Below is a compiled list of the most interesting facts about Jennifer Connelly. Check it out!
Jennifer Connelly was born in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to Ilene (Schuman), a dealer of antiques, and Gerard Connelly, a clothing manufacturer. Her father had Irish and Norwegian ancestry, and her mother was from a Jewish immigrant family. Jennifer grew up in Brooklyn Heights, just across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan, except for the four years her parents spent in Woodstock, New York. Back in Brooklyn Heights, she attended St. Ann’s school. A close friend of the family was an advertising executive. When Jennifer was ten, he suggested that her parents take her to a modeling audition. She began appearing in newspaper and magazine ads (among them “Seventeen” magazine), and soon moved on to television commercials. A casting director saw her and introduced her to Sergio Leone, who was seeking a young girl to dance in his gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Although having little screen time, the few minutes she was on-screen were enough to reveal her talent. Her next role after that was an episode of the British horror anthology TV series Tales of the Unexpected (1979) in 1984.
Interesting Facts about Jennifer Connelly
- Cut a single in Japan, which she sang in phonetic Japanese. She says her agent made up the idea that she is semi-fluent in the language.
- Ranked #14 in Celebrity Sleuth’s “25 Sexiest Women of 1993”.
- She was nearly cast as Diane Court in Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything… (1989). Ione Skye got the part instead.
- Ranked #53 in Stuff’s “103 Sexiest Women” (2003).
- Is one of 22 Oscar-winning actresses to have been born in the state of New York. The others are Alice Brady, Teresa Wright, Anne Revere, Celeste Holm, Claire Trevor, Judy Holliday, Shirley Booth, Susan Hayward, Patty Duke, Anne Bancroft, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Lee Grant, Beatrice Straight, Whoopi Goldberg, Mercedes Ruehl, Marisa Tomei, Mira Sorvino, Susan Sarandon, Melissa Leo and Anne Hathaway.
- With A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Reservation Road (2007), has now played the wife of Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix, who both appeared in Gladiator (2000) = Crowe as the hero and Phoenix as the villain.
- She has ADHD, for which she has been medicated ever since she was a kid.
- Is one of 13 actresses who won their Best Supporting Actress Oscars in a movie that also won the Best Picture Oscar (she won for A Beautiful Mind (2001)). The others are Hattie McDaniel for Gone with the Wind (1939), Teresa Wright for Mrs. Miniver (1942), Celeste Holm for Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), Mercedes McCambridge for All the King’s Men (1949), Donna Reed for From Here to Eternity (1953), Eva Marie Saint for On the Waterfront (1954), Rita Moreno for West Side Story (1961), Meryl Streep for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Juliette Binoche for The English Patient (1996), Judi Dench for Shakespeare in Love (1998), Catherine Zeta-Jones for Chicago (2002) and Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years a Slave (2013).
- Expecting her third child. [December 2010]
- Returned to work 5 months after giving birth to her son Stellan in order to begin filming Dark Water (2005).
- Met husband-to-be Paul Bettany on the set of A Beautiful Mind (2001). The couple later married without ever dating in the interim.
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), in which she starred, opened on her 38th birthday. December 12, 2008.
Personal Quotes by Jennifer Connelly
I try to do a lot of research beforehand so I know where I want to go with a scene. I try not to get too stressed about it, because I find that’s the worst thing.
Jennifer Connelly
Strong brows is what I have, and I embrace them.
Jennifer Connelly
I had a good time working with Russell Crowe, Ron Howard and Ed Harris. It was a great cast and Russell worked really hard, doing tons of research and questioning everything.
Jennifer Connelly
It was, when I read it, I thought, such a beautiful script. I loved the story. I thought it was well handled. I thought it was even more moving because it was a true story and that made it even more poignant.
Jennifer Connelly
Everything changes as a mother. Yes, work has changed. The projects that I choose are even more important to me now. The world he’s growing up in and the kind of stimulus that is out there; they are so precious and I’d do anything to protect him.
Jennifer Connelly
