Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, 1970) is an American film actress, who started a career as a child model after a friend of her parents suggested that she should audition. She subsequently appeared in magazine, newspaper and television advertising before making her motion picture debut in the 1984 crime film Once Upon a Time in America. Connelly continued her career as a model and actress, starring in films such as Labyrinth and Career Opportunities. She gained critical acclaim for her work in Alex Proyas' 1998 science fiction film Dark City and for her portrayal of Marion Silver in Darren Aronofsky's 2000 drama Requiem for a Dream.

In 2002, Connelly won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for her supporting role of of Alicia Nash in Ron Howard's biopic A Beautiful Mind. Other film credits include the Marvel superhero film Hulk, the thriller Dark Water, the drama Blood Diamond, the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You.

Connelly has been married to actor Paul Bettany since 2003; they have two children and she has a child from a previous relationship with photographer David Dugan. She was named Amnesty International Ambassador for Human Rights Education in 2005, and she has been the face of Balenciaga fashion advertisements, as well as for Revlon cosmetics. Magazines including Time, Vanity Fair and Esquire, as well as the Los Angeles Times newspaper have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.

Connelly was born in Round Top, New York in the Catskill Mountains to Ilene, an antiques dealer, and Gerard Connelly, a clothing manufacturer. Her father was a Roman Catholic with Irish and Norwegian ancestors, while her mother was a yeshiva-educated Jew of Polish and Russian stock. She was raised in Brooklyn Heights, near the Brooklyn Bridge, where she attended Saint Ann's, a private school focused on the arts. Her father suffered from asthma, so the family moved to Woodstock, New York in 1976 to escape the city smog. Four years later the family returned to Brooklyn Heights where Connelly resumed her education at the same school.

When Connelly was ten years old, an advertising executive friend of her father suggested she audition as a model. As a result she joined the Ford Modeling Agency and began modelling for print advertisements before moving on to television commercials.She appeared on the cover of several issues of Seventeen in 1986 and 1988. In December 1986 she recorded two pop songs for the Japanese market: "Monologue of Love" and "Message of Love".Connelly sang in phonetic Japanese as she did not speak the language.After Connelly's frequent appearances as a model, her mother started to take her to acting auditions where she was selected for a supporting role as Deborah Gelly in Sergio Leone's 1984 gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in America. In a scene from the film, Connelly had to perform a ballet routine. During the audition for the role, and without any knowledge of the dance, she attempted to imitate a ballerina, which convinced the director to include her in the cast.Connelly described the movie as "an incredibly idyllic introduction to movie-making". Her first leading role was as Jennifer Corvino in Italian giallo-director Dario Argento's 1985 film Phenomena,followed by the lead in the coming-of-age movie Seven Minutes in Heaven released the same year.

Connelly gained public recognition with the 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth, in which she played Sarah, a teenager on a quest to rescue her brother Toby from the world of goblins. Although a disappointment at the box office, the film later became a cult classic. The New York Times, while noting the importance of her part, panned her portrayal: "Jennifer Connelly as Sarah is unfortunately disappointing. Perhaps Mr. Henson gave too much attention to his puppets and not enough to developing a compelling performance in his lead actress. She looks right, but she lacks conviction and seems to be reading rehearsed lines that are recited without belief in her goal or real need to accomplish it. Since the film has only five human characters – Sarah, her parents, who appear briefly at the beginning, baby Toby and Jareth, the goblin king – Sarah's role is very important". Two years later, she starred as a ballet student in the Italian film Étoile, and portrayed college student Gabby in Michael Hoffman's Some Girls.