Top 100 Celebrities In The World
003. Keira Knightley
Keira Knightley
Keira Knightley was born on the 26th of March 1985 , in Teddington, south-west London . Her father is stage actor Will Knightley, who'd make the occasional foray into television, such as starring as 'Mr Glegg' in the BBC's 1997 production of 'The Mill On The Floss'. Her Ayrshire-born mother, Sharman MacDonald, had also been a stage and TV actress, she then took up playwriting, and has even had a BBC documentary made about her called 'Mindscape'. She also has a brother, Caleb, who teaches underprivileged child music.
As a child, Keira saw that her mother and father received calls from their agents, and quickly demanded that she wanted an agent as well, of course she was politely refused, but Keira was insistent, and when she was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of six, her mother made her a deal, if she studied her maths and English for one hour everyday during the summer holidays, she would get her an agent.
To Sharman's surprise, the child complied and then forced her mother to keep to the bargain. And At age 7, Keira filmed her TV debut, 'Royal Celebration', concerning the complicated lives and loves in a London square at the time of Prince Charles' marriage to Diana Spencer and featuring the likes of Kenneth Cranham, Minnie Driver and Rupert Graves.
Fearing their daughter would begin to neglect her schoolwork - a potential disaster for a dyslexic - Keira's parents told her she could only pursue her new career during the summer holidays. So, throughout the mid-Nineties, she did just that. 1994 brought a minor role in Joanna Trollope's controversial drama 'A Village Affair', featuring a lesbian relationship between Sophie Ward and Kerry Fox. Yet again Keira found herself amidst a heavy-duty cast, including Claire Bloom and Jeremy Northam.
1995 brought 'Innocent Lies', set in 1938, where an aristocratic family in a small seaside town are suspected of complicity in a murder. Joanna Lumley played the Nazi-supporting matriarch, while daughter Gabrielle Anwar and son Stephen Dorff hid some terrible secret - Keira playing the young Anwar in flashback.
The next year saw another period drama in E. Nesbit's 'Treasure Seekers' where a poor widowered inventor worked on a breakthrough in refrigeration while his five kids tried to help - Keira playing The Princess, a neat presaging of what was soon to come.
Meanwhile, Keira's education continued at Teddington School , a classy and well-funded establishment thats' grounds extended to the banks of the Thames , where it had its own slipway for launching boats. With 10 science laboratories, a TV studio and a Music and Drama block it offered great opportunities. Through her early teens Keira would make the most of her spare time, too, attending drama workshops at the nearby Heatham House youth club. This was an extremely forward-looking club, established some 50 years before, where artists, musicians, dramatists and youth workers would teach kids such fun subjects as photography, football, DJ-ing, breakdancing, skateboarding and acting. This was where Keira would gain most of her early acting experience.
Keira did not equate acting with fame or big bucks. Due to her parents' efforts and lifestyle, she saw it simply as a job that needed to be learned. While still at Teddington School , Keira received a most extraordinary offer - to play a handmaiden of Natalie Portman 's, Queen Amidala, in the forthcoming 'The Phantom Menace', part one of the Star Wars saga and perhaps the most hotly anticipated movie in history. In fact, as the plot required her to dress as Portman and thus act as a decoy, she would, to all intents and purposes, be appearing AS Queen Amidala. Trouble was, with George Lucas keeping his cards so close to his chest, this plot-twist, and thus Keira's presence in the movie, was kept absolutely secret. She was, therefore, perhaps the only actress ever to not have her career boosted by a prime role in one of the biggest hits ever.
As said, fame was not really the point for Keira, and her next role was a satisfying one. It came at a good time, too. Upset at school due to a constant breaking up with friends mostly caused by her work, things had got so bad that a week before her 13th birthday her mother had allowed her to have her belly-button pierced - just to cheer her up. What cheered her more, though, was a part in Alan Bleasdale's adaptation of 'Oliver Twist', a work that courageously stretched beyond Dickens' work to enrich the characters and story. Here Keira played the young aunt of Oliver who, along with kindly executor Mr Brownlow, tries to protect the boy from his homicidal half-brother and, of course, the manipulative Fagin.
Now the offers of work were coming in thick and fast. 2001 saw her star in the Disney-backed TV production 'Princess Of Thieves' where she played Gwynn, daughter of Robin Hood and Maid Marian, who, despite her father's promise to her dying mother, has secretly become an adept at archery and horse-riding. This proves helpful when Robin is imprisoned by the Sheriff of Nottingham (Malcolm McDowell) and attempts are made to assassinate Philip, the rightful heir to the throne. Only Gwynn and her dopey sidekick Froderick (who loves her on the quiet) stand between England and disaster.
It was an endearing romp and her first starring role . It also introduced her to actor Del Synnott who played Froderick and would go on to star in the TV series 'Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels' and play D.S Carter in 'Murphy's Law'. The couple would still be seeing each other when Keira struck gold in 2003.
Immediately after 'Princess Of Thieves' came another venture onto the big screen with the Brit horror flick 'The Hole'. Here, alongside Thora Birch, Keira played one of four public schoolkids who are trapped for 2 weeks in a deep cavity originally intended as a bomb shelter. Keira's character, Frankie, is blonde, charismatic and bitchy, going topless in her more lusty moments (a tad dodgy this as Keira was only just 16 when the movie was released). And all ends bloodily as The Hole reveals itself to be a cross between 'The Breakfast Club' and 'Lord Of The Flies', the excellent Embeth Davidtz playing the psychologist who must unravel the truth behind the unholy mess. Though not a hit itself, the movie would bring Keira to the attention of the makers of both 'Bend It Like Beckham' and 'Dr Zhivago'.
It is an extraordinary success story. This dyslexic kid with no formal training had suddenly conquered Hollywood . And, with the films she has in production, it seems she'll be at the top for some considerable time to come.