Jennifer Connelly

Born: December 1970
Where: New York State, USA

The former magazine and commercials model surprisingly took her first uncredited screen steps in the British TV series Tales of the Unexpected.

Jennifer, who was born in Brooklyn Heights, across the river from Manhattan, is of Irish, Polish, Norwegian and Russian descent.

After appearing on British TV, her next role was a dancing girl aged 12 in Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time in America followed by Italian shocker Phenomena and Seven Minutes To Heaven.

Her big screen break came opposite David Bowie in Jim Henson's Labyrinth and she went on to star in the offbeat comedy Some Girls. A part in Heathers was written with her in mind, but she turned the role down.

The Hot Spot and Career Opportunities didn't trouble the box office though she was back on track with The Rocketeer in 1991.

Of Love And Shadows, Mulholland Falls and Dark City all followed and she drew positive plaudits for Requiem for a Dream.

Jennifer, who once recorded a music single in Japan, which she sang in phonetic Japanese since she does not know the language, became an international star when she played Ruth Klingman in Pollock and Russell Crowe's wife in the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind.

It was on the set of A Beautiful Mind that Jennifer met her now-husband, Paul Bettany. The couple have two children together. In 2003, she starred opposite Eric Bana in Ang Lee's The Hulk and followed it with the Oscar-nominated drama The House of Sand and Fog.

Recent work includes Walter Salles' remake of the Japanese chiller Dark Water alongside Tim Roth.