Hilary Swank

Hilary Ann Swank was born 30th July 1974 in Lincoln, Nebraska, with Spanish and Native American heritage. Hilary's father was employed by the airborne National Guard and, while Hilary was still in pre-school. Her father took his family wife Judy, a secretary and later an executive, and son Dan, to live in Bellingham, Washington. Interestingly, one of Hilary's grandfathers was born and raised in Iowa, just two hours drive from Falls City, Nebraska, the small town where Brandon Teena, whom the actress later on portrayed in Boys Don't Cry, went to start a new life. On top of that, Hilary was actually born in the same hospital as Brandon in in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Soon, her father would later change jobs. Deciding there was money to be had dealing in trailers, he shifted the family into a trailer-park and began life as a travelling salesman. While attending Sehome High School in Bellingham, young Hilary would excelled at sports, particularly in the gym and pool. She competed in the Junior Olympics and the Washington State championships in swimming, ranking 5th in the state in all-around gymnastics.

Hilary was discovered as a child by producer Suzy Sachs, who coached her in acting. When she was nine years old, Hilary made her 1st appearance on stage starring as Mowgli in The Jungle Book, and thereafter became heavily involved in her school and community theater programs. Hilary was even named "Best Junior Actress" by the Bellingham Theatre Guild. Sadly Hilary's childhood was not all fun and success. She has said later that she was miserable as a child and was picked on by her jealous classmates.

Hilary says that although their money situation was tight, she never felt her family was poor. Instead, Hilary's parents were absorbed in relationship problems. She lived in Bellingham with her family until her parents separated when she has 15. Judy Swank had just lost her job. Supportive of her daughter's desire to act, she moved the two of them with only $75 and a car between them to Los Angeles, California, where they lived out of their car until Judy saved enough money to rent an apartment. Shortly the luck was on their side again. Judy found employment and found Hilary an agent. She enrolled in South Pasadena High School, then Santa Monica City College to eventually drop out of high school altogether, completing her education by mail and with a succession of tutors. She also helped pay the rent with the money she earned appearing in television programs in the early 90s, such as Harry and the Hendersons, Evening Shade and Growing Pains.

Hilary's first movie role was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1992. She played as Buffy's Valley Girl best friend. After that, she found a regular role in an ABC series Camp Wilder, which ended up being a one season failure. In 1992, Hilary Swank met met future husband, Chad Lowe, brother of the infamous Rob. They met at an industry party and remained more or less inseparable from then on, arranging their filming schedules so they could spend as much time together as possible. Swank next appeared in a TV movie named Cries Unheard: The Donna YaklichKounterfeit, Terror in the Family and Sometimes They Come Back... Again. In 1997 she continued working hard making a name for herself in low budget films, including Dying to Belong, The Sleepwalker Killing and Heartwood, of which most went straight to video.

On a brighter note, Hilary Swank's personal life with Chad Lowe was blooming as the couple decided to tie the knot after 5-years of spending time together. On 28th September 1997 Hilary and Chad got married.

Hilary Swank's career was about to take a huge turn. She auditioned for a part in Boys Don't Cry in 1999. She fought blood and tears for the role of Brandon Teena and indeed, she won the lead role after hundreds of other actresses had been considered and rejected over the course of three years. Hilary cut off all of her hair and lived as a boy for a month to prepare for the role. She also worked closely with acting coach Larry Mills to prepare for her dream role. "What drew me to Brandon was the sheer joy he had living his life the way he wanted to live it. When some one is living their dream, and not conforming to what society wants them to be, they exude joy. I think people were magnetised to that in Brandon and that's why he had so many girlfriends. He loved to be a boy and I loved that he followed his dream and had the courage to be himself." Swank said.

The results of Boys Don't Cry was outstanding and rocketed Hilary Swank's name and career. In fact, she was so good that no one was surprised when she beat heavyweight contenders Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Annette Bening to win the Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe in 2000.

Hilary spoke about the pressures of being an Oscar winner and how people were expecting her life to take a huge leap career wise. But Hilary noticed that it was not so easy to find a role as challenging and rewarding as Boys Don't Cry. However, she would soon take on three very important roles as 2004 was to be one of the most important years for her career to date. First she pulled an impressive performance as the infamous Alice Paul in the HBO film, Iron Jawed Angels. It took her back to 1912 as a smoking, flirting, forthright and self-possessed agitator for women's rights and saw her act opposite Angelina Houston. This fearless and masterful performance added more merits to Hilary Swank's belt as she received nominations for the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Hilary next returned to her roots, the stage, travelling to North Carolina, to portray Annie Sullivan in the award-winning The Miracle Worker. This run was intended to be in preparation for an advance to Broadway, but production problems and then Hilary's film schedule forced a postponement. She next packed her bags for South Africa to star in Red Dust. The film itself went straight to DVD but Hilary's powerful portrayal as Sarah Barcant should not be missed. On the set of Red Dust Hilary Swank met the second love of her life, Karoo Swank Lowe, a tiny stray dog. Karoo was named after the location of the shooting of the film - 'Karoo' is South African for countryside. "I found Karoo while on location with Red Dust - totally flea-ridden, starving, ticks in ears, the whole thing! So I brought her back with me. When I find a stray animal, it doesn't matter where it comes from if it means saving its life", Hilary said. Indeed, she is known to be quite the animal lover, owning two more dogs, a cat, a huge bunny named Luna and two parrots. Besides showing her love for animals as a pet owner, Hilary is also a dedicated vegetarian and supporter of animal rights. She even helped to rescue trapped pets after the 9/11 attacks.

Next she caught the attention of Clint Eastwood, who cast Hilary Swank in her most famous and undoubtedly one of the most challenging roles to date as she took on the boxing gloves of Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby. "This new role challenged me to my core. That's what I love as an artist: to be able to push myself to my limit and try and push myself past it, to try and break through it. It's where my passion lies." Hilary's performance was absolutely masterful, both physically and emotionally as she portrayed every range of emotion possible and trained for months for her role as a boxer. She proved her abilities as an actress beyond doubt and won her second Academy Award for the magnificent performance. "I don't know what I did in this life to deserve all this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream. I never thought this would ever happen, let alone be nominated. And a working actor, for that matter. And now, this. I thank the Academy. I'm eternally grateful for this great honor", said Hilary during her speech.

After completing work in Million Dollar Baby, Hilary took some time off from the acting spotlight, modelling for Calvin Klein and representing Estee Lauder and doing charity work. Unfortunately, Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe announced plans of separation in January 2006 but had hopes of working through their troubles. Although they had been photographed together several times looking happy and smiley, in May they announced that they had filed for divorce. Shortly after Hilary appeared in a cover story for Vanity Fair magazine, speaking of Chad's substance problems and how that played part in the break up. "I don't want to make it seem like that's the sole reason; there were other factors. But that just kind of blew it open; it made me look at things a lot deeper. It takes two to make something work or not work. I'm a person with my own faults and troubles. In the end, it just didn't work, but I would never look back on this relationship as failed. I look at it as 13 and a half years of success." Hilary travelled to India to do volunteer work and get back to the basics of life, and find her own identity again after the end of the long relationship with Chad.

The future of Hilary Swank looks very promising with several exciting movies coming up. She recently expanded her range as the femme fatale Madeleine Linscott in the Brian De Palma directed The Black Dahlia and will next be seen in Freedom Writers and The Reaping. She is currently filming P.S., I Love You in Ireland opposite Kathy Bates and Gerard Butler and is in talks of appearing in Robert Altman's next film. On top of this, Hilary is one of the most beautiful actresses, inside and on the outside. She was recently announced to be the muse of Guerlain's new fragrance, appearing in print ads and commercials. Despite being one of Hollywood's most respected young actresses, Hilary Swank never forgets where her true priorities lie. She sees charity work as being very important to her, whether it is travelling to a different country and working on the field or helping stray animals. There is no doubt, we can expect more amazing things from her in the future.