65 Facts About Kate Beckinsale

1.

Kathrin Romany Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 and is an English actress and model.

2.

Kate Beckinsale appeared in British costume dramas such as Prince of Jutland, Cold Comfort Farm, Emma, Shooting Fish and The Golden Bowl, in addition to various stage and radio productions.

3.

Kate Beckinsale started film work in the United States in the late 1990s.

4.

Kate Beckinsale followed those with starring roles in The Aviator and Click.

5.

Since playing the role of Selene in the Underworld film series, Kate Beckinsale has become known for her work in action films, including Van Helsing, Whiteout, Contraband, and Total Recall.

6.

Kate Beckinsale continues to make appearances in smaller dramatic projects such as Snow Angels, Nothing but the Truth, and Everybody's Fine.

7.

Kate Beckinsale starred in two television projects with The Widow and Guilty Party.

8.

Kathrin Romany Kate Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in the Chiswick district of London, the only child of actors Richard Kate Beckinsale and Judy Loe.

9.

Kate Beckinsale has a half-sister from her father's earlier marriage, actress Samantha Beckinsale, with whom she is not in regular contact.

10.

Kate Beckinsale's 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.

11.

Kate Beckinsale has a close relationship with her stepfather, who was a member of the Workers Revolutionary Party during her youth.

12.

Kate Beckinsale 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.

13.

Kate 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.

14.

Kate Beckinsale was twice a winner of the WH Smith Young Writers Award for both fiction and poetry.

15.

Kate Beckinsale 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".

16.

Kate Beckinsale 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.

17.

Kate Beckinsale made her television debut in 1991 with a small part in an ITV adaptation of P D James' Devices and Desires.

18.

In 1993, Kate Beckinsale landed the role of Hero in Kenneth Branagh's big-screen adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing.

19.

Kate Beckinsale attended the film's Cannes Film Festival premiere and remembered it as an overwhelming experience.

20.

Shortly after leaving Oxford University in 1995, Kate Beckinsale starred in Cold Comfort Farm, as Flora Poste, a newly orphaned 1930s socialite sent to live with distant family members in rural England.

21.

Kate Beckinsale was initially considered too young, but was cast after she wrote a pleading letter to the director.

22.

Kate Beckinsale became romantically involved with co-star Michael Sheen after meeting during play rehearsals.

23.

Kate Beckinsale next starred in an ITV adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, playing Emma to Mark Strong's Mr Knightley and Samantha Morton's Harriet Smith.

24.

In 1997, Kate Beckinsale appeared opposite Stuart Townsend in the comedy Shooting Fish, one of the most commercially successful British films of that year.

25.

In 1999, Kate Beckinsale appeared opposite Claire Danes in Brokedown Palace, a drama about two young Americans forced to deal with the Thai justice system on a post-graduation trip abroad.

26.

Kate Beckinsale rose to fame in 2001 with a leading role in the war film Pearl Harbor, as a nurse torn between two pilots.

27.

In 2002, Kate Beckinsale starred in Lisa Cholodenko's Laurel Canyon, as a strait-laced academic who finds herself increasingly attracted to her free-spirited future mother-in-law.

28.

Kate Beckinsale became known as an action star after playing a vampire in 2003's Underworld.

29.

In 2004, Kate Beckinsale starred in the action horror film Van Helsing.

30.

Kate Beckinsale was "so surprised" to be appearing in her second action film in two years.

31.

Also in 2004, Kate Beckinsale portrayed Ava Gardner in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator.

32.

In 2006, Kate Beckinsale reprised her role as Selene in the successful vampire sequel Underworld: Evolution, directed by her husband, Len Wiseman.

33.

In 2007, Kate Beckinsale starred opposite Sam Rockwell in the independent drama Snow Angels, based on the novel by Stewart O'Nan.

34.

Also in 2007, Kate Beckinsale appeared alongside Luke Wilson in Vacancy, a thriller set in an isolated motel.

35.

In 2008, Kate Beckinsale appeared in Winged Creatures, a film about how six different witnesses cope with the aftermath of a shooting.

36.

Kate Beckinsale played a waitressing single mother in an ensemble cast which included Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, and Forest Whitaker.

37.

Also in 2008, Kate Beckinsale starred in Nothing but the Truth, as a journalist who refuses to reveal her source.

38.

Kate Beckinsale made a brief cameo in the prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans; she appeared in flashforwards composed of footage from 2003's Underworld.

39.

Also in 2009, Kate Beckinsale starred in the family drama Everybody's Fine alongside Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, and Rockwell, her Snow Angels co-star.

40.

In May 2010, Kate Beckinsale sat on the nine-member 2010 Cannes Film Festival jury, chaired by director Tim Burton.

41.

Unable to find a script she felt passionate about, Kate Beckinsale kept a low profile in 2010 and 2011, opting to spend time with her daughter.

42.

Kate Beckinsale returned to acting in 2012 with appearances in three action films.

43.

Kate Beckinsale had a supporting role as the wife of Mark Wahlberg's character, a former criminal who gets forced back into a life of crime after his family members are threatened.

44.

Kate Beckinsale next reprised her role as Selene in the fourth instalment of the vampire franchise Underworld: Awakening.

45.

The franchise was initially conceived of as a trilogy and Kate Beckinsale was not "intending to do another one" but was convinced by the quality of the script.

46.

Also in 2012, Kate Beckinsale appeared as the wife of a factory worker in the sci-fi action remake Total Recall, directed by her husband Len Wiseman.

47.

In 2013, Kate Beckinsale starred in the legal thriller The Trials of Cate McCall opposite Nick Nolte and James Cromwell.

48.

Kate Beckinsale next appeared in the little-seen psychological thriller Stonehearst Asylum, loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether".

49.

Also in 2014, Kate Beckinsale starred in the psychological thriller The Face of an Angel alongside Daniel Bruhl.

50.

Kate Beckinsale starred opposite Pierce Brosnan, Callum Turner, and Jeff Bridges in Marc Webb's romantic coming-of-age drama The Only Living Boy in New York, as a book editor and the mistress of a publisher whose son sees his life upended.

51.

Club found Brosnan and Kate Beckinsale to be "vastly more interesting by the twin virtues of not disguising their voices and fitting so poorly into the sad-faced melodrama this movie wants to be".

52.

Kate Beckinsale is attached to star in an adaptation of The Chocolate Money by Ashley Prentice Norton, with a screenplay by Emma Forrest.

53.

In 2018, Kate Beckinsale starred as Ingrid Carpenter in the British film Farming.

54.

Kate Beckinsale starred in the American action comedy film Jolt alongside Bobby Cannavale, Laverne Cox, Stanley Tucci and Jai Courtney.

55.

Kate Beckinsale starred opposite Orlando Bloom in a 2002 Gap television advertisement directed by Cameron Crowe.

56.

Kate Beckinsale appeared in a Diet Coke television advertisement in 2004, directed by Michel Gondry.

57.

Kate Beckinsale advertised Absolut Vodka in a 2009 print campaign photographed by Ellen von Unwerth.

58.

Kate Beckinsale was in a relationship with Welsh actor Michael Sheen from 1995 to 2003.

59.

In 2001, Kate Beckinsale said she was "embarrassed" that Sheen never proposed, but felt as though she was married.

60.

Kate Beckinsale met American director Len Wiseman while working together on 2003's Underworld.

61.

Kate Beckinsale persuaded Wiseman to cast Sheen in the film, but while on set, the two fell in love.

62.

In January 2019, Kate Beckinsale was reported to be dating American comedian Pete Davidson, but by April they had "called time on their romance".

63.

Kate Beckinsale alleged that the tabloid Daily Mail had invaded her and her daughter's privacy by publishing photographs of the actress embracing and kissing her then-boyfriend Len Wiseman.

64.

Kate Beckinsale has donated film memorabilia to the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation, MediCinema, Habitat For Humanity and the Entertainment Industry Foundation.

65.

In 2012, Kate Beckinsale joined Nestle's Share the Joy of Reading Program to raise awareness about the importance of people's literacy.