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| Thandie Newton, actress |
Early life
Newton was born in Zambia, to a white English lab technician and artist, Nick Newton, and a Zimbabwean health-care worker, Nyasha. The name "Thandiwe" means "beloved" in Ndebele. Newton played a character named "Beloved" in the film adaptation of the Toni Morrison novel Beloved in 1998. According to Newton, her mother is a Zimbabwean Shona Princess. She was raised in Zambia and Penzance, Cornwall, England, and educated at Downing College, University of Cambridge.
Career
Newton made her film debut in Flirting (1991). This Australian movie was also a launch pad for a young Nicole Kidman, with whom she has remained friends. She gained international recognition opposite Nick Nolte in the Merchant-Ivory production of Jefferson in Paris as Sally Hemmings, which led to her being cast in Jonathan Demme's Beloved (1998), in which she played the title character and co-starred with Danny Glover, Kimberly Elise, and Oprah Winfrey. She played the female lead Nyah Hall in the film Mission: Impossible II. When this film went over schedule, she had to pull out of the film Charlie's Angels, and her character ultimately went to Lucy Liu.
Newton recently played Kem, the love interest of Dr. John Carter on the American television series ER. She also appeared in The Chronicles of Riddick. She appeared in Crash as a wealthy black woman who, along with her husband, finds herself the target of a racist policeman (played by Matt Dillon). The policeman molests her before ultimately saving her life. Newton was honoured with a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress in 2006. Crash also won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2005.
Personal life
Newton married English writer and director Ol Parker in 1997. The couple have two daughters: Ripley, born in 2000, and Nico, born in 2004. Her daughters were named after the character Ripley in the Alien films and the cult singer of The Velvet Underground fame[citation needed]
She is friends with Nicole Kidman, who recommended her to her then-husband Tom Cruise as the female lead in Mission: Impossible II. She is also extremely close with the powerful British media family the Adams-Taylors; whose eldest daughter, Jessica, is a childhood friend, and godmother to her daughter Ripley.
In 2006, she contributed a foreword to We Wish: Hopes and Dreams of Cornwall's Children, a book of children's writing published in aid of the NSPCC. In it, she writes vividly about her childhood memories of growing up in Cornwall and the way in which the county's vibrant cultural heritage made it easy for her to "enrich every situation with layers of magic and meaning".[citation needed]
Thandie Newton, the Bafta award-winning star of the film Crash, has swapped her BMW X5 for a Toyota Prius after protesters bombarded the car with eggs at the gates of her son's school. She then wrote to her celebrity friends, asking them to join her in switching to more environmentally sound cars.[citation needed]
Awards/Nominations
BAFTA
2006, Best Supporting Actress: Crash (Winner)
BET Award
2006, Best Actress: (Nominated)
Black Movie Awards
2006, Best Supporting Actress: Crash (Nominated)
Black Reel Awards
2006, Best Supporting Actress: Crash (Nominated)
2003, Best Actress: The Truth About Charlie (Nominated)
2000, Best Actress: Besieged (Nominated)
Image Awards
2007, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: The Pursuit of Happyness (Nominated)
2006, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Crash (Nominated)
2003, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture: The Truth About Charlie (Nominated)
2001, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: Mission Impossible: II (Nominated)
1999, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picutre: Beloved (Nominated)
Razzie Award
2001, Worst Supporting Actress: Mission Impossible: II (Nominated)
Screen Actors Guild
2006, Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture: Crash (Winner)
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| Thandie Newton |
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