Kate Beckinsale

Kate Becksinsale spent most of her early life in London. As a child she grew up immersed in the acting world, as her mother was a stage actress, and her father was the hugely popular comedy TV actor Richard Beckinsale (who died of a heart attack at the age of just 31).

Kate went to drama school from an early age, and made her acting debut on TV in 1991. At school she majored in languages, then went on to follow a course in French and Russian at the prestigious Oxford University. Half-way through the course she won a part in a movie of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Kenneth Branagh. Her performance was highly creditable, leading to offers in other productions. Regrettably Kate decided to drop out of University to concentrate on her burgeoning career.

After 5 years of TV and indie film work, Kate got her Hollywood break starring in the 2001 war movie epic Pearl Harbor. Her part called for kissing both the male leads, Josh Hartnett and Ben Affleck. Luckily she can recommend both their smooching skills, finding them 'excellent and actually very sweet-smelling'. Later the same year Kate took the female lead in the excellent rom-com Serendipity.

Kate's next memorable role was starring as the sexily latex-clad Selene in the gothic horror Underworld, a tale of vampires vs were-wolves (sorry, 'lycans'). The vampire theme continued when Kate appearead in the imaginative respinning of the Dracula story, Van Helsing.

2007 saw the release of the horror movie Vacancy. It has a great plot, where a couple, when staying in an motel in the middle of nowhere, find hidden video cameras and realize that unless they can get away, they're scheduled to be the next stars of a snuff movie. Gripping stuff.