Kate Beckinsale

Early life and education

Kathrin Romany Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in Isleworth, London. She is the only child of actors Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe. Her half-sister from her father's earlier marriage is actress Samantha Beckinsale. Her father was partly of Burmese descent. Her parents did not marry until 1977, prior to Beckinsale starting nursery school, when she made her first television appearance at age four, in an episode of This Is Your Life, dedicated to her father. When she was five, her father died suddenly of a heart attack, aged 31. She was deeply traumatised by the loss and "started expecting bad things to happen".

Her widowed mother moved in with director Roy Battersby when Beckinsale was nine and she was brought up alongside his four sons and daughter. She had a close relationship with her stepfather, who was a member of the Workers Revolutionary Party during her youth. She helped to sell The News Line, a Trotskyist newspaper, as a little girl and has said the household phone was tapped following Battersby's blacklisting by the BBC. Family friends included Ken Loach and Vanessa Redgrave.

Beckinsale was educated at Godolphin and Latymer School, an independent school for girls in Hammersmith, West London, and was involved with the Orange Tree Youth Theatre. She was twice a winner of the WH Smith Young Writers Award for both fiction and poetry. She has described herself as a "late bloomer": "All of my friends were kissing boys and drinking cider way before me. I found it really depressing that we weren't making camp fires and everyone was doing stuff like that." She had a nervous breakdown and developed anorexia aged 15, and underwent Freudian psychoanalysis for four years.

Beckinsale studied Russian at school and read French and Russian literature at New College, Oxford, and was later described by her contemporary Victoria Coren Mitchell, as "whip-clever, slightly nuts, and very charming." She became friends with

Roy Kinnear's daughter Kirsty. She was involved with the Oxford University Dramatic Society, most notably being directed by fellow student Tom Hooper in a production of A View from the Bridge at the Oxford Playhouse. As a Modern Languages student, she was required to spend her third year abroad, and studied in Paris. She then quit university to focus on her burgeoning acting career: "It was getting to the point where I wasn't enjoying either thing enough because both were very high pressure." Beckinsale has stated she would like to complete her studies at the University of Oxford.

Career

1991–1997: Early acting roles

Beckinsale decided at a young age she wanted to be an actress: "I grew up immersed in film. My family were in the business. I quickly realised that my parents seemed to have much more fun in their work than any of my friends' parents." She was inspired by the performances of Jeanne Moreau. She made her television debut in 1991 with a small part in an ITV adaptation of P. D. James' Devices and Desires. In 1992, she starred alongside Christopher Eccleston in "Rachel's Dream," a 30‑minute Channel 4 short. In 1993, she appeared in the pilot of the ITV detective series, Anna Lee, starring Imogen Stubbs.

In 1993, Beckinsale landed the role of Hero in Kenneth Branagh's big-screen adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing. It was filmed in Tuscany, Italy, during a summer holiday from the University of Oxford. She attended the film's Cannes Film Festival premiere and remembered it as an overwhelming experience. "Nobody even told me I could bring a friend!" "I had Doc Martens boots on, and I think I put the flower from the breakfast tray in my hair." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was won over by her "lovely" performance. Vincent Canby of The New York Times noted that she and Robert Sean Leonard "look right and behave with a certain naive sincerity, although they often seem numb with surprise at hearing the complex locutions they speak." The film grossed over $22 million at the box office.

She made three other films while at university. In 1994, she appeared as Christian Bale's love interest in Prince of Jutland, a film based on the Danish legend which inspired Shakespeare's Hamlet, and starred in the murder mystery Uncovered. In 1995, while studying in Paris, she filmed the French language Marie-Louise ou la permission.

Shortly after leaving Oxford University in 1995, Beckinsale starred in Cold Comfort Farm, as Flora Poste, a newly orphaned 1930s socialite sent to live with distant family members in rural England. The John Schlesinger-directed film was an adaptation of Stella Gibbons's novel and also featured Joanna Lumley, Eileen Atkins, Ian McKellen, Rufus Sewell and Stephen Fry. Beckinsale was initially considered too young, but was cast after she wrote a pleading letter to the director. Emanuel Levy of Variety was reminded of "the strength of a young Glenda Jackson and the charm of a young Julie Christie." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times classed the actress as "yet another of those effortlessly skilled British beauties who light up the screen." Janet Maslin of The New York Times felt she played the role "with the perfect snippy aplomb." The film grossed over $5 million at the US box office.

1998–2002: Move to Hollywood

At this point in her career, Beckinsale began to seek work in the United States, something she has said wasn't "a conscious decision... My boyfriend was in a play on Broadway so that's why we ended up in New York, and my auditions happened to be for American films." She starred opposite Chloë Sevigny in 1998's The Last Days of Disco. The Whit Stillman film focused on a group of mostly Ivy League and Hampshire College graduates socialising in the Manhattan disco scene of the early 1980s. Beckinsale's American accent was widely praised. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt her role as the bossy Charlotte was "beautifully played." Todd McCarthy of Variety was unimpressed by the film but noted that "compensations include Beckinsale, looking incredible in a succession of black dresses, whose character can get on your nerves even if the actress doesn't." Her performance earned her a London Critics' Circle Film Award. The film grossed $3 million worldwide.

In 1999, Beckinsale appeared opposite Claire Danes in Brokedown Palace, a drama about two young Americans forced to deal with the Thai justice system on a post-graduation trip abroad. A then 26-year-old Beckinsale played a young girl. Danes had hoped to become friends with Beckinsale during the shoot but found her "complicated" and "prickly." McCarthy said the leads "confirm their status as two of the young actresses on the scene today most worth watching," finding Beckinsale "very effective at getting across layered character traits and emotions." "Danes and Beckinsale are exceptionally talented young actresses," said Thomas, but "unfortunately, the script's seriously underdeveloped context defeats their considerable efforts at every turn." Stephen Holden of The New York Times felt that Beckinsale's character "never comes into focus." The film was a box office failure.

2000's The Golden Bowl marked Beckinsale's first role following the birth of her daughter. The Merchant/Ivory production was based on the novel by Henry James and also starred Uma Thurman and Jeremy Northam. Beckinsale's partner, Michael Sheen, hit Northam on the film set after he followed Beckinsale to her trailer to scold her for forgetting a line. Holden noted "the most satisfying of the four-lead performances belong to the British cast members, Ms. Beckinsale and Mr. Northam, who are better than their American counterparts at layers of emotional concealment," adding each beat of Beckinsale's performance "registers precisely." Thomas felt her performance would take her to "a new career level." Andrew Sarris of The New York Observer asserted that she "comes close to capturing the sublimity of Maggie, despite the obvious fact that no movie can capture the elegant copiousness of James' prose." The film grossed over $5 million worldwide.

2003–2006: Action roles

Beckinsale became known as an action star after playing a vampire in 2003's Underworld. The film was markedly different from her previous work, and Beckinsale has said she was grateful for the change of pace after appearing in "a bunch of period stuff and then a bunch of romantic comedies," adding that "It was quite a challenge for me to play an action heroine and pull off all that training when [in real life] I can't catch a ball if it's coming my way." The film received negative to mixed reviews but was a surprise box-office hit and has gained a cult following. Also in 2003, she starred in the little seen Tiptoes with Gary Oldman and Matthew McConaughey.

In 2004, Beckinsale starred in the action horror film Van Helsing. She was "so surprised" to be appearing in her second action film in two years. "It just seemed like a very good role." Beckinsale had just separated from her long-term boyfriend Michael Sheen at the time of filming and appreciated the warm atmosphere created on set by director Stephen Sommers and co‑star Hugh Jackman: "I really did find that working with people like Stephen and Hugh made it possible to get through what I was going through." The film grossed over $120 million at the US box office and over $300 million worldwide, but it was not well-reviewed. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle described her as "a pretty actress doing her best to maintain dignity, vainly trying to craft a feminist statement from a filmmaker's whimsy." Rex Reed of The New York Observer felt she was "desperately in need of a new agent."

Also in 2004, Beckinsale portrayed Ava Gardner in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator. Scorsese decided to cast Beckinsale because, "I've always liked her. I've seen all her work, and I was glad that she agreed to audition." Beckinsale's performance received mixed reviews. Ken Tucker of New York Magazine said she played the part "in full va-va-voom blossom." LaSalle felt that she manages "to convince us that Ava was one of the great broads of all time." However, Clark described it as "the one performance that doesn't come off (though Beckinsale has the requisite beauty)." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian stated that "Gardner's rich, voluptuous sexiness is completely absent as Beckinsale sleepwalks through the role as if she was advertising perfume." The film grossed over $213 million worldwide.

In 2006, Beckinsale reprised her role as Selene in the successful vampire sequel Underworld: Evolution, directed by her husband, Len Wiseman. It was the first time she had "been involved with a movie from the moment it's a germ of an idea right through the whole editing process." Her daughter had a small role as the younger Selene. The film was a box office success, grossing $111 million worldwide. Beckinsale's second film appearance of 2006 was opposite Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken in Click, a comedy about an overworked family man who discovers a magical remote control that allows him to control time. The opportunity to play a mother "was one of the things that was attractive to me" about the part. It was highly profitable, grossing $237 million worldwide against a production budget of $82.5 million.

2007–2008: Focus on small-scale drama

Beckinsale then made a return to smaller-scale projects: "My experience is that I sort of stepped away from the independent movies and did a couple of big movies. But that's not necessarily how it's perceived by everybody else, which I do understand." "I enjoy an action movie as much as the next person [but] it's not something that I would like to do solely." She explained that she had originally decided to appear in Underworld because she felt typecast in classical roles – it was "assumed that I use a chamber pot and wear bloomers" – but that her action career "kind of took off a little too much."

In 2007, Beckinsale starred opposite Sam Rockwell in the independent drama Snow Angels, based on the novel by Stewart O'Nan. The harrowing film, in which she played an overwhelmed single mother, put Beckinsale "in kind of a tough place." "I did have my kid, my husband and, in fact, my ex was around a lot, so it was very nice to come home to my people whom I love." Puig felt "Beckinsale gives her best performance in years." Richard Corliss of Time described it as "her sharpest work yet." However, Scott felt that "her skill and discipline cannot overcome the sense that she is an exotic species transplanted into this grim ecosystem. Hard as she works to convince us otherwise, it's a stretch to believe that a woman with the kind of poised confidence in her own beauty she manifests would wind up with an underachieving mouth breather like Glenn." The film grossed solely $414,404 worldwide.

Also in 2007, Beckinsale appeared alongside Luke Wilson in Vacancy, a thriller set in an isolated motel. Sarah Jessica Parker was originally cast in the part, but she dropped out before filming began. Bradshaw felt "Wilson and Beckinsale have the chops for scary movies." Gleiberman noted "Luke Wilson, with his hangdog defensive mopiness, and Kate Beckinsale, all sexy severity, are ideally matched as a couple who hate each other." However, Manohla Dargis of The New York Times was unimpressed, referring to Beckinsale as "the reigning queen of the bland B's." The film was profitable, grossing $35 million worldwide against a production budget of $19 million.

In 2008, Beckinsale appeared in Winged Creatures, a film about how six different witnesses cope with the aftermath of a shooting. Beckinsale played a waitressing single mother in an ensemble cast which included Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, and Forest Whitaker. "It was a really, really nice experience but it was quick," said Beckinsale of the filming process. "I just felt a bit like I was shot through a cannon." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times felt she played the role "with a white trash verve" and found her character's "raw ache for that someone with money and respectability is palpable." However, Dargis felt that Beckinsale and her cast mates have a "tough time filling out characters that are at best abstractions of grief and often just clichés." The film received a very limited theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles; it was released simultaneously on DVD.

2009–2015: Return to action films

In 2009, Beckinsale starred in the comic-book adaption Whiteout, as a US Marshal tasked with investigating a murder in Antarctica. It was filmed in Manitoba, Canada. She found the action scenes less physically demanding than those in Underworld because "three pairs of trousers and a parka gives you a bit more protection than the latex suit." The film was critically panned and a box office failure, failing to recoup its budget. With critics consensus: Beckinsale is as lovely as ever, and does her best with the material, but moribund pacing and an uninspired plot leave Whiteout in the cold. She also made a brief cameo in the prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans; she appeared in flashforwards composed of footage from 2003's Underworld.

Also in 2009, Beckinsale starred in the family drama Everybody's Fine alongside Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, and Rockwell, her Snow Angels costar. Beckinsale was excited by the opportunity to work with De Niro, whom she had first encountered "years and years ago when I just had Lily and he was putting together a reading of The Good Shepherd.." Everybody's Fine was a box office flop, failing to recoup its production budget. In May 2010, Beckinsale sat on the nine-member 2010 Cannes Film Festival jury, chaired by director Tim Burton. Unable to find a script she felt passionate about, Beckinsale kept a low profile in 2010 and 2011, opting to spend time with her daughter.

Beckinsale returned to acting in 2012 with appearances in three action films. Beckinsale first appeared in the action thriller Contraband. She had a supporting role as the wife of Mark Wahlberg's character, a former criminal who gets forced back into a life of crime after his family members are threatened. The film was directed by Baltasar Kormákur, who also starred in the Icelandic language version of the film, Reykjavík-Rotterdam. The San Francisco Chronicle felt Beckinsale was "stuck in a bit of a thankless role as the victimised wife, but she does try to infuse a harder edge to the character." The Hollywood Reporter stated that "Beckinsale, her innate classiness calibrated down a few notches, has little to do but be supportive, worried and, eventually, besieged." Entertainment Weekly felt that the "woman-in-peril stuff is second-rate, giving off a whiff of exploitation" while Variety found the repeated violence towards Beckinsale's character disturbing. The film had a production budget of $25 million and grossed over $96 million worldwide.

Beckinsale next reprised her role as Selene in the fourth instalment of the vampire franchise Underworld: Awakening. The franchise was initially conceived of as a trilogy and Beckinsale was not "intending to do another one" but was convinced by the quality of the script. The Hollywood Reporter noted that "when she's not actually fighting, her performance consists of little more than striding purposefully toward or away from the camera." The Los Angeles Times remarked that she "finally manages to perfect the monotone delivery she'd been honing for the series' first two entries." The film had a production budget of $70 million and grossed over $160 million worldwide.

2016–present: Love & Friendship and beyond

In the 2016 romantic comedy Love & Friendship, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Beckinsale reunited with her Last Days of Disco collaborators Stillman and Sevigny. Based on Jane Austen's Lady Susan, the film revolved around her role as the title character, a wry and calculating widow, as she pursues a wealthy and hapless man for marriage originally intended for her daughter, though she eventually marries him herself. The film was universally acclaimed by critics and found commercial success in arthouse cinemas. Justin Chang of Variety described the role as "one of the most satisfying screen roles of her career [...] Beckinsale magnetizes the screen in a way that naturally underscores how far ahead of everyone else she is: an effect that doesn't always work to the movie's advantage." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter remarked, "There aren't great depths to the role, but Beckinsale excels with the long speeches and in defining her character as a very self-aware egoist."

Also in the year, she starred in the horror film The Disappointments Room, opposite Mel Raido, both playing a couple in a new house that contains a hidden room with a haunted past. The film was heavily panned by critics and flopped at the box office; it only made $1.4 million in its opening weekend, and a total of $2.4 million in North America. Christian Holub of Entertainment Weekly concluded that "[m]ost of the film is just Beckinsale walking around looking worried," while Joe Leydon of Variety found her "credible and compelling [...] except for when she's trying way too hard in a rather unfortunate scene that calls for drunken ranting." In late 2016, Beckinsale returned as Selene in the fifth instalment of the Underworld franchise, Underworld: Blood Wars, which grossed $81.1 million worldwide.

Beckinsale starred opposite Pierce Brosnan, Callum Turner, and Jeff Bridges in Marc Webb's romantic coming-of-age drama The Only Living Boy in New York (2017), as a book editor and the mistress of a publisher whose son sees his life upended. Reviews of the film were mediocre, while it found a limited audience in theatres. The A.V. Club found Brosnan and Beckinsale to be "vastly more interesting by the twin virtues of not disguising their voices and fitting so poorly into the sad-faced melodrama this movie wants to be." She is attached to star in an adaptation of The Chocolate Money by Ashley Prentice Norton, with a screenplay by Emma Forrest. In 2018, Beckinsale starred as Ingrid Carpenter in the British film Farming.

Modelling

Labelled an "English rose" by the BBC as early as 2001, Beckinsale has worked occasionally as a model. In 1997, she appeared in the music video for George Michael's "Waltz Away Dreaming." She starred opposite Orlando Bloom in a 2002 Gap television advertisement directed by Cameron Crowe. She appeared in a Diet Coke television advertisement in 2004, directed by Michel Gondry. She advertised Absolut Vodka in a 2009 print campaign photographed by Ellen von Unwerth.

Personal life

In 2023, Beckinsale announced that she had an immune disorder called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. In 2024, she lost a significant amount of weight due to "stress and grief" after her stepfather died while her mother had Stage 4 cancer. At this time, she was hospitalized due to an esophageal rupture.

Relationships

Beckinsale was in a relationship with Welsh actor Michael Sheen from 1995 to 2003. They met when cast in a touring production of The Seagull in early 1995 and moved in together shortly afterwards. In 1997, they voiced an audiobook production of Romeo and Juliet. Their daughter was born in 1999. In 2001, Beckinsale said she was "embarrassed" that Sheen never proposed, but felt as though she was married. They broke up in early 2003, after the filming of Underworld. Beckinsale and Sheen remain close friends.

She remarked in 2016, "He's really dear, close family. He's somebody I've known since I was 21 years old. I really love him a lot."

Beckinsale met American director Len Wiseman while working together on 2003's Underworld. She persuaded Wiseman to cast Sheen in the film, but while on set, Beckinsale and Wiseman fell in love. Wiseman's then-wife Dana, a kindergarten teacher, accused her husband of infidelity with Beckinsale. Beckinsale and Wiseman married on 9 May 2004 in Bel-Air, California. They separated in November 2015. Wiseman filed for divorce in 2016, citing "irreconcilable differences." Their divorce was finalised in November 2019. Beckinsale briefly dated American comedian Matt Rife in 2017 and 2018.

From January 2019 until April 2019, Beckinsale was in a relationship with American comedian Pete Davidson.

Personal and political beliefs

Beckinsale is a smoker. When she was nine, her mother moved in with Roy Battersby, and his sons introduced her to cigarettes.

She is a teetotaller, stating in 2003, "I've never been drunk even. I've never taken drugs. I've never had a one-night-stand."

In 2007, she appeared alongside David Schwimmer in the sixth of the Writers Guild of America member-conceived Internet videos for Project "Speechless," in support of the WGA labour strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

In 2012, she appeared alongside Judy Greer and Andrea Savage in the Funny or Die video "Republicans, Get in My Vagina," a satire of the Republican Party's policies concerning abortion and prenatal care.

Legal issues

In July 2003, the Press Complaints Commission dismissed a complaint filed by Beckinsale. She alleged that the tabloid Daily Mail had invaded her and her daughter's privacy by publishing photographs of the actress embracing and kissing her then-boyfriend Len Wiseman. The article in question was headlined, "Mummy's latest love scene leaves Lily unimpressed" and included a picture in which her then-four-year-old daughter appeared to be ignoring her mother's romantic actions. The Commission found that "the photographs had been taken in a public place and did not reveal any private details about Lily—such as her health or schooling—but were restricted to general observations about her apparent reaction to her surroundings."

In August 2003, Beckinsale received a published apology from the Daily Mail after it claimed that she had "spent time in a clinic" following her break-up with Michael Sheen. The apology was issued after she filed a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission. In 2009, Beckinsale was awarded £20,000 (equivalent to £31,900 in 2025) in damages by the British High Court after taking legal action against Express Newspapers. The Daily Express had falsely reported that she was "facing heartbreak" after losing out on a role in a remake of Barbarella.

Philanthropy

The British Heart Foundation has been Beckinsale's charity of choice "ever since [she] was six years old" when her father, who had coronary artery disease, died of a massive heart attack. She has also donated film memorabilia to the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation, MediCinema, Habitat For Humanity and the Entertainment Industry Foundation. In 2008, she hosted the 4th Annual Pink Party to raise funds for the Women's Cancer Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and organised a screening of All About Eve for FilmAid International. In 2012, Beckinsale joined Nestlé's Share the Joy of Reading Program to raise awareness about the importance of literacy.

Filmography