Jennifer Connelly Bio

Jennifer Connelly is one of those women who have it all—beauty, talent, and brains.  The past few years have seen resurgence in her career, for which her stunning role in A Beautiful Mind is to thank.  However, Connelly’s acting career and personal life have been chock full of successes from childhood.

Many people remember Connelly as Sarah in the Jim Henson film Labyrinth.  She played a careless older sister who must find her baby brother after he is stolen by the Goblin King (David Bowie).  This was her first major role, gotten through a national search by the Jim Henson crew to find the perfect young actress to counterbalance David Bowie’s sinister Goblin King.  Other early career moves include modeling (she appeared in the teen magazine Seventeen) and a role in which she danced in the movie Once Upon a Time in America.

After graduating high school, Connelly went on to study at Yale and then Stanford, where she majored in English.  Connelly also became fluent in the Italian and French languages  Other interests currently include quantum physics and philosophy.

She married Paul Bettany in 2003, and has one son by him.  She also has an older son by a previous relationship.  Her family lives in New York, but she is reportedly interested in outdoor sports, like camping, hiking and biking.

Awards and noteworthy achievement include an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in A Beautiful Mind.  She has also won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and an AFI.  In 1993, she was Celebrity Sleuth’s number 14 in their “25 Sexiest Women,” and number 53 in Stuff’s “103 Sexiest Women” in 2003.

Her filmography includes several thrillers, such as Dark Water.  However, Connelly has also played in many intellectual and serious films.  These show her diversity as an actress.  In A Beautiful Mind, she was the solid, together wife of a schizophrenic genius.  In House of Sand and Fog, she plays a down-on-her-luck alcoholic who is pathetic and, at the same time, plucky.

Connelly’s beauty complements her talent, which has gained a sophistication and maturity since she played Sarah in Labyrinth, though her beauty often piques the interest of would-be fans.  However, once she stops becoming just a sexual object with a perfect pair of breasts, a slender waist, and a gorgeous face, fans readily understand that her talent as an actress is her real achievement.  It is true that she got her start in modeling, but she will be remembered as a woman who can sensitively play a variety of roles in movies that she makes unforgettable.