Hilary Swank

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Image:Hilaryswank.jpg Hilary Ann Swank (born July 30, 1974 in Lincoln, Nebraska and raised in Bellingham, Washington) is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actress. She is best known for her performances as troubled transman Brandon Teena in the movie Boys Don't Cry and as a struggling waitress-turned-boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby; both roles earned her Oscars for Best Actress.

Her film career in Hollywood 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 the title character, the first female protégé of the (by then) legendary sensei played by Pat Morita.

Swank also had a regular role on Beverly Hills 90210 during the show's eighth season, but was fired in the middle of the season, three weeks before landing the role in Boys Don't Cry.

1 Biography
2 Other work
3 Filmography
4 External links

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Biography

Swank makes no secret of her humble beginnings, particularly as a child growing up near Lake Samish in Bellingham, Washington. 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. She has ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) (she's on Ritalin), but she worked hard and became an actress!"

When she was nine years old she made her first appearance on stage starring as Mowgli in The Jungle Book, and thereafter became heavily involved in her school and community theater programs. She went to school in Bellingham, where she lived with her family, until she was 16. She competed in the Junior Olympics and Washington State championships in swimming; she ranked 5th in the state in all-around gymnastics (which would come in handy for starring in The Next Karate Kid (1994) years later). In 1990, Hilary and her mother moved to Los Angeles, where she enrolled in South Pasadena High School, and started acting professionally. Hilary and her husband Chad Lowe, are members at the AGAPE Spiritual Center in Culver City, California along with fellow stars, Dennis Quaid, and Meg Ryan.

Swank's parents separated when she was 15, and her mother, supportive of her daughter's desire to act, moved the two of them to California, where they lived out of their car until Swank's mother saved enough money to rent an apartment. Swank also helped pay the rent with the money she earned appearing in television programs such as Evening Shade and Growing Pains.

In 1998, 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. Swank later said that she was devastated at being cut form 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 Teena Brandon in Boys Don't Cry. The role made her a star with almost every critic hailing hers as the best female performance of 1999 and won her the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Actress.

But even after winning her first Oscar, she was reminded of her humble roots. She had earned only $75/day for her work on Boys Don't Cry, a total of $3000 [1] [2]; her earnings were so low, that (according to an anecdote on 60 Minutes) she hadn't earned enough to qualify for health insurance.

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 on her person when she landed. Swank appealed the fine but it was upheld on March 30, 2005. She has a strong vegetarian regime which made it somewhat difficult in the physical training for Million Dollar Baby .

Swank has been married to fellow actor Chad Lowe since September 28, 1997. They met on the set of Quiet Days in Hollywood. Swank infamously forgot to thank Lowe during her acceptance speech after winning her first Oscar in 2001 and spent nearly every public appearance afterward making up for it. Upon winning her second Oscar in 2005, Lowe was the first person she thanked. A year later on January 9, 2006, Swank’s manager announced that the couple was separating. In interviews, however, Swank expressed hope they would reconcile. [3]

Joined the ranks of Vivien Leigh, Helen Hayes, Sally Field, and Luise Rainer as the only actresses with a perfect track record at the Oscars: two wins and two nominations. She was also the third youngest double Best Actress Oscar winner.

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Other work

On February 28, 2006, it was announced Swank had signed a three-year contract "to be both muse and spokesperson for a new women's fragrance by Guerlain to be launched later this year."[4]

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Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2006	The Reaping	Ketherine Morrissey	Filming
	Freedom Writers		Post-production
	The Black Dahlia	Madeline Sprague	Post-production
2004	Million Dollar Baby	Maggie Fitzgerald	won Academy Award for Best Actress for role
	Red Dust	Sarah Barcant
	Iron Jawed Angels	Alice Paul	TV
2003	11:14	Buzzy	Also executive producer
2003	The Core	Major Rebecca Childs
2002	The Space Between		Short subject
2002	Insomnia	Detective Ellie Burr
2001	The Gift	Verlerie Barksdale
2000	The Affair of the Necklace	Jeanne St. Remy de Velois
2000	The Audition		Short subject
1999	Boys Don't Cry	Brandon Teena	won Academy Award for Best Actress for role
1998	Heartwood	Sylvia Orsini
1997-98	Beverly Hills 90210	Carly Reynolds	TV series
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
1996	Sometimes They Come Back... Again	Michelle Porter
	Terror in the Family	Deena Martin	TV
	Kounterfeit	Colleen
1994	The Next Karate Kid	Julie Pierce
1994	Cries Unheard: The Donna Yaklich Story	Patty	TV
1992	Camp Wilder	Danielle	TV series
1992	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Kimberly Hannah
1990	Evening Shade	Aimee #1	TV series (1991-1992)
1990	ABC TGIF	Danielle	TV series