HELENA BONHAM CARTER
Date of Birth: May 26, 1966
Born and raised in London, Bonham Carter was educated at one of that city's foremost
schools, Westminster. Befitting her double-barreled family name, Bonham Carter is a
descendant of the British aristocracy—both social and cinematic—the great-granddaughter of Prime Minister Lord Herbert Asquith and the grandniece of director Anthony Asquith.
When her father was battling for his life in intensive care with paralysis, Bonham Carter, who was only 13 at the time, took command of her future by paying to list her photo in a casting directory with money she had won in a poetry competition and thumbing through the yellow pages until she found an agent to represent her. It took two years, but eventually she landed her first acting job in a hi-fi commercial.
Director Trevor Nunn persuaded her to postpone her university studies in order to star in his film Lady Jane (1986), the story of a doomed Lady who ruled England for only nine days before being beheaded.
Although she appears tiny, pale, and frail-looking, she continued to play roles of strength
and passion in a long line of period pieces including Room With a View (1985),
Hamlet (1990), Howards End (1992), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) and
Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (1996). She became the very personification of the romantic 19th-century babe, her name synonymous with corsets, consumptive pallor, and pre-Raphaelite tresses.
In 1997 she received her first Oscar nomination with her steamy turn in Iain Softley's lush
adaptation of Henry James' Edwardian-era novel The Wings of the Dove (1997).
She is, of course, not the mirror image of the many characters she plays. "Everyone seems
to think I'm very ladylike, that I'm very cultured and intelligent," she has said. "I
drink a lot of Diet Coke and belch. I've been known to use the F-word. I've told a few dirty jokes.
I arm-wrestle."
Stepping outside of the romantic period, Bonham Carter has made numerous films in contemporary
roles, including Woody Allen's adulterous art-dealer wife in Mighty Aphrodite (1995) and
drug addict Marla in Fight Club (1999).
She has also made several appearances on small screen movies, such as a victim of anorexia
in Getting It Right, a stripper in Dance Queen, a widow in Fatal Deception
and a portrayal of Morgan Le Fey in Merlin. Television guest appearances include Miami Vice
and Absolutely Fabulous.
Between 1994 and 1999, Bonham Carter lived with Frankenstein (1994) co-star and director, Kenneth Branagh, who starred her in a number of films he directed. Since then she has been linked with director Tim Burton, with whom she has two children. She played the role of Jenny in Burton's Big Fish (2003), portrayed Charlie's mother in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and voiced the title role in Corpse Bride (2005).
Filmography:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (2011)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (2010)
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Terminator Salvation (2009)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Sixty Six (2006)
Conversations With Other Women (2006)
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) (voice)
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005) (voice)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Big Fish (2003)
Till Human Voices Wake Us (2002)
The Heart of Me (2002)
Football (2001)
Planet Of The Apes (2001)
Novocaine (2001)
Carnivale (1999)
Women Talking Dirty (1999)
Fight Club (1999)
The Theory of Flight (1998)
The Revengers' Comedies (1998)
The Petticoat Expeditions (1997) (voice)
Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1997)
The Wings of the Dove (1997)
Portraits chinois (1996)
Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (1996)
Margaret's Museum (1995)
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Frankenstein (1994)
Howards End (1992)
Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991)
Hamlet (1990)
Getting It Right (1989)
Francesco (1989)
La Maschera (1988)
Maurice (1987) (uncredited)
The Vision (1987)
A Room with a View (1986)
Lady Jane (1986)