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| Birth Name(s) : Hilary Ann Swank |
Date of Birth: July 30, 1974 |
| Status:
Married
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Partner:
Chad Lowe |
| Profession:
Actor |
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Hilary Swank Listing
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Full Hilary Swank Biography
Hilary was discovered as a child by producer Suzy Sachs, who coached her in acting. When she was nine years old she starred in her first play as "Mowgli" in "The Jungle Book." She began to appear regularly in local theater and school plays. She went to school in Bellingham, where she lived with her family, until she was 16. She competed in the Junior Olympics and Washington State championships in swimming; she ranked 5th in the state in all-around gymnastics (which would come in handy for starring in Next Karate Kid, The (1994) years later).
In 1990, Hilary and her mother moved to Los Angeles, where she enrolled in South Pasadena High School, and started acting professionally. She appeared in _Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1992)_ but Next Karate Kid, The (1994) where she got the part competing against hundreds of other actresses was her breakout role. Ever since then she has been much in demand, and has worked non-stop in movies. She won the Best Actress Oscar for Boys Don't Cry (1999). Offscreen, she married Chad Lowe on September 28, 1997. An aficionado for anything that involves the outdoors, she enjoys: sky diving, river rafting, and skiing. |
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Additional Hilary Swank Biography
Hilary Ann Swank (born July 30, 1974) is a two-time Oscar winning American actress. Her Hollywood film career began with a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) and then a major part in The Next Karate Kid (1994), where she played Julie Pierce, the first female protégé of the sensei Mr. Miyagi. She has become known for her two Academy Award-winning performances: first as Brandon Teena, a transgender man in the movie Boys Don't Cry, and a struggling waitress-turned-boxer, Maggie Fitzgerald, in Million Dollar Baby. She will have a cameo in Iron Man, an upcoming film based on fictional Marvel Comics character due for release in May 2008.
Swank was born in Lincoln, Nebraska to Stephen Swank, an officer in the Air National Guard and later a traveling salesman, and Judy Clough. She has a brother, Dan. Many of her family members hail from Ringgold County, Iowa. Swank came from humble beginnings, particularly as a child growing up in a trailer park near Lake Samish in Bellingham, Washington, where she moved to when she was six. Swank has also described her younger self as an "outsider" who felt that she belonged "only when a book or a movie, and could get involved with a character", and was thus inspired to become an actress.
When she was nine years old, Swank made her first appearance on stage starring in The Jungle Book, and thereafter became heavily involved in her school and community theater programs, including those of the Bellingham Theatre Guild. She went to Sehome High School in Bellingham until she was sixteen. Swank also competed in the Junior Olympics and the Washington State championships in swimming; she ranked 5th in the state in all-around gymnastics (which would come in handy when starring in The Next Karate Kid (1994) years later). Swank's parents separated when she was thirteen, and her mother, supportive of her daughter's desire to act, moved the two of them to Los Angeles, California, where they lived out of their car until Swank's mother saved enough money to rent an apartment. Swank has described her mother as the inspiration for her acting career and her life during this time period and subsequently. In California, Swank enrolled in South Pasadena High School (although she later dropped out of high school) and started acting professionally. She also helped pay the rent with the money she earned appearing in television programs such as Evening Shade and Growing Pains.
Swank's Oscar success meant that she had joined the ranks of Vivien Leigh, Helen Hayes, Sally Field, and Luise Rainer as the only actresses to have been nominated twice and win both times (both times she won over fellow actress and nominee Annette Bening). She is also the third-youngest double Best Actress Oscar winner (after Luise Rainer and Jodie Foster.) After winning her second Best Actress Oscar, she said, "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." Swank had earned only $75/day for her work on Boys Don't Cry, culminating in a total of $3,000. Her earnings were so low, that (according to an anecdote on 60 Minutes) she had not even earned enough to qualify for health insurance but she has managed to draw attention of fight-movie goers and boxing fans with her award winning role Million-Dollar Baby.
In early 2006, Swank signed a three-year contract as spokesperson for Guerlain (a women's fragrance). In 2007, Swank starred in and executive produced Freedom Writers, a drama about a real-life teacher who inspired a California high school class. Many reviews of Swank's performance were positive, with one critic noting that she "brings credibility" to the role and another stating that her performance reaches a "singular lack of artifice, stripping herself back to the bare essentials". Later the same year, Swank starred The Reaping, a horror film released on April 5, 2007, in which she plays a debunker of religious phenomena. Swank convinced the producers to move the film's setting from New England to the Deep South, and the movie was filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina struck. Swank has also completed filming on the romantic comedy PS, I Love You.
Swank received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, January 8, 2007. Hers was the 2,325th star given.
Swank, often credited to have similar appearance with Jacqueline Kennedy, has said that she is "an actor, not a celebrity" and has described herself as a "homebody". She considers herself a spiritual person, though not a member of an organized religion. She has said that she is "athletically inclined" and that she "love sports". Swank developed potential health problems, including elevated mercury levels in her body, because of certain preparations for her roles, including weight gain and loss for Boys Don't Cry and The Black Dahlia. She has stated that she would "do what need to make believable and to make it work" and that her "battle scars are a reminder that you're alive and human and that you bleed". In 2007, Swank noted that she "feel like in the last couple of years I’ve really come into my own and a lot of that has come from figuring out who I really am and what I want in life". |
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Hilary Swank Quote(s)
| I guess I'm just not in it for the celebrity of it. I'm in it because I love it. |
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