Helena Bonham Carter does not fit the mould of a typical Hollywood actress. Although naturally beautiful with an impressive back-catalogue of films, it is her eccentric personal style and recent quirky film choices, coupled with her shunning of modern celebrity culture that set her apart from the mainstream.
A Londoner by birth, born on 26 May 1966, Helena Bonham Carter comes from fine pedigree, her great-grandfather, Herbert Asquith, was Prime Minister of Britain from 1908 – 1916.
A Classic Actress
Helena Bonham Carter started acting while still in her teens and at the beginning of her cinematic career, it seemed she was never out of a corset as she took roles in many period films including:
- A Room with a View (1985)
- Lady Jane (1986)
- Hamlet (1990)
- Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991)
- Howards End (1992)
- Frankenstein (1994)
- Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (1996)
- The Wings of the Dove (1997)
She was nominated for an Oscar, Golden Globe and Bafta for her role of Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove but lost out on the Oscar to Helen Hunt, she has since joked, “For two syllables I thought I was up there!”
Career Takes A Modern Twist
Perhaps in a deliberate attempt to alter her public persona, Bonham Carter’s film choices of the last ten years have embraced her more eccentric side. She has ditched the corset and taken on parts ranging from an ape to a cannibalistic pie maker. She has also taken roles in both the Terminator and Harry Potter franchises. A selection of her work from the last decade includes:
- Fight Club (1999)
- Women Talking Dirty (1999)
- Novocaine (2001)
- Planet of the Apes (2001)
- Big Fish (2003)
- Conversations with Other Women (2005)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
- Sweeney Todd (2007)
- Terminator Salvation (2009)
- Alice In Wonderland (2010)
Relationships with Kenneth Branagh and Tim Burton
Helena Bonham Carter was in a five-year relationship with fellow British actor Kenneth Branagh, they met on the set of Frankenstein (1994) and seemed like the quintessential British thespian pairing but it was not to last. They split in 1999 and it was in 2001, while filming Planet of the Apes, that Bonham Carter would meet her true match.
In the in-between years, Bonham Carter had short relationships with British actor Rufus Sewell in 1999 and American comedian and actor Steve Martin in 2001, with whom she co-starred in Novocaine (2001). He was 21-years her senior.
But it was with American director Tim Burton, that true love flourished. Fittingly, for a couple known for being left of the middle, it was while in character, dressed as an ape that their relationship thrived. Although not married, they now live together in Hampstead, London with their son Billy Ray (born in October 2003) and daughter, Nell (born in December 2007). Bonham Carter has collaborated on six films with Burton, the most recent being Alice In Wonderland (2010).
Sources:
- imdb.com - Helena Bonham Carter
- guardian.co.uk - Helena Bonham Carter interview
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