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 Renée
Kathleen Zellweger
Born April 25, 1969, in Katy, Texas.
Raised in a small town outside
Houston, Texas, Renée Zellweger took
up acting in college. She appeared in bit parts
in mainstream movies like Dazed and Confused
(1993) and Reality Bites (1994) before earning
praise for her leading roles in the independent
films Love and a .45 (1994) and The Whole Wide
World (1996), co-starring Vincent D'Onofrio.
Director Cameron Crowe surprised many when
he cast the relatively unknown actress as Dorothy
Boyd, the single mother who is swept off her
feet by Tom Cruise's soul-searching sports agent
in Jerry Maguire (1996).
The film's critical and commercial success
made Zellweger one of Hollywood's hottest new
commodities. Instead of cashing in with another
big-budget film, however, she took a risk and
made several independent films, including Deceiver
(1997), opposite Tim Roth, and A Price Above
Rubies (1998), in which she played a rebellious
wife in a Hasidic Jewish family.
Zellweger later turned in a critically acclaimed
performance opposite Meryl Streep in One True
Thing (1998), an adaptation of Anna Quindlen's
novel about a daughter coping with her mother's
slow death from cancer.
In 1999, she starred with Chris O'Donnell in
The Bachelor and made headlines on account of
her budding romance with comic star Jim Carrey.
In the comedy Me, Myself and Irene (2000), written
and directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, Carrey
played a character with two personalities, both
of whom are in love with Zellweger's Irene.
That same year, Zellweger won a Golden Globe
for the black comedy Nurse Betty, costarring
Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, and Greg Kinnear.
In 2001, Zellweger starred as the neurotic
British title character in the film adaptation
of Helen Fielding's bestselling novel, Bridget
Jones's Diary. The film costarred Hugh Grant
and Colin Firth, and its sequel, The Edge of
Reason, was released in 2004. In 2003, Zellweger
earned her second Goden Globe for her performance
in Chicago, the film adaptation of the 1970s
musical costarring Richard Gere and Catherine
Zeta-Jones. That year, she also starred in the
retro-romantic comedy Down With Love opposite
Ewan McGregor. The following year, Zellweger
continued her winning streak by capturing the
Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance
as Ruby in the Civil War drama Cold Mountain.
In 2005, she costarred in Cinderella Man with
Russell Crowe. Upcoming projects include the
biopic Piece of My Heart, in which Zellweger
stars as singing legend Janis Joplin.
Zellweger tied the knot with country music
star Kenny Chesney on May 8, 2005, then filed
for an annulment four months later citing "fraud."
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