Biography

Gwyneth Paltrow is an American actress and singer who won an academy award for her performance as the female lead in Shakespeare in Love (1998). Perhaps, that was the crowning moment of her movie career besides which she was generally referred to as Brad Pitt’s girlfriend. The relationship later broke and Pitt went on to marry Jennifer Aniston and Paltrow nursing her broken heart found solace in Chris Martin of the British rock group Coldplay whom she married in 2003.

Gwyneth Kate Paltrow was born on September 27, 1972 in Los Angeles, California to the late film and television director, writer, and producer Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner. Her father is of Jewish descent and she too follows Judaism proudly. Paltrow has a younger brother, Jake Paltrow, and is a cousin of actress Katherine Moennig. She is also an "adopted daughter" of Talavera de la Reina (Spain), where she lived as an exchange student and learned Spanish.

Paltrow was raised in Santa Monica, where she attended Crossroads School before moving and attending Spence School, a private girls' school in New York City. She briefly studied art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, before discontinuing her degree and committing herself to acting.

Career in Movies

She debuted on stage with Proof at London's Donmar Warehouse in 1990. Later came her first on screen role in Shout (1991) followed by Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991) where she played the young Wendy. She also appeared in Malice and Flesh and Bone. More side roles followed with her starring in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) and Jefferson in Paris (1995).

But the first turning point of her career proved to be a commercial as well as critical success Se7en (1995), opposite Brad Pitt, and Morgan Freeman. The movie incidentally also formed the basis of a long term relationship between Brad and Gwyneth who became an item. The actress delivered another critically acclaimed success later next year with Douglas McGrath's adaptation of Emma. She was praised for her flawless portrayal of the title character. The same year she could be seen in two more films: The Pallbearer, with David Schwimmer, and Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight.

Then came another breakthrough year for her which enabled Paltrow to showcase her talent to the world. In 1998, she starred as Shakespeare’s love interest in John Madden's seven academy award winning Shakespeare In Love. Paltrow won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role from the Screen Actors Guild and later the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Besides this, her some other movies released which however didn’t got much appreciation like Hush, Great Expectations and the only hit among all these, the comedy Sliding Doors.

In 2000 Paltrow starred in The Talented Mr. Ripley opposite Matt Damon, Jude Law and Cate Blanchett, which earned over $80 million domestically, and received positive reviews. She displayed her superb comic timing in her next movie called Shallow Hal in 2001 where she was required to play 300 ton weighing woman. Since then, she has had a relatively low-profile, yet steady, film career with a few critically acclaimed film roles, including Proof (2005) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001).

Paltrow’s hidden talent as a singer came abut when she crooned Smokey Robinson's Cruisin' along with singer Huey Lewis in the 2000 release of Duets. The song, which surprised many of Paltrow's fans, was well-received and was eventually released as a single, getting heavy airplay from Top 40 and adult contemporary-formatted radio stations.

Her outing as Sylvia (2003) in the movie by the same name earned her good reviews while her other work in the movie, The View From The Top (2003) failed dismally at the box office. Later came series of movies, the sci-fi actioner Sky Captain opposite Jude Law and the World of Tomorrow (2004), Infamous (2006), The Good Night (2007) and Iron Man (2008).

Gwyneth was much ion news for her engagement with three year long boyfriend Brad Pitt with whom she separated in 1998. After a series of relationships with fellow actors including Ben Affleck she got married in December 2003 to Chris Martin of the British rock group Coldplay with whom she has two children, a daughter, Apple Blythe Alison Martin (born 2004) and a son, Moses Bruce Anthony Martin (born 2006).

She allegedly went into depression in 2005 and reprieved herself through Yoga. On September 27, 2006 (her 34th birthday) Gwyneth sang a duet with rap legend Jay-Z during his history-making concert at Royal Albert Hall.

There was a controversy in December of 2006, Paltrow was reported on the Internet to have told Notícias Sábado, the weekend magazine supplement of Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias, that she thought British people were more civilized and intelligent than Americans. Paltrow, however, denied saying any such thing. Her film activities became less and less as she became more involved with her family.