elizabeth banks
Possessing the kind of elegant screen beauty that often draws comparisons to a Breakfast at Tiffany’s -era Audrey Hepburn, actress Elizabeth Banks’ onscreen career has been steadily rising since the up-and-coming actress won the Young Hollywood Award for “Exciting New Face” back in 2003. [1]
Actress Elizabeth Banks was born Elizabeth Mitchell in Pittsfield, a small city in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts near the New York border, on February 10, 1974. [2]
Possessing the kind of elegant screen beauty that often draws comparisons to a Breakfast at Tiffany’s -era Audrey Hepburn, actress Elizabeth Banks ‘ onscreen career has been steadily rising since the up-and-coming actress won the Young Hollywood Award for “Exciting New Face” back in 2003. [...] With roles in such notable Hollywood hits as the Spider-Man films and Seabiscuit, Banks has not only had the pleasure of sharing the screen with hot-property actor Tobey Maguire multiple times, but has also been nominated — alongside Maguire, Jeff Bridges, William H. Macy, and Gary Stevens — for an “Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture” award by the Screen Actors Guild for her performance in the latter. [...] In 1998, Banks made her feature debut in the controversial addiction drama Surrender Dorothy, with subsequent small-screen roles in Third Watch and Sex and the City only serving to contribute to her rapidly growing profile in film and television. [3]
Banks had her film debut in the low-budget independent film Surrender Dorothy. [...] Banks at the 2007 Spider-Man 3 premiere. [4]
Her first signal success came in her delightful, brief performance in Spider-Man (2002), for which she is best known despite subsequent leading roles, as “Betty Brant”, the secretary of the cantankerous newspaper tycoon. [...] She then moved to New York and worked in the theater as well as obtaining her first roles on-screen, small parts in movies and guest-star roles on television series. [5]
“It was very important to me that every line reading I gave could be interpreted two ways,” says Banks of her role, “So that when you go back through the movie you can see that”. [4]
The Pittsfield, MA, native got her first taste of fame when nominated Harvest Queen in her hometown’s annual fall celebration, and in the years that followed, Banks would receive her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and go on to pursue her graduate degree at the American Conservatory Theater. [1]
Elizabeth Maresal Mitchell (born February 10, 1974), known professionally as Elizabeth Banks, is an American actress. [...] She debuted in the independent film Surrender Dorothy, as Elizabeth Casey, and quickly gained widespread exposure through the comedy film The 40-Year-Old Virgin. [...] Banks changed her name to avoid confusion with actress Elizabeth Mitchell. [4]
Undaunted, Banks forged on with roles in the cult comedy Wet Hot American Summer and the romantic drama Ordinary Sinner in 2001, with a supporting performance as Betty Brant in the 2002 box-office smash Spider-Man providing her most substantial onscreen performance to date. [1]
Sources:
[1] Elizabeth Banks: Information from Answers.com
[2] Elizabeth Banks - IMDb
[3] Elizabeth Banks Movies
[4] Elizabeth Banks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[5] Elizabeth Banks (II) - Biography