudson has seen major sexy celebrity box office success with romantic comedies including “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” (2003) and “You, Me, and Dupree” (2006), gained mostly from her natural appeal and the on screen connection she had with her sexy male co-stars.

The daughter of Academy Award winning actress and producer Goldie Hawn and comedian musician Bill Hudson, Kate Hudson was born on April 19, 1979. Hawn and Hudson divorced when Kate was only 20 months old, and Hudson grew up feeling as if Hawn’s boyfriend Kurt Russell was her dad. Kate spent her young years as the only sister in a rowdy family unit that incorporated older brother Oliver, Russell’s son Boston from an earlier marriage, and Russell’s and Hawn’s son, Wyatt.

Hudson was a huge presence and a natural talent from the beginning, with dance lessons starting at age four and working with the Santa Monica Playhouse by age ten. Kate spent a large amount of time on film and television productions and sets with her parents, but Hawn and Russell kept a firm foundation for their young children, one that valued family bonds and individual accountability and did not engage in Hollywood sex and drugs. But it was clear the appealing Kate Hudson had a flashy aptitude for entertaining, so she enrolled in the Crossroads Performing Arts high school in Santa Monica and spent a summer training with the prominent Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts.

In 1996, Hudson got her first television appearances; including an episode of “Party of Five” (1994-2000), but turned down a job for a feature film in “Escape from L.A.” (1996). The following year, she enlisted to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts but changed her mind and to jumped straight into the professional acting world, where she was hired for various feature roles. Her first was "Ricochet River" (1997), a production set in a Pacific Northwest timber town co-starring Jason James Richter. In "200 Cigarettes" (1998) starring Ben Affleck, Hudson was cast as a gawky young woman on a New Year's Eve date from hell with a group cast including Christina Ricci and Ben and Casey Affleck. Kate's next project followed with Morgan J. Freeman's charming "Desert Blue", with Hudson portraying a young actress traveling across the California desert with her dad (John Heard) and finding herself in a small town full of fascinating towns-folks. Hudson's screen sparkle and agreeable talent more than guaranteed a big-time celebrity future for the young actress.

But Kate Hudson made her biggest splash in Hollywood in 2000. She received the script of Cameron Crowe’s 1970's coming-of-age rock music story, “Almost Famous” featuring Jimmy Fallon, and was desperate to get a role in the production. In this story of an young music writer on the road with a successful rock band and its ensemble of female rock maidens, Hudson first took the small part of the unruly runaway sister of lead character William (Patrick Fugate). Fortunately for her, Sarah Polley had to drop out of her role as head rocker Penny Lane and Hudson diligently tried to convince Crowe that she could take on a large role as a lead actress. He gave her a shot, and Hudson gave a perfect performance, showing Penny Lane’s glitzy, sexy rock star exterior with heart warming helplessness and anxiety just under the surface.

Next, Kate Hudson was hired for the role of Mary Jane Watson in “Spiderman” (2002) but was concerned she could not hold muster along side young boy toy Tobey Maguire and other famous faces like Kirsten Dunst and Lucy Lawless, deciding instead for a adaptation of the classic "The Four Feathers." In the movie, Kate starred as the fiancée of a British soldier played by Heath Ledger. The film did reasonably well at the box office but did not spark much interest with critics. 

In 2003, Hudson co-starred in the first of a series of very successful romantic comedies, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" (2003). The movie focused on an advice columnist (Kate Hudson) and advertising executive (Matthew McConaughey) who meet and encounter every romantic comedy style of misfortune.  Later the same year, Hudson was teamed with actor Luke Wilson in the Rob Reiner romantic comedy "Alex and Emma." Portraying an narrow-minded office clerk helping a under pressure writer finish his book. 

Hudson then took a co-starring role in the stylish production of "Le Divorce" (2003) with Glenn Close, a revision of Diane Johnson's best selling book. Returning to her acting roots, Hudson did well in her portrayal of a immature American girl who visits her unhappy, divorced sister (Naomi Watts) in Paris and becomes caught up up in a romantic love affair with a attractive, older married man. Hudson's three 2003 projects acknowledged her star celebrity status at first, but awareness began to decline to some extent as they were released only months apart and threatened to overexpose the new sexy celebrity.

Kate Hudson started 2004 with the birth of her and Robinson’s son, Ryder. But she still found time that spring to appear in director Garry Marshall's "Raising Helen" (2004) along side Hayden Panettiere and Paris Hilton, where she appeared as a career woman who finds herself ill-equipped to become the adoptive mother of her late sister's children. The movie allowed Hudson to show off some her most engaging on-screen talents, as her character stretched into a more solid and loving person. Kate then  launched another feature movie, “Two for the Money” starring heavy hitters Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey and Rene Russo.

Hudson played a role in the action adventure thriller "The Skeleton Key" (2005). The depressing, supernatural movie successfully used Hudson's natural talents to distinguish to the stories voodoo mysteries. The movie did well with audiences. “You, Me, and Dupree” with Owen Wilson and Michael Douglas (2006), established that Kate Hudson was still loved by movie-goers for her dreamy comedy flicks; this one relating to a houseguest (Owen Wilson) who overstays his welcome in the house of a newly married couple (Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon). The comedy relied on physical gaffs and the usual problems that are the focus of the comedy world, the film banked over $120 million in box office receipts.

Fueling more media attention and publicity for the movie, Hudson and Robinson announced their divorce and the tabloid media linked Hudson and co-star Owen Wilson.  But Wilson was not without a troubled side, and a few months after their second break up, when Kate was seen kissing new boyfriend Dax Shepard,  was rushed to the hospital in August of 2007 after attempting suicide at his home in Santa Monica, CA. Entertainment tabloids and internet blogs had a field day with gossip that Hudson’s new romance was the cause for Wilson’s breakdown, though neither side confirmed this theory.

The gossip mill calmed down by early 2008 so Kate teamed with Matthew McConaughey in “Fool’s Gold,” an action adventure flick about a divorced couple who team up to find a sunken treasure. Hudson next co-starred next to Dane Cook in another frantic romantic comedy, “Bachelor No.2” (2008). The actress then starred with Alec Baldwin in the comedy flick "My Best Friend's Girl" (2008) about a man named Tank (Dane Cook) who faces the ultimate test of friendship when his best friend hires him to take his ex-girlfriend (Kate Hudson) out on a lousy date in order to make her realize how great her former boyfriend is. 

Kate then starred alongside Candice Bergen and Anne Hathaway in the comedy "Bride Wars" (2009), about two best friends who become rivals when they schedule their respective weddings on the same day. Hudson was then hired and cast in the dramatic "Big Eyes" (2009), a drama centered on the awakening of the painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s. Kate then returned to the romantic comedy theme in "A Dream of Red Mansions" (2009), about an American photojournalist in China who falls for an idealistic revolutionary in 1949.