Born December 12, 1970 in Cario, New York, Jennifer Connelly was the daughter of a clothing manufacturer and his wife. Her father was of Irish and Norwegian ancestry and her mother was from a Jewish immigrant family.
Although born in the Catskills, Connelly grew up in Brooklyn Heights near the Brooklyn Bridge, right across from Manhattan. When she was ten, an advertising executive who was a family friend suggested her parents take her to a modeling audition, which they did. She was immediately photographed in print ads and soon after was cast in TV commercials.
Her appearance in a 1983 Duran Duran MTV video led to her discovery by a casting director for Sergio Leone’s 1984 film, Once Upon a Time in America. She made her film debut in the film as the younger version of Elizabeth McGovern, followed by her first starring role in Dario Argento’s 1985 film, Philomena.
Connelly’s films from 1986-1991 included Jim Henson’s Labyrinth opposite David Bowie, Dennis Hopper’s The Hot Spot opposite Don Johnson, Bryan Gordon’s Career Opportunities opposite Frank Whaley, and Joe Johnston’s The Rocketeer opposite Billy Campbell.
Her popularity was somewhat diminished in the late 1990s. She was seventh billed in Lee Tamahori’s 1996 film, Mulholland Falls and fifth billed in Pat O’Connor’s 1997 film, Inventing the Abbotts. In 1997, she gave birth to her first child, a son with photographer David Dugan.
Then came 2000 in which Connelly was seen early in the year opposite Billy Crudup in Keith Gordon’s Waking the Dead, followed by Darren Aronosky’s even more popular Requiem for a Dream for which she was nominated for several awards. At year’s end she could be seen in a small role in Ed Harris’ Pollock.
Connelly’s role in Ron Howard’s Oscar winning A Beautiful Mind opposite Russell Crowe won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She married that film’s co-star, Paul Bettany on New Year’s Day 2003 with whom she would have two more children. Both were very busy that year, he in Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World while she had the female lead in Ang Lee’s 2003’s film, Hulk opposite Eric Bana, followed by the lead in Vadim Perelman’s House of Sand and Fog that same year.
In 2005, Connelly had the lead in Walter Salles’ Dark Water. She had the co-lead in 2006’s Little Children along with Kate Winslet and starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in that same year’s Blood Diamond. After her lead role opposite Keanu Reeves in Scott Derrickson’s 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, things slowed down for the busy actress.
Back on top with the hit TV series, Snowpiercer opposite Daveed Diggs in 2020, Connelly had her best screen role in years opposite Tom Cruise in the 2022 box-office smash, Top Gun: Maverick.
Next up for the still vibrant star is Bad Behavior opposite Ben Whishaw, which is currently making the film festival rounds. She’s 52.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
WAKING THE DEAD (2000), directed by Keith Gordon
Connelly gives perhaps her finest performance as a sanctuary worker in this underrated film from the acclaimed director of A Midnight Clear. Her character is killed in the film’s opening scene by a terrorist’s car bombing in 1974. The film’s narrative then switches back and forth between U.S. Congressional candidate Billy Crudup’s 1982 run for office and his two-year relationship with Connelly’s character from 1972-1974. On a knife’s edge between grief and insanity, Crudup sees Connelly on the street, gets a phone call from her and eventually a visit. Whether real or imaginary, her visit has a profound influence on his life’s work.
REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000), directed by Darren Aronsofsky
Nominated for five Independent Spirit awards including one for Connelly as Best Supporting Actress, this adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.’s hard-hitting novel about a trio of Coney Island drug addicts received just one Oscar nomination for Best Actress Ellen Burstyn who lost to Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich. Connelly played the addict in a relationship with Burstyn’s addict son, Jarded Leto. Burstyn already had an Oscar for 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Connelly would soon have one for A Beautiful Mind, and Leto would eventually have one for 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club.
A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001), directed by Ron Howard
Nominated for eight Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actor (Russell Crowe), and Supporting Actress (Connelly), it won four including Picture, Director and Supporting Actress. Connelly’s win over Maggie Smith in Gosford Park was somewhat of a surprise. The film is about Pulitzer Prize winning Princton University professor John Nash, played by Crowe and his struggles to retain his sanity. Connelly plays his supportive long-suffering wife. In real life, she married fifth billed Paul Bettany who she met on the set. Nash and his wife were killed in a car crash on the New Jersey Turnpike in 2015. He was 86, she was 82.
HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG (2003), directed by Vadim Perelman
Nominated for three Oscars including Best Actor (Ben Kingsley, Supporting Actress (Shoreh Aghdashloo) and Score, this film from Andre Dubus III’s novel is about two hotheaded protagonists. Connelly plays a woman whose house is seized by her California county due to unpaid taxes she didn’t know she owed. Kingsley plays an Iranian immigrant who buys the house at auction. Aghdashloo is Kingsley’s wife. Eventually Kingsley agrees to sell the house back to the county so they can return it Connelly. Despite the agreement between the protagonists, it ends in tragedy anyway.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK (2022), directed by Joseph Kosinsky
Nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture and winner of one for Best Sound, this sequel to the 1986 film which was nominated for four Oscars and won one for Best Song (“Take My Breath Away”), this hugely popular film reunited the nearly 60-year-old star Tom Cruise with many of the characters from the earlier film but not that film’s lead female character played by Kelly McGillis. Approaching 65 at the time of filming, McGillis was apparently deemed too old for him. She was replaced by a still stunning 50-year-old Connelly playing an old love from a later time in his life. Val Kilmer and Miles Teller led the supporting cast.
JENNIFER CONNELLY AND OSCAR
A Beautiful Mind (2001) – Oscar – Best Supporting Actress
