JULIETTE BINOCHE

Juliette Binoche was born in Paris, France in 1964. Her parents were both actors, and after they divorced when she was 4, she went to boarding school, and she was involved in drama there, even directing and starring in a student production at age 17! After school, she got some professional stage and TV roles, and she had her first real movie role when she was 21. She appeared in six French movies that year (including the lead role in Andre Techine's Rendez-vous), and two the following year. She then was cast as Tereza in Philip Kaufman's fine 1988 movie, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and both she and the movie were major hits all over the world. Most actors and actresses have used such breakthrough roles to begin acting in major Hollywood productions, but not Binoche. She made mostly French movies over the next decade but she did play Cathy to Ralph Fiennes' Heathcliff in a 1992 English production of Wuthering Heights. In 1995, she signed to represent Lancome perfume, and she did many ads for them. In 1996, she had a major role in The English Patient, and she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. In 2000, she had the starring role in Lasse Hallstrom's Chocolat (nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), but in both cases she refused to use the international acclaim she received to then take major Hollywood roles. She continues to appear in many French movies. She has two children, but has never married.