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Catherine Jones is born in Treboeth,
a working-class area of Swansea, West Glamorgan in South Wales. She is the
middle of three children born to Dai Jones, a Welsh sweet factory owner,
and Patricia Fair who is Irish and from a Roman Catholic family.
Her father's cousin is married to singer Bonnie Tyler, who is also from
Swansea. Her uncle owns Swansea's Škoda car dealership as well as Llanelli
A.F.C. football club. Her name stems from those of her grandmothers — her
maternal grandmother, Katherine Fair, and her paternal grandmother, Zeta
Jones.
After her parents won £100,000 at bingo in the 1980s, they moved to St.
Andrews Drive in Mayals, an upper class area of Swansea. She attended the
moderately-priced private school, Dumbarton House in Swansea where she was
apparently an average student. Comedian and actor Rob Brydon also went
there.
She left school early to further her acting ambitions without obtaining O
levels and went on to attend The Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick for
a full-time three year course in musical theatre.
Zeta-Jones' stage career began in childhood. She often performed at
friends and family functions when she was younger. She was a part of a
Catholic congregation's performing troupe before she was 10. She also
starred in a London production of Annie, as well as a version of Bugsy
Malone. By 1987 she was starring in 42nd Street as Peggy Sawyer in the
West End. Once the show closed, Zeta-Jones travelled to France, where she
received the lead role in French director Phillippe De Broca's 1001 Nights
(also known as Sheherazade), her feature film debut.
Her exotic looks, along with her singing and dancing ability, suggested a
promising future, but it was in a straight acting role, as Mariette in the
successful television adaptation of H. E. Bates' The Darling Buds of May
(1991-93), that she made her name. She briefly flirted with a musical
career, beginning with a part in the 1992 album: Jeff Wayne's Musical
Version Of Spartacus, from which the single "For All Time" was released in
1989. It failed to chart. She went on to release the singles "In the Arms
of Love", "I Can't Help Myself", and a duet with David Essex, "True Love
Ways". The Duet was her only chart single, reaching #38 in the UK singles
chart in 1994. She also starred in an episode of The Young Indiana Jones
Chronicles, as well as in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery.
Playing Elena Montero in The Mask of Zorro was Zeta-Jones' first leading
role.She continued to find moderate success with a number of television
projects, including The Return of the Native (1994) and the mini-series
Catherine the Great (1995). She also appeared in Splitting Heirs (1993), a
comedy starring Eric Idle, Rick Moranis and John Cleese.
In 1996, she was cast as the evil aviatrix "Sala" in the action film, The
Phantom , based on the comic created by Lee Falk. Her character did her
best to kill Billy Zane's Phantom, while assisting villain Xander Drax
(Treat Williams) in taking over the world with a weapon of doom.
The following year, she starred in the CBS mini-series Titanic, which also
starred Tim Curry and Peter Gallagher. Steven Spielberg, who noted her
performance in the mini-series, recommended her to Martin Campbell, the
director of The Mask of Zorro.[1] Zeta-Jones subsequently landed a lead
role in the film, alongside Antonio Banderas. The following year she
co-starred with Sean Connery in the film Entrapment, and alongside Liam
Neeson and Lili Taylor in The Haunting. In 2000 she starred in Traffic
with future husband Michael Douglas.
Catherine Zeta-Jones in her Academy Award winning role as Velma Kelly in
Chicago.In 2003, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for
her performance as Velma Kelly in the film Chicago. Chicago also won the
Academy Award for Best Picture that year. On 22 October 2005, she
referenced her award, as guest host on the television show Saturday Night
Live, surrounded by four male dancers, mimicking the Bob Fosse-inspired
Chicago-style dancing, suggesting in song that, no matter how bad she
might be that night, "They Can't Take My Oscar Away".[2] For her role in
Chicago, she specifically requested a 1920s-style short bob haircut, so
her face could be seen and fans wouldn't doubt she did all her dancing
herself.
In 2003 she voiced Marina in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, as well as
starring in Intolerable Cruelty with George Clooney. In 2004 she was in
The Terminal, as well as Ocean's Twelve, the sequel to Ocean's Eleven. In
2005 she reprised her role as Elena in The Legend of Zorro, the sequel to
The Mask of Zorro. She stars in and produces the rugby-related comedy,
Coming Out. The film is produced by her company Milkwood Films.
Zeta-Jones is married to actor Michael Douglas with whom she has two
children. She has the same birthday as her husband, although he is older
by 25 years. They were married at the Plaza Hotel in New York City on 18
November 2000. A traditional Welsh choir sang at her wedding; her wedding
ring includes a Celtic motif and was bought in the Welsh town of
Aberystwyth. Their son, Dylan Michael Douglas, was born 8 August 2000.
Their daughter, Carys Zeta Douglas, was born April 20, 2003. While
pregnant with Carys, photos were published of Zeta-Jones smoking
cigarettes on a private balcony; afterwards, she became the target of
anti-smoking and child health and welfare groups due to her behaviour.
Zeta-Jones has decided that her children will grow up aware of their Welsh
heritage and has built a seaside home for her parents in her hometown of
Swansea. She wants her children to know the Welsh language.
Her elder brother, David A. Jones (also known as Cameron Jones), is Vice
President of the film company, Initial Entertainment. He was an executive
producer of Gangs of New York. Her younger brother, Lyndon Jones, is her
personal manager and producer for Milkwood Films. Catherine's parents
recently moved from their Mayals property to a £2 million cliff top home
two miles away, paid for by their daughter.
Apart from her acting career, Zeta-Jones is also an advertising
spokeswoman. In 2003, she became spokeswoman for the mobile phone company
T-Mobile. However, in September 2006, T-Mobile dropped Zeta-Jones for a
more “man on the street” advertising campaign. She is currently the global
spokeswoman for cosmetics giant Elizabeth Arden. |
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"I used to go around looking
as frumpy as possible because it was inconceivable you could be
attractive as well as be smart. It wasn't until I started being
myself, the way I like to turn out to meet people, that I started to
get any work."
"I like women who look like women. I hated grunge. No one's more
feminist than me, but you don't have to look as if you don't give a
- you know. You can be smart, bright, and attractive aesthetically
to others - and to yourself."
"In Wales it's brilliant. I go to the pub and see everybody who I
went to school with. And everybody goes "So what you doing now?" And
I go, "Oh, I'm doing a film with Antonio Banderas and Anthony
Hopkins." And they go, "Ooh, good." And that's it."
After Scottish actor Sean Connery presented her with the Oscar: "A
Scotsman giving a Welsh girl an Oscar - oh my God!"
"After Zorro, people spoke Spanish to me for ages. I'm Welsh but
that movie instantly gave me a new ethnicity."
"For marriage to be a success, every woman and every man should have
her and his own bathroom. The end."
[On her duel/strip scene from "The Mask of Zorro"]: "I kept thinking
'Thank God I have long hair in this movie'."
"This film holds a lot of meaning to me, both professionally and
personally. I actually met my husband when I was promoting the film
in Deauville, France, and it was such an amazing time for me, being
completely unknown, really, in America or in Mexico, where I shot
the first one. It's a very important film for me and it's very close
to my heart." [on 'Mask of Zorro, The']
"I wish I was born in that era: dancing with Fred Astaire and Gene
Kelly, going to work at the studio dressed in beautiful pants, head
scarves, and sunglasses."
"Did I want this role? That's like saying did I want to wake up in
the morning wanting to breath!" on landing the part of Velma Kelly
in Chicago.
"I do think I'm lucky I met Michael. Not just Michael Douglas the
actor and producer with two Oscars on the shelf, but Michael Douglas
the love of my life. I really do think it was meant to happen."
I like to feel sexy. I know my husband thinks I'm sexy. I think he
is too. But I don't go out half-naked with 'sex' written across my
back.
Humor and that wonderful word called 'charisma.' You cannot
translate it. I can't nail it on the head, other than to just say
that I'm completely over the top about my husband. - on what makes a
man irresistible.
Yes, I was in love with my husband at first sight and still am. We
have the most solid relationship.
"I don't go into the triple-X sites. I'm certainly not going to pay
money to see myself naked, when I can just go into the bathroom and
whip it off for free." -speaking on the Internet and its fascination
with celebrities and porno |
