When
she was nine years old,
Swank made her first appearance
on stage starring as
Mowgli in The
Jungle Book, and thereafter became heavily involved in her school and community theater programs.
she went to Sehome High School
[1] in Bellingham, where
she lived with her family, until
She was 16.
she competed in the
Junior Olympics and the
Washington State championships in swimming;
She ranked 5th in the state in
all-around gymnastics (which would come in handy when starring in
The Next Karate Kid (1994) years later).
Swank's parents separated when
she was 15, and her mother, supportive of her daughter's desire to act, moved the two of them to
Los Angeles,
California, where they lived out of their car until
Swank's mother saved enough
money to
rent an
apartment.
She enrolled in
South Pasadena High School, and started acting professionally.
Swank also helped pay the
rent with the
money she earned appearing in television programs such as
Evening Shade and
Growing Pains.
[edit] Career
In September 1997,
Swank was
cast as single mother
Carly Reynolds on
Beverly Hills, 90210.
she was initially promised it would be a two-year role, but saw her
character written out after 16 episodes in January 1998.
Swank later said that
She was devastated at being cut from
the show, thinking, "If I'm not good enough for
90210, I'm not good enough for anything." As it turned out, the firing was the
Best thing to happen to
Swank, as it freed her to audition for the role of
Brandon Teena in
Boys Don't Cry. The role
made her a
star, with almost every critic hailing
hers as the
Best female
performance of 1999. The
performance ultimately won her the
Golden Globe and Oscar for
best Actress.
Swank's Oscar
success means that
she has joined the ranks of
Vivien Leigh,
Helen Hayes,
Sally Field, and
Luise Rainer as the only actresses to have been nominated twice and win both times.
She is also the third youngest double
Best Actress Oscar
winner.
Even after winning her first Oscar,
she was reminded of her
humble roots.
She had earned only $75/day for her work on
Boys Don't Cry, a
total of $3000 [1] [2]; her earnings were so low, that (according to an anecdote on
60 Minutes)
she hadn't even earned enough to qualify for health insurance.
On February 28, 2006, it was announced
Swank had signed a three-year contract "to be both the
muse and the spokesperson for a new women's fragrance by Guerlain to be launched later this year." [3]
Swank married
actor Chad Lowe on September 28, 1997. They met at a 1992
Hollywood Athletic Club party and are both members at the AGAPE Spiritual
Center in
Culver City,
California,
along with fellow
stars Dennis Quaid and
Meg Ryan.
Swank infamously forgot to thank Lowe during her
acceptance speech after winning her first Oscar in 2000, and
she spent nearly every public appearance afterward making up for it. Upon winning her second Oscar in 2005, Lowe was the first person
She thanked. However, in January 2006, the couple separated. In subsequent interviews, Swank expressed hope that they could reconcile, but they later announced in
May 2006 that they were divorcing.[4][5]
; "Hilary Swank")
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