Claire Danes : Biography and Photo's

Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is a Golden Globe Award-winning and Emmy Award-nominated American film, television, and theater actress most known for the television series My So-Called Life and the films Romeo + Juliet, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Stardust, and voice acting for Princess Mononoke.

Early Life :
Danes was born in New York City, New York, United States of America. Her mother, Carla, is a day-care provider, painter, and textile designer who would later serve as her daughter's manager, and her father, Christopher Danes (b.1950, in Travis, Texas) is a computer consultant and former architectural photographer. Danes has described her background as being "as WASPy as you can get";[1] her paternal grandfather, Gibson Andrew Danes, (1910-1992 in Litchfield, Connecticut) was the dean of the art and architecture school at Yale University.[2][3] She has an older brother, Asa, who graduated from Oberlin College and works as a litigation attorney for the law firm of Paul Hastings.
Danes attended the Dalton School in New York City, the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies, the Professional Performing Arts School,[4] and the Lycée Français de Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. In 1998, Danes went to Yale University (her father's alma mater). Oliver Stone wrote her letter of recommendation to Yale.[4] After studying for two years as a psychology major, she dropped out of Yale to focus on her film career.



Career :
In 1994, Danes starred as Angela Chase in the television drama series My So-Called Life, for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received an Emmy nomination. She played Elizabeth (Beth) March in the 1994 movie adaptation of Little Women. She also appeared as Holly Hunter's daughter in Home for the Holidays, which was directed by Jodie Foster. She portrayed Juliet Capulet in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo Montague. Later that year, she turned down the lead role of Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic, also starring Leonardo Dicaprio because she felt exhausted after working on Romeo + Juliet. In 1999, she made her first appearance in an animated feature with the English version of Princess Mononoke, and took the lead role in Brokedown Palace, alongside Kate Beckinsale and Bill Pullman.

In 2002, Danes starred opposite Susan Sarandon, Kieran Culkin, and Bill Pullman again, in Igby Goes Down. She later co-starred as Meryl Streep's daughter in the Oscar-nominated, The Hours, with Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Ed Harris. The following year, she was cast in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, followed by Stage Beauty in 2004. She earned critical acclaim in 2005 when she starred in Steve Martin's Shopgirl alongside Martin and Jason Schwartzman, and in The Family Stone opposite Sarah Jessica Parker and Diane Keaton. In 2007, Danes appeared in the fantasy Stardust, which she described as a "classic model of romantic comedy",[5] opposite Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, and Sienna Miller, and will appear in The Flock, opposite Richard Gere.

Danes appeared in Off-Broadway plays including Happiness, Punk Ballet, and Kids On Stage, in which she choreographed her own solo dance. She also wrote the introduction to Neil Gaiman's Death: The Time of Your Life. Danes auditioned for the role of Lois Lane in Superman Returns before the role went to Kate Bosworth.

In March 2007, Danes appeared with Patrick Wilson in a television commercial for Gap in which the pair dances to the song "Anything You Can Do" from the musical Annie Get Your Gun. Danes has recently appeared onstage at Manhattan's PS122 an avant-garde performance space, in a series of dance pieces by choreographer Tamar Rogoff. Danes made her stage debut at PS122 as a child.[6]

On October 19, 2007, Danes made her Broadway debut in the revival of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, starring as Eliza Doolittle.
Personal Life :
Danes had her first onscreen kiss in an episode of My So-Called Life before she had one in real life.[8] After meeting at her birthday party, she and Australian singer Ben Lee dated for almost six years, their relationship ending in 2003.[9] She has dated Andrew Dorff, actor Stephen Dorff's younger brother, and Matt Damon. Beginning in 2004, she dated her Stage Beauty and Princess Mononoke co-star Billy Crudup, which generated negative publicity due to rumors that their relationship caused the end of Crudup's relationship to then-pregnant Mary-Louise Parker.[10] Both denied that they were involved prior to the end of Crudup's relationship with Parker. Danes's relationship with Crudup ended in December 2006, amid rumors of an affair by Danes with Hugh Dancy, her co-star in Evening. Danes confirmed on the June 27, 2007 episode of Late Show with David Letterman that she is dating Dancy. The couple are now engaged to be married.

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