Kate Beckinsale Pics Biography
1979March
Tragedy Hits
Kate is just 5 years old when her father, British comedian Richard Beckinsale, dies of a heart attack in his sleep. Richard, 31, was at the height of his acting career as the star of the English sitcoms Rising Damp and Porridge. "It stayed with me, the incredible shock and huge loss," she tells PEOPLE. "I started expecting bad things to happen, that friends will leave, that loved ones will die. It kept building until I had a nervous breakdown when I was a teenager."
circa 1988
Struggling Teen
Still grieving for her father, Beckinsale develops anorexia around age 15 and withers to just 70 lbs. She asks her mother and stepfather to send her to Freudian psychoanalysis, and she attends sessions five days a week for four years. "It opened my eyes to things, not to be afraid of facing these fears," she tells PEOPLE. "I at least understood what they were and where they had come from."
1993May 07
Much Ado About Kate
Beckinsale stars in Kenneth Branaugh's Much Ado About Nothing, in which she plays Hero, a maiden who is the sole heiress to her father's fortune. Two years later, Beckinsale drops out of the University of Oxford to focus on acting, before heating up across the pond with roles in The Last Days of Disco and Brokedown Palace.
1995April
Love at Work
While performing in the touring play, The Seagull, Beckinsale meets Welsh actor Michael Sheen. The couple begins a nine-year relationship.
1999January 31
Motherhood Calls
Beckinsale gives birth to her and Sheen's only child, daughter Lily. "I was brilliant at breastfeeding," she tells Allure in July 2006. "I was like an overproducing cow. I miss it a bit."
2001May 25
Nurse Kate
Beckinsale stars in her highest profile film yet: World War II blockbuster Pearl Harbor, with Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett. While training for her role as a nurse, the actress practices giving shots to a bevy of men. "All these boys would come in and drop their trousers, and I would stab and inject them," she tells Playboy. "It was an odd day."
October 05
Kiss and Tell
Beckinsale's next film, the romantic comedy Serendipity, with John Cusack, comes out. She began shooting the film while wrapping Harbor and tells the Bergen Record, "They saved the kissing scenes in Pearl Harbor for the last week, and me and John had all of our kissing scenes in the first week. There was a point when I was ricocheting between New York and L.A., madly kissing everybody."
2002September-November
Underworld Triangle
While filming Underworld together in Budapest, Sheen and Beckinsale meet director Len Wiseman. Wiseman directs the couple in the supernatural thriller about the secret history of vampires and werewolves, which opens at No. 1 and grosses $ 95.7 million worldwide.
2003January
L.A. Breakup
Shortly after Sheen and Beckinsale's move from London to L.A., the pair breaks up. Reports surface that Beckinsale left Sheen for Wiseman. The British beauty denies any infidelity. "Yes, I've been completely monogamous," Beckinsale tells Allure in 2006. "It was always rather odd to me when I'd get that 'Oh, what a slut' remark. 'Oh, she ditched the father of her child and ran off with somebody else.' I mean, look around this town and tell me one other person who's slept with only two people in a decade. I might just be the only one."
June 14
Love is in the Air
After dating for months, Wiseman proposes to Beckinsale over dinner at Santa Monica's Viceroy Hotel, where he requests a cabana by the pool, a presidential suite filled with white lilies and a special type of merlot.
2004May 03
Fire Starter
Beckinsale's fantasy action flick Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman is released. At the end of shooting, she torches her costume, telling Playboy in 2006, "I was desperate to burn it the minute I put it on. The boots alone took 20 minutes to put on...it was buckle after buckle."
May 09
The Honeymooners
Beckinsale and Wiseman wed at L.A.'s Hotel Bel-Air in front of 140 guests, including her Underworld costar Scott Speedman, in gossamer lace-adorned tents filled with candles and flowers. During the ceremony, Wiseman gives 5-year-old Lily a tiny ring of her own and asks her to marry him too. The newlyweds head to San Lucas, Mexico for their honeymoon, where Beckinsale sports a bikini printed with "Mrs. Wiseman."
December 17
Flying High
Beckinsale stars opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, playing Ava Gardner. The actress, known primarily for her sci-fi roles, tells Entertainment Weekly, "It's terrifying to play a real person, especially one as beloved as Ava Gardner, because you know there's going to be 15 billion people going 'You completely got it wrong!'" Aviator's producer, Graham King, tells PEOPLE Beckinsale was "sensual and mysterious" as the screen legend, but PEOPLE proclaims her "woefully miscast."
2006June 23
Beckinsale's Comic Relief
Adam Sandler convinces Beckinsale to star with him in Click. As the daughter of celebrated British comedian Richard Beckinsale, she considers comedy a very personal thing. "I resisted doing this kind of comedy for most of my career, but I saw Click as a possibility to return to my roots," Beckinsale tells The Toronto Sun. "I was attracted to comedy, but I also tried to steer clear of it, not wanting to tread on anyone else's patch. I wanted to be on my own patch."
2007May
Beckinsale's Vacancy
Beckinsale graces the cover of Glamour to promote her new thriller Vacancy. The film, which stars Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as a couple trying to escape a motel that's been rigged to film their death, opens at No. 4, grossing over $7.6 million. Her next project, Winged Creatures, costars Oscar-winners Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson and explores a bond strangers form after surviving a shooting.
2008December 19
Kate Charms Critics
Beckinsale stars as reporter Rachel Armstrong in Nothing But the Truth, a dramatization of the Plame Affair during which CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity was outed by New York Times reporter Judith Miller. "Beckinsale makes Rachel a fierce yet fragile dry-eyed martyr, but not a saint," praises EW. Her performance earns her a Best Actress Critics' Choice Award nomination.
2012January 13
Back to Work
After a brief hiatus, Beckinsale returns to the big screen in the fast-paced thriller Contraband, opposite Mark Wahlberg. The action movie tops te box office at No. 1. The following week, Beckinsale debuts her fourth Underworld film: Underworld: Awakening.
1979March
Tragedy Hits
Kate is just 5 years old when her father, British comedian Richard Beckinsale, dies of a heart attack in his sleep. Richard, 31, was at the height of his acting career as the star of the English sitcoms Rising Damp and Porridge. "It stayed with me, the incredible shock and huge loss," she tells PEOPLE. "I started expecting bad things to happen, that friends will leave, that loved ones will die. It kept building until I had a nervous breakdown when I was a teenager."
circa 1988
Struggling Teen
Still grieving for her father, Beckinsale develops anorexia around age 15 and withers to just 70 lbs. She asks her mother and stepfather to send her to Freudian psychoanalysis, and she attends sessions five days a week for four years. "It opened my eyes to things, not to be afraid of facing these fears," she tells PEOPLE. "I at least understood what they were and where they had come from."
1993May 07
Much Ado About Kate
Beckinsale stars in Kenneth Branaugh's Much Ado About Nothing, in which she plays Hero, a maiden who is the sole heiress to her father's fortune. Two years later, Beckinsale drops out of the University of Oxford to focus on acting, before heating up across the pond with roles in The Last Days of Disco and Brokedown Palace.
1995April
Love at Work
While performing in the touring play, The Seagull, Beckinsale meets Welsh actor Michael Sheen. The couple begins a nine-year relationship.
1999January 31
Motherhood Calls
Beckinsale gives birth to her and Sheen's only child, daughter Lily. "I was brilliant at breastfeeding," she tells Allure in July 2006. "I was like an overproducing cow. I miss it a bit."
2001May 25
Nurse Kate
Beckinsale stars in her highest profile film yet: World War II blockbuster Pearl Harbor, with Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett. While training for her role as a nurse, the actress practices giving shots to a bevy of men. "All these boys would come in and drop their trousers, and I would stab and inject them," she tells Playboy. "It was an odd day."
October 05
Kiss and Tell
Beckinsale's next film, the romantic comedy Serendipity, with John Cusack, comes out. She began shooting the film while wrapping Harbor and tells the Bergen Record, "They saved the kissing scenes in Pearl Harbor for the last week, and me and John had all of our kissing scenes in the first week. There was a point when I was ricocheting between New York and L.A., madly kissing everybody."
2002September-November
Underworld Triangle
While filming Underworld together in Budapest, Sheen and Beckinsale meet director Len Wiseman. Wiseman directs the couple in the supernatural thriller about the secret history of vampires and werewolves, which opens at No. 1 and grosses $ 95.7 million worldwide.
2003January
L.A. Breakup
Shortly after Sheen and Beckinsale's move from London to L.A., the pair breaks up. Reports surface that Beckinsale left Sheen for Wiseman. The British beauty denies any infidelity. "Yes, I've been completely monogamous," Beckinsale tells Allure in 2006. "It was always rather odd to me when I'd get that 'Oh, what a slut' remark. 'Oh, she ditched the father of her child and ran off with somebody else.' I mean, look around this town and tell me one other person who's slept with only two people in a decade. I might just be the only one."
June 14
Love is in the Air
After dating for months, Wiseman proposes to Beckinsale over dinner at Santa Monica's Viceroy Hotel, where he requests a cabana by the pool, a presidential suite filled with white lilies and a special type of merlot.
2004May 03
Fire Starter
Beckinsale's fantasy action flick Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman is released. At the end of shooting, she torches her costume, telling Playboy in 2006, "I was desperate to burn it the minute I put it on. The boots alone took 20 minutes to put on...it was buckle after buckle."
May 09
The Honeymooners
Beckinsale and Wiseman wed at L.A.'s Hotel Bel-Air in front of 140 guests, including her Underworld costar Scott Speedman, in gossamer lace-adorned tents filled with candles and flowers. During the ceremony, Wiseman gives 5-year-old Lily a tiny ring of her own and asks her to marry him too. The newlyweds head to San Lucas, Mexico for their honeymoon, where Beckinsale sports a bikini printed with "Mrs. Wiseman."
December 17
Flying High
Beckinsale stars opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, playing Ava Gardner. The actress, known primarily for her sci-fi roles, tells Entertainment Weekly, "It's terrifying to play a real person, especially one as beloved as Ava Gardner, because you know there's going to be 15 billion people going 'You completely got it wrong!'" Aviator's producer, Graham King, tells PEOPLE Beckinsale was "sensual and mysterious" as the screen legend, but PEOPLE proclaims her "woefully miscast."
2006June 23
Beckinsale's Comic Relief
Adam Sandler convinces Beckinsale to star with him in Click. As the daughter of celebrated British comedian Richard Beckinsale, she considers comedy a very personal thing. "I resisted doing this kind of comedy for most of my career, but I saw Click as a possibility to return to my roots," Beckinsale tells The Toronto Sun. "I was attracted to comedy, but I also tried to steer clear of it, not wanting to tread on anyone else's patch. I wanted to be on my own patch."
2007May
Beckinsale's Vacancy
Beckinsale graces the cover of Glamour to promote her new thriller Vacancy. The film, which stars Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as a couple trying to escape a motel that's been rigged to film their death, opens at No. 4, grossing over $7.6 million. Her next project, Winged Creatures, costars Oscar-winners Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson and explores a bond strangers form after surviving a shooting.
2008December 19
Kate Charms Critics
Beckinsale stars as reporter Rachel Armstrong in Nothing But the Truth, a dramatization of the Plame Affair during which CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity was outed by New York Times reporter Judith Miller. "Beckinsale makes Rachel a fierce yet fragile dry-eyed martyr, but not a saint," praises EW. Her performance earns her a Best Actress Critics' Choice Award nomination.
2012January 13
Back to Work
After a brief hiatus, Beckinsale returns to the big screen in the fast-paced thriller Contraband, opposite Mark Wahlberg. The action movie tops te box office at No. 1. The following week, Beckinsale debuts her fourth Underworld film: Underworld: Awakening.
Kate Beckinsale Pics
Kate Beckinsale Pics
Kate Beckinsale Pics
Kate Beckinsale Pics
Kate Beckinsale Pics
Kate Beckinsale Pics
Kate Beckinsale Pics
Kate Beckinsale Pics
Kate Beckinsale Pics
Kate Beckinsale Photo Shoot With Feet Pics
Kate Beckinsale-Pics (Iris)
.gif)
