Claire Danes - Biography

Last Editor: mozos				Claire Danes Biography -   Name : Claire Danes Birth Date : April 12, 1979 Birth Place : New York Birth Name : Claire Catherine Danes Education : The Lee Strasberg Studio (majored in Acting) The Professional Performing Arts School in NY Yale University (1998) Nationality : American Occupation : Actress Relationship : Ben Lee (Australian; musician; dating as of 1997), Matt Damon (actor; dated during filming of The Rainmaker), Andrew Dorff (younger brother of actor Best Known As : Angela Chase on TV's My So-Called Life

Claire Danes Trivia -

She completed 2 years at Yale University pursuing a degree in psychology but never finished (2002) She dated actor Matt Damon. [1996] She was chosen by "People" magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world in the year 1997. She flew to L.A. for the casting of Schindler's List (1993), after she was discovered for the role in "My So-Called Life" (1994). Steven Spielberg finally gave her the role but had to turn it down, because they weren't willing to give her tutoring in Poland. She was banned from the Philippines in Sept 1998, for making derogatory remarks about the country. The President of the Philippines condemned her publicly. She auditioned for the role of Lisa in Girl, Interrupted (1999). She was considered for the title role in Lolita (1997). Auditioned and was the first choice for the role of Rose in Titanic (1997). Once said in a Vanity Fair article that at university, she is interested in psychology, philosophy, and art history. The most frequently used title for articles about her has been "Great Danes". Has at least 4 songs written about her. The Ataris' "My So Called Life" (album: "Look Forward to Failure" EP), Size 14's "Claire Danes Poster" (self-titled album), The Five Mile Line's "Claire Danes" ("Busride Home" demo) and "Claire Danes", a low fi indi ballad by John Parker Music which was released on Subversive Records Limited in 2004. Parents are Chris & Carla Danes. Attended the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. Is the younger of 2 children. Has an older brother, Asa. Attended the Professional Performing Arts High School in New York City. Other alumni include singer/dancer/actress Britney Spears, actor Lee Thompson Young and actor/singer/dancer Chris Trousdale. Her letter of recommendation to Yale University was written by Oliver Stone, her director on U Turn (1997). Grew up in SoHo. Her mother is an artist while her father is a photographer. Her mother ran a daycare center out of their Soho loft called Danes Tribe. Started studying modern dance at the age of six. She and Billy Crudup became a couple during the filming of Stage Beauty (2004). Broke up with Ben Lee after beginning a relationship with Billy Crudup Loves watching "The Golden Girls" (1985) reruns. Her older brother is a corporate lawyer. She is mentioned in actor Canyon Prince's song "Life" from his 2003 album "Live and Funked Up". She turned down the role of "Rose" in Titanic (1997) as she had just finished working with Leonardo DiCaprio on Romeo + Juliet (1996). Though she described working with him on that film as a "treat", she admitted in an interview later that if she had accepted the role in Titanic (1997), she would not have been able to get away from him. Very close friends with actor Jason Schwartzman. Baz Luhrmann, Danes' director for Romeo + Juliet (1996), referred to her as "the Meryl Streep of her generation". Briefly attended the junior high section of the New York City Lab School from 1991-1992. Nick Valensi (guitarist, The Strokes), Charlie Hofheimer (actor, Black Hawk Down (2001)), and Max Lugavere (self, Current TV) graduated from the high school section of the same school in 1998, 1999, and 2000, respectively. It is a small public school. Awarded the Nova Award at the 2007 Maui film Festival. Got roles in Stardust (2007) and Romeo + Juliet (1996), after actress Sarah Michelle Gellar turned both roles down. As of Fall 2008 is the exclusive model for Gucci Jewelry, succeeding Drew Barrymore. She got engaged to Hugh Dancy. They met on the set of Evening (2007). [February 2009]

Claire Danes Detailed Biography -

A native New Yorker, Danes was encouraged to pursue her interest in acting by artistic parents and began studying modern dance at age six. By age nine, she was taking weekend acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, later starting her performing career on the off-off-Broadway stage with supporting roles in "Happiness", "Punk Ballet" and "Kids on Stage," even choreographing a solo dance piece for the latter. At age 11, Danes made her film acting debut portraying a molested child in "Dreams of Love" (released 1992), a student short from director Jeffrey Mueller and executive producer Milos Forman. The precocious actress arrived on the small screen in a memorable 1992 guest shot on the NBC crime drama series "Law & Order", playing a volatile teen who, with her mother, was involved with a sleazy photographer. She also auditioned for "My So-Called Life" in 1992, at age 13, and filmed the pilot in early 1993. (It did not air until August 1994.) Danes won strong notices for her feature debut as the doomed Beth in a well-received remake of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel "Little Women" (1994), with Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder. Indeed, Spielberg hailed her as "one of the most exciting actresses to debut in ten years" and offered her a role in his Holocaust drama "Schindler's List" (1993) which Danes declined for a variety of reasons. When "My So-Called Life" ended prematurely, though, the young thespian was quickly deluged with feature offers. Danes next popped up in a flashback sequence playing a younger version of Anne Bancroft's character in the Ryder vehicle "How to Make an American Quilt" and followed up with a small role as the wise-beyond-her-years daughter of Holly Hunter (and granddaughter of Bancroft!) in Jodie Foster's "Home for the Holidays" (both 1995). Reportedly, Foster's endorsement helped Danes win the plum role of Juliet opposite Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo in "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet" (1996), a highly stylized and purposefully anachronistic retelling of the classic story. By the time of that highly touted release, she had two other features in the can. Danes played leads in "To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday" (1996) and "I Love You, I Love You Not" (1997). Respected filmmakers as Oliver Stone, cast her as a white trash princess in the odd "U-Turn" (1997), Francis Ford Coppola, hired her to play an abused wife who falls for young lawyer Matt Damon in "John Grisham's 'The Rainmaker'" (1997), and Bille August, whose adaptation of "Les Miserables" (1998) appropriately featured the young actress as Cosette. Danes went on to play an appealingly strong-willed, unmarried and pregnant Polish-American alongside Gabriel Byrne and Lena Olin in the charming family saga "Polish Wedding" later that year. 1999 saw her take on a vastly different role than audiences had come to expect, with a starring turn as a drug offender turned crime fighter in Scott Silver's uninspired feature update of the hit 1960s TV series "The Mod Squad". Danes performed well in the action genre. Similarly, her impressive turn in "Brokedown Palace" went largely unseen. Not unlike a feminized, updated "Midnight Express", the harrowing film starred Danes as the more daring and gregarious of two recent high school graduates duped into importing drugs into Thailand. She next contributed her vocal talents to the English dubbing of Hayao Miyazaki's acclaimed Japanese anime "Princess Mononoke". Perhaps something was lost in the translation, but her lackluster performance in this capacity proved the actress' talents lie before the camera, where her proven skills and appeal would ensure her a long and illustrious career. In 2002, she co-starred in the comedy feature "Igby Goes Down," playing a prep school girl caught between two drastically different brothers; and portrayed Meryl Streep's daughter Julia in "The Hours." Danes put her acting career on hold to enter Yale as a freshman in 1998, but as her academic career comes to a close, she has returned to the silver screen with a vengeance. In 2003, Danes appeared in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the latest edition of the popular Terminator series. The actress is also set to star in the period drama Compleat Female Stage Beauty with Rupert Everett and Billy Crudup. In 2004, Danes will join Steve Martin in the adaptations of Martin's bestselling fiction novella, Shopgirl. Danes has been romantically linked with the likes of musicians Andrew Dorff and Australian rocker Ben Lee and actors such as Matt Damon and more recently Billy Crudup.