Born:
July 26, 1973
in
London
Best Known For:
Underworld and its sequels.
Early-life:
Born Kathrin Romary Beckinsale in London on July 26, 1973. Her parents are actress Judy Loe and Porridge star Richard Beckinsale, who died when she was just five. She has a half-sister, actress Samantha Beckinsale, and four stepbrothers from her mum's second marriage to Roy Battersby. As a child, she won several writing competitions, but also developed a taste for acting in her teens and made her TV debut in the drama One Against the Wind in 1991. Shortly after filming, she took a place at Oxford University to study Russian and French Literature.
Career:
Beckinsale continued to act in films such as Much Ado About Nothing and The Prince of Jutland while studying for her degree, but eventually dropped out of university to concentrate on her career. Shortly afterwards, she starred in British productions Cold Comfort Farm, Emma and Shooting Fish, before moving to Hollywood to make The Last Days of Disco and Brokedown Palace. Although those films were critically well received, it was the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor that made her a star in the US. Since then, she's appeared in Underworld and its sequels, Van Helsing, Serendipity, Vacancy, Click, Aviator and Total Recall.
Quote:
'I dropped out of Oxford, and now I only speak Russian with the woman who gives me a bikini-wax. See what Hollywood does to you?'
Trivia:
Beckinsale has worked as a model.