Kate Beckinsale

If you like this person, let us know!

Do you like this person ?

I like

I don't like

Birth name Kathrin Romany Beckinsale
Nationality United-kingdom
Birth 26 july 1973 (51 years)

Kathrin Romary "Kate" Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress. After some minor television roles, she made her film debut in Much Ado About Nothing (1993) while still a student at Oxford University. She then appeared in British costume dramas such as Prince of Jutland (1994), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Emma (1996), and The Golden Bowl (2000), in addition to various stage and radio productions. She began to seek film work in the United States in the late 1990s and, after appearing in small-scale dramas The Last Days of Disco (1998) and Brokedown Palace (1999), she had a break-out year in 2001 with starring roles in the war film Pearl Harbor and the romantic comedy Serendipity. She built on this success with appearances in the biopic The Aviator (2004) and the comedy Click (2006).
Beckinsale appeared in the Underworld film series and has since starred in many action films, including Van Helsing (2004), Whiteout (2009), as well as Contraband, and Total Recall (all in 2012). She also makes occasional appearances in smaller dramatic projects such as Snow Angels (2007), Winged Creatures (2008), Nothing but the Truth (for which she earned a Critic's Choice Award nomination in 2008), and Everybody's Fine (2009).

Biography

Relationships

Beckinsale had an eight-year relationship with actor Michael Sheen from 1995 until 2003. They met when cast in a touring production of The Seagull in early 1995 and moved in together shortly afterwards. She has said it was "love at first sight" and that he saved her from "a hospital for the criminally insane". In 1997, they appeared in a radio production of Romeo and Juliet. Their daughter, Lily Mo Sheen, was born in London in 1999. The actress has said she was "embarrassed" that Sheen never proposed but felt as though she were married: "If you keep a library book out long enough, you feel it's yours."

Their relationship ended in early 2003, after the filming of Underworld. Beckinsale had persuaded director Len Wiseman to cast Sheen in the film, but, while on set, she and Wiseman (who was married) began a relationship. All parties, aside from Wiseman's first wife, have maintained that there was no infidelity. Wiseman married Beckinsale on May 9, 2004 in Bel-Air, California. They live in Los Angeles. Beckinsale and Wiseman both remain friends with Sheen.

Legal actions
In July 2003, the Press Complaints Commission dismissed a complaint filed by Beckinsale. Beckinsale had claimed that the Daily Mail invaded her and her daughter's privacy by publishing photographs of the actress embracing and kissing her new partner Len Wiseman. The article was headlined "Mummy's latest love scene leaves Lily unimpressed" and included a picture in which her four-year-old daughter appeared to be ignoring her mother's romantic actions. The Commission found that "the photographs had been taken in a public place and did not reveal any private details about Lily—such as her health or schooling—but were restricted to general observations about her apparent reaction to her surroundings". In August 2003, Beckinsale received a published apology from the Daily Mail after the newspaper reported that she had "spent time in a clinic" following her split from partner Michael Sheen. The apology was issued after the actress filed a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission. In 2009 Beckinsale was awarded £20,000 in damages by the British High Court after taking legal action against Express Newspapers. The Daily Express had falsely reported that the actress was "facing heartbreak" after missing out on a part in a remake of Barbarella.

Politics
Beckinsale is pro choice. She appeared in a Funny or Die skit which satirises the Republican Party's "War on Women".

Charity work
The British Heart Foundation has been Beckinsale's charity of choice "ever since I was six years old". She has also donated film memorabilia to the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation, MediCinema, Habitat For Humanity and the Entertainment Industry Foundation. In 2008 she hosted the 4th Annual Pink Party to raise funds for the Women’s Cancer Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and organised a screening of All About Eve for FilmAid International. In 2012 Beckinsale joined Nestlé's Share the Joy of Reading Programme to raise awareness about the importance of children's literacy.