Catherine Zeta-Jones (born September 25, 1969) is an Academy Award®-winning Welsh actress.

She was born Catherine Jones and hails from Mumbles, Wales. Her name stems from two different grandmothers; one grandmother is named Catherine, while the other is "Zeta," named after a ship that Catherine's great-grandfather sailed on. She was born to a Welsh father and a mother of Irish Catholic extraction, besides English she speaks Welsh fluently. She has 2 brothers. As a child she had a tracheotomy leaving a scar.

Her stage career began in childhood. She sang and danced her way to local stardom as a part of a catholic congregation's performing troupe before she was ten years of age, and by 1987 she was appearing in Forty-Second Street in the West End. Once the show closed, Catherine travelled to France, where she received the lead role in French director Phillippe De Broca's 1001 Nights (a.k.a. Sheherazade), her feature film debut.

Her exotic good looks, teamed with her singing and dancing ability, ensured her a bright future, but it was in a straight acting role, as Mariette in the successful television adaptation of H. E. Bates' The Darling Buds of May (1991), that she made her name.

As if her stunning beauty, sophisticated personality, and intelligence weren't enough, Catherine knows how to choose clothes that make her even more sensational. According to critics, she wore the most elegant and sexiest dress at the 1999 Oscars, and she is always included in entertainment and fashion magazines.

She is married to the actor Michael Douglas, with whom she has 2 children. Her son, Dylan Michael Douglas was born August 8, 2000. (Her American admirers like to think that he is named after Bob Dylan - a favourite of Michael - while her British admirers like to think that Dylan Thomas, also born in Swansea, was the inspiration). Her daughter, Carys Zeta Douglas was born April 20, 2003.

Catherine has not forgotten her roots and has built a seaside dream home in her hometown of Swansea, determined that her children grow up aware of their Welsh heritage.

Apart from her acting career, Catherine is also an advertising spokesperson for the mobile phone company T-Mobile. She is currently the global spokeswoman for cosmetics giant, Elizabeth Arden. She has also starred on the Lifetime Television event of Titanic, also starring Tim Curry and Peter Gallagher.

She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the movie Chicago in 2003.

Filmography

• Les Mille et une nuits (1990)
• Out of the Blue (1991)
• The Darling Buds of May (1991) (TV)
• Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992)
• The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (1992) (voice)
• Splitting Heirs (1993)
• The Return of the Native (1994) (TV)
• The Cinder Path (1994) (TV)
• Blue Juice (1995)
• Katharina die Große (1995) (TV)
• The Phantom (1996)
• Titanic (1996) (TV)
• The Mask of Zorro (1998)
• Entrapment (1999)
• The Haunting (1999)
• High Fidelity (2000)
• Traffic (2000)
• America's Sweethearts (2001)
• Chicago (2002)
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) (voice)
• Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
• The Terminal (2004)

External link

• Official website
• IMDb entry on Zeta-Jones