"If I had my way, if I was lucky enough, if I could be on the brink my entire life - that great sense of expectation and excitement without the disappointment - that would be the perfect state. "

Classy Cate

Cate Blanchett is one of the world's best-known Australian actors, known for her role as Galadril in Lord of the Rings.

Blanchett is the daughter of Robert Blanchett, a naval petty officer who met her mother while ashore Melbourne, Australia. Later, he worked in advertising after marrying her mother. When Cate was only 10 years old, she lost her father to a heart attack. She has a older brother, Bob, a computer programmer, and a younger sister, Genevieve, a theatrical designer.

She learned in college that she wanted a career in acting. After graduating in 1992, she found her way to the stage. He first role was in the play by David Mamet Oleanna, in 1993. Also in Ophelia in a 1994 production of Hamlet. Later she began acting on a Australian television series Heartland (or "Burned Bridges" in the United States) as Elizabeth Ashton. Her film career started in a production of Paradise Road. In 1998 she played Elizabeth I in Elizabeth, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 2005 she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2005 for her role as Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. She is the only person to have ever won an Academy Award for playing a previous Oscar-winning actor. Most of Blanchett's success, however, came from her role as Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings series films.

Blanchett met her husband, screenwriter Andrew Upton, while onset The Seagull. "He thought I was aloof and I thought he was arrogant," she later remarked. The two were married December 29, 1997. The couple have two sons, Dashiell John (born December 3, 2001) and Roman Rober (born April 23, 2004). The family resides in a four storey home in the Kemp Town Area of Brighton, England.