Hilary Ann Swank (born July 30, 1974) is an American film actress. She has won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, as Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry (1999) and as struggling waitress-turned-boxer Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby (2004).

 

Early Life

Swank was born in Lincoln, Nebraska.Her mother, Judy Kay (née Clough),was a secretary and dancer, and her father, Stephen Michael Swank, was an officer in the Air National Guard and later a traveling salesman.She has a brother, Daniel, who is eight years her senior.Her surname, originally Schwenk, is of German origin.Many of Swank's family members hail from Ringgold County, Iowa,and her maternal grandmother was of Spanish and Shoshone (Native American) ancestry.After having lived in Spokane, Washington, Swank's family moved to a trailer park near Lake Samish in Bellingham, Washington, when Swank was six.

 

She attended Happy Valley Elementary, Fairhaven Middle, then Sehome High School in Bellingham until she was sixteen. She also competed in the Junior Olympics and the Washington state championships in swimming; she ranked fifth in the state in all-around gymnastics.

 

Swank made her first appearance on stage when she was nine years old, starring in The Jungle Book.She became involved in school and community theater programs, including those of the Bellingham Theatre Guild and The Seattle Children's Theater.

 

When she was fifteen, her parents separated, and she and her mother, supportive of her daughter's desire to act, moved to Los Angeles, where they lived out of their car until Swank's mother saved enough money to rent an apartment.Swank has called her mother the inspiration for her acting career and her life.In California, Swank enrolled in South Pasadena High School, dropping out later. She described her time at South Pasadena High School: “I felt like such an outsider. I didn’t feel like I fit in. I didn’t belong in any way. I didn’t even feel like the teachers wanted me there. I just felt like I wasn’t seen or understood.”She explained her becoming an actor out of feeling as an outsider: “As a kid I felt that I belonged only when I read a book or saw a movie, and could get involved with a character. It was natural that I became an actor because I longed so much to be those other people, or at least to play them”.

 

Career

Swank made her movie debut in 1992 in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film) in a small role, after which she acted in the direct-to-video drama Quiet Days in Hollywood, where she co-starred with her future husband Chad Lowe. Her first leading film role was in The Next Karate Kid (1994), which utilized her gymnastics background and paired her with Pat Morita. It was the fourth movie in the Karate Kid series. In 1995 she appeared with British actor Bruce Payne in Kounterfeit. In September 1997 Swank was cast as single mother Carly Reynolds on Beverly Hills, 90210. She was initially promised it would be a two-year role, but saw her character written out after 16 episodes in January 1998.

 

 Swank later stated that she was devastated at being cut from the show, thinking, "If I'm not good enough for 90210, I'm not good enough for anything."

 

The firing freed her to audition for the role of Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry. Swank reduced her body fat to seven percent in preparation for the role. Many critics hailed her as the best female performance of 1999, and Swank's work ultimately won her the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Actress.Swank had earned only $75 per day for her work on Boys Don't Cry, culminating in a total of $3,000.Her earnings were so low that she had not even earned enough to qualify for health insurance.

 

Swank again won the Best Actress Oscar, and another Golden Globe, for playing a female boxer in Clint Eastwood's 2004 film Million Dollar Baby, a role for which she underwent extensive training in the ring and weight room gaining 19 pounds of muscle aided by professional trainer Grant L Roberts.With her second Oscar, she had joined the ranks of Vivien Leigh, Helen Hayes, Sally Field, and Luise Rainer as the only actresses to have been nominated for Academy Awards twice and win both times.After winning her second Oscar, she said, "I don't know what I did in this life to deserve this. I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream."

 

In 2006 Swank signed a three-year contract with Guerlain for the women's fragrance Insolence.She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 8, 2007. Hers was the 2,325th star presented.

 

In 2007 Swank starred in Freedom Writers, a drama about a real-life teacher, Erin Gruwell, who inspired a California high school class. Many reviews of Swank's performance were positive, with one critic noting that she "brings credibility" to the role, and another stating that her performance reaches a "singular lack of artifice, stripping herself back to the bare essentials". Swank next starred in The Reaping, a horror film released on April 5, 2007, in which she played a debunker of religious phenomena. Swank convinced the producers to move the film's setting from New England to the Deep South, and the movie was being filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina struck.The same year, she also appeared in the romantic comedy P.S. I Love You alongside Gerard Butler.

 

Swank portrayed the pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart in the biopic Amelia, a film she also co-executive produced. Filming occurred in the summer of 2008 in a number of international locations. Swank met Robert Bresnik, a San Diego artist who supported her role as Earhart by producing several photographic reproductions of the flyer, at Legoland in 2008. Bresnik's grandfather Albert Bresnik was Earhart's official photographer, and he owned the original negatives of his grandfather's shoots.

 

Swank is also attached to star in the Hollywood remake of Intimate Strangers. In addition, it was incorrectly reported that Swank would play a lead role in, and produce, a film adaptation of the John Marks novel Fangland.

 

Swank developed potential health problems through certain preparations for her roles, including weight gain and loss for Boys Don't Cry. She has stated that she would "do what [she] need[s] to make [the role] believable and to make it work" and that her "battle scars are a reminder that you're alive and human and that you bleed."

 

Personal life

Swank married actor Chad Lowe on September 28, 1997. The two met in 1992 on the set of Quiet Days in Hollywood.They separated in January 2006,and in May 2006, they announced that they were divorcing. In December 2006, Swank stated that she was dating her agent, John Campisi.Swank and Campisi ended their relationship in the summer of 2012.

 

Swank has stated that she believes in a higher power, but is not a member of any organized religion.

 

Human rights controversy

In October 2011, Swank attracted controversy for attending an event in Chechnya's capital Grozny on the 35th birthday of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov on October 5.After wishing him "happy birthday Mr President", she reportedly claimed knowledge about Kadyrov saying: "I read. I do my provisory research".Following criticism from human rights groups, who report having informed her about the human rights abuses in Chechnya prior to the event, asking her to reconsider her participation,Swank said she was unaware that Kadyrov had been accused of human rights violations and that she "deeply regrets" taking part in the lavish concert, and will donate her personal appearance fees "to various charitable organizations."

Filmography

List of film and television credits
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991–1992	Evening Shade	Aimee #1	TV series
1991	Harry and the Hendersons	Guest star	TV series
1991–1992	Growing Pains	Sasha Serotsky	TV series
1992	Camp Wilder	Danielle	TV series
1992	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Kimberly Hannah
1994	Next Karate Kid, TheThe Next Karate Kid	Julie Pierce
1994	Cries Unheard: The Donna Yaklich Story	Patty	TV movie
1996	Sometimes They Come Back... Again	Michelle Porter
1996	Terror in the Family	Deena Martin	TV movie
1996	Kounterfeit	Coleen
1997	Quiet Days in Hollywood	Lolita
1997	Sleepwalker Killing, TheThe Sleepwalker Killing	Lauren Schall	Lifetime TV movie
1997	Leaving L.A.	Tiffany Roebuck	TV series
1997	Dying to Belong	Lisa Connors	TV movie
1997–1998	Beverly Hills, 90210	Carly Reynolds	TV series
1998	Heartwood	Sylvia Orsini
1999	Boys Don't Cry	Brandon Teena	Academy Award for Best Actress Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Chicago International Film Festival, Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Gijón International Film Festival Award for Best Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Female Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Santa Fe Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated—Empire Award for Best Actress Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2000	Gift, TheThe Gift	Valerie Barksdale	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2000	Audition, TheThe Audition		Short subject
2001	Affair of the Necklace, TheThe Affair of the Necklace	Jeanne St. Rémy de Valois
2002	Space Between, TheThe Space Between		Short subject
2002	Insomnia	Detective Ellie Burr	Nominated—Empire Award for Best Actress
2003	11:14	Buzzy	Also Executive Producer
2003	Core, TheThe Core	Major Rebecca Childs
2004	Million Dollar Baby	Maggie Fitzgerald	Academy Award for Best Actress Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Central Ohio Film Critics Association For Best Actress Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Sant Jordi Awards for Best Actress Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Nominated—Empire Award for Best Actress Nominated—MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2004	Red Dust	Sarah Barcant
2004	Iron Jawed Angels	Alice Paul	TV movie Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2006	Black Dahlia, TheThe Black Dahlia	Madeleine Linscott
2007	Freedom Writers	Erin Gruwell	Also Executive Producer
2007	Reaping, TheThe Reaping	Professor Katherine Winter
2007	P. S. I Love You	Holly Kennedy	Irish Film & Television Audience Award for Best International Actress
2008	Birds of America	Laura
2009	Amelia	Amelia Earhart	Also Executive Producer Hollywood film festival Best Actress
2010	Conviction	Betty Anne Waters	Also Executive Producer Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
2011	Resident, TheThe Resident	Dr. Juliet Devereau	Also Executive Producer
2011	New Year's Eve	Claire Morgan