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Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress known for her roles in period, romance, and action films. The only child between actors Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe, Kate Beckinsale made her acting debut when she was only a year old, as an extra on the British daytime drama Couples (1975), on which her parents also appeared. She didn't act again until she was nearly an adult, beginning in 1991 with a small voice role in an episode of the miniseries adaptation of P. D. James' Devices and Desires and a supporting role in the television movie One Against the Wind starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill. The following year, she starred in the Blade Runner-inspired short film "Rachel's Dream" with Christopher Eccleston and debuted onstage in a production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever. In 1993, she costarred in the Anna Lee pilot "Headcase" and made her theatrical film debut with the brief but crucial role of Hero in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing whilst studying at the University of Oxford. Subsequently, she established herself in leading roles in numerous British costume dramas such as Prince of Jutland (1994), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Emma (1996), and The Golden Bowl (2000). She challenged herself by taking roles in films such as The Last Days of Disco (1998), Brokedown Palace (1999), Pearl Harbor (2001), Serendipity (2001), Tiptoes (2003), The Aviator (2004), and Click (2006). Since taking the role of Selene in the Underworld film series (2003–2016), Beckinsale became known for her work in action films, including Van Helsing (2004), Whiteout (2009), Contraband (2012), Total Recall (2012), and Jolt (2021) while also earning acclaim for her roles in Snow Angels (2007), Nothing but the Truth (2008), Everybody's Fine (2009), Love & Friendship (2016), and The Only Living Boy in New York (2017). In recent years, she returned to television in the limited series The Widow (2019) and the abruptly-canceled dramedy Guilty Party (2021), also serving as an executive producer in the latter. Early life and education Kathrin Romany Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in the Chiswick district of London, the only child of actors Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe. She has a half-sister from her father's earlier marriage, actress Samantha Beckinsale. Her father was partly of Burmese descent. Her parents did not marry until 1977, prior to Beckinsale starting nursery school, when she made her first television appearance at age four, in an episode of This Is Your Life dedicated to her father. When she was five, her father died suddenly of a heart attack aged 31; she was deeply traumatised by the loss and "started expecting bad things to happen." Her widowed mother moved in with director Roy Battersby when Beckinsale was nine, and she was brought up alongside his four sons and daughter. She had a close relationship with her stepfather, who was a member of the Workers Revolutionary Party during her youth. She helped to sell The News Line, a Trotskyist newspaper, as a little girl and has said the household phone was tapped following Battersby's blacklisting by the BBC. Family friends included Ken Loach and Vanessa Redgrave. Beckinsale was educated at Godolphin and Latymer School, an independent school for girls in Hammersmith, West London, and was involved with the Orange Tree Youth Theatre. She was twice a winner of the WH Smith Young Writers Award for both fiction and poetry. She has described herself as a "late bloomer": "All of my friends were kissing boys and drinking cider way before me. I found it really depressing that we weren't making camp fires and everyone was doing stuff like that." She had a nervous breakdown and developed anorexia at age fifteen, and underwent Freudian psychoanalysis for four years. Beckinsale studied Russian at school and read French and Russian literature at New College, Oxford, and was later described by her contemporary Victoria Coren Mitchell, as "whip-clever, slightly nuts, and very charming". She became friends with Roy Kinnear's daughter Kirsty. She was involved with the Oxford University Dramatic Society, most notably being directed by fellow student Tom Hooper in a production of A View from the Bridge at the Oxford Playhouse. As a Modern Languages student, she was required to spend her third year abroad, and studied in Paris. She then quit university to focus on her burgeoning acting career: "It was getting to the point where I wasn't enjoying either thing enough because both were very high pressure." Beckinsale has stated she would like to complete her studies at Oxford University. Career 1991–1997: Early acting roles Beckinsale decided at a young age she wanted to be an actress: "I grew up immersed in film. My family were in the business. I quickly realised that my parents seemed to have much more fun in their work than any of my friends' parents." She was inspired by the performances of Jeanne Moreau. She made her television debut in 1991 with a small part in an ITV adaptation of P. D. James' Devices and Desires. In 1992, she starred alongside Christopher Eccleston in "Rachel's Dream," a 30‑minute Channel 4 short, and in 1993, she appeared in the pilot of the ITV detective series, Anna Lee, starring Imogen Stubbs. In 1993, Beckinsale landed the role of Hero in Kenneth Branagh's big-screen adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing. It was filmed in Tuscany, Italy, during a summer holiday from Oxford University. She attended the film's Cannes Film Festival premiere and remembered it as an overwhelming experience. "Nobody even told me I could bring a friend!" "I had Doc Martens boots on, and I think I put the flower from the breakfast tray in my hair." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was won over by her "lovely" performance while Vincent Canby of The New York Times noted that she and Robert Sean Leonard "look right and behave with a certain naive sincerity, although they often seem numb with surprise at hearing the complex locutions they speak." The film grossed over $22 million at the box office. She made three other films while at university. In 1994, she appeared as Christian Bale's love interest in Prince of Jutland, a film based on the Danish legend which inspired Shakespeare's Hamlet, and starred in the murder mystery Uncovered. In 1995, while studying in Paris, she filmed the French language Marie-Louise ou la permission. Shortly after leaving Oxford University in 1995, Beckinsale starred in Cold Comfort Farm, as Flora Poste, a newly orphaned 1930s socialite sent to live with distant family members in rural England. The John Schlesinger-directed film was an adaptation of Stella Gibbons's novel and also featured Joanna Lumley, Eileen Atkins, Ian McKellen, Rufus Sewell and Stephen Fry. Beckinsale was initially considered too young, but was cast after she wrote a pleading letter to the director. Emanuel Levy of Variety was reminded of "the strength of a young Glenda Jackson and the c.... Discover the Kate O Neill popular books. 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