Gwyneth Paltrow

Paltrow was born to the late film and television director Bruce Paltrow (who was Jewish) and Blythe Danner (who was raised a Quaker and is of Pennsylvania Dutch descent). Her paternal grandparents were Gertrud Goldman and Aaron Paltrow, and her maternal grandparents were Eunice Hogan and John Danner. Raised in Santa Monica, she attended Crossroads School before moving and attending Spence School, a private girls' school in New York City. Later she briefly studied art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before discontinuing her degree and committing herself to acting.

Paltrow has a younger brother, Jake Paltrow, and is a cousin of actress Katherine Moennig. She is an "adopted daughter" of Talavera de la Reina (Spain), where she lived as an exchange student and learned Spanish. Paltrow was childhood friends with Saturday Night Live's Maya Rudolph. She stated this when she hosted on November 10, 2001. The two sang Flashdance...What a Feeling together during Paltrow's monologue and showed a photo of them in their youth.

Paltrow is a descendent of a famous 17th century Polish rabbi, David HaLevi Segal of Cracow, through the Russian rabbinical family, Paltrowitch, which produced thirty-three rabbis over several generations. The actress has said she is very proud of being Jewish, and has attributed her father's warmth to his Jewish heritage:

"My father had that incredible Jewish warmth, really bolstering us his children all the time. And when you're nine years old and you're hearing that you are the best person, it gets in there, and you think, 'OK, I'm not going to be afraid to try things, because I'm always loved no matter what.' That kills me, when I think about it. It totally breaks my heart, how lucky I am." Paltrow attended Brown Ledge Summer Camp, an all-girl's camp in Vermont.

It would only seem natural that this daughter of TV producer Bruce Paltrow and stage and screen actress Blythe Danner would chose to follow a path in show business. Nevertheless, Gwyneth Paltrow's parents tried to dissuade her from a career as an actress, but she was determined. Her first professional role was a walk-on at age five and eventually she graduated to a part in an unsold pilot produced by her father. Gradually, she established herself as a rising talent and confirmed her abilities with a series of leading roles that demonstrated her range and skill.

A willowy blonde, Paltrow frequently has been called luminous both by critics and interviewers. Projecting an innate intelligence, she began her career choosing her roles wisely, often working in low-budget or independent films that allowed her to portray a variety of characters, ranging from her breakthrough as a young con woman in "Flesh and Bone" (1993) to her hard-bitten prostitute in "Hard Eight/Sydney" (1997) to a series of parts that required a flawless British accent: the busybody "Emma" (1996) and the leading lady of "Sliding Doors" and "Shakespeare in Love" (both 1998). Her cool demeanor and throaty vocals bring to mind not only her mother but other famous blonde icons like Grace Kelly (whose role she inherited in 1998's "A Perfect Murder", a loose remake of "Dial M for Murder") and Jessica Lange (with whom she co-starred in the ludicrous "Hush" 1998).

Although she was born in Los Angeles, by the time she was a pre-teen, Paltrow had settled in Manhattan with her family. She spent summers watching her mother perform at the prestigious Williamstown Theatre Festival, where she eventually made her professional stage debut in 1990.

Eventually mother and daughter would work together in productions of "Picnic" (1991), "The Sweet Bye and Bye" (1992) and "The Seagull" (1994). Paltrow dropped out of college after only one semester to pursue her career, landing her first screen role in the forgettable "Shout" (1991). Family friend Steven Spielberg cast her as the young Wendy in his slightly overblown "Hook" (also 1991). Ironically, she was cast first in the 1992 true crime NBC miniseries "Cruel Doubt" before her mother was tapped to play her on-screen parent.

Paltrow made her professional stage debut in 1990. Her most recent stage appearance was in Proof at London's Donmar Warehouse.

Her debut film was Shout (1991), and later the same year she played a small role in family friend Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991). She later starred in Se7en (1995). Her performance in Emma (1996) received much praise, particularly in Europe and Asia.

Two years later, Paltrow starred in a film titled Shakespeare in Love, an imagining of how William Shakespeare might have written Romeo and Juliet. The film received critical acclaim, earned more than $100 million in domestic box office receipts, and received numerous awards. Shakespeare in Love won the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy and Best Screenplay, as well as the Academy Award for Best Picture. Paltrow also won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role from the Screen Actors Guild. Later that year, Paltrow received an Academy Award nomination and won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Paltrow first displayed her uncanny knack for accents as the Texas con woman traveling with the much older James Caan in "Flesh and Bone". Bringing a much needed vitality to the otherwise dreary film, she earned the lion's share of critical kudos. Had the movie been more of a success at the box office, her performance may have been recognized by the Academy. Instead, Paltrow went on to a series of finely-tuned supporting turns. She was a delight as a bitchy actress in the ensemble of Alan Rudolph's "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" (1994) and as the ambassador's knowing daughter in the Merchant-Ivory production "Jefferson in Paris" (1995). When David Fincher tapped her to play the loving wife of a homicide detective in "Seven" (also 1995), he had no idea she and co-star Brad Pitt would become a couple off-screen as well. Her well-publicized, high profile romance, engagement and break-up was played out against a background of work and growing success.

After the disappointing romantic comedy "The Pallbearer" (1996), Paltrow solidified her growing reputation as a star in the making with a superb turn as Jane Austen's meddling heroine in "Emma". Her dead-on English accent even had some convinced she was British but once again, the expected nod from the Academy did not materialize. Paltrow went on to play a Reno hooker in Paul Thomas Anderson's gemlike "Sydney/Hard Eight" and lent an elegance to the cold-hearted Estrella in a contemporary spin of "Great Expectations" (1998). By this time, it had been announced that she and Pitt would reteam in the feature "Duets" to be helmed by her father but as their relationship unraveled, so did the project.

After experiencing the glare of the paparazzi, one might expect the actress to retreat, but in 1998 she offered a trio of strong leading performances. In "A Perfect Murder", Paltrow easily slipped into the Grace Kelly role in that loose remake of Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder", although much ink was spilled over her May-December pairing with Michael Douglas. Once again adopting a British accent, she had a fine go as a woman with a fantasy parallel life in "Sliding Doors", which posited and suggested answers to a series of 'what ifs'.

Paltrow rounded out the year triumphing as the 16th-century woman who yearns for romance and poetry rather than an arranged marriage and in the process becomes the Bard's muse in the frothily delightful "Shakespeare in Love", which finally garnered her attention from the Academy in the form of a Best Actress Oscar.Her win also catapulted her to the top of many best-dressed lists, and she soon became one of Hollywood's top trend-setting stars and fashion icons. The actress once again found her personal life became tabloid fodder as she embarked on a relationship with that film's Ben Affleck. Despite trying to remain private, their breakup late in the year, just as she began winning accolades merely stoked the fire.

Continuing her ascent, Paltrow co-starred in a murderous love triangle with Matt Damon and Jude Law in Anthony Minghella's period drama "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999), adapted from Patricia Highsmith's novel. Also, after much time in turnaround, she was finally directed by her father in "Duets" (2000), with TV star Scott Speedman cast in the role originally earmarked for Pitt. "Duets" offered the wildly popular actress a chance to show off another of her talents: singing. The karaoke-themed film scored something of a hit with the soundtrack cut "Cruisin'", a Smokey Robinson song performed by Paltrow and Huey Lewis.

Later that year she co-starred with former flame Affleck in Don Roos' "Bounce", turning in a charming and convincing performance with a rare blue-collar role. Paltrow again put her somewhat patrician image aside to star in the Farrelly brothers comedy "Shallow Hal" (2001), playing the woman Jack Black's titular character falls for. Paltrow came under fire by some for her role in the surprisingly gentle romance, which required her to wear prosthetics for scenes as the 300-pound real Rosemary rather than the slim reflection of her inner beauty that Hal sees. In that year's "The Royal Tenenbaums", Paltrow was the grown-up incarnation of a child prodigy playwright, the adopted Tenenbaum harboring many secrets. The actress fit in very well in director Wes Anderson's quirky world and excelled with an appropriately reined in performance as the deadpan Margot.

Since then, she has had a relatively low-profile, yet steady, film career with a few critically acclaimed film roles, including Proof (2005) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).

Audiences got their first taste of Paltrow's singing ability with the 2000 release of Duets, in which she co-starred with singer Huey Lewis, who played her karaoke-hustling estranged father. Towards the end of the film, their characters resolve their differences and perform a cover version of Smokey Robinson's Cruisin'. The song, which surprised many of Paltrow's fans, was well-received and was eventually released as a single, getting heavy airplay from Top 40 and adult contemporary-formatted radio stations.

In an interview with The Guardian on 27 January 2006, Paltrow admitted that she divided her career into those movies she did for love and those films she did for money. The Royal Tenenbaums, Proof, and Sylvia fell into the former category, whilst View From the Top and Shallow Hal were in the latter.

Since winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for Shakespeare in Love, Paltrow's career has declined considerably, with her most recent box-office smash being 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley.

In 2002, Paltrow co-starred with Aaron Eckhart as competing scholars investigating the possible romance between the 18th-century writers in Neil LaBute's adaptation of A.S. Byatt's novel "Possession." But the year was marred by the death of her father Bruce, who succumbed to complications of pneumonia and a recurrence of throat cancer while on vacation with Platrow in Rome, Italy to celebrate her 30th birthday. That following year, she starred as a woman who takes a job as a flight attendant in an effort to lead the glamorous life in the disappointing, long-delayed comedy "A View From the Top" (2003).

Later that same year, she demonstrated her more serious acting skills and her considerable charisma in the art-house minded biopic "Sylvia" (2003), playing the acclaimed yet troubled poet Sylvia Plath. In between, the actress stayed in the limelight with her romance and subsequent 2003 marriage to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, and a high-profile pregnancy with their first child, daughter Apple, whose name quickly became fodder for comedy monolgues. She returned to major Hollywood fare with the retro, CGI-reliant action adventure "Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow" (2004), in which she played intrepid reporter Polly Perkins, who helps Sky Captain (Jude Law) fend off giant robots attacking an Art Deco, 30s-era New York. She was better served by the film adapation of the highly praised stage play "Proof" (2005), which reunited her with director John Madden (along with "Shakespeare in Love," the two had previously also collaborated on a London production of the play).

Paltrow played Catherine, a young woman who has sacrficed much of her life caring for her father, a brilliant but schizophernic mathematician (Anthony Hopkins), whose death leaves her struggling over whether she's inherited his genius or his madness. The actress carried the weight of the film on her shoulders, and proved that her earlier award-winning performances were no fluke. She next signed on to star in "The Good Night" (lensed 2005), a comedy about a man's search for perfection in the world, directed by her brother, Jake Paltrow.

Source: Yahoo! Movie, Wikipedia