Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow biography

To most moviegoers, Gwyneth Paltrow was "that English actress that used to be engaged to Brad Pitt." On March 21, 1999, that image was altered completely when the little known actress was awarded the Academy Award for her outstanding performance in Shakespeare in Love (1998). Gwyneth Paltrow, who in fact is not English, was born in 1972 in Los Angeles, the daughter of noted film director Bruce Paltrow and Tony award-winning actress Blythe Danner. When Gwyneth was 11, the family moved to Massachusetts where her father began working in summer stock productions in the Berkshires. It was here that she received her early acting training under the tutelage of her parents. In 1991, she quit the University of California and began to actively pursue a career in acting. She made her film debut with a small part in Shout (1991) and for the next 5 years had featured roles in a mixed bag of film fare that included Flesh and Bone (1993); Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994); Se7en (1995); Jefferson in Paris (1995); Moonlight and Valentino (1995); and Pallbearer, The (1996). It was her performance in the title role of Emma Woodhouse in Emma (1996) that led to her being offered the role of Viola in Shakespeare in Love (1998). She broke her much publicized engagement to actor Brad Pitt in 1997 citing as the reason the fact that neither she nor Pitt felt that they could pursue their respective careers and at the same time maintain a happy marriage. They remain good friends. A tall, wafer thin, delicate beauty, Gwyneth Paltrow is a consummate professional and a highly skilled actress who appears to possess everything necessary to achieve super stardom.

Trivia

Graduated from The Spence School in New York, New York. [1990]

Quote

"Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick.""It changed me more than anything else. You don't want to get to that place where you're the adult and you're palpably in the next generation. And, this shoved me into that." - about her father's struggle with throat cancer."It really changed my life. When we split up, something changed, permanently, in me. My heart sort of broke that day, and it will never be the same." - about her 1997 break up with Brad Pitt."I try to remember, as I hear about friends getting engaged, that it's not about the ring, and it's not about the wedding. It's a grave thing, getting married. And it's easy to get swept up in the wrong things.""I find "Sex and the City" (1998) irreverent and shocking. It's one step beyond how girls really talk. I would do a cameo on that show in a flash.""I realized life is so short and precious, you should do things that make you feel inspired, that push you and teach you something. I'd rather not have a big house, a huge closet of clothes, diamonds and a private plane, and instead a body of work that I'm proud of.""I'm glad that some day my children will be able to see my father and hear his voice, get a sense of who he was. One of the things that disturbs me the most about the fact that he's dead is that I feel like a statistic. I sort of feel like one of those people who was unfortunate and lost their father when they were 30, and life goes on. But he was so unique and so incredible, I don't like to think about it in those terms.""I worked so much in my 20s and I really burnt the candle at both ends. I wasn't too picky about what I did and I was lucky that I did some really good films, but I also did some really rubbish films, I think part of the downside about being so successful and winning the Oscar at the age of 26 is that I sort of became insouciant about the things that I chose. I thought 'oh, I'll just try this, it'll be fun or I'll do that for the money....' Things like that now I would absolutely never do.""The simpler things are, the happier they are.""The work gets more difficult as you get older. You learn more and you gather more experiences, there is deeper pain and higher highs."
Salary View from the Top (2003) $10,000,000 Shakespeare in Love (1998) $750,000
Where are they now (January 2003) In New Zealand filming _Ted and Sylvia (2003)_(December 2003) Expecting first child with Chris Martin during the summer of 2004.