Welsh actress, confident and fun-loving, unpretentious and often found humming happily. She entered the 21st century at the top of her game, a famed actress, beautiful and accomplished and in love with a new husband and baby.
Born to working class parents, Zeta-Jones had two younger brothers. Interested in acting from the time she was a kid, she played the title role in “Annie” at 11 and three years later, was a gangster’s moll in the stage version of “Bugsy Malone.” At 15, she moved to London to devote herself to theater and showed formidable promise in parts in the next few years.
Zeta-Jones made a movie debut in “Shereherazade,” a French film and her UK debut followed in a sitcom, 1991. Her three-year stint on the racy British TV series “The Darling Buds of May,” made her a media phenomenon. In her early 20s, she was pictured everywhere, seen in the tabloids with the customary lurid gossip.
In 1994, Zeta-Jones began her TV and film work in the U.S. both as a guest on TV and playing the title role in “Catherine the Great.” Her following portrayals included the forgettable film, “Columbus: The Discovery,” along with equally minor showcases. In 1996 she moved to Hollywood officially, disillusioned with a broken engagement to TV host John Leslie followed by a series of brief romances with British actors.
In the TV miniseries “Titanic,” her breath-taking beauty caught the attention of Steven Spielberg who cast her in “The Mask of Zorro,” 1998. The hit film was followed by a thriller, “Entrapment,” 1999.
Actor Michael Douglas had seen a private screening of “Zorro” and knew he had to meet Zeta-Jones. They met at the Deauville Film Festival in France in June 1999 and began a courtship that culminated with the birth of their son Dylan Michael on 8 August 2000 in Los Angeles. By spring 2000, Zeta-Jones, 30 and Douglas, 55 admitted to a relationship and they vacationed together in June at the same time as his divorce was finalized from a 22-year marriage. They married at a $1.5 million extravaganza with 350 guests on 18 November 2000, Manhattan, NY. The wedding lasted all night, starting at 7:30 PM with a 25-minute, non-denominational ceremony, with traditional vows, and ending with a sing-along around the piano bar at 5:00 AM the next morning.
Their film, “Traffic,” which opened in Toronto on 27 February 2000, was a hit production, earning Oscar nominations in 2001. In January 2002, Zeta-Jones signed a nine-film deal worth about $80 million, making her far and away Britain’s highest-paid actress. She plans to make the movies over the next three years before having any more children.
In January 2002, Zeta-Jones signed a nine-film deal worht about $80 million, making her far and away Britain’s highest-paid actress. She planned to make these films over the next three years before having any more children. She was, nonetheless, eight months pregnant when she won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film “Chicago” on 23 March 2003 at the Hollywood Kodak Theater.
On 26 July 2004, a hearing began in a trial against a female stalker, allegedly making ciminal threats against Zeta-Jones in terrifying phone calls and letters. The hearing was postponed until August 16, after the defendant, who reportedly suffers from a psychiatric imbalance, allegedly took an overdose of barbiturates.
In April 2011 it was revealed that she had sought treatment for a bipolar disorder earlier in the year.
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