- 1991
Tragedy at Home
Theron's mother Gerda shoots and kills her abusive, alcoholic husband Charles after he comes home drunk and armed with a gun. South African authorities rule the shooting was done in self-defense. During interviews early in her career, Theron tells reporters that her father died in an accident. Then on Primetime in January 2004, she tells Diane Sawyer the real story. "I wish I could change it; I can't," Theron says. "And I know that if my daughter was in the same situation, I would do the same thing."
Ciao!
After her mother enters her in a modeling contest, Theron receives an offer from an Italian scout and heads to Milan. "I just ran," she tells PEOPLE. One year later, tired of being seen as "somebody beautiful who should not say a word," she moves to Manhattan and enrolls at the Joffrey Ballet School. A knee injury quickly ends her dancing days, so she decides to move to L.A. to pursue acting in 1994.
- 1996
Valley Girl
Theron makes her bold film debut as hit woman Helga Svelgen in the violent crime drama
2 Days in the Valley. Filming a fight scene with costar Teri Hatcher, Theron accidentally gets hit with a real punch. "I got smacked in the face, kicked in the ribs and thrown into walls," she tells PEOPLE. "But it's fun."- 1997
Devil of a Time
The Devil's Advocate premieres in the U.S., and Theron appears in a breakthrough role as Keanu Reeves' wife. "She was just too good looking for the role," director Taylor Hackford tells Entertainment Weekly. "She read and knocked me out but was blonde and tall and sexy, so I wasn't sure she was right." Theron takes up the gauntlet. "When he told me that, I went back in with no makeup and dirty hair; I read for it three times," she responds. "I f------ won this
part fair and square."
Semi-Charmed Life
On vacation with her family in Hawaii over Christmas, Theron meets Third Eye Blind singer Stephan Jenkins after a show and the two begin dating. "She's very funny," he tells PEOPLE. "And she learned to play the drums faster than anyone I've ever seen." The pair won't play in harmony forever; the relationship comes to an end in 2001 after three years of dating.
- 1999
Truth Hurts
Theron stirs up controversy in her native South Africa with an anti-rape TV ad. The ad is temporarily pulled after men complain it insults their gender. "People often ask me what the men are like in South Africa," she says in the commercial. "Well, consider that more women are raped in South Africa than any other country in the world...that one out of three women will be raped in their lifetime...and that the rest of the men in South Africa seem to think rape isn't their problem. It's not that easy to say what men in South Africa are like, because there seem to be so few out there."
Plain Jane
Theron costars with Tobey Maguire in the Oscar-nominated film The Cider House Rules; she plays a woman in the 1930s who seeks an illegal abortion. "When you're playing a lobsterman's daughter working on an apple farm, you're not going to wear makeup, and you'll wear the same clothes in virtually every scene, so you'd better have pretty special assets of your own," John Irving, who adapted his novel for the movie, tells PEOPLE. "Charlize glowed."
- 2000
She's Got It All
PEOPLE names Theron one of its 50 Most Beautiful People and praises her "ice-blue eyes, cream-puff cheeks and voluptuous curves." She doubles up on the accolades four months later, when the magazine's judges pick her as one of 2000's Best Dressed. "I love how happy she looks in her beautiful gowns," designer Dana Buchman tells PEOPLE. "You feel she wears clothes to suit her gorgeous inner being."
- 2001
Luck of the Irish
Filming begins in Canada on the hostage drama Trapped. The film is a commercial disappointment, but it does produce one sizable jackpot: Theron falls in love with costar Stuart Townsend, who plays her onscreen husband. "At one point I grabbed her cheek because she has such cute cheeks," the Irish actor tells PEOPLE of their early rehearsals. What drew Theron to him? "We like simplicity and dirty feet, good food and a good laugh," she tells PEOPLE. "He doesn't take himself so seriously and that's hard to find in a man these days."
- 2003
Killer Performance
Theron gains 30 pounds, plucks out her eyebrows, and dons fake teeth for her role as real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster. Theron portrays the prostitute, who gets executed in 2002 for killing at least seven men, so convincingly Pulitzer Prize winning movie critic Roger Ebert calls it "one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema." Theron tells PEOPLE, "I had to get my body to the place of a woman who'd been living a homeless life since she was 14. Once I tapped into the emotional side of how she led her life, the physical stuff just happened naturally."
Photo Credits
BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): Phillip Wong/CAMERA PRESS DIGITAL/RETNA; Everett Collection; Warner Bros./Everett; Peter Kramer/Star Max; INTERCONTINENTALE; Nick Wall/Wireimage; Newmarket Releasing/Everett
- Name
- Charlize Theron
- Birth Date
- August 07, 1975
- Birth Place
- Benoni, South Africa
- Heart Monitor
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Stuart Townsend, boyfriend (2001 to present)
Stephan Jenkins, ex-boyfriend (1997 to 2001)
