Jennifer Connelly Biography

Name: Jennifer Connelly

Born: 12 December 1970 (Age: 41)

Where: Woodstock, New York, USA

Height: 5' 8"

Awards: Won 1 Oscar, 1 BAFTA, 1 Golden Globe

Occupation : Actress

She was born Jennifer Lynn Connelly on the 12th of December, 1970 (same day as Madchen Amick), in Woodstock, New York, just over a year after the famous music festival at Yasgur's farm. Her mother, Eileen, ran an antiques shop in Woodstock, while her father, Gerard, sold children's clothes in New York City. They were fairly well-to-do and owned another property at Bellport, Long Island. When Jennifer was four, they moved to Brooklyn Heights, just across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan, Jennifer completing her primary and secondary education at St Ann's school.

Her education widened quickly. An advertising executive friend of the family suggested that 10-year-old Jennifer, being extraordinarily good-looking, might make a great child-model. So,they went looking for representation, and found it in the prestigious Ford Agency and, after school, Eileen would take little Jennifer into the city to auditions. She was very successful, appearing in many newspaper and magazine ads, and in TV commercials. These days, Jennifer claims she can remember very little about this, in fact recalling only one ad - for Scott's toilet paper.

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.