Profile of Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta Jones was born in Swansea, Wales on September 25th, 1969. Catherine had a strong work ethic instilled in her at a young age. Her dad owned a candy factory, and Catherine has said that she has many fond memories of snuggling up to her father, who smelled like sugar. Still, neither fishing nor candy-making were the life for her, and she developed a passion for acting while still very young.
She began singing and dancing at the age of four, largely as a result of her involvement with the local Catholic congregation's amateur performing troupe. She began acting at age 11, playing the lean in a production of Annie and at 13 starred in a West End production of the musical Bugsy Malone.
When she was 14, former Monkees star Mickey Dolenz was touring Britain in a musical that required the participation of local teens in each city it visited. She auditioned for the Welsh version of the show and won a chorus spot. She so impressed the producers that they whisked her off to London to star in a production of The Pyjama Game. The talented teen acquired her first actor's guild card at the age of 15. Catherine moved to London from Wales at 15.
At 17, Catherine nabbed the lead in the British revival of 42nd Street. She was originally cast as the second understudy for the lead role in the musical 42nd Street, which entailed a gruelling schedule. Her hard work paid off when both the star and first understudy were absent the night the play's producer, David Merrick, was in the audience, and she was given the lead for eight-weeks.
Next was France, where she made her film debut in French director Philip de Broca's 1990 film Scheherazade. She returned home a year later after being offered a role in a TV series called The Darling Buds of May. The show was a big hit in the United Kingdom, and Catherine was becoming a first class star.
During the series' enormously successful three-year run, its star made her first inroads into Hollywood with a prominent role in an episode of ABC's The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
When the intense pressure of having the tabloids dog her every move wore down the realm's most eligible sex symbol, she decided it was time for a change of scenery, post haste. As she later confided to one interviewer, "The intrusion into my life got so bad I actually drove my car into a lamppost trying to get away from paparazzi one day. It was at that moment that I decided to flee Britain and live in America." Though crossing the pond proved a simple adjustment, Catherine quickly discovered that her U.K. superstardom was not directly translatable into Hollywood fame and fortune.
In 1994 she made a strong impression in the lead role of CBS's Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Return of the Native (1994). The following year she shone in the title role of the miniseries Catherine the Great. She landed some feature film roles - Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) with Marlon Brando, Splitting Heirs (1993) with Barbara Hershey and Rick Moranis,The Phantom (1996) with Billy Zane. She soon landed a role in a television movie, Titanic, a precursor to the motion picture.
Film-producer, Steven Spielberg was in pre-production for The Mask of Zorro when he caught Catherine in The Titanic miniseries. He needed a fiery actress to play the aging Zorro's daughter and the new Zorro's lover. The next day, he called director Martin Campbell and suggested the director consider her for Elena. Zorro was a hit with critics and audiences alike.
The Mask of Zorro reunited Catherine with Anthony Hopkins, who previously directed her in a 1992-theater production of the Dylan Thomas play Under Milkwood. Her dance background was invaluable for her fencing training but she had nothing, except her backside to fall back on when it came to learning to ride.
Her exotic appeal was recently played up for her role opposite Sean Connery in Entrapment, a sexy jewel thief caper.
Catherine's next role is starring opposite Sean Connery in Fox's $100 million The Entrapment (1999). She next starred in The Haunting of Hill House (1999).
On 1/1/2000, just after midnight, Michael Douglas proposed marriage to Catherine and she accepted. The two are planning to get married this year.
Catherine is also starting her own production company Milkwood Films. she is teaming up with Initial Entertainment Group for the two-year deal, which will see Zeta Films co-producing between two and six pictures each year with budgets of up to $50m (£31m).
On 31/3/2000 another movie Catherine participates in, High Fidelity was released, although Catherine only did a small cameo in that movie .
Catherine's next movie is called Traffic. Catherine's part was filmed while she was in her 6th month of pregnancy. The movie is scheduled to go live on December 2000.
Catherine and Michael Douglas' first son, Dylan Michael Douglas, was born on 08/08/2000 in LA.
Catherine married actor Michael Douglas on 18/11/2000, in a beautiful ceremony at New York's Plaza Hotel. Catherine's family arrived from Swansea to New York, including grandmother Zeta. Baby Dylan was at the ceremony as well. Actors Jack Nicholson, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Danny DeVito, James Woods and Goldie Hawn were among the roughly 250 people in attendance at the ceremony. The maid of honor was British television presenter Anna Walker, and the best man was Cameron Douglas, Michael's son from his first marriage.
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