celebrities today: Natalie Portman israeli and American actress

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Natalie Portman israeli and American actress

Natalie Hershlag born June 9, 1981, better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an Israeli and American actress. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon. During the 1990s, Portman had major roles in films including Beautiful Girls and Anywhere but Here, before being cast for the role as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. In 1999, she enrolled at Harvard University to study psychology while she was working on the Star Wars films. She completed her bachelor's degree in 2003.
In 2001, Portman opened in New York City's Public Theater production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull.[3] In 2005, Portman received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture for the drama Closer. She shaved her head and learned to speak with a British accent for her starring role in V for Vendetta (2006), for which she won a Constellation Award for Best Female Performance, and a Saturn Award for Best Actress. She played leading roles in the historical dramas Goya's Ghosts (2006) and The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). In May 2008, she served as the youngest member of the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival jury.[5] Portman's directorial debut, Eve, opened the 65th Venice International Film Festival's shorts competition in 2008.
In 2011, Portman won the Academy Award, the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, and the BAFTA Award for her lead performance as Nina in Black Swan.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Education
* 3 Career
o 3.1 Early work
o 3.2 1995–1999
o 3.3 2000–2005
o 3.4 2006–2009
o 3.5 2010–present
* 4 Social and political causes
* 5 Personal life
* 6 Filmography
* 7 Awards
o 7.1 Won
o 7.2 Nominations
* 8 References
* 9 External links
Early life
Portman was born in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Dr. Avner Hershlag, a gynecologist who is a fertility specialist, and Shelley Hershlag, an American homemaker who works as Portman's agent. Portman's maternal ancestors were Jewish immigrants to the United States from Austria and Russia, and her paternal ancestors were Jews who moved to Israel from Poland and Romania. Her paternal grandfather, whose parents died at Auschwitz, was an economics professor in Israel, and her Romanian-born great-grandmother was a spy for British Intelligence during World War II.
Portman's parents met at a Jewish student center at Ohio State University, where her mother was selling tickets. They corresponded after her father returned to Israel, and were married when her mother visited a few years later. In 1984, when Portman was three years old, the family moved to the United States, where her father received his medical training.Portman, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, has said that although she "really love[s] the States... my heart's in Jerusalem. That's where I feel at home."
Portman and her family first lived in Washington, D.C., but relocated to Connecticut in 1988, and then settled on Long Island, New York, in 1990