Kate Hudson

For the current Chair of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, please see Kate Hudson.

Kate Garry Hudson"Kate", not "Katherine", is her birth name, according to the State of California. California Birth Index, 1905-1995. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com (born April 19, 1979 in Los Angeles, California) is an American film actress. She came to fame in 2000, after an Oscar-nominated role in the drama Almost Famous, and has since established herself as a Hollywood lead actress, starring in several successful films, including How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and The Skeleton Key.

Biography

Early life

Hudson was born in Los Angeles to Bill Hudson (a singer, comedian and member of the Hudson Brothers) and Goldie Hawn (a well-known film actress). Her mother has Hungarian Jewish ancestry while her paternal grandmother was of Italian descent and her paternal grandfather's ancestry traces to 15th-century England. Hudson was raised in the Jewish religion, though her family also practiced Buddhism.

Hudson's parents divorced eighteen months after her birth, and she and her brother, actor Oliver Hudson, were raised in Colorado by her mother and her mother's long-time boyfriend, actor Kurt Russell. Because Hudson's biological father was absent during most of her childhood, the two are estranged from each other. Hudson has stated that her biological father "doesn't know me from a hole in the wall", and that she considers her mother's partner, Kurt Russell, to be her father. Hudson has described her mother as "the woman that I've learned the most from, and who I look up to, who has conducted her life in a way that I can look up to". She has three half-siblings, Emily and Zachary Hudson, from her biological father's subsequent marriage to actress Cindy Williams, and Wyatt, from her mother's relationship with Kurt Russell. Her cousin is singer Sarah Hudson.

Hudson graduated from Crossroads, a performing school in Santa Monica, in 1997. She was accepted to New York University, but chose to pursue an acting career instead of attending.

Career

Hudson's breakthrough role was as Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She had previously appeared in the lesser-known films Gossip, a teenage drama, and 200 Cigarettes, a New Year's-set comedy with a large cast of actors. Regarding her early career and succees, Hudson has noted that she is a "hard worker", and did not want to be associated with her well-known parents, wishing to avoid the perception that she "rode on somebody's coattails".

Hudson turned down the part of Mary Jane Watson in the 2002 film version of Spider-Man, and instead starred in remake of the historical romance The Four Feathers, a film which was not well received by critics or audiences. Her next film, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, a romantic comedy, became a big success at the box office, grossing over $100 million after its February 2003 release. Hudson subsequently appeared in several romantic comedies, including Alex and Emma and Raising Helen; the films were met with varying degrees of success.

The 2005 thriller, The Skeleton Key, was a mild box office success in August 2005, grossing over $45 million. Her latest film, the comedy You, Me and Dupree, opened on July 14, 2006 and also stars Matt Dillon and Owen Wilson.

Hudson has long expressed an interest in producing films, and is currently finalizing a deal to produce and star in the film A Dream of Red Mansions, opposite Ken Watanabe, in which she will play Diana Mellors, a real-life photojournalist who moved to China and became a Communist; filming will begin in the fall of 2006. Two projects in which Hudson was previously scheduled to star in, the comedy Can You Keep a Secret? and the drama Sleight of Mind, are still in development.

Personal life

In 2000, Hudson married Chris Robinson, a frontman for The Black Crowes. She gave birth to their son, Ryder Russell Robinson, on January 7, 2004. The couple live in a house that was once owned by director James Whale and travel together during Hudson's film shoots or Robinson's music tours. Hudson has noted that she is currently "not very religious", although she still describes herself as "Jewish".

Hudson has said that she does not enjoy watching herself on screen, specifying that she "getcold... shake ^*" when watching her performances for the first time.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	You, Me and Dupree	Molly Petersen
2005	The Skeleton Key	Caroline Ellis
2004	Raising Helen	Helen Harris
2003	Le Divorce	Isabel Walker
	Alex and Emma	Emma Dinsmore
	How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days	Andie Anderson
2002	The Four Feathers	Ethne
2001	About Adam	Lucy Owens	limited release
2000	Dr. T & the Women	Dee Dee
	Almost Famous	Penny Lane	Oscar nomination
	Gossip	Naomi Preston
1999	200 Cigarettes	Cindy
1998	Desert Blue	Skye Davidson

References

Footnotes

Interviews

MQ7.net interview (August 13, 2005)
LA Family interview (2005)
Style.com interview (June, 2003)

Web sites

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Kate Hudson