Born:
July 30, 1974
in
Lincoln, Nebraska
Best Known For:
Landing two Academy Awards for her breathtaking movie performances.
Early-life:
Swank was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 30, 1974, to an officer in the Air National Guard and his wife. She has a brother, Dan and the family lived in a trailer park. When she was nine-years-old, Swank made her first appearance on stage, starring as Mowgli in The Jungle Book. She became heavily involved in her school and community theatre programmes. She also swam in the Junior Olympics and the Washington State championships. Swank's parents separated when she was 13, and her mother moved the two of them to Los Angeles, where they lived out of their car until Swank's mother saved enough money to rent an apartment.
Career:
In California, Swank enrolled in South Pasadena High School and started acting professionally. In 1997, she was cast as a single mother on Beverly Hills, 90210. After her part was cut, she auditioned for the role of Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry. Many critics hailed hers as the best female performance of 1999, and she won the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Actress. She won the same Oscar five years later, for playing a female boxer in 2004's Million Dollar Baby, a role for which she underwent extensive training and gained 19 pounds of muscle. Her recent work includes Conviction (2010), New Year's Eve (2011), Mary and Martha (2013) and The Homesman (2014).
Quote:
'I don't know what I did in this life to deserve this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream.'
Trivia:
She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007.