Cate Blanchett Biography:

This engaging blonde Australian actress found herself thrust in the spotlight with her third feature, "Oscar and Lucinda" (1997), in which she starred opposite Ralph Fiennes. As the headstrong proto-feminist heiress whose penchant for gambling draws her to a clergyman with the same predilections, Cate Blanchett delivered a star-making performance. Possessing an innate intelligence and talent coupled with her malleable features--she can seem plain and then beautiful, sometimes in the same shot--the actress quickly rose to international fame.

A product of Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Arts where her performance as "Electra" has become something of a local legend, Blanchett found a berth at the Sydney Theatre Company, appearing in "Top Girls" and winning raves for her turn in "Kafka's Dances". She went on to earn accolades for her turn as the female student in David Mamet's "Oleanna" (1993) opposite Geoffrey Rush, and later added the Shakespearean roles of Ophelia and Miranda to her credits. In 1997, she played Nina in "The Seagull" in Australia and made her London stage debut in 1999 in a revival of David Hare's "Plenty".

Blanchett made her film debut in the short "Parklands" (1996) but landed her first feature role as one of the females interned in a Japanese camp in Bruce Beresford's WWII-era drama "Paradise Road" (1997). She further garnered attention (and the 1997 Australian Film Institute Best Supporting Actress Award) as one leg of a romantic triangle (completed by Richard Roxburgh and Frances O'Connor) in the darkly comic "Thank God He Met Lizzie" (also 1997). Her rising star status was confirmed when she landed the leading role of the Tudor monarch in the biopic "Elizabeth" (1998). Holding her own in a cast that included Geoffrey Rush, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Fiennes and Christopher Eccleston, Blanchett delivered a brilliant turn as the young woman who grows into the stature of her office. By turns an emotional girl and a driven women, her Elizabeth was a multi-dimensional creation that earned numerous accolades including a Best Actress Academy Award nomination.

After carrying a major film, it perhaps came as a bit of a surprise that her follow-up roles were predominantly supporting ones Blanchett exhibited her comic side, replete with a New Jersey accent as the wife of air traffic controller John Cusack in "Pushing Tin" (1999). Later that same year, she was back in period clothes, first as the wife of a titled man being blackmailed in Oliver Parker's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband" and then as Meredith, a character created especially for the film "The Talented Mr. Ripley", a 50s-era drama about a slick American (Matt Damon) who plots to kill a playboy (Jude Law) in order to assume his identity in Anthony Minghella's adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel.

Blanchett continued to alternate between showy supporting roles and strong leads. She was terrific as a gold-digging Russian chorus girl in "The Man Who Cried" (screened at Venice in 2000 and released in the USA in 2001), and demonstrated her chameleonic abilities essaying a Southern widow with psychic abilities in the gothic thriller "The Gift" (2000). The latter was co-written by her "Pushing Tin" co-star Billy Bob Thornton who based her character on his own mother. The actress remained busy and constantly employed, reteaming with Thornton in the comedy "Bandits" and playing Kevin Spacey's ex-wife in "The Shipping News", as well as undertaking the title role in "Charlotte Gray" (all 2001), opposite Billy Crudup under Gillian Armstrong's direction. Blanchett also squeezed in a turn as the elf queen Galadriel in the three films comprising "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy: "The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001), "The Two Towers" (2002) and "The Return of the King" (2003). Additionally, she acted opposite her "The Gift" co-star Giovanni Ribisi in "Heaven" (2002), Tom Tykwer's English-language debut.