Name: Catherine Zeta Jones
Birth Date: September 25, 1969
Place of Birth: Mumbles, West Glamorgan. A small village near Swansea, in Wales.
Height: 1.74 m
Origin of Name: Named after her two grandmothers, Catherine and Zeta (pronounced Zee-Ta). The name Zeta comes from a name of a ship her grandmother's grandfather sailed.
Family: Father: David, Welsh, runs a candy factory (hence her sweetness?). Mother: Pat, Irish, a seamstress (hence good taste in cloths?). Older brother David, younger brother Lyndon.
Favorite Sport: Rugby.
CATHERINE ZETA JONES was born in Mumbles, a small fishing village, and Catherine had a strong work ethic instilled in her at a young age. Her dad owned a candy factory, and Catherine has said that she has many fond memories of snuggling up to her father, who smelled like sugar. Still, neither fishing nor candy-making were the life for her, and she developed a passion for acting while still very young.
She began singing and dancing at age four, largely as a result of her
involvement with the local Catholic congregation's amateur performing troupe.
She began acting at age 11.
When she was 14, former Monkees star Mickey Dolenz was touring Britain in a musical that required the participation of local teens in each city it visited.
She auditioned for the Welsh version of the show and won a chorus spot. She impressed the producers so much that they whisked her off to London to star in a production of The Pyjama Game. The talented teen acquired her first actor's guild card at the age of 15. Catherine moved to London from Wales at 15.
In London, she shot off like a shining star. She was given great roles with every new step, including the Darling Buds of May, a soap opera that eventually led her to Hollywood. Catherine’s first taste of Hollywood came when she got a part in the Indiana Jones TV movie. When the intense pressure of having the tabloids dog her every move wore down the realm's most eligible sex symbol, she decided it was time for a change of scenery, post haste. As she later confided to one interviewer, "The intrusion into my life got so bad I actually drove my car into a lamppost trying to get away from paparazzi one day. It was at that moment that I decided to flee Britain and live in America.
"Though crossing the pond proved a simple adjustment, Catherine quickly discovered that her U.K. super-stardom was not directly translatable into Hollywood fame and fortune. In 1994, she made a strong impression in the lead role of CBS's Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Return of the Native (1994). The following year she shone in the title role of the miniseries Catherine the Great. She landed some feature film roles - Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) with Marlon Brando, Splitting Heirs (1993) with Barbara Hershey and Rick Moranis,The Phantom (1996) with Billy Zane. She soon landed a role in a television movie, Titanic, a precursor to the motion picture. Film-producer, Steven Spielberg was in pre-production for The Mask of Zorro when he caught Catherine in The Titanic miniseries He needed a fiery actress to play the aging Zorro's daughter and the new Zorro's lover. The next day, he called director Martin Campbell and suggested the director consider her for Elena. Zorro was a hit with critics and audiences alike.
The Mask of Zorro reunited Catherine with Anthony Hopkins, who previously
directed her in a 1992-theater production of the Dylan Thomas play Under
Milkwood. Her dance background was invaluable for her fencing training but she had nothing, except her backside to fall back on when it came to learning to ride.
Her exotic appeal was recently played up for her role opposite Sean Connery in Entrapment, a sexy jewel thief caper. Catherine's next role is starring opposite Sean Connery in Fox's $100 million The Entrapment (1999). She next starred in The Haunting of Hill House (1999).
Still among the ranks of the unwed, Catherine currently lives in Los Angeles
with her brothers; as she put it in an interview with In Style, "I have an
endless supply of Welsh blood coming and going. [My brothers] keep my feet on the ground."
On 1/1/2000, just after midnight, Michael Douglas proposed marriage to Catherine and she accepted. The two are planning to get married this year.
Catherine is also starting her own production company Zeta Films. she is teaming up with Initial Entertainment Group for the two-year deal, which will see Zeta Films co-producing between two and six pictures each year with budgets of up to $50m (£31m).
Catherine played a small cameo part in the movie High Fidelity that was released on March 31. Catherine's next movie is called Traffic. Catherine's part was filmed while she was in her 6th month of pregnancy. The movie is scheduled to go live on December 2000.
When a little girl, Catherine contracted a virus that prevented her from
breathing normally, and doctors were forced to perform a tracheotomy
surgery.
A tracheotomy is a surgical opening made into the trachea (windpipe) for
airway management. A hole (a stoma) is created between the trachea to the overlying skin. The surgery left a scar on Catherine's neck. She could have the scar removed with surgical procedure that uses a tool to sand away the old scar tissue. Dr. Boris told The Enquirer. "It's a simple procedure, which requires only local anesthesia."
But Catherine considers the scar a reminder of a life-changing event. She
said:" Without it, I wouldn't be here today".
In 1990, while preparing for The 1001 Nights, Catherine studied French in the Berlitz school in London. (I don't know why, the movie is in English). She
is now fluent in French.
Catherine's nose was broken when she was a little girl. A kid slammed a door right on her face...
Catherine is very flexible. She can do a double back, and bend and twist her body like you won't believe.
Early in her career, Catherine was the British Tap Dancing Champion. On her 30th birthday, celebrated together with Michael Douglas, Catherine’s
birthday cake was decorated with tap shoes.
Movies:
1990 Scheherazade
1991 Out of the Blue
1992 Christopher Columbus: The Discovery
1992 Splitting Heirs
1995 Blue Juice
1996 The Mask of Zorro
1999 Entrapment
1999 The Haunting
2000 High Fidelity
2000 Traffic
TV:
1991 The Darling Buds of May
1992 Young Indiana Jones, Chapter 15 - Daredevils of the Desert
1994 The Cinder Path
1994 The Return of the Native
1995 Catherine the Great
1996 Titanic
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
