Cate Blanchett Cate Blanchett

Catherine Elise "Cate"Blanchett was born 14 May 1969 and grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe.

An Australian actress and theatre director, she has won many awards including an Academy Award, SAGs, Golden Globe Awards, BAFTAs and the Volpi Cup.

Cate attended Ivanhoe East Primary School before completing secondary education at Methodist Ladies' College, where she explored her passion for acting. She studied Economics and Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne before leaving Australia to travel overseas.

MOVIES

In just over three decades since graduating from drama school, Cate Blanchett has built up a body of work few other actors can approach. She is tipped to win her third Oscar on March 13 - so we take a look at her greatest performances.

10. Mrs America (2020)

Just as she was on the Australian series Stateless, Blanchett was an executive producer for this US series about the political battle to improve the lot of American women in the 1970s. She played conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly with a subversive edge.

9. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03 )

In among the fury of the battle scenes and emotional dramas of the hobbits, Blanchett brought a regal, ethereal calm to elf queen Galadriel. It was not her most demanding role, but certainly one of the most fondly remembered.

8. Little Fish (2005)

Blanchett was already a Hollywood star when she took the gutsy decision to play a former heroin addict trying to set her life straight in Sydney's Cabramatta. In a gritty drama directed by Rowan Woods, she made Tracy Heart feel real as she tried and failed to rustle up the cash to buy a share in a video store.

7. I'm Not There (2007)

Blanchett played Bob Dylan in the mid-1960 s when he was under siege after playing electric guitar at a folk festival. Her Dylan is enigmatic with just the right rebelliousness, voice, nonchalance and wit.

6. Elizabeth (1998)

Blanchett's international breakthrough came in Shekhar Kapur's biopic of Queen Elizabeth I, which earned a first Oscar nomination. Her Elizabeth went from a young free spirit to a steely queen who navigated Europe's politics and sanctioned the murder of her opponents.

5. A Streetcar Named Desire (2009)

Blanchett's landmark stage performance was playing Blanche DuBois in director Liv Ullmann's version of this Tennessee Williams play for Sydney Theatre Company. She went from brittle southern charm to raw emotion. Meryl Streep called the performance " as naked, as raw and extraordinary and astonishing and surprising and scary as anything I've ever seen'' .

4. Carol (2015)

Blanchett played the title character, who has an affair with a young aspiring photographer (Rooney Mara) in a restrained and moving movie about desire. Blanchett is magnetic as a woman who, having carefully constructed one reality as a wife, boldly goes after another because she no longer wants to be " living against my own grain'' .

3. The Aviator (2004)

Playing Hollywood legend Katharine Hepburn just after her death, Blanchett left such a vivid impression that she won her first Oscar. She captured the blueblood manner that was so familiar from her movies. She also made Hepburn seem human.

2. Blue Jasmine (2013)

This was a study in psychological and physical deterioration that had Jasmine going from a Chanel and Hermes lifestyle to popping pills and guzzling vodka. Blanchett's raw emotion and lack of vanity made Jasmine elevated the movie.

1. Tar (2022)

On screen for virtually all 159 minutes of Todd Field's drama, Blanchett is mesmerising as famous composer-conductor Lydia Tar, whose life is imploding. Having learnt to conduct, play piano and speak German for the film , she played Tar with moments of haughty brilliance, shocking behaviour, obsessiveness, charisma, unthinking callousness and tragicomedy - all without a false note.

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