Claire Danes
Born: April 12 1979
Where: New York, USA
It's not many actresses who can lay claim to the fact that they have been banned from a country.
Clare Danes managed it when off-colour remarks about the Phillipines got her a public rebuke from the country's president.
And it's not many actresses that would have turned down the chance to work with Stephen Spielberg on Schindler's List.
Danes did. She refused the role on the grounds that schooling couldn't be provided while on location in Poland...and the decision could have been the making of her.
She wound up playing the character of Angela Chase in the American TV series My So Called Life - a part that supplied her with a calling card for greater things.
Minor roles in Little Women, How To Make An American Quilt and Home For The Holidays followed before she landed the coveted part of Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's sublime Romeo + Juliet.
She managed to cram in The Rainmaker (she ended up dating co-star Matt Damon), Polish Wedding and pocketing $2m for Mod Squad in 1999 before taking a sabbatical.
A genuine maverick, she put her career on hold in 1998 while she studied at Yale University, before returning to star in Igby Goes Down and It's All About Love.
She was cast as Kate Miller in Terminator 3 after the original choice - 19-year-old Sophia Bush - was apparently deemed to young to play the love interest.
In 2004, she starred with Billy Crudup in the period drama Stage Beauty and went on to star alongside Steve Martin in the romantic comedy Shopgirl.
Chosen by the readers of People magazine was one of the top 50 most beautiful women in the world, she also reportedly was first choice for Rose in Titanic...but it went to Kate Winslet.
Recent work includes the ensemble comedy drama The Family Stone starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Luke Wilson.
