Catherine Zeta Jones

Catherine Jones born 25 September 1969, in Treboeth, a working-class area of Swansea, West Glamorgan in South Wales. She is the middle of three children born to Dai Jones, a Welsh sweet factory owner, and Patricia Fair who is Irish and from a Roman Catholic family.

Her father's cousin is married to singer Bonnie Tyler, who is also from Swansea. Her uncle owns Swansea's Škoda car dealership as well as Llanelli A.F.C. football club. Her name stems from those of her grandmothers — her maternal grandmother, Katherine Fair, and her paternal grandmother, Zeta Jones.

After her parents won £100,000 at bingo in the 1980s, they moved to St. Andrews Drive in Mayals, an upper class area of Swansea. She attended the moderately-priced private school, Dumbarton House in Swansea where she was apparently an average student. Comedian and actor Rob Brydon also went there.

She left school early to further her acting ambitions without obtaining O levels and went on to attend The Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick for a full-time three year course in musical theatre.

Zeta-Jones' stage career began in childhood. She often performed at friends and family functions when she was younger. She was a part of a Catholic congregation's performing troupe before she was 10. She also starred in a London production of Annie, as well as a version of Bugsy Malone. By 1987 she was starring in 42nd Street as Peggy Sawyer in the West End. Once the show closed, Zeta-Jones travelled to France, where she received the lead role in French director Philippe de Broca's 1001 Nights (also known as Sheherazade), her feature film debut.

Her exotic looks, along with her singing and dancing ability, suggested a promising future, but it was in a straight acting role, as Mariette in the successful television adaptation of H. E. Bates' The Darling Buds of May (1991-93), that she made her name. She briefly flirted with a musical career, beginning with a part in the 1992 album: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of Spartacus, from which the single "For All Time" was released in 1989. It failed to chart. She went on to release the singles "In the Arms of Love", "I Can't Help Myself", and a duet with David Essex, "True Love Ways". The Duet was her only chart single, reaching #38 in the UK singles chart in 1994. She also starred in an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, as well as in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery.

The gorgeous, raven-haired Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones first came to prominence in the United Kingdom with her co-starring role as the eldest daughter in a boisterous farm family in the British TV series "The Darling Buds of May" (Yorkshire TV, 1991-93). A head-turner who balanced her stately beauty with an appealing working class bluntness, Zeta-Jones had begun her career as a child performer on the musical stage, starring as the wholesome heroine "Annie" and as the most sophisticated Tallulah in the stage musical "Bugsy Malone".

Her biggest stage break came when she headlined the West End production of "42nd Street", portraying chorus girl-turned-star Peggy Sawyer. French director Philippe de Broca tapped the exotic actress for the title role in "Sheherazade" (1990). Zeta-Jones subsequently portrayed the explorer's wife in "Christopher Columbus: The Discovery" (1992) and a reckless young woman desperate to be a duchess in the comedy "Splitting Heirs" (1993). She was well-cast as Eustacia Vye, the willful woman thought to be a witch, in the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" adaptation of "The Return of the Native" (CBS, 1994), opposite Clive Owen and Ray Stevenson.

She continued to find moderate success with a number of television projects, including The Return of the Native (1994) and the mini-series Catherine the Great (1995). She also appeared in Splitting Heirs (1993), a comedy starring Eric Idle, Rick Moranis and John Cleese.

After playing Chloe, the girlfriend of a surfer torn between the waves and a commitment to her, in the unusual British film "Blue Juice" (1995), Zeta-Jones was finally tapped by Hollywood to portray the villainous aviatrix Sala in "The Phantom" (1996). She continued to make in-roads in the USA portraying a woman jeopardizing her future by having a shipboard affair with an old flame in the CBS miniseries "Titanic" (1996).

In 1996, she was cast as the evil aviatrix "Sala" in the action film, The Phantom , based on the comic created by Lee Falk. Her character did her best to kill Billy Zane's Phantom, while assisting villain Xander Drax (Treat Williams) in taking over the world with a weapon of doom.

In 1998, Zeta-Jones landed the high profile role of a seductress opposite Antonio Banderas in "The Mask of Zorro" and made headlines in the trades when she won the female lead opposite Sean Connery in the romantic thriller "Entrapment" (1999).

The following year, she starred in the CBS mini-series Titanic, which also starred Tim Curry and Peter Gallagher. Steven Spielberg, who noted her performance in the mini-series, recommended her to Martin Campbell, the director of The Mask of Zorro. Zeta-Jones subsequently landed a lead role in the film, alongside Antonio Banderas. The following year she co-starred with Sean Connery in the film Entrapment, and alongside Liam Neeson and Lili Taylor in The Haunting. In 2000 she starred in Traffic with future husband Michael Douglas.

While the actress' onscreen May-December match-up with Connery captured much attention, it was nothing compared to the talk surrounding her real-life romance with actor-producer Michael Douglas, a Hollywood heavyweight 25 years her senior. The two became parents and subsequently married in 2000, in a highly publicized ceremony.

Prior to the nuptials, Zeta-Jones played a playful, mysterious beauty in the 1999 remake of "The Haunting", and had a memorable cameo as the glamorous, free-wheeling former girlfriend of John Cusack's central character in "High Fidelity" (2000). She would next be seen to good effect playing the unwitting wife of a drug lord (Steven Bauer) in the roundly acclaimed feature "Traffic" (also 2000).

Though the film co-starred Douglas, the two were in no scenes together, due to the thematically-linked three-part storyline. In 2001, Zeta-Jones was featured in "America's Sweethearts", a romantic comedy about a high-profile Hollywood couple, an experience not far from her own. Surely she hoped that life didn't imitate art in this case, as the pair in question are in the midst of a bitter break up on the movie set, much to the chagrin of the film's publicist.

In 2002, Zeta-Jones wowed audiences and critics with her hertofore undisplayed singing and dancing chops when she starred as the murderess Velma Kelly in the film version of the hit Broadway musical "Chicago." Her dazzling performance earned Zeta-Jones an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical.

In 2003, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Velma Kelly in the film Chicago. Chicago also won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year. On 22 October 2005, she referenced her award, as guest host on the television show Saturday Night Live, surrounded by four male dancers, mimicking the Bob Fosse-inspired Chicago-style dancing, suggesting in song that, no matter how bad she might be that night, "They Can't Take My Oscar Away". For her role in Chicago, she specifically requested a 1920s-style short bob haircut, so her face could be seen and fans wouldn't doubt she did all her dancing herself.

In 2003 she voiced Marina in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, as well as starring in Intolerable Cruelty with George Clooney. In 2004 she was in The Terminal, as well as Ocean's Twelve, the sequel to Ocean's Eleven. In 2005 she reprised her role as Elena in The Legend of Zorro, the sequel to The Mask of Zorro. She stars in and produces the rugby-related comedy, Coming Out. The film is produced by her company Milkwood Films.

After a much-followed awards season that dovetailed with her high-profile second pregancy, the actress returned to the screen in "Intolerable Cruelty" (2003), the Coen Brothers' venture into screwball comedy in which she deftly played the bewitching but gold-digging serial divorcee Marilyn Rexroth, the object of desire for her soon-to-be ex husband's divorce attorney (George Clooney).

Teaming for the first time with Tom Hanks and director Steven Spielberg, Zeta-Jones next appeared in "The Terminal" (2004) playing the flight attendant Amelia, who falls for the charms of an immigrant (Hanks) stranded in a New York airport terminal with valid pasport papers--Despite a solid attempt to portray a romantically-challenged woman, in the film Zeta-Jones was simply too beuatiful and sharp to be believed as a loser in love.

She next joined Clooney and his co-horts Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, et. al. for the lackluster sequel "Ocean's Twelve" (2004), this time providing a love interest for Pitt and an adversary for the gang. Another sequel was next, the swashbuckling "The Legend of Zorro" (2005), reprising her role as Elena, now estranged from her masked husband (Antonio Banderas) trying to balance her thirst for adventure with her desire to be a responsible parent.








Catherine Zeta Jones Personal life

Zeta-Jones is married to actor Michael Douglas, with whom she has two children. She has the same birthday as her husband, although he is 25 years her senior. They were married at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on 18 November 2000. A traditional Welsh choir sang at her wedding; her wedding ring includes a Celtic motif and was bought in the Welsh town of Aberystwyth. Their son, Dylan Michael Douglas, was born 8 August 2000. Their daughter, Carys Zeta Douglas, was born April 20, 2003. While pregnant with Carys, photos were published of Zeta-Jones smoking cigarettes on a private balcony; afterwards, she became the target of anti-smoking and child health and welfare groups due to her behaviour.

Zeta-Jones has decided that her children will grow up aware of their Welsh heritage and has built a seaside home for her parents in her hometown of Swansea. She wants her children to know the Welsh language.

Her elder brother, David A. Jones (also known as Cameron Jones), is Vice President of the film company, Initial Entertainment. He was an executive producer of Gangs of New York. Her younger brother, Lyndon Jones, is her personal manager and producer for Milkwood Films. Catherine's parents recently moved from their Mayals property to a £2 million clifftop home two miles away, paid for by their daughter.

Apart from her acting career, Zeta-Jones is also an advertising spokeswoman. In 2003, she became spokeswoman for the mobile phone company T-Mobile. However, in September 2006, T-Mobile dropped Zeta-Jones for a more “man on the street” advertising campaign. She is currently the global spokeswoman for cosmetics giant Elizabeth Arden.

Catherine Zeta Jones Filmography
No Reservations (2007)
Death Defying Acts (2005)
The Legend of Zorro (2005)
Ocean's Twelve (2004)
The Terminal (2004)
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)
Chicago (2002)
America's Sweethearts (2001)
High Fidelity (2000)
Traffic (2000)
Entrapment (1999)
The Haunting (1999)
The Mask of Zorro (1998)
Blue Juice (1996)
The Phantom (1996)
Catherine the Great (1995)
The Cinder Path (1994)
The Return of the Native (1994)
Splitting Heirs (1993)
The Darling Buds of May (1993)
Christopher Columbus: the Discovery (1992)
Sheherazade (1990)




Source: Yahoo! Movie, Wikipedia