Charlize Theron

'Charlize Theron' (qv) was born in Benoni, a city in the greater Johannesburg area, in South Africa, the only child of 'Gerda Theron' (qv) (née Maritz) and Charles Theron. She was raised on a farm outside the city. Theron is of Afrikaner (Dutch, with some French Huguenot and German) descent, and Afrikaner military figure Danie Theron was her great-great-uncle.Theron received an education as a ballet dancer and has danced both the "Swan Lake" and "The Nutcracker". There was not much work for a young actress or dancer in South Africa, so she soon traveled to Europe and the United States, where she got a job at the Joffrey Ballet in New York. She was also able to work as a photo model. However, an injured knee put a halt to her dancing career.In 1994, her mother bought her a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, and Charlize started visiting all of the agents on Hollywood Boulevard, but without any luck. She went to a bank to cash a check for $500 she received from her mother, and became furious when she learned that the bank would not cash it because it was an out-of-state check. She made a scene and an agent gave her his card, in exchange for learning American English, which she did by watching soap operas on television.Her first role was in the B-film _Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)_ (qv), a non-speaking part with three seconds of screen time. Her next role was as Helga Svelgen in _2 Days in the Valley (1996)_ (qv), which landed her the role of Tina Powers in _That Thing You Do! (1996)_ (qv). Since then, she has starred in movies like _The Devil's Advocate (1997)_ (qv), _Mighty Joe Young (1998)_ (qv), _The Cider House Rules (1999)_ (qv), _The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)_ (qv) and The Italian 'Job' (qv) (2003). On February 29, 2004, she won her first Academy Award, a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in _Monster (2003)_ (qv).::Mattias Thuresson < [email protected]> and Lola Sarnowska