Greta Scacchi

Born: February 18 1960
Where: Milan, Italy

The actress is best known for her critically-acclaimed performances in the British colonial dramas Heat and Dust and White Mischief.

She also deserves credit for turning down the role of leg-crossing Catherine Trammell that eventually went to Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.

The daughter of an Italian art dealer and painter and an English-born dancer and antiques dealer, her parents divorced when she was three.

She moved with her mother and two elder brothers to England and in 1975, following her mother's remarriage to Giovanni Carsinga, the family moved to Australia.

(part-time occupations while she was Down Under included cowgirl and Italian interpreter).

In 1977, Scacchi returned to England to pursue an acting career and she studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, with Miranda Richardson and Amanda Redman.

In 1982, she made her film debut in the German movie Das Zweite Gesicht (The Second Face) for which she learned German from scratch.

In director James Ivory's 1983 drama Heat and Dust she delivered a critically-lauded performance as the scandal shrouded Olivia opposite Christopher Cazenove and Julian Glover.

The same years she appeared in Dead on Times, a comedy short directed by a young Richard Curtis and starring Rowan Atkinson and Nigel Hawthorne.

Scacchi appeared alongside Laurence Olivier in the John Fowles TV drama The Ebony Tower and went on to star with Gabriel Byrne in the 1985 big screen conspiracy thriller Defence of the Realm.

After the comedy of 1985's Coca Cola Kid she switched to steamy drama with her 1987 portrayal of promiscuous Lady Diana Broughton in the sultry Africa-set White Mischief opposite Charles Dance.

The actress, a fluent French and Italian speaker, went on to star in European movies including A Man in Love, Good Morning Babylone and Love and Fear.

Offscreen, he relationship with New Zealand musician Tim Finn, of Crowded House and Split Enz fame, ended after six years.

In 1990 she was back in the Hollywood mainstream with the role of lawyer Carolyn Polhemus in the Scott Turow psychological thriller Presumed Innocent with Harrison Ford.

Director Robert Altman cast her in the ensemble Hollywood satire The Player. She also starred in Wolfgang Petersen's Shattered with Tom Berenger and appeared with Sam Neill in the 1994 romantic drama Country Life.

Subsequent appearances included the Mike Figgis drama The Browning Version with Albert Finney and a reteaming with director James Ivory for the 1995 biopic Jefferson in Paris.

In 1996 she won an Emmy Award for her work in the television film Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny.

The following year she starred with Ewan McGregor in the drama The Serpent's Kiss and played Mrs Weston in the Jane Austen adaptation Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow.

Scacchi went on to enjoy a series of roles in the likes of Tom's Midnight Garden and the Australian drama Looking for Alibrandi with Anthony LaPaglia.

In 2002, she memorably played Margaret Thatcher in the TV movie Jeffrey Archer: The Truth and was back in Hollywood for the role of a therapist in the thiller Flightplan.

She starred in the adaptation of Rupert Thompson's Book of Revelation in 2006 and received an Emmy Award nomination for Supporting Actress for Broken Trail.

She recently played Cara in the big screen adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.