Name: Reese Witherspoon

Birth Name: Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon

Birthdate: March 22, 1976

Birthplace: Baton Rouge, La.

The privileged daughter of a surgeon father and a Ph.D. nurse mother, Reese took a break from her burgeoning acting career in 1994 after graduating from a Nashville all-girls school to major in English literature at Stanford University. Roles in Fear and Freeway established her as a rising starlet unafraid to take edgier parts, and thanks to hits Legally Blonde and Sweet Home Alabama, she became a bankable actress who can bring audiences to theaters. She was honored with the Best Actress Oscar in 2006 for her role as June Carter in Walk the Line.


1. She attended Stanford with Dominique Dawes, Tiger Woods and Fred Savage.
2. Witherspoon was obsessed with Doors singer Jim Morrison as a teenager.
3. She perfected the Bushman language by studying with a Matabele tribe for her role in A Far Off Place.
4. She spent $100 of her first paycheck on Gap clothes and put the rest in the bank.
5. One of her ancestors, John Witherspoon, signed the Declaration of Independence.


"We don't read the tabloids or anything, because sometimes they say hurtful things and why ruin your day over some piece of trash the dog's gonna pee on tomorrow?"
— Dark Horizons, Aug. 16, 2005


Husband: Ryan Phillippe, actor, born Sept. 10, 1974, met at her 21st birthday party, co-starred in Cruel Intentions, filed for divorce
Daughter: (with Phillippe) Ava Elizabeth, born Sept. 9, 1999
Son: (with Phillippe) Deacon, born Oct. 23, 2003

2006: Academy Award: Best Actress, Walk the Line; Golden Globe: Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical), Walk the Line

2002: Golden Globe nomination: Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical), Legally Blonde

2000: Golden Globe nomination: Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical), Election

 

FILMS

Penelope - (2008) - Actor, Producer
Rendition - (2007 ) - Actor
Walk the Line - (2005) - Actor
Just Like Heaven - (2005) - Actor
Vanity Fair - (2004) - Actor
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde - (2003) - Actor, Executive Producer
The Importance of Being Earnest - (2002) - Actor
Sweet Home Alabama - (2002) - Actor
Wildflower - (2002) - Actor
Cruel Intentions/Cruel Intentions 2 - (2001) - Actor
The Trumpet of the Swan - (2001) - Voice
Legally Blonde - (2001) - Actor
American Psycho - (2000) - Actor
Little Nicky - (2000) - Cameo
Election - (1999) - Actor
Cruel Intentions - (1999) - Actor
Best Laid Plans - (1999) - Actor
Pleasantville - (1998) - Actor
Twilight - (1998) - Actor
Fear - (1996) - Actor
Freeway - (1996) - Actor
Overnight Delivery - (1996) - Actor
S.F.W. - (1994) - Actor
A Far Off Place - (1993) - Actor
The Man in the Moon - (1992) - Actor
Wildflower - (1992) - Actor