Hilary Ann Swank is an American actress. She
has twice won the Academy Award for Best Actress
and received a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame in 2007.
Swank made her film debut in a minor role
in the 1992 comedy film Buffy the Vampire
Slayer before starring in her breakout lead
role in the fourth installment of the The
Karate Kid franchise The Next Karate Kid in
1994, alongside Pat Morita. On television,
she was cast as part of the main cast in the
eighth season of the drama series Beverly
Hills 90210 as single mother Carly Reynolds
from 1997 to 1998. Swank garnered critical
acclaim for her portrayal of Brandon Teena
in the 1999 biographical indie film Boys Don't
Cry, which earned her the Academy Award for
Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best
Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. She
starred in Clint Eastwood's 2004 sports drama
film Million Dollar Baby as struggling-waitress-turned-boxer
Maggie Fitzgerald, which won her a second
Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Actress
as well as the Screen Actors Guild Award for
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor
in a Leading Role.
Her other films include, The Gift, Insomnia,
Iron Jawed Angels, The Reaping, P.S. I Love
You, Freedom Writers, the biographical aviation
film Amelia and New Year's Eve.
Early life
Swank was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her mother,
Judy Kay, was a secretary and dancer, and
her father, Stephen Michael Swank, was a Chief
Master Sergeant in the Oregon Air National
Guard and later a traveling salesman. She
has a brother Daniel, who is eight years her
senior. Many of Swank's family members are
from Ringgold County, Iowa. Her maternal grandmother,
Frances Martha Dominguez, was of Mexican descent,
while Hilary's paternal grandmother was born
in England; Hilary's roots also include German,
English, Swiss-German, Scottish, Scots-Irish,
Welsh, and Dutch ancestry. The surname "Swank",
originally Schwenk, is of German origin.
After living 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, and 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
Early work
Swank made her film acting debut in the 1992
film Buffy the Vampire Slayer 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 at the time Chad Lowe.
Her first leading film role was in the fourth
installment of the Karate Kid series, The
Next Karate Kid, which utilized her gymnastics
background and paired her with Pat Morita.
In 1995, she appeared with British actor Bruce
Payne in Kounterfeit. In 1994, she also starred
in the drama Cries Unheard: The Donna Yaklich
Story as the abused step-daughter who was
protected by Donna. In September 1997, Swank
played single mother Carly Reynolds in Beverly
Hills, 90210 and 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."
Critical success
The firing freed her to audition for the role
of Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry. To prepare
for the role, Swank lived as a man for a month,
and reduced her body fat to seven percent.
Many critics hailed her as the best female
performance of 1999, and her 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 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 and was the 2,325th
star presented.
2007–present
In 2007, Swank starred in Freedom Writers,
about how a real-life teacher, Erin Gruwell,
inspired a California high school class. Many
reviews of her 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 horror film The
Reaping, as a debunker of religious phenomena
it was released on April 5, 2007. Swank convinced
the producers to move the film's setting from
New England to the Deep South, and the film
was being filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
when Hurricane Katrina struck. The same year,
she also appeared in the romantic drama P.S.
I Love You with Gerard Butler.
Swank portrayed the pioneering aviator Amelia
Earhart in the biopic film Amelia that she
also co-executive produced. Filming began
in summer 2008 in a number of international
locations and Swank met Robert Bresnik, a
San Diego artist who supported her role as
Earhart by producing several photographic
reproductions of the flyer, at Legoland. Bresnik's
grandfather Albert Bresnik was Earhart's official
photographer, and he owned the original negatives
of his grandfather's shoots.
In 2012, Swank's audiobook recording of Caroline
Knapp's Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between
People and Dogs was released at Audible.com.
In 2013, she has starred in the television
film Mary and Martha along with Brenda Blethyn.
She played a woman whose son has died of malaria.
Swank is attached to star in the Hollywood
remake of Intimate Strangers. It was incorrectly
reported that she would play a lead role in,
and produce a film adaptation of the John
Marks novel Fangland.
Personal life
While filming Quiet Days in Hollywood. Swank
met actor Chad Lowe. They married on September
28, 1997 but divorced on November 1, 2007.
In 2006 Swank began dating her agent, John
Campisi They ended their relationship in the
summer of 2012. She has no children.
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
References
External links
Hilary Swank at the Internet Movie Database
Hilary Swank at the TCM Movie Database
Hilary Swank at AllMovie
"Hilary Swank Interview". American Academy
of Achievement, Washington, D.C. June 22,
2007. 
