HELENA BONHAM CARTER

Date of Birth: May 26, 1966

Born and raised in London, Bonham Carter was educated at one of that city's foremost schools, Westminster. Befitting her double-barreled family name, Bonham Carter is a descendant of the British aristocracy—both social and cinematic—the great-granddaughter of Prime Minister Lord Herbert Asquith and the grandniece of director Anthony Asquith.

When her father was battling for his life in intensive care with paralysis, Bonham Carter, who was only 13 at the time, took command of her future by paying to list her photo in a casting directory with money she had won in a poetry competition and thumbing through the yellow pages until she found an agent to represent her. It took two years, but eventually she landed her first acting job in a hi-fi commercial.

Director Trevor Nunn persuaded her to postpone her university studies in order to star in his film Lady Jane, the story of a doomed Lady who ruled England for only nine days before being beheaded.

Although she appears tiny, pale, and frail-looking, she continued to play roles of strength and passion in a long line of period pieces including Room With a View (1985), Hamlet (1990), Howards End (1992), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) and Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (1996). She became the very personification of the romantic 19th-century babe, her name synonymous with corsets, consumptive pallor, and pre-Raphaelite tresses.

In 1997 she received her first Oscar nomination with her steamy turn in Iain Softley's lush adaptation of Henry James' Edwardian-era novel The Wings of the Dove.

She is, of course, not the mirror image of the many characters she plays. "Everyone seems to think I'm very ladylike, that I'm very cultured and intelligent," she has said. "I drink a lot of Diet Coke and belch. I've been known to use the F-word. I've told a few dirty jokes. I arm-wrestle."

Stepping outside of the romantic period, Bonham Carter has made numerous films in contemporary roles, including Woody Allen's adulterous art-dealer wife in Mighty Aphrodite (1995) and drug addict Marla in Fight Club (1999).

She has also made several appearances on small screen movies, such as a victim of anorexia in Getting It Right, a stripper in Dance Queen, a widow in Fatal Deception and a portrayal of Morgan Le Fey in Merlin. Television guest appearances include Miami Vice and Absolutely Fabulous.

Between 1994 and 1999, Bonham Carter lived with Frankenstein co-star and director, Kenneth Branagh, who starred her in a number of films he directed. Since then she has been linked with director Tim Burton, with whom she has two children. She's played roles in several of Burton's films: Jenny in Big Fish (2003), Charlie's mother in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Dr. Julia Hoffman in Dark Shadows. She also plays the evil Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter movies.