HILARY SWANK

'Hilary Ann Swank' (born July 30, 1974) is a two-time Oscar winning American actress. Her Hollywood film career began with a small part in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1992) and then a major part in ''The Next Karate Kid'' (1994), where she played Julie Pierce, the first female protégé of the sensei Mr. Miyagi. She has become known for her two Academy Award-winning performances: first as Brandon Teena, a transgender man in the movie ''Boys Don't Cry'', and a struggling waitress-turned-boxer, Maggie Fitzgerald, in ''Million Dollar Baby''. She will be acting in ''Iron Man'', an upcoming flick based on fictional Marvel Comics character due for release in May 2008.^[1]

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Personal life

Filmography

Awards

Footnotes

External links

Biography

Early life

Swank was born in Lincoln, Nebraska^[2] to Stephen Swank, an officer in the Air National Guard and later a traveling salesman, and Judy Clough. She has a brother, Dan. Many of her family members hail from Ringgold County, Iowa.^[3] Swank came from humble beginnings, particularly as a child growing up in a trailer park near Lake Samish in Bellingham, Washington,¹⁸ where she moved to when she was six.² Swank has also described her younger self as an "outsider" who felt that she belonged "only when [reading] a book or [seeing] a movie, and could get involved with a character", and was thus inspired to become an actress.^[4]
When she was nine years old, Swank made her first appearance on stage starring in ''The Jungle Book'', and thereafter became heavily involved in her school and community theater programs, including those of the Bellingham Theatre Guild. She went to Sehome High School^[5] in Bellingham until she was sixteen. Swank also competed in the Junior Olympics and the Washington State championships in swimming; she ranked 5th in the state in all-around gymnastics² (which would come in handy when starring in ''The Next Karate Kid'' (1994) years later). Swank's parents separated when she was thirteen,² and her mother, supportive of her daughter's desire to act, moved the two of them to Los Angeles, California, where they lived out of their car until Swank's mother saved enough money to rent an apartment.¹⁸ Swank has described her mother as the inspiration for her acting career and her life during this time period and subsequently.^[6] In California, Swank enrolled in South Pasadena High School (although she later dropped out of high school^[7]) and started acting professionally. She also helped pay the rent with the money she earned appearing in television programs such as ''Evening Shade'' and ''Growing Pains''.

Career

In September 1997, Swank was cast as single mother Carly Reynolds on ''Beverly Hills, 90210''. She was initially promised it would be a two-year role, but saw her character written out after 16 episodes in January 1998. Swank later said that she was devastated at being cut from the show, thinking, "If I'm not good enough for ''90210'', I'm not good enough for anything." As it turned out, the firing was the best thing to happen to Swank, as it freed her to audition for the role of Brandon Teena in ''Boys Don't Cry''. Swank dropped her body fat down to seven percent in preparation for the role.^[8] Many critics hailed hers as the best female performance of 1999; her co-star of the film, Chloë Sevigny, had her performance singled out for praise also, Swank and Sevigny were often ranked as the best two leads of 1999 in film. The performance ultimately won her the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Actress. She subsequently won the Best Actress Oscar again for playing a boxer in 2004's ''Million Dollar Baby'', a role for which she underwent training and gained 19 pounds of muscle.⁸

Swank's Oscar success meant that she had joined the ranks of Vivien Leigh, Helen Hayes, Sally Field, and Luise Rainer as the only actresses to have been nominated twice and win both times (both times she won over fellow actress and nominee Annette Bening). She is also the third-youngest double Best Actress Oscar winner (after Luise Rainer and Jodie Foster.) After winning her second Best Actress Oscar, she said, "I don't know what I did in this life to deserve this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream." Swank had earned only $75/day for her work on ''Boys Don't Cry'', culminating in a total of $3,000.^[9][10]2 Her earnings were so low, that (according to an anecdote on ''60 Minutes'') she had not even earned enough to qualify for health insurance.
In early 2006, Swank signed a three-year contract as spokesperson for Guerlain (a women's fragrance).^[11] In 2007, Swank starred in and executive produced¹⁷ ''Freedom Writers'', a drama about a real-life teacher who inspired a California high school class. Many reviews of Swank's performance were positive, with one critic noting that she "brings credibility" to the role^[12] and another stating that her performance reaches a "singular lack of artifice, stripping herself back to the bare essentials".^[13] Later the same year, Swank starred ''The Reaping'', a horror film released on April 5, 2007, in which she plays a debunker of religious phenomena. Swank convinced the producers to move the film's setting from New England to the Deep South, and the movie was filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina struck.^[14] Swank has also completed filming on the romantic comedy ''PS, I Love You''.
Swank received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, January 8, 2007. Hers was the 2,325th star given.^[15][16]

Personal life

Swank has said that she is "an actor, not a celebrity" and has described herself as a "homebody". She considers herself a spiritual person, though not a member of an organized religion.² She has said that she is "athletically inclined" and that she "love[s] sports".^[17] Swank developed potential health problems, including elevated mercury levels in her body, because of certain preparations for her roles, including weight gain and loss for ''Boys Don't Cry'' and ''The Black Dahlia''. She has stated that she would "do what [she] need[s] to make [the role] believable and to make it work" and that her "battle scars are a reminder that you're alive and human and that you bleed".⁸ In 2007, Swank noted that she "feel[s] like in the last couple of years I’ve really come into my own and a lot of that has come from figuring out who I really am and what I want in life".^[18]
Swank married actor Chad Lowe on September 28, 1997. The two met in 1992, on the set of ''Quiet Days in Hollywood'', a direct-to-video film.² Swank infamously forgot to thank Lowe during her acceptance speech after winning her first Oscar in 2000, and she spent nearly every public appearance afterward making up for it. Upon winning her second Oscar in 2005, Lowe was the first person she thanked. However, in January 2006, the couple separated. In subsequent interviews, Swank expressed hope that they could reconcile, but they announced in May 2006 that they were divorcing.^[19][20] In December 2006, Swank confirmed that she is dating John Campisi, her agent.^[21]
On January 15, 2005, after arriving at a New Zealand airport, she was fined NZ$230 by the Manukau District Court for not declaring an apple and orange she had in her purse when she landed. Swank appealed the fine, but it was upheld on March 30, 2005.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1990	''Evening Shade''	Aimee #1	TV series (1991-1992)
	''ABC TGIF''	Danielle	TV series
1992	''Camp Wilder''	Danielle	TV series
	''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''	Kimberly Hannah
1994	''The Next Karate Kid''	Julie Pierce
	''Cries Unheard: The Donna Yaklich Story''	Patty	TV
1996	''Sometimes They Come Back... Again''	Michelle Porter
	''Terror in the Family''	Deena Martin	TV
	''Kounterfeit''	Colleen
1997	''Quiet Days in Hollywood''	Lolita
	''The Sleepwalker Killing''	Lauren Schall	TV
	''Leaving L.A.''	Tiffany Roebuck	TV series
	''Dying to Belong''	Lisa Conners	TV
1997-98	''Beverly Hills 90210''	Carly Reynolds	TV series
1998	''Heartwood''	Sylvia Orsini
1999	''Boys Don't Cry''	Brandon Teena	Won Academy Award for Best Actress
2000	''The Gift''	Valerie Barksdale
2000	''The Affair of the Necklace''	Jeanne St. Remy de Velois
	''The Audition''		Short subject
2002	''The Space Between''		Short subject
	''Insomnia''	Detective Ellie Burr
2003	''	Buzzy	Also executive producer
	''The Core''	Major Rebecca Childs
2004	''Million Dollar Baby''	Maggie Fitzgerald	Won Academy Award for Best Actress
	''Red Dust''	Sarah Barcant
	''Iron Jawed Angels''	Alice Paul	TV
2006	''The Black Dahlia''	Madeline Linscott
2007	''Freedom Writers''	Erin Gruwell	Also executive producer
	''The Reaping''	Katherine Winters
	''P. S., I Love You''	Holly Kennedy	Filming
2008	The Labyrinth''	Unknown	Announced
	''The Laws of Motion''	Laura	post- production
	''Iron Man''	Black Widow	post- production

Awards

★ 'Academy Awards'
:
★ 'Winner': 2005 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role - ''Million Dollar Baby''
:
★ 'Winner': 1999 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role - ''Boys Don't Cry''

★ 'Screen Actors Guild Awards'
:
★ 'Winner': 2005 - Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role - ''Million Dollar Baby''
:
★ Nominee: 2005 - Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture - ''Million Dollar Baby''
:
★ Nominee: 2005 - Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries - ''Iron Jawed Angels''
:
★ Nominee: 2000 - Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role - ''Boys Don't Cry''

★ 'Golden Globe Awards'
:
★ 'Winner': 2005 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Drama - ''Million Dollar Baby''
:
★ Nominee: 2005 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Made for TV Movie - ''Iron Jawed Angels''
:
★ 'Winner': 2000 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture: Drama - ''Boys Don't Cry''

★ 'Independent Spirit Awards'
:
★ 'Winner': 2000 - Best Female Lead - ''Boys Don't Cry''

★ 'MTV Movie Awards'
:
★ 2005: Nominee: MTV Movie Award - Best Female Performance - ''Million Dollar Baby''
:
★ 2000: Nominee: MTV Movie Award - Best Kiss - ''Boys Don't Cry''
:
★ 2000: Nominee: MTV Movie Award - Best Female Performance - ''Boys Don't Cry''

★ 'BAFTA Awards'
:
★ Nominee: 2001 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role - ''Boys Don't Cry''

Footnotes

1. Hilary Swank set to star in Iron Man
2. The write stuff Angela Dawson
3. http://coolice.legis.state.ia.us/Cool-ICE/default.asp?Category=BillInfo&Service=Billbook&ga=81&hbill=SR16
4. HILARY AND HUNKY PATRICK PICTURE PERFECT AT PREMIERE
5. Hilary Swank Biography Tiscali UK Biography spreads across 9 web pages. High School information is on page 2.
6. Hilary Swank tells all to Extra
7. Swank’s life lessons Jim Slotek
8. SWANK RISKS HEALTH FOR ROLES
9. http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Exclusive/0,4029,523215,00.html
10. http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=260&fArticleId=2433709
11. http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=entertainment&id=3947341
12. Swank brings credibility to `Freedom Writers' James Sanford
13. Hilary's all class Vicky Roach
14. Real scare for cast of 'Reaping' Hugh Hart
15. Hilary Swank to get star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
16. Hilary Swank gets star on Hollywood Walk of Fame Associated Press
17. Like her Freedom heroine, Hilary Swank loves her job Bruce Westbrook
18. Swank: Acting gave me sense of focus Amy Longsdorf
19. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10895932/
20. http://people.aol.com/people/articles/0,19736,1196966,00.html
21. SWANK IS DATING HER AGENT

External links

★

★ Hilary Swank: Oscar Gold, a March 2005 article accompanying a ''60 Minutes'' story

★ AHA! Moment: Hilary Swank, a September 2001 story in ''O, The Oprah Magazine'' about her dreams

★ Hilary Swank Interview