Jennifer Connelly (original) (raw)

Biography

Overview

• Born
• Birth name
• Nickname
  • Jenny C
• Height

Mini Bio

• Jennifer Connelly was born in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to Ilene (Schuman), a dealer of antiques, and Gerard Connelly, a clothing manufacturer. Her father had Irish and Norwegian ancestry, and her mother was from a Jewish immigrant family. Jennifer grew up in Brooklyn Heights, just across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan, except for the four years her parents spent in Woodstock, New York. Back in Brooklyn Heights, she attended St. Ann's school. A close friend of the family was an advertising executive. When Jennifer was ten, he suggested that her parents take her to a modeling audition. She began appearing in newspaper and magazine ads (among them "Seventeen" magazine), and soon moved on to television commercials. A casting director saw her and introduced her to Sergio Leone, who was seeking a young girl to dance in his gangster epicOnce Upon a Time in America (1984). Although having little screen time, the few minutes she was on-screen were enough to reveal her talent. Her next role after that was an episode of the British horror anthology TV seriesTales of the Unexpected (1979)in 1984.
  After Leone's movie, horror masterDario Argento signed her to play her first starring role in his thrillerPhenomena (1985). The film made a lot of money in Europe but, unfortunately, was heavily cut for American distribution. Around the same time, she appeared in the rock video "I Drove All Night," a Roy Orbison song, co-starring Jason Priestley. She released a single called "Monologue of Love" in Japan in the mid-1980s, in which she sings in Japanese a charming little song with semi-classical instruments arrangement. On the B-side is "Message Of Love," which is an interview with music in background. She also appeared in television commercials in Japan.
  Jennifer Connelly has ADHD, for which she has been medicated since childhood. Despite the condition, she enrolled at Yale University, and then transferred two years later to Stanford. She trained in classical theater and improvisation, studying with the late drama coach Roy London,Howard Fine, andHarold Guskin.
  The late 1980s saw her starring in a hit and three lesser seen films. Amongst the latter was her roles inBallet (1989), as a ballerina and inSome Girls (1988), where she played a self-absorbed college freshman. The hit wasLabyrinth (1986), released in 1986. Jennifer got the job after a nationwide talent search for the lead in this fantasy directed by Jim Hensonand produced by George Lucas. Her career entered in a calm phase after those films, untilDennis Hopper, who was impressed after having seen her in "Some Girls," cast Jennifer as an ingénue small-town girl in The Hot Spot (1990), based upon the 1950s crime novel "Hell Hath No Fury." It received mixed critical reviews, but it was not a box office success.
  The Rocketeer (1991), an ambitious Touchstone super-production, came to the rescue. The film was an old-fashioned adventure flick about a man capable of flying with rockets on his back. Critics saw in "Rocketeer" a top-quality movie, a homage to those old films of the 1930s in which the likes ofErrol Flynn starred. After "Rocketeer," Jennifer madeCareer Opportunities (1991),The Heart of Justice (1992),Mulholland Falls (1996), her first collaboration with Nick Nolte andInventing the Abbotts (1997). In 1998, she was invited by directorAlex Proyas to makeDark City (1998), a strange, visually stunning science-fiction extravaganza. In this movie, Jennifer played the main character's wife, and she delivered an acclaimed performance. The film itself didn't break any box-office record but received positive reviews. This led Jennifer to a contract with Fox for the television seriesThe $treet (2000), a main part in the memorable and dramatic love-storyWaking the Dead (2000) and, more important, a breakthrough part in the polemic and applauded independentRequiem for a Dream (2000), a tale about the haunting lives of drug addicts and the subsequent process of decadence and destruction. In "Requiem for a Dream," Jennifer had her career's most courageous, difficult part, a performance that earned her a Spirit Award Nomination. She followed this role with Pollock (2000), in which she played Pollock's mistress, Ruth Klingman. In 2001,Ron Howard chose her to co-star withRussell Crowe inA Beautiful Mind (2001), the film that tells the true story ofJohn Nash, a man who suffered from mental illness but eventually beats this and wins the Nobel Prize in 1994. Connelly played Nash's wife and won a Golden Globe, BAFTA, AFI and Oscar as Best Supporting Actress. Connelly continued her career with films including Hulk (2003), her second collaboration with Nick Nolte, Dark Water (2005), Blood Diamond (2006), The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), He's Just Not That Into You (2009) and Noah (2014), where she did her second collaboration with both Darren Aronofsky and Russell Crowe and made her third collaboration with Nick Nolte in that same film.
  Connelly lives in New York. She is 5'7", and speaks fluent Italian and French. She enjoys physical activities such as swimming, gymnastics, and bike riding. She is also an outdoors person -- camping, hiking and walking, and is interested in quantum physics and philosophy. She likes horses, Pearl Jam, SoundGarden,Jesus Jones, and occasionally wears a small picture of the The Dalai Lama on a necklace.
  - IMDb Mini Biography By: Jean Bergeron, Kayla Atwood

Family

• Spouse
  Paul Bettany(January 1, 2003 - present) (2 children)
• Children
• Parents
  Gerard Connelly
  Ilene Connelly (Schuman)

Trademarks

Trivia

• Is fluent in French and Italian.
• Cut a single in Japan, which she sang in phonetic Japanese. She says her agent made up the idea that she is semi-fluent in the language.
• According to Marvel producer Kevin Feige, the choice to have her voice the A.I. suit in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) was done as an homage to her appearance in John Hughes productions, which the superhero film pays tribute to, and as a meta joke as her husband Paul Bettany voices the A.I. suit of Iron Man within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Quotes

• Acting is great. When it works it is so fulfilling. You do the research and work with other talented people who are creative and compassionate and use all your faculties. The ability to express yourself completely is the most wonderful feeling in the world. Each film is a chapter in my life wherein I learn so much more about myself.
• I so much enjoy being able to completely allow myself to be consumed by a role, and really grow in the process,once you've done that, it's hard to go back working on things you don't care about.
• [talking about the films she did in the beginning of her career]: You don't want to get rid of your experiences, because they're your experiences - good or bad - and you need them, but it would be great if they weren't on the video shelf!
• [Talking about her character in A Beautiful Mind (2001)]: Alicia is the person who's trying to ground John Nash in reality and bring him home, literally, and back to what he was. In "A Beautiful Mind", there are scenes that were painful and scary and sad. I didn't have to go through degradation as I did in Requiem for a Dream (2000), but there is a lot of emotional terrain in this movie. There's a tragedy in the family and it takes a toll on each of them as they try to live with each other.
• [talking about her son Kai Dugan]: We've already done plays together. Very short plays. He dictates them to me. Sometimes he casts me, sometimes he doesn't. And when I'm in the play, he'll sometimes say to me, "No Mom, you didn't say that right!"

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