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Though she had been a model and performed in over a dozen movies since she was 12 years old, actress Jennifer Connelly spent most of her early life trying to make a name for herself. While certainly known in Hollywood, Connelly remained relatively anonymous to the public at large until her major breakthrough with a gutsy performance in "Requiem for a Dream" (2000). Prior to that role, Connelly had several brushes with potential stardom, especially with her turns in "The Rocketeer" (1991) and "Inventing the Abbotts" (1997), both of which could have seriously launched her career had they been hits. But it was her Oscar-winning performance as the tortured wife of a brilliant mathematician suffering from schizophrenia in "A Brilliant Mind" (2001) that put Connelly on the map for good. Since that time, she churned out other award-worthy performances - notably "House of Sand and Fog" (2003) and "Reservation Road" (2007), while taking on the occasional blockbuster like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (2008), certainly making Connelly one of the most compelling, yet underrated actresses of her time.
Born on Dec. 12, 1970 in New York, NY, Connelly was raised an only child in Brooklyn Heights by her father, Gerard, a clothing manufacturer in the Garment District, and her mother, Eileen, an antiques dealer. She began her schooling at Saint Ann's School, a private institution that focused on the arts, but left after the first grade when her father decided to leave the garment industry and move the family upstate to Woodstock, NY. In 1980, after spending a brief, but idyllic time in the famed hippie enclave, Connelly's family moved back to Brooklyn Heights, where she returned to Saint Ann's. Thanks to a family friend who worked as an advertising executive, Connelly - who was already a beauty, with dark hair and striking green eyes - began a modeling career when she was 10, posing for catalogues and magazine covers all throughout her adolescence. She worked for several renowned photographers, including Bert Stern, Cristophe Jouany and Cristina Ghergo, and graced the covers of numerous magazines, most notably Seventeen and Muppet Magazine.

When she was just 12, Connelly made her film debut in Sergio Leone's gangster epic, "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984), playing a younger incarnation of Elizabeth McGovern's character. At the time, Connelly had no particular ambitions on becoming an actor - she essentially fell into it and continued to make movies because she was lucky enough to be asked to be in them. While continuing to model, she had her first starring role in the Italian-made horror thriller, "Creepers" (1984), playing a telepathic American student at a Swiss boarding school who is able to communicate with insects, which leads to helping an entomologist (Donald Pleasance) and the police track down a serial killer. Connelly next starred alongside pop star David Bowie and an assortment of bizarre Jim Henson creatures in "Labyrinth" (1986), in which she played an imaginative 15-year-old who wishes her brother (Toby Froud) into a fairy tale world ruled by a goblin king (Bowie) and is forced to traverse a complicated maze in order to get him back. Though not a box office hit, "Labyrinth" earned a cult following, which helped raise Connelly's stature as young actress to watch.

That same year, Connelly starred as the bright one among a trio of friends - rounded out by Byron Thomas, Maddie Corman - in the lightweight teen sex comedy, "Seven Minutes in Heaven" (1986). By the time she made the romantic comedy "Some Girls" (1989) with Patrick Dempsey, Connelly had graduated Saint Anne's and matriculated into Yale University, where she spent two years as an English major. She transferred to Stanford University to study acting with Roy London, Howard Fine and Harold Guskin, but never graduated. Meanwhile, she continued to star in feature after feature, appearing in her first substantial adult role in Dennis Hopper's seductive thriller, "The Hot Spot" (1990), then as the voluptuous town beauty in the teen comedy "Career Opportunities" (1990). She was perfectly cast in "The Rocketeer" (1991), playing a would-be 1940s Hollywood starlet whose boyfriend (Bill Campbell) is a young test pilot trying to keep a rocket-powered backpack out of the hands of a Nazi spy (Timothy Dalton) posing as an actor. Though the film failed to take off at the box office, Connelly and co-star Campbell became an on-and-off item after the shoot. Meanwhile, in 1992, Connelly starred alongside Jason Priestly in the music video for Roy Orbinson's posthumous release, "I Drove All Night."
Although she was seemingly on the verge of a major career, Connelly had difficulty finding that one breakthrough role to catapult her into the public eye; particularly as an adult actress. During this period, Connelly concentrated more on her Ivy League studies, before resuming her film career once she rediscovered her passion for acting and decided to leave Stanford. Back on track, the actress made a rare foray into television with "The Heart of Justice" (TNT, 1993), in which she essayed the role of femme fatale in this thriller about a reporter trying to uncover the motive behind a murder-suicide involving upper society victims. She next co-starred in John Singleton's message drama, "Higher Learning" (1995), playing a college freshman and lesbian who attracts the attention of a fellow student (Kristy Swanson), followed by the role of Nick Nolte's doomed mistress in "Mulholland Falls" (1996). Connelly came close to that one defining role with "Inventing the Abbotts" (1997), delivering a fine turn as Eleanor, the self-styled "bad girl" middle sister of a trio of beauties (Liv Tyler and Joanna Going) from a wealthy family who all succumb to the charms of the town's working class bad boy (Billy Crudup). She next played the seemingly real wife of an amnesiac (Rufus Sewell) trapped in a bizarre futuristic world of "Dark City" (1998).

After a brief hiatus to give birth to her first son, Kai, whom she had with photographer David Dungan, Connelly returned to the big screen with three high profile art-house films. After again playing a radical haunting her old lover (Crudup) in "Waking the Dead" (2000), she starred in Darren Aronofsky's dour character drama, "Requiem for a Dream" (2000), portraying a wannabe fashion designer with a spiraling drug habit who ultimately submits to degrading herself for her habit. In a role most other actresses would have refused to consider, Connelly finally made her breakthrough as an adult. Following a brief turn as the mistress of famed modern artists Jackson Pollock (Ed Harris) in "Pollock" (2000), Connelly made her debut as a series regular in the short-lived New York City-set serial "The $treet" (Fox, 2000), a behind-the-scenes look at a stock brokerage firm. The actress then had one of her best-reviewed roles, playing the patient and loving wife of an eccentric math genius diagnosed with schizophrenia (Russell Crowe) in "A Beautiful Mind" (2001), loosely based on the real-life relationship between Alicia Nash and her husband, Nobel laureate John Forbes Nash, Jr. Connelly racked up numerous end-of-the-year accolades, including a Golden Globe and a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

After a short stint away from the spotlight, in which she began dating and eventually married "A Beautiful Mind" co-star Paul Bettany, Connelly portrayed Betty Ross, the tortured love interest in "The Hulk" (2003). Based on the famed Marvel comic book creature, director Ang Lee attempted to graft serious pathos onto the rampaging monster - unfortunately with little success. Despite the impressive credentials of Connelly, Lee and star Eric Bana, "The Hulk" was a rare Marvel misfire. In a role more suited to her talents, Connelly turned in a riveting performance in "House of Sand and Fog" (2003), playing a troubled, substance-abusing woman whose family beach home is wrongfully auctioned off by the government, pitting her in a heated battle of wills against the new owner - a former high-ranking Iranian official (Ben Kingsley) - with haunting results. Connelly's complex portrayal resulted in another flurry of critical acclaim and awards buzz, though much of acclaim went to co-stars Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo. Next was the high class entry into the horror genre with "Dark Water" (2005), in which she played a protective single mother who moves into a dilapidated and disturbing apartment house and finds herself tormented by inexplicable events involving dark, shadowy water.
Connelly next co-starred in Todd Field's darkly comic, but emotionally compelling adaptation of Tom Perrotta's novel, "Little Children" (2006), playing the wife of a stay-at-home dad (Patrick Wilson) who struggles with her husband's affair with a former graduate student and stay-at-home mom (Kate Winslet). In "Blood Diamond" (2006), Connelly was a feisty and idealistic American journalist in the midst of chaos in civil war-torn Sierra Leone in the 1990s who - while trying to expose the scandal-ridden diamond companies - falls for a smuggler (Leonardo DiCaprio) looking for a rare pink diamond with a poor fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) - a quest that will change the lives of all three forever. While "Blood Diamond" was gathering Oscar buzz in late 2006, Connelly began filming "Reservation Road" (2007), a tragic tale about two families brought together when the father of one family (Mark Ruffalo) kills the son of the other in a hit-and-run accident. In a rare sojourn into blockbuster territory, Connelly starred opposite Keanu Reeves in the 21st century remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (2008).

    * Also Credited As:
      Jennifer Ann Connelly, Jennifer Lynn Connelly
    * Born:
      Jennifer Lynn Connelly on December 12, 1970 in New York City, New York, USA
    * Job Titles:
      Actor, Model

Family
    * Father: Gerard Connelly.
    * Mother: Eileen Connelly.
    * Son: Kai Dugan. Born in July 1997; father, David Dugan
    * Son: Stellan Bettany. Born Aug. 5, 2003; father, Paul Bettany; named after Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgaard

Significant Others
    * Companion: Billy Campbell. Met on the set of The Rocketeer (1991); became engaged in 1991; no longer together
    * Companion: David Dugan. Father of Connelly s son, Kai; no longer together
    * Companion: Josh Charles.
    * Husband: Paul Bettany. Met on the set of A Beautiful Mind (2001); married December 2002 in Scotland
    * Spouse: Paul Bettany.

Education
    * Yale University, New Haven , Connecticut, Literature, 1988
    * Yale University, New Haven , Connecticut, Performing Arts, 1988
    * Saint Ann s School, New York , New York
    * Stanford University, Palo Alto , California

Milestones
    * 1984 Made feature acting debut in Once Upon a Time in America ; played Elizabeth McGovern s character as a child
    * 1986 Played a teenager who wishes her baby brother into the world of goblins ruled by king Jareth (David Bowie) in Labyrinth
    * 1986 Starred in the coming-of-age movie Seven Minutes in Heaven
    * 1991 Cast as the female lead, opposite Bill Campbell in The Rockateer
    * 1993 Played a spoiled rich girl, opposite Frank Whaley in John Hughes Career Opportunities
    * 1995 Portrayed a collegiate lesbian in John Singleton s Higher Learning
    * 1996 Played Nick Nolte s mistress whose death is at the center of a mystery in Mulholland Falls
    * 1997 Portrayed one of three alluring sisters in Inventing the Abbotts ; first collaboration with Billy Crudup
    * 1998 Co-starred as Rufus Sewell s estranged spouse in Dark City
    * 2000 Breakthrough role was as a drug addicted fashion designer in Darren Aronofsky s Requiem for a Dream
    * 2000 Played Jackson Pollock s mistress in the biopic Pollock starring and directed by Ed Harris
    * 2000 Re-teamed with Crudup for the romantic drama Waking the Dead
    * 2001 Played Alicia Nash, the long-suffering wife of schizophrenic mathematician, John Forbes Nash, Jr. (played by Russell Crowe) in Ron Howard s film A Beautiful Mind
    * 2003 Cast opposite Eric Bana in Ang Lee s The Hulk
    * 2003 Played a recovering addict trying to save her home in Vadim Perelman s House of Sand and Fog
    * 2005 Starred in the thriller Dark Water, which was based on a Japanese film
    * 2006 Played Patrick Wilson s wife in Todd Field s Little Children
    * 2006 Played a journalist in Edward Zwick s Blood Diamond opposite Leonardo DiCaprio
    * 2007 Acted in the Terry George directed Reservation Road with Joaquin Phoenix
    * 2008 Co-starred in the remake of the 1951 science fiction movie The Day the Earth Stood Still
    * 2009 Joined an ensemble cast for the feature adaptation of the bestselling book, He s Just Not That Into You
    * 2009 Lent her voice to the feature-length adaptation of Shane Acker s short film, 9
    * Began modeling and doing commercials at age ten; continued working as a model until her teens
    * Raised in Brooklyn Heights, New York