Australian postcard by Avant Card, no. 3 in a series of 5. Photo: Jerry Bruckheimer Films / Buena Vista International / Touchstone Pictures. Kate Beckinsale in Pearl Harbor (Michael Bay, 2001).
British postcard by Arcards. Photo: Sony Pictures. Kate Beckinsale in Underworld: Evolution (Len Wiseman, 2006).
A tumultuous adolescence
Kate Beckinsale was born in 1973 in Finsbury Park, London, or in Hounslow, Middlesex, England (the sources differ). However, she has resided in London for most of her life.
Her mother is actress Judy Loe, and her father was actor Richard Beckinsale, who starred in popular British television comedies during the 1970s. He passed away tragically early in 1979 at the age of 31. Kate is the younger half-sister of actress Samantha Beckinsale.
Kate attended the private school Godolphin and Latymer School in London for her grade and primary school education. In her teens, she twice won the British bookseller W.H. Smith Young Writers' competition - once for three short stories and once for three poems. After a tumultuous adolescence (including a bout of anorexia), she gradually took up the profession of acting.
Her major acting debut came in the TV film One Against the Wind (Larry Elikann, 1991), about World War II. Kate began attending Oxford University's New College in the fall of 1991, majoring in French and Russian literature. She had already decided that she wanted to act, but to broaden her horizons she chose university over drama school.
While in her first year at Oxford, Kate received her big break in the film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (Kenneth Branagh, 1993). Kate worked in three other films while attending Oxford, beginning with a part in the medieval historical drama Prince of Jutland (Gabriel Axel, 1994), starring Christian Bale, Gabriel Byrne, and Helen Mirren. The film was shot during the spring of 1993 on location in Denmark, and she filmed her supporting part during New College's Easter break.
Later in the summer of that year, she played the lead in the thriller Uncovered (Jim McBride, 1994). Before she went back to school, her third year at university was spent at Oxford's study-abroad program in Paris. This year caused her to re-evaluate the direction of her life. She faced a choice: continue with school or concentrate on her flourishing acting career. After much thought, she chose an acting career. In the spring of 1994, Kate left Oxford, after finishing three years of study.
German postcard by Edgar Medien AG. Photo: Touchstone Pictures / Bueno Vista International. Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett in Pearl Harbor (Michael Bay, 2001).
German postcard by Edgar Medien AG. Photo: Touchstone Pictures / Bueno Vista International. Kate Beckinsale in Pearl Harbor (Michael Bay, 2001).
Playing an object of desire
Kate Beckinsale appeared in the BBC/Thames Television costume comedy Cold Comfort Farm (John Schlesinger, 1995), which later opened in American cinemas to spectacular reviews, grossing over $5 million during its American run. It was re-released to U.K. cinemas in the spring of 1997.
Acting on the stage consumed the first part of 1995; she toured in England with the Thelma Holts Theatre Company production of Anton Chekhov's 'The Seagull'. After turning down several mediocre scripts, she waited seven months before another interesting role was offered to her.
It was the horror film Haunted (Lewis Gilbert, 1995), starring opposite Aidan Quinn and John Gielgud. In this film, she wanted to play "an object of desire", unlike her past performances where her characters were much less the siren and more the worldly innocent.
Then followed a TV adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Emma (Diarmuid Lawrence, 1996), and the crime comedy Shooting Fish (Stefan Schwartz, 1997), in which she played Georgie, an altruistic con artist.
She started film work in the United States in the small-scale dramas The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman, 1998) with Chloë Sevigny, and Brokedown Palace (Jonathan Kaplan, 1999) with Claire Danes.
In 1999, she had a daughter, Lily Mo Sheen, with actor Michael Sheen with whom she dated from 1995 to 2003. They met when cast in a touring production of 'The Seagull' in early 1995 and moved in together shortly afterward. After their separation, Beckinsale and Sheen remained close friends.
Italian postcard by Promocard, no. PC 4804. Photo: Universal. Kate Beckinsale in Van Helsing (Stephen Sommers, 2004). The card was published for the video and DVD release of the film in Italy.
A nurse torn between two pilots
In 2000, Kate Beckinsale starred in the costume drama The Golden Bowl (James Ivory, 2000) with Edward Fox and Anjelica Huston. The screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is based on the 1904 novel of the same name by Henry James, who considered the work his masterpiece.
Then she landed the lead female role in the Hollywood blockbuster Pearl Harbor (Michael Bay, 2001) after Charlize Theron pulled out. She played a nurse torn between two pilots (played by Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett). The film was a box office success, earning $59 million in its opening weekend and nearly $450 million worldwide, but received generally negative reviews from critics.
A little gem was the romantic comedy Serendipity (Peter Chelsom, 2001) with John Cusack. The film has grossed over $77 million at the worldwide box office.
She played a vampire in Underworld (Len Wiseman, 2003), a surprise box-office hit that gained a cult following. Director and star fell in love, and the following year, she married Wiseman.
The success of the film led to four more films between 2006 and 2016, The Underworld series, which follows a war between vampires and werewolves (called 'Lycans' in the films). Despite receiving generally negative reviews from critics, the five films have amassed a strong fan following and have grossed a total of $539 million, against a combined budget of $212 million.
Normally slender, Beckinsale gained twenty pounds for roles in 2004 - ten pounds for her role as a vampire hunter in Van Helsing (Stephen Sommers, 2004) opposite Hugh Jackman, and another ten pounds to portray the voluptuous Ava Gardner in the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator (Martin Scorsese, 2004), starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
In 2006, Beckinsale reprised her role as Selene in the successful vampire sequel Underworld: Evolution, directed by her husband. Her daughter had a small role as the younger Selene.
Beckinsale's second film appearance of 2006 was opposite Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken in Click (Frank Coraci, 2006), a comedy about an overworked family man who discovers a magical remote control that allows him to control time. It grossed $237 million worldwide from a production budget of $82.5 million.
She replaced Sarah Jessica Parker after she dropped out of the horror-thriller Vacancy (Nimród Antal, 2007) with Luke Wilson. Then followed the family drama Everybody's Fine (Kirk Jones, 2009), starring Robert De Niro. It is a remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian film Stanno tutti bene/Everybody's Fine (1990).
German postcard by Edgar Medien AG. Photo: Touchstone Pictures / Bueno Vista International. Kate Beckinsale in Pearl Harbor (Michael Bay, 2001).
Accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault
Unable to find a script she felt passionate about, kate Beckinsale kept a low profile in 2010 and 2011, opting to spend time with her daughter. Beckinsale returned to acting in 2012 with appearances in three action films. The first was the action thriller Contraband (Baltasar Kormákur, 2012), starring Mark Wahlberg and based on the Icelandic film, Reykjavík-Rotterdam (Óskar Jónasson, 2008) starring Baltasar Kormákur.
Beckinsale next reprised her role as Selene in the fourth installment of the vampire franchise Underworld: Awakening (Måns Mårlind, Björn Stein, 2008). The franchise was initially conceived of as a trilogy and Beckinsale was not "intending to do another one" but was convinced by the quality of the script.
Beckinsale also appeared as the wife of the factory worker (Colin Farrell) in the Sci-Fi action remake Total Recall (2012), directed by her husband Len Wiseman. The film received mainly negative reviews.
In 2014, Beckinsale starred in the psychological thriller The Face of an Angel (Michael Winterbottom, 2014) alongside Daniel Brühl. The film was inspired by the case of Meredith Kercher.
In the romantic comedy Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman, 2016), Beckinsale reunited with her Last Days of Disco collaborators, Stillman and Chloë Sevigny. Based on Jane Austen's 'Lady Susan', the film revolved around her role as the title character, a wry and calculating widow, as she pursues a wealthy and hapless man for marriage originally intended for her daughter, though she eventually marries him herself. The film was universally acclaimed by critics and found commercial success in arthouse cinemas.
She was among over 80 women who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault in October 2017. She acted in the British film Farming (2018), written and directed by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, based on his own childhood. The plot is about a child whose Yorubá parents give him to a white working-class family in London in the 1960s, and who grows up to join a white skinhead gang led by a white supremacist.
Kate Beckinsale lives in Venice, California because it reminds her of London. She divorced Len Wiseman in 2019. Beckinsale will next star in the upcoming American action film Jolt (Tanya Wexler, 2021) from a screenplay by Scott Wascha.
German postcard by Edgar Medien AG. Photo: Touchstone Pictures / Bueno Vista International. Kate Beckinsale in Pearl Harbor (Michael Bay, 2001).
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
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