Personal detailsName: Reese Witherspoon
Born: 22 March 1976 (Age: 35)
Where: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Height: 5' 2"
Awards: Won 1 Oscar, 1 BAFTA and 1 Golden Globe
Biography
Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon born on March 22, 1976, in Nashville, Tennessee. The daughter of a physician and a nurse, Witherspoon grew up in Nashville, where she was a debutante and attended Harpeth Hall, a private all-girls high school.Of all the new millennium's young female movie stars, only one has proved herself capable of single-handedly headlining a series of major box-office hits. Not Julia Stiles, not Kirsten Dunst, not Sarah Michelle Gellar. They are successful, but still mostly team-players. Only Reese Witherspoon has gone beyond that. Breaking through with Legally Blonde and making a $100 million hit of Sweet Home Alabama, then winning a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in Walk The Line, she separated herself entirely from the new Brat Pack and supplanted Julia Roberts as the most popular female star in Hollywood. And this was wholly deliberate as Witherspoon could well rival Madonna in terms of blonde ambition.
In 2001, Witherspoon continued to soar when she starred in the surprise box-office hit Legally Blonde. Witherspoon played Elle Woods, a tow-headed sorority girl who follows her ex to Harvard Law School. The movie proved to be such a success that it spawned a sequel. Witherspoon starred in, and produced, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003) earning $15 million—15 times the amount she was paid for the original. The franchise quickly established Witherspoon as a must-have commodity, and propelled her to the realm of A-List actors. She also became one of the most highly paid actresses in Hollywood, according to the Hollywood Reporter, regularly commanding $15 to $20 million a movie.Hailing from such stock, Laura Jean was bound to either hit the heights or crash and burn. Sensible from the start, she chose the former. At school, as a self-confessed "huge book dork", she achieved excellent grades, and would be taken on at the famous Harpeth Hall School For Girls in Nashville (former alumni including the Grand Ole Oprey's Minnie Pearl and pop singer Amy Grant). She'd be both a cheerleader and a debutante, though in later years she'd complain whenever this was mentioned, clearly believing that it undermined her reputation for intelligence and professionalism (her part in Legally Blonde would be close to her heart). Witherspoon further proved her acting mettle in 2005, when she appeared as country singer June Carter to Joaquin Phoenix's Johnny Cash in the biopic Walk the Line. The film proved to be both a critical and commercial success, and Witherspoon won an Academy Award, Golden Globe and a BAFTA for her singing and acting in the film. But while Witherspoon was experiencing professional success, she was experiencing serious challenges in her personal life. Reese and her husband, actor Ryan Phillippe announced their separation in October 2006, and divorced in October 2007. Phillippe immediately went public about his emotions surrounding their split. "After the divorce, I was a physical wreck. I wanted to die," Phillippe told the British magazine Man About Town in November 2007. "I was ready to kill myself. I was not taking care of myself at all. I would wake up and cry and vomit."
