The daughter of a BBC casting director and famed television actor Richard Beckinsale (known for roles on Porridge and Rising Damp), Beckinsale was born July 26, 1973. After her father’s death from a heart attack in 1979, the actress was raised by her mother. By her own account, Beckinsale’s childhood and adolescence were fairly troubled, marked by struggles with anorexia. She decided to follow in her father’s acting footsteps while still a teenager and in 1991, had her major television debut in Once Against the Wind, a World War II drama in which she played Judy Davis’ daughter. The same year, Beckinsale enrolled at Oxford, to study French and Russian Literature, and pursued her education until committing herself full-time to acting. While in her first year at Oxford, Kate received her big break in Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (1993). Kate worked in three other films while attending Oxford, beginning with a part in the medieval historical drama Prince of Jutland (1994), cast as Ethel. The film was shot during spring, 1993 on location in Denmark, and she performed her supporting part during New College’s Easter break. Later in the summer of that year, she performed as the lead in the contemporary mystery drama Uncovered (1994). Before she went back to school, her third year at university was spent at Oxford’s study-abroad programme in Paris, France, immersing herself in the French language, Parisian culture, and those awful French cigarettes. A year away from the academic community and living on her own in the French capital caused her to re-evalate the direction of her life. She faced a choice: continue with school, or concentrate on her flourishing acting career. After much thought, she chose the acting career. In the spring of 1994 Kate left Oxford, after finishing three years of study. Kate appeared in the BBC/Thames Television satire Cold Comfort Farm (1995) (TV) filmed in London and East Sussex during late summer 1994. Cold Comfort Farm (1995) (TV) opened to spectacular reviews in the United States, grossing over US$5 million during its American cinema run. It was re-released to U.K. theatres in the spring of 1997. After essaying roles in a television production of Alice Through the Looking Glass (1999) and the Merchant/Ivory production of Henry James’ The Golden Bowl (2000), Beckinsale was plucked from relative obscurity by director Michael Bay for his lavish World War II epic, Pearl Harbor (2001). Boasting a record-setting, nine-digit price tag and one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns ever waged on the American public, the film featured the actress as Evelyn, a plucky nurse torn between the affections of two soldiers. Though a brief foray into Laurel Canyon found Beckinsale essaying the low-key role of a Harvard graduate gone astray after a taste of the wild side of life, she once again shifted into high gear for the big-budget vampire versus werewolf battle royal Underworld in 2003. Sporting the sort of gothic vinyl duds that had fanboys crooning, Beckinsale raised arms against a brutal breed of lycanthropes and few could argue that she looked good doing it. So good, in fact, that not only a sequel but a prequel detailing the age old struggle between the bloodsuckers and the full moon fiends. That same year, Beckinsale and Underworld director Len Wiseman announced their engagement. A role opposite a dwarfed (literally Gary Oldman in Matthew Bright’s Tiptoes was soon to follow, and soon thereafter the starlet was once again doing battle with the undead (opposite X-Man’s Hugh Jackman) in the action horror adventure Van Helsing.
