Cate Blanchett

January 01

An Early Loss

At 10, Blanchett loses her father, Robert, who dies of a heart attack. Her mother June raises her and her two siblings in Melbourne, Australia. "I do feel that loss," Blanchett tells the Sydney Morning Herald in 1994. "I have always believed there isn't enough time."

Cate the Great

Blanchett studies at the National Institute of Dramatic Art and Sydney Theatre Company (pictured with costar Aden Young). She appears in many stage productions, including Oleanna with Geoffrey Rush. "There was a buzz about Cate even when she was in drama school," Rush tells the Los Angeles Times in 1998. "There was always just something special about Cate, an excitement, an aura."

June

Wedding Plus Babies

Blanchett marries screenwriter Andrew Upton, whom she met through friends. In December 2001, they welcome their first child, Dashiell (left). "It's sort of nice, because having a child is the most unpredictable thing you can do – apart from getting married, that is," she tells the Los Angeles Times. "It's a sort of hopeful insanity." They welcome Roman in 2004 and Ignatius in 2008.

Steadily Supporting

Blanchett follows up Elizabeth with a string of eclectic supporting roles: she perfects a Long Island accent for Pushing Tin and plays Matt Damon's love interest in The Talented Mr. Ripley (left). But the star treatment on set is new to the in-demand actress. "Now when a contract is negotiated, they say, 'What do you want in your trailer?'" she tells New York's Daily News, and "all I can think of is water and Diet Coke."

December 29

Queen of the Rings

Blanchett dons prosthetic ears to play Galadriel, the elf queen, in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler. "I did [the role] for my husband; he's obsessed by my ears," she tells the AP. The film grosses more than $313 million in the U.S. Blanchett reprises her role for 2002's The Two Towers and 2003's The Return of the King.