Birthday of the South African film star

On August 7, 1975, in the city of Benoni, in the South African province of Transvaal, in the family of Charles Jacob Theron and his wife Gerda Jacob Aletta (nee Maritz), a daughter was born, who was named Charlize in honor of her father. (By the way, the current Princess Charlene of Monaco was born in the same city three years later.) The Charlize family, by the standards of South Africa, was far from ordinary. The mother, who had German roots, owned a farm and a road construction company, and her father, who had Franco-Dutch ancestors, came from a family of descendants of the famous and revered in South Africa, Dani Theron, who became famous for his exploits committed during the national liberation Anglo-Boer war at the beginning of the 20th century. There is even a monument to him in one of the districts of Pretoria.

Charlize's childhood dream was to become a ballerina. At the age of 6 she began to study ballet, and at the age of 13 she was admitted to a boarding school at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg, where she received professional training for the ballet stage. According to the official version, at the age of 19 she received a knee injury, which put an end to her ballet career. Maybe it's true. But some circumstances of the actress's biography suggest that not only and not so much a knee injury closed Charlize's path to the ballet Olympus, that Charlize, for some reason, lost strong desire to the ballet profession long before the injury. This is indicated by the fact that at the age of 16, Charlize took part in a beauty contest in Salerno, Italy, won this contest, thanks to which she received a one-year contract to work as a model, according to which she wandered around the catwalks all over Europe for a whole year. Anyone who has a little bit of an idea about the profession of a ballerina (musician, athlete, etc.) knows that after a year's break it is almost impossible to achieve significant results in this profession. Charlize was convinced of this from her own experience.

It is possible that the same reason was affected, for which another actress did not take place as a ballerina. I mean the great Audrey Hepburn, who was told by the teachers at the ballet school that because of her tall height - 170 cm - she would not be able to become a prima ballerina. And Audrey didn't want to be an artist of the corps de ballet. For reference: Charlize Theron's height is 178 cm.

After a year of cruising Europe as a model, Charlize Theron moved to New York. In an interview with The New York Times in 2008, she recalled: "I went to New York for three days to model, and then I spent a winter in New York in a friend’s windowless basement apartment. I was broke, I was taking class at the Joffrey Ballet, and my knees gave out. I realized I couldn’t dance anymore, and I went into a major depression. My mom came over from South Africa and said, “Either you figure out what to do next or you come home, because you can sulk in South Africa.”"

Charlize did not dare to argue with her mother, who shot her father before her eyes (though, they say, there was a reason: a descendant of the proud Boers, drunk to a stupor, threatened his wife and daughter with a gun). She accepted a one-way ticket from her mother to Los Angeles and in 1994 settled in a motel near Hollywood. Gerda Theron set her daughter a monthly allowance of $300. The money came in regularly, in the form of a bank transfer. It's hard to say how long Charlize vegetated, without any sources of livelihood, in addition to her mother's "scholarship". According to the official version, during the receipt of the next transfer, due to some misunderstanding between Charlize and the bank clerk, a scandal erupted. Apparently, a lot has accumulated in the soul of the South African beauty, and she brought down on the clerk the entire stock of curses known to her, moreover, in all 26 languages ​​and dialects used in multilingual South Africa. And it had to happen that at the time of the scandal, the famous actor's impresario John Crossby was in the bank, who could not pass by the girl, who was so skillful with words, and, moreover, a bright beauty.

John Crossby, having learned about the plight of a girl from the African continent, helped her enroll in acting classes, and also introduced her to some influential people from the world of the film industry. Already in 1995, Charlize Theron appeared on the silver screen. True, in the sucky sequel of the horror far from the first blow - "Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest". And her role (without words) was so microscopic that it did not even deserve a mention in the credits. But a year later, in 1996, two films with the participation of Charlize Theron appeared on the screens of cinemas, and in one of them - "That Thing You Do!", she played one of the main roles, the director and her partner on the set was Tom Hanks.

But the real, world fame of Charlize Theron began in 1997, after the release of Taylor Hackford's film "The Devil's Advocate", where the actress played one of the main roles, and her partners were Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino. After this role, a flurry of role offers hit the young actress. Over the next five years, 2-4 films with her participation were released on cinema screens annually. The films are good, but not outstanding. And the roles in these films were pretty similar, mostly using the beauty of the actress.

In 2003, Charlize Theron committed an act that not every prosperous actress, especially a model-looking one, would dare to do. She accepted the offer of director Patty Jenkins to play the role of a real monster in the film of the same name - "Monster". This role brought her three prestigious awards at once: Oscar, Golden Globe and Silver Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival.

By her 47th birthday, Charlize Theron has 48 full-length feature films in her filmography, not counting roles in television films and in advertising. 2 of these 48 films entered the Golden Thousand. Thanks to this indicator and her stunning beauty, Charlize Theron is included in the list of the 100 most beautiful and sexy actresses in world cinema.

Charlize Theron's acting talent has been awarded 69 film awards, the most prestigious of which are the Oscar, Golden Globe and Silver Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival (all three for her role in the film "Monster").

Today, on the birthday of the Actress, I want to remind her fans of the shots from the best films with her participation.