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Kristin Scott Thomas

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Dame Kristin Scott Thomas
DBE
Kristin Scott Thomas at the Cabourg Film Festival 2013
Born
Kristin Ann Scott Thomas

(1960-05-24) 24 May 1960 (age 64)
Redruth, Cornwall, England
CitizenshipBritish
OccupationActress
Years active1984–present
Spouse
François Olivennes
​
​
(m. 1987⁠–⁠2005)​
Children3
RelativesSerena Scott Thomas (sister)

Dame Kristin Ann Scott Thomas,[1] DBE (born 24 May 1960) is a British actress. She won the Best Supporting Actress BAFTA Award for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for The English Patient (1996). For her work in the theatre, she has been nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress five times, winning in 2008 for the Royal Court revival of The Seagull.

Scott Thomas made her film debut in the Prince-directed Under the Cherry Moon in 1986,[2] Further film roles include Bitter Moon (1992), Mission: Impossible (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), Gosford Park (2001) and Nowhere Boy (2010). She has also worked in French cinema, winning the European Film Award for Best Actress for Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long (2008). Her other French films include The Valet (2006), Tell No One (2007), Leaving (2009) and Sarah's Key (2010).

Early life

Scott Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall. Her mother, Deborah (née Hurlbatt), was brought up in Hong Kong and Africa and studied drama before marrying Kristin's father,[3] Lieutenant Commander Simon Scott Thomas, a pilot in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm who died in a flying accident when Kristin was aged five.[4][5] She is the elder sister of actress Serena Scott Thomas, the niece of Admiral Sir Richard Thomas (a former Black Rod, the parliamentary ceremonial officer in the House of Lords),[6] and the great-great-niece of the ill-fated explorer Captain Scott, who lost the race to the South Pole.[7]

Scott Thomas was brought up in the Roman Catholic tradition.[8][9] Her childhood home was in Trent, Dorset, England. Her mother remarried, to another Royal Navy pilot, who also died in a flying accident, six years after the death of her father. Scott Thomas was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and St. Antony's Leweston in Sherborne, Dorset, both independent schools. On leaving school she moved to Hampstead, London, and worked in a department store. She then began training to be a drama teacher at the Central School of Speech and Drama. On being told she would never be a good enough actress, she left at the age of 19 to work as an au pair in Paris.[10] Speaking French fluently, she studied acting at the École nationale supérieure des arts et techniques du théâtre (ENSATT) in Paris, and at age 25 on graduation, was cast opposite pop star Prince as Mary Sharon, a French heiress, in the 1986 film Under The Cherry Moon.

Career

Scott Thomas at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Her breakthrough role was in a 1988 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust, where she won an "Evening Standard" British Film Award for most promising newcomer. This was followed by roles opposite Hugh Grant in Bitter Moon and Four Weddings and a Funeral where she won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. 1996 saw the release of her most famous role as Katharine Clifton in The English Patient, which gained her Golden Globe and Oscar nominations as well as critical acclaim. This was followed by a brief period working in Hollywood on films such as The Horse Whisperer with Robert Redford and Random Hearts with Harrison Ford. However, growing disillusioned with Hollywood, she took a year off to give birth to her third child.

She returned to the stage in 2001 when she played the title role in a French theatre production of Racine's Berenice and on screen as Lady Sylvia McCordle in Robert Altman's critically acclaimed Gosford Park. This started a critically acclaimed second career on stage, in which she has received four nominations for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress, including one win, for her performance of Arkadina in a London West End production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull.[11] She reprised the role in New York in September 2008.[12] In summer 2011 Scott Thomas returned to London's West End to star as Emma in Harold Pinter's Betrayal at the Comedy Theatre. The revival was directed by Ian Rickson. Her husband was played by Ben Miles and the love triangle was completed by Douglas Henshall. In January 2013, she starred in another Pinter play, Old Times, again directed by Ian Rickson. In 2014 she appeared at The Old Vic in the title role of Sophocles's Electra.

Scott Thomas also has acted in French films. In 2006, she played the role of Hélène, in French, in Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One), by French director Guillaume Canet. In 2008, Scott Thomas received many accolades for her performance in Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (I've Loved You So Long), including BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. In 2009 she played the role of a wife who leaves her husband for another man in the film Leaving. In Sarah's Key (2010), Scott Thomas starred in Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, as an American journalist living in Paris who discovers that the flat her husband is renovating for them was once the home of a Jewish family who were evicted.

Other recent roles include the role of Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire and Ormond, mother of Henry VIII's second wife Anne, in The Other Boleyn Girl, the role of a fashion magazine creator and editor in the film Confessions of a Shopaholic, the film adaption of Douglas Kennedy's novel The Woman in the Fifth, the 2012 film Bel Ami, based on the 1885 Maupassant novel, as a love interest of George Duroy (played by Robert Pattinson).[13] and was also seen in Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives, which premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2003 Birthday Honours and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to drama.[14][15] She was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by the French Government in 2005.[16][17]

Personal life

Scott Thomas is divorced from François Olivennes, a French gynaecologist, by whom she has three children: Hannah (born in 1988), Joseph (1991) and George (2000). She has lived in France since she was 19, brought up her three children in Paris,[18] and sometimes considers herself more French than British.

The separation was reportedly precipitated by her romantic involvement with English actor Tobias Menzies, whom she met while appearing in Chekhov's play Three Sisters in London's West End around 2003.[19] Menzies was also her co-star in a London production of Pirandello's As You Desire Me in 2006.[20]

She was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed women over 50 by The Guardian in March 2013.[21]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1984 Mistral's Daughter Nancy TV miniseries
1985 Charly Short film
1986 Under the Cherry Moon Mary Sharon
1987 Djamal et Juliette
1987 Agent trouble Julie
1988 Lounge Chair Marie
1988 A Handful of Dust Brenda Last Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer
1988 The Tenth Man Thérèse
1989 Bille en tête Clara also released as Headstrong
1989 Force majeure Katia
1990 Le bal du gouverneur Marie Forestier
1990 Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming Leda St Gabriel
1991 Aux yeux du monde L'institutrice
1991 Valentino! I Love You Short film
1991 Mio caro dottor Gräsler Sabine
1992 Bitter Moon Fiona
1993 Body & Soul Anna - Sister Gabriel TV miniseries
1994 An Unforgettable Summer Marie-Thérèse von Debretsy
1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral Fiona
1994 Le Confessional Alfred Hitchcock's assistant
1995 Plaisir d'offrir Short film
1995 En mai, fais ce qu'il te plaît Martine
1995 Les Milles Mary-Jane Cooper
1995 Richard III Lady Anne
1995 Angels & Insects Matty Crompton
1996 Microcosmos Narrator
1996 Gulliver's Travels Immortal Gatekeeper TV miniseries
1996 The English Patient Katharine Clifton
1996 Mission: Impossible Sarah Davies
1996 Somebody to Love
1996 The Pompatus of Love Caroline
1997 Amour et confusions Sarah
1998 Souvenir Ann
1998 Sweet Revenge Imogen Staxton-Billing
1998 The Horse Whisperer Annie MacLean
1999 Random Hearts Kay Chandler
2000 Up at the Villa Mary Panton
2000 Play First Woman Short film
2001 Life as a House Robin Monroe
2001 Gosford Park Sylvia McCordle
2003 Small Cuts Béatrice Petites coupures
2004 Arsène Lupin Joséphine, comtesse de Cagliostro
2005 Man to Man Elena van den Ende
2005 Chromophobia Iona Aylesbury
2005 Keeping Mum Gloria Goodfellow Nominated – London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actress of the Year
2006 The Valet Christine Levasseur
2007 Mauvaise pente Yolande Moreau
2007 Tell No One Hélène Perkins
2007 The Walker Lynn Lockner
2007 The Golden Compass Stelmaria
2008 I've Loved You So Long Juliette
2008 The Other Boleyn Girl Elizabeth Boleyn
2008 Seuls two L'antiquaire
2008 Easy Virtue Mrs. Whittaker
2008 Largo Winch Ann Fergusson
2009 Confessions of a Shopaholic Alette Naylor
2009 Leaving Suzanne Nominated – Cesar Award for Best Actress
Nominated - Globes de Cristal Award for Best Actress
2010 Nowhere Boy Mimi Smith
2010 Contre Toi Anna Cooper
2010 Crime d'amour (Love Crime) Christine
2010 Sarah's Key Julia Jarmond Lumières Award for Best Actress
Globes de Cristal Award for Best Actress
Nominated – Cesar Award for Best Actress
2011 The Woman in the Fifth Margit Kadar
2011 Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Patricia Maxwell
2012 Bel Ami Virginie Walters
2012 In the House Jeanne Germain
2012 Looking for Hortense Iva Delusi
2013 Only God Forgives Crystal
2013 The Invisible Woman Catherine Ternan
2013 Before the Winter Chill Lucie
2014 Suite française Madame Angellier
2014 My Old Lady Chloé Girard
2015 The Kitchen Boy Alexandra Romanov

Theatre

Olivier Awards

Year Category Play Result
2004 Best Actress Three Sisters Nominated
2008 Best Actress The Seagull Won
2012 Best Actress Betrayal Nominated
2013 Best Actress Old Times Nominated
2015 Best Actress Electra Nominated

National honours

References

  1. ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas". BFI.
  2. ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas". Yahoo Movies Canada.
  3. ^ "Scene change". The Age. Melbourne. 12 October 2003.
  4. ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas Biography (1960-)". filmreference.com.
  5. ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas learning to be herself". The New Zealand Herald. The Observer. 7 March 2008. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  6. ^ www.parliament.uk
  7. ^ "- Person Page 2292". thepeerage.com.
  8. ^ Hattenstone, Simon (27 March 2003). "'I'm a horrible bully'". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 22 June 2010. She was brought up as a Catholic and felt guilty about everything.
  9. ^ Hattersley, Giles (21 September 2008). "Kristin Scott Thomas, haughty but nice". The Sunday Times. UK. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  10. ^ Anstead, Mark (10 June 2007). "On the move Kristin Scott Thomas". The Times. London. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  11. ^ "Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kristin Scott Thomas Win 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards". Playbill.
  12. ^ What's On Stage.Speeches: And the Laurence Olivier Winners Said Retrieved: 5 June 2011 Archived 2013-04-09 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ Carole Horst (19 May 2009). "Rob Pattinson to star in 'Bel Ami'". Variety. Retrieved 11 January 2010.
  14. ^ "No. 61092". The London Gazette (invalid |supp= (help)). 31 December 2014.
  15. ^ 2015 New Year Honours List
  16. ^ "English rose at home in Paris". The Connexion. March 2011. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  17. ^ "Clash de la semaine : Kristin Scott Thomas VS Sharon Stone". Excessif (in French). 1 February 2011. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  18. ^ "bored with being labelled an ice queen". the telegraph. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  19. ^ Preston, John (17 October 2005). "I'm very wary of trust". The Daily Telegraph. London.[dead link]
  20. ^ Gilbey, Ryan (27 July 2007). "The three stages of Kristin". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  21. ^ Cartner-Morley, Jess; Mirren, Helen; Huffington, Arianna; Amos, Valerie (28 March 2013). "The 50 best-dressed over 50s". The Guardian. London.
  22. ^ Comedy Theatre website "Ambassador Theatre Group's AmbassadorTickets.com", accessed 24 June 2011.
  23. ^ "Role-swapping: just a gimmick or an extra dimension to the drama?". London: The Independent. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  24. ^ "Old Vic stages Kevin Spacey as Darrow and Kristin Scott Thomas in Electra". whatsonstage.com. Retrieved 10 May 2014.
  25. ^ "Kristin Scott Thomas to star as the Queen in return of the Audience". theguardian.com. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
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