Michelle Williams (actress)
Michelle Williams | |
|---|---|
| Born | Michelle Ingrid Williams |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Partner(s) | Heath Ledger (2005–2007) |
| Awards | PFCS Award for Best Supporting Actress 2005 Brokeback Mountain BFCA Award for Best Supporting Actress 2005 Brokeback Mountain |
Michelle Ingrid Williams (born September 9, 1980) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress. Williams broke into stardom on the teen series Dawson's Creek and later graduated to full-length features, most notably Brokeback Mountain, for which she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Biography
Early life
Williams, youngest of five children, was born in Kalispell, Montana, the daughter of Carla, a homemaker, and Larry Williams, a well-known stock and commodities trader who is currently living in Australia while fighting extradition to the United States on allegations of U.S. Federal Income Tax evasion which he disputes.[1]
When Williams was nine, her family moved to San Diego, California, and, at an early age, she became interested in acting. At age fifteen, faced with her parents' disapproval, she emancipated herself from them and, after completing the ninth grade at the Upper School of Santa Fe Christian Schools, in Solana Beach, California, she left school in order to pursue her acting career in Dawson's Creek.[2]
In 1997, at age sixteen, she won the Robbins World Cup Trading Championship, as her father had done ten years earlier.[3] She turned $10,000 into $110,000 over the course of a year and that gain (as of 2006) is the fourth highest in the history of that competition (her father's being the highest).[4]
Career
Williams's career began in television, appearing in programs such as the 1990's version of Lassie, Baywatch, Step by Step, and Home Improvement. Williams' first film role was in the motion picture Species. Soon after, she won additional roles, including the Jessica Lange-Michelle Pfeiffer film A Thousand Acres and the 1998 movie Halloween H20: 20 Years Later with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Josh Hartnett. Williams's star profile rose considerably when in 1998, she was cast as one of the lead characters on the WB show Dawson's Creek. She would play Jen Lindley for all six seasons of the successful show.
During and after Dawson's Creek's run, Williams made strong turns in several notable indie films. Her first starring role was as Arlene in the film Dick, a satire of the Watergate scandal, opposite Kirsten Dunst. She starred opposite Christina Ricci in Prozac Nation, and also appeared in the HBO film If These Walls Could Talk 2, and several acclaimed indie pictures such as The United States of Leland, Me Without You, and Imaginary Heroes with Sigourney Weaver. For her performance in The Station Agent, Williams along with the rest of the cast received a Screen Actors Guild award nomination for Best Acting Ensemble. In 2005, critics and audiences took note of Williams's performance in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain. For her performance, she won a Critic's Choice Award and received Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress.
Michelle is currently filming "Ashcliffe" in Boston, the film is being directed by Martin Scorcese.
Since then, Williams has been cast in several highly anticipated films. In 2006, she appeared in The Hawk Is Dying, with Paul Giamatti; and in 2007, in The Hottest State, opposite Ethan Hawke, and in I'm Not There, directed by Todd Haynes, which also features Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Julianne Moore, among others.
She stars, along with Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman, in the film Deception, directed by Marcel Langenegger, released on April 25, 2008 in the U.S.
Personal life
Williams was engaged to Australian actor Heath Ledger and gave birth to their daughter, Matilda Rose Ledger, on October 28, 2005, in New York City.[5] Matilda's godfather is Jake Gyllenhaal[6][7] while her godmother is Busy Philipps, Michelle's co-star on Dawson's Creek.[8] The couple met on the set of the film Brokeback Mountain, in which they played husband and wife. During their time together they lived in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, New York. On September 2, 2007, People.com reported that Williams and Ledger had decided to split after three years together.[9] On September 4, 2007, Williams' father confirmed to Sydney Daily Telegraph that Ledger and Williams had indeed split.[10] In an interview given to Wonderland magazine, prior to Ledger's death, Michelle Williams spoke of their break-up and of her life as a single mother."[11] [12]
Death of Heath Ledger
After Ledger was found dead in his New York apartment on January 22, 2008, from what was later determined to be an accidental overdose of doctor-prescribed medications,[13][14] an unidentified source reported to Us Weekly the reaction of Williams, who was in a hotel room in Sweden, where she was filming Mammoth: "She cried and screamed as soon as she heard."[15] On February 1 2008, Ledger's publicist released the first public statement from Michelle Williams on her own response to his death: "Please respect our need to grieve privately. My heart is broken. I am the mother of the most tender-hearted, high-spirited, beautiful little girl who is the spitting image of her father. All that I can cling to is his presence inside her that reveals itself every day. His family and I watch Matilda as she whispers to trees, hugs animals, and takes steps two at a time and we know that he is with us still. She will be brought up with the best memories of him."[16] In early February 2008, Williams flew from New York City first to Los Angeles and then to Perth, to attend memorial and funeral services,[14] including a wake on Cottesloe Beach.[17][18]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Lassie | April Porter | |
| 1995 | Species | Young Sil | |
| 1997 | Killing Mr. Griffin (TV) | Maya | |
| A Thousand Acres | Pammy | ||
| 1998 | Halloween H20: 20 Years Later | Molly Cartwell | |
| Dawson's Creek | Jen Lindley | Award-winning TV series (1998-2003) | |
| 1999 | Dick | Arlene Lorenzo | |
| But I'm a Cheerleader | Kimberly | ||
| 2000 | If These Walls Could Talk 2 (TV) | Linda | |
| 2001 | Me Without You | Holly | |
| Prozac Nation | Ruby | ||
| 2003 | The United States of Leland | Julie Pollard | |
| The Station Agent | Emily | ||
| 2004 | Land of Plenty | Lana | |
| Imaginary Heroes | Penny Travis | ||
| A Hole in One | Anna Watson | ||
| 2005 | The Baxter | Cecil Mills | |
| Brokeback Mountain | Alma | Academy Award nomination | |
| 2006 | The Hawk Is Dying | Betty | |
| The Hottest State | Samantha | ||
| 2007 | I'm Not There | Coco Rivington | |
| 2008 | Deception | S | |
| Incendiary | Young Mother | ||
| Synecdoche, New York | Claire | awaiting release | |
| Mammoth | TBA | post-production | |
| 2009 | Ashecliffe | Dolores Chanal | post-production |
References
- ^ "Michelle Williams Biography (1980-)", filmreference.com, accessed February 27, 2008.
- ^ Todd Peterson, "Michelle Williams Snubbed by Former School", People, March 3, 2006, accessed February 15, 2008.
- ^ Larry Williams page at Global Investor.
- ^ World Cup Trading Standings page at Robbins Trading.
- ^ "Baby Girl for Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams", People, November 2, 2005, accessed February 27, 2008.
- ^ "Heath Ledger Chooses Jake Gyllenhaal as Daughter's Godfather", Starpulse Entertainment News Blog, starpulse.com, February 21, 2006.
- ^ "Jake Gyllenhaal to Help a Devastated Michelle Williams", Herald Sun, January, 2008.
- ^ "First Picture: Michelle Williams and Matilda Arrive in Brooklyn", Us Weekly.
- ^ "Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams Split", People, accessed February 27, 2008.
- ^ WENN (World Entertainment News Network), "Michelle Williams' Father Confirms Heath Ledger Split", Hollywood.com, September 4, 2007, accessed February 27, 2008.
- ^ "Michelle Williams Interview", marieclaire.co.uk, February 15, 2008, Celebrity News, accessed February 27, 2008: "In an interview conducted before Heath Ledger's accidental overdose on 22 January [2008], Michelle Williams opened up about her break-up with Heath Ledger - and how she was learning to move on."
- ^ "Williams Tells of Breakup with Ledger", The Sydney Morning Herald, February 15, 2008, accessed February 15, 2008.
- ^ "Heath Ledger Is Found Dead in US", BBC News, January 22, 2008, accessed January 22, 2008.
- ^ a b "Mourners Join Ledger Service", BBC News, February 9,2008, accessed February 15, 2008.
- ^ Michelle Williams' reaction, The Daily Telegraph, January 23, 2008, accessed February 15, 2008.
- ^ "Michelle Williams: Heath Ledger Has Broken My Heart", The Daily Telegraph, February 1, 2008, accessed February 27, 2008.
- ^ Wendy Caccetta and Nicole Cox, "Beach Tribute to Heath Ledger", The Courier Mail, news.com.au, February 10, 2008, accessed February 27, 2008: "Friends and family of actor Heath Ledger washed away their pain with a spontaneous splash in the West Australian surf last night. ... Ledger's former fiancee Michelle Williams and his sister Kate left his wake to join dozens of others at an uplifting farewell at the Perth beach the star had loved so much."
- ^ Michelle Cazzulino and Stephen Corby, "Michelle Williams Swims at Heath Ledger's Wake", The Daily Telegraph, news.com.au, February 10, 2008, accessed February 10, 2008.