Anne Hathaway Biography
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway
* Born:
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway on November 12, 1982 in Brooklyn, New York, USA
* Job Titles:
Actor, Singer
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway was born in the Brooklyn, New York. Her father,
Gerald Thomas Hathaway, is a lawyer and her mother, Kathleen Ann, is an actress. She has an older brother, Michael, and a younger brother, Thomas. Her family moved to New Jersey when she was just six years old. Her family members were strict
Catholics and she too was raised deeply in the
religion. She even wanted to become a nun but changed her mind after she found out that her elder brother was gay. She could no longer follow the religion that discriminated against her brother for his sexual orientation. Instead, she took inspiration from her mother and decided to become an actress.
She graduated from the
Millburn High School and took part in many stage plays. She was an active part of the theatre scene in New York which helped her land a role in
Get Real (1999), a TV series on
Fox when she was just 16 years of age. The show did not last very long but gave Anne great exposure. Soon she got her first motion picture in The Other side of Heaven (2001), during the same time she also auditioned for the role of Mia Thermopolis in the movie Princess Diaries. The director of the movie Garry Marshall loved her so much that he immediately cast her in the role just after one audition.
Princess Diaries was released before T
he Other Side of Heaven and became her debut movie. The movie was a huge hit and
Anne had got the perfect debut in
Hollywood.
Anne lived up to her girl-next-door image and acted in many family oriented movies.
She did Nicholas Nickelby (2002) and
Ella Enchanted (2004); both these movies did well as children oriented movies. Her next was
The Princess Diaries 2:
Royal Engagement (2004). Owing to the success of the first one this film too garnered a lot of
buzz. But sadly, the movie did not live up to the expectations and was a moderate hit at the box-office.
So far, Anne had done simple comedic roles but now it was time for a change. In Havoc she did a few nude scenes and sex scenes which was a big change for her image. The movie did not release in the U.S. because of the poor critical reception and many felt that she did the role just for sake of it. She bounced back in her next film;
Brokeback Mountain. The film was a big critical and commercial success despite the bold theme of homosexual relationship. Although, it was the lead characters of Heath Ledger and Jake
Gyllenhaal that won the best reviews, but
Anne’s role was well appreciated too.
Anne had proved herself as an actress and now it was time to take it up a notch. She starred in the comedy
The Devil Wears Prada. This time she was opposite the seasoned Meryl Streep who played her boss in a fashion magazine. She managed to hold her own against Streep and garnered some positive reviews. She also lost a lot of weight for the role as the movie required her to have an on-screen transition. Anne tried her best to strike a balance between comedy and serious roles. In the film adaptation of hit TV series Get Smart she played the role of a secret agent opposite Steve Carell. The movie did well adding another hit to her kitty. Anne had done some good roles so far but that role was still missing that would change everything for her.
Rachel Getting Married turned out to be the changing point in her career. She won many awards for her role and was also nominated for an Oscar and Golden
Globe Award. This movie is her best performance till date and one of her biggest successes. She also took home an Emmy for her voice-over work in the animation series The Simpson. Her last movie was Tim Burton’s
Alice in Wonderland (2010) and she has a few releases lined up for the coming year.
Her personal life has been mostly free of controversy except for her relationship with Italian real estate
developer Rafaello Folliere. The two started dating in 2004 and were even rumored to be engaged. Rafaello began getting involved in tax frauds and was even called in by the IRS. Sensing trouble, Anne broke off her relationship to him, and he was arrested and sentenced to four and half years in prison for duping investors out of millions of rupees by posing as a representative of the Vatican in real estate investing. Anne was investigated but was cleared of any connections to the scam; she had dodged a bullet that might have ended her career.
